Huge number of duplicated appointments have suddenly appeared in my calendar

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ojos
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Huge number of duplicated appointments have suddenly appeared in my calendar

Post by ojos »

I have been using the free version of EPIM for a number of years for setting up calendar appointments without any problems. I normally create the appointments on a Windows 10 PC and then synchronise to a mobile device using the Android app. The Android app syncs with Google Calendar which enables me to have them on my Amazon Alexa devices.

A few days ago I installed the Android app on a second mobile device and synchronised that with the PC. To my consternation I suddenly found many appointments being duplicated up to 6 or so times which has never happened before. I was using version 9 of the PC app and wondered, as it was not the latest version, if maybe upgrading to 9.2 would help, but it made no difference. The duplication was happening in appointments which repeated, such as birthdays. So, if for example it was friend Fred's birthday on 1 July, there would be added a second (or even 3rd, 4th ...) birthday appointment going forward each year on 1 July indefinitely into the future. The same would happen with national events such as Christmas Day, Halloween etc where suddenly these too were being duplicated several times on each occasion. These latter events (unlike birthdays) have not been manually entered by me but were always in the calendar automatically.

So now I've been confronted with trying to delete all the duplications manually, but as the appointments mostly go indefinitely into the future, it's proving an impossible task.

Has anyone else encountered this problem and can suggest a way of my removing all these duplications going indefinitely into the future?
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Re: Huge number of duplicated appointments have suddenly appeared in my calendar

Post by admin »

Were the appointments duplicated on your second Android device or in WinEPIM?
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ojos
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Re: Huge number of duplicated appointments have suddenly appeared in my calendar

Post by ojos »

admin wrote: Fri Jul 31, 2020 8:48 am Were the appointments duplicated on your second Android device or in WinEPIM?
It all happened so quickly that I cannot recall the events exactly. I believe the first time I saw the mass of duplications is when I looked on the second (new) Android device after syncing from Windows. I was so concerned about the large number of duplications that I assumed it was a fault in that device so I immediately uninstalled the app from the device, reinstalled but without any data synch. I then went back to Windows and noticed duplications there for the first time. At first as I viewed the current week, I assumed just one or two were duplicated and I removed them and synced with my first Android device. It was then I noticed the duplications went weeks and month into the future. The strange thing was that many of the duplications were just set up as single appointments with no repeat function (eg annual national events such as "Christmas Day" which the system has entered rather than me). However I also noticed that where I set up my own multiple appointments (with repeat function) the duplications were frequently set up without the repeat function. As I went through manually deleting the duplications, I noted some of the duplications were there up to about 6 times. As some of my appointments are weekly, I ploughed through week by week deleting the all duplicates to the end of this year, then to the end of next year then to the end of 2022. Having thereby deleted hundreds of duplications, it looks to me like there are still hundreds more duplications going into the following years. I was hoping there was some command that enables me to delete all appointments into the future from a certain date. That might at least stop the problem going forward like a virus into eternity, but I'm not aware if this is possible.

I've just taken a look at the year 2040 and see that my weekly appointments are no longer duplicated there (duplication of them only goes up to 2038) but the annual (birthday) ones still are duplicating. I lack the resources to dig further into the century to see how far into eternity the duplication goes.
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Re: Huge number of duplicated appointments have suddenly appeared in my calendar

Post by admin »

I'd recommend you to use EPIM DupeRemover, it will clear up all the duplicate items almost instantly, please have a look here: https://www.essentialpim.com/pc-version ... ntary-apps
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ojos
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Re: Huge number of duplicated appointments have suddenly appeared in my calendar

Post by ojos »

admin wrote: Sat Aug 01, 2020 7:08 pm I'd recommend you to use EPIM DupeRemover, it will clear up all the duplicate items almost instantly, please have a look here: https://www.essentialpim.com/pc-version ... ntary-apps
Thanks. After installing it I instigated the DupeRemover and it told me it's removed about 800 duplicate appointments which is encouraging. Obviously I can't check each and every one but it looks to have made a good attempt. I now keep my fingers crossed in the next few weeks to confirm all is OK.
I use Amazon Alexa for reporting my calendar by voice and, in order to do this, I understand it is necessary to synchronise my mobile app with Google Calendar. A couple of things I am not sure of with this is:
1 Does this sync work one way only, ie does it just go from EPIM -> Google Calendar or does it sync both ways?
2 If I have two or more mobile devices which I sync with my Windows 10, should I sync all my mobile devices with Google Calendar or only one of them?
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Re: Huge number of duplicated appointments have suddenly appeared in my calendar

Post by admin »

1. Both sync modes (one-way or two-way) are supported, you can choose the one you prefer.
2. If there's the same Google account on both of your device, syncing just one would be fine.
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ojos
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Re: Huge number of duplicated appointments have suddenly appeared in my calendar

Post by ojos »

admin wrote: Tue Aug 04, 2020 8:26 pm 1. Both sync modes (one-way or two-way) are supported, you can choose the one you prefer.
2. If there's the same Google account on both of your device, syncing just one would be fine.
1 I'm using Android EPIM version 5.7.4 and I just want the Google calendar sync to work one way from EPIM -> Google. However the Calendar Sync option only seems to allow me to ether set or not set the Google Calendar Sync without specifying which way the sync operates. How can I ensure it works my preferred one way only?
2 Thanks, I'll only sync Google with one mobile device
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Re: Huge number of duplicated appointments have suddenly appeared in my calendar

Post by admin »

Ah, I see now. There's no such option in AEPIM, you can select sync direction in WinEPIM only.
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ojos
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Re: Huge number of duplicated appointments have suddenly appeared in my calendar

Post by ojos »

admin wrote: Wed Aug 05, 2020 4:35 pm Ah, I see now. There's no such option in AEPIM, you can select sync direction in WinEPIM only.
How do I sync the Windows 10 EPIM with Google calendar as I can't find any dialogue to set it up?
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Re: Huge number of duplicated appointments have suddenly appeared in my calendar

Post by admin »

This feature is only available in the Pro version.
Android version of EssentialPIM. Keep all your data in sync!
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