[MEGATHREAD] Duplicate Events

[derekantrican]

This issue serves as a megathread for the topic of duplicate events being created when syncing. This will allow us to direct people to a single place to get help on this issue. This top comment will be updated with information as we know more about the issue. Please add a comment about your setup* if you are seeing this issue and please add a comment if you have found workarounds.

The problem:

When the script runs, it grabs a copy of the ICS for your target calendar. Every event has an unique id. It then syncs these events to your target calendar and tags them with metadata like a hash of the source event. Sometimes the source calendar service (eg Outlook) does not keep consistent event ids and they change every time the script grabs a copy of the ICS. In the best case, that means that the script deletes all the ICS events on the target calendar and recreates them.

(There may be other reasons duplicate events get created but this is likely the most common)

Existing issues:

• duplicates every run #248
• Duplicate Outlook Events #107
• Existing items being shown as "new" repeatedly #88
• ICS/ICAL sync duplicating events #21

Suggested workarounds:

• Try this version of the script.
• Check the above linked issues for other suggestions

*Sharing your setup:

As usual, if you are seeing this issue and none of the suggested workarounds help, please leave a comment here with the following:

• Screenshots
• An input ics string that can reproduce the problem (you can remove sensitive information with https://derekantrican.com/icssanitizer)

Please do not leave any sort of "Thanks", "Me too", or "That worked" comment - I will delete them. Only comments that add to the conversation (details about your issue, suggestions, workarounds, etc) will be allowed.

[VNRARA]

qq: wouldn't it be better if the script swapped the events instead of doing a full pass adding and later a full pass removing events?

It would look nicer not having the duplicates showing constantly if the Startsync triggers very often.