Still calendar problems

Problem reported by Ton Trommelen - 1/18/2018 at 2:23 PM

Submitted

I'm using v16.3.6585.

I've been having problems with calendar appointmenst right from the start with v16; problems with recurring events, birthdays, etc.

I've tried again with the latest version; made a simple 2-day appointment....and after saving it, it suddenly turns into a 3-day appointment.....and there is no way to change this.

How hard can it be to make a calendar that works correctly?

21 Replies

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Employee Replied

1/19/2018 at 7:53 AM

Employee Post

What time zone is the server and also the client machine?

Kyle Kerst Replied

1/19/2018 at 8:49 AM

When adding the 2 day appointment - are you doing this from a client, the web interface, or your phone? Have you tried this same process but after disconnecting all mail clients including your phone from the account? I've seen android do some weird stuff with appointments in the past!

Just a random idea here. Since your accounts have been around (and using) SM 16 since the early days, it may not be a bad idea to trash your existing calendar XML files and let the later minor version of 16 recreate them. If you have any bad formatting or corrupt entries left over in there - they could be causing some issues.

Kyle Kerst Cameron Solutions LLC www.cameron-solutions.com

Ton Trommelen Replied

1/22/2018 at 2:06 AM

Server (Windows Server 2012R2) and client (Windows 10 and Android 8) are all in the same timezone.

Ton Trommelen Replied

1/22/2018 at 2:11 AM

I have been trying any and all combinations since I first had the issues. I use an Android phone with DavDroid to sync the SM calendar with the phone. Sometimes I create an event on my phone, sometimes I use the browserinterface. But also when I just use the webbased calendar in the browser-interface I have problems with recurring (and other) events.

I have had extensive contact with the support-department about this and have tested (and reported) a lot of scenarios that give problems....but so far the problems are still there.

Not sure if I have ever remove the calendar xml file.....I guess that is the last thing I can try before giving up on the SM calendar and stop using it completely....

Ton Trommelen Replied

1/22/2018 at 3:55 AM

Today I removed my calendar xml, installed the latest SM release and added an event to the calendar;

Server and (browser)client(s) are all set to GMT+1 timezone.

It is a simple one-hour event; on the browser-interface all looks well. Then I synced my android phone using Davdroid. The event is shown ok in the calendar. But when I edit the event, the starttime and endtime are now wrong; they are one hour early...like they are in GMT+00 and not GMT+1. Also there is now small globe symbol in the event-settings that shows "UTC"....obviously this is the (wrong) timezone. When I click the globe-symbol it says "GMT+1" but when I go back it shows as "UTC" again and the times are wrong.

I can edit the start- and endtime of the event but they are one hour off (early).....strange and not ok...

Then I created a one-hour event on my android phone. As long as I just edit that event on the phone all is well....the timezone stays at GMT+1.....but once I make a change using the browser interface the timezone goes to "UTC" again!!!

Employee Replied

1/22/2018 at 10:57 AM

Employee Post

Tom, what time zone specifically? I will set my test environments to mimic yours.

Kyle Kerst Replied

1/23/2018 at 7:29 AM

It sounds like this app might handle timezones differently than SM is handling them, which should utilize a GMT offset I believe. I've got a test box I can play with so I'm going to install DavDroid this week and see if I can replicate the behavior. Have you tried the same process from the built in calendar app? Did it have similar results?

Kyle Kerst Cameron Solutions LLC www.cameron-solutions.com

Ton Trommelen Replied

1/23/2018 at 8:30 AM

GMT+1 (Amsterdam)

Ton Trommelen Replied

1/23/2018 at 8:33 AM

I AM using the built-in (Google) calendar app...but that app can't sync with the SM calendar because Google doesn't support CalDAV.....so I have to use an extra app (Davdroid) to sync the SM calendar with my phone.

By the way; Davdroid is recommended by SmarterTools itself to use as a means to sync with the SM calendar.

Kyle Kerst Replied

2/1/2018 at 9:35 AM

Hey there everyone, sorry for the delay getting back to you all on this. I did some testing on my end but wasn't able to reproduce the issues you're reporting. Likely this is an issue that requires specific variables before it will manifest - maybe I'm missing something in my test. Any additional information you can provide would be awesome, happy to help out :-D

Kyle Kerst Cameron Solutions LLC www.cameron-solutions.com

Ton Trommelen Replied

2/5/2018 at 2:35 AM

I don't know which specific variables it might take to get this but I never configured anything out of the ordinary in the calendar, I just use it with the default settings...and I'm in timezone GMT+1 (Amsterdam). Nothing more to say about it really but I appreciate your help.

I'm not holding my breath though because I first reported this in august 2017 and the issue is still there....

Kyle Kerst Replied

2/5/2018 at 8:17 AM

Ton - are you using the Amsterdam timezone on the server as well? I remember issues in the past with date/time formats, but thought they'd been resolved since then. My recommendation would be to disconnect the synchronized clients, stop the SM service, take a backup of the calendardata.xml file, delete the original, start the SM service. At that point go ahead and synchronize your clients to see if the issues arise. If they don't, its possible there was a corrupted entry in the calendardata.xml file and cleaning it out resolved the issue. If the problems remain after starting with a fresh calendardata.xml file - I'd recommend submitting a ticket with support at that point as the data itself is no longer part of the problem.

I wish I could help more! Hopefully that points you in the right direction :-) If you have any questions or get stuck please don't hesitate to reach out. Have a great day!

Kyle Kerst Cameron Solutions LLC www.cameron-solutions.com

Ton Trommelen Replied

2/5/2018 at 8:53 AM

Kyle,
yes, timezones are identical on server and client (as reported earlier in this ticket).

I already tried deleting the calendardata.xml file (see earlier in the ticket) and starting from scratch...same problem.

And I also already created a ticket for this....way back in august 2017....which resulted in a lot of testing and reporting...but to no avail.

So now and again I try again after an SM update to see if anything has changed but I have been forced to go back to Google calendar because of the issues.

I really appreciate your help but asking me to try things which I have already tried and reported on in this ticket doesn't really help.

Kyle Kerst Replied

2/5/2018 at 9:03 AM

Ton, thank you I appreciate you filling me in on the details. Unfortunately this is a forum posting and has a lot of information contained in it. I'll do my best to help when I can though :-)

I understand this can be frustrating for sure, specially because its an issue that can't be reproduced in outside testing. These are the toughest kinds of issues to track down and resolve! I'll try to get to some follow up testing this week (I have a non-US config) I can test with the Amsterdam timezone and recurring appointments. Might be worth a shot trying with the external timezone. I'll keep you posted.

Kyle Kerst Cameron Solutions LLC www.cameron-solutions.com

Ton Trommelen Replied

2/12/2018 at 2:13 AM

Because the latest version contains:

Fixed: Adding an all-day appointment with a range of dates cause the appointment to have UTC offset issues.

I installed 16.3.6614 today and did some tests;

when I create an appointment using the web-interface, sync it to my android phone using DavDroid; then edit the appointment on my phone it still shows as "UTC" and the start- and end times are wrong. (it should be "GMT+1")

As long as I create/edit things on my phone all is well, but whenever I edit using the web-interface it goes wrong.

So the calendar is still not working correctly.

Freek S. Replied

4/19/2018 at 5:04 AM

Hi Ton, are you still experiencing this issue? Because I am. Thanks

Ton Trommelen Replied

4/19/2018 at 5:39 AM

Hi Freek, I have given up on this and haven't tried it for a while now.....so I can't tell you if the problem persists or not...I kept getting frustrated after spending time and time again testing this and getting disappointed again after each (failed) update...so now I use a Google calendar again for these kinds of appointments.....

Freek S. Replied

4/20/2018 at 5:51 AM

Thanks for your quick reply, Ton. I hope the Smartertools team can solve this issue quickly. For me this started happening since the latest update, before that I had no issues at all. I am actually tring to migrate away from Google Calendar but bugs like these make me hesitant about the reliability of the software.

Freek S. Replied

5/7/2018 at 4:12 AM

This issue is still present in the latest version of SmarterMail 16.3.6698.

Paul Blank Replied

5/7/2018 at 5:13 AM

Please fix these issues!

Freek S. Replied

5/11/2018 at 11:42 AM

I was provided a custom build by the Smartertools Dev team which fixed the issues for me. However, I can confirm that the latest public build also fixes the issue for me, so go ahead and install SmarterMail 16.3.6705 if you're experiencing these issues. (released just a few hours ago).

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