How to Add a Repeating Event on a Droid Calendar
November 22nd, 2010 by steveIt would appear that the Android Phone Calendar has difficulty creating a recurring event — unless you want that event to run into eternity. That’s just not practical. Most recurring events have a starting and ending date.
So how do you create a recurring calendar event on the Droid phone? I tried these steps:
- Create the event in your calendar setting it to repeat according to the way you wish it to repeat. Â Save it. You now have an event on your calendar that repeats every day forever.
- Go to the day after you wish the event to cease and select the event. Open the menu and choose delete.  Select “Delete this and all future events.”
It seemed to work at first. Then the entire series was gone. Â Kind of crazy, huh?
Anyone have any other ideas?
November 24th, 2010 at 8:50 am
Apparently it is a known problem/feature if you only use the internal calendar. I had never noticed it because I only use the Android Calendar app to edit my google calendar and keep the Android and the google calendar in sync. If you do that you can create a repeating event either on the Android or on directly on the google calendar via a PC and once you sync it will show on both. I also load events from my work calendar by exporting them as an ics file then google calendar can load this file, sync and it is on my android.
November 24th, 2010 at 9:51 am
“the Android Calendar app”?
When I search the market for that, I get many hits. Can you share a link, maybe?
November 24th, 2010 at 12:24 pm
My Captivate came with a Calendar app already installed. I assume that yours did too and that was what you were using for “1. Create the event in your calendar”. Just because it was pre-installed doesn’t mean it is not an app.
November 24th, 2010 at 12:32 pm
The point is that when you use the Calendar app to create an event, one of the choices is which calendar, mine at least defaults to “My calendar”. If you pick that, the event is only stored on the Android phone. It you make that choice and then set it to repeat there is the bug you described. However if instead of picking “My calendar” you pick the gmail account you set the phone up with, then the repeat works correctly. You do have to either manually sync the calendar or have an automatic sync. I manually sync so that I can do the sync over wifi instead of using my 3G data quota.
November 24th, 2010 at 12:39 pm
When I choose the calendar, the ones listed are mine, my wife’s, my son’s, and my church calendar. My calendar is indicated by my gmail address, so I assume it’s my gmail calendar. It would appear that the sync is automatic (I keep my data turned off and force it to use wifi).
Probably my calendar app is different than the one Samsung provided. 😐
November 24th, 2010 at 2:29 pm
Mine has two choices “My calendar” then the gmail address that I registered the phone to.
The Captivate has Android 2.1 (Eclair).
My calendar app full name is “com.android.calendar” version 1.0 last modified Jun 27, 2010 5:08:54 PM”
This verson only syncs automatically if the background data setting is on and the Auto-sync setting is on.
November 28th, 2010 at 8:54 am
I have found some interesting information. The Android calendar is run by multiple “apps”.
The first is Calendar Storage. This app controls the actual database that holds the calendar events and does the syncing to Google Calendars.
Then you have the default calendar app that comes with any android phone. This app allows you to view and edit events in the database controlled by the Calendar storage app.
The bug you describe is in the default calendar app. But since the Android system separates the view/edit function from the storage function you can have a different “calendar” app to view/edit the calendar. In fact you can have multiple ones, they will all see the same events because they all depend on the Calendar Storage app to get the events’ information.
One free Calendar App I have seen recommended is Gemini Calendar. I read that it didn’t have the repeating event bug that the default calendar app has. I downloaded a copy and with it I can set up any type of repeating event I want, and it appears in the calendar correctly. After creating the repeating events I closed Gemini and looked at them with the default calendar app and it showed them correctly.
The only thing is that the user interface to Gemini is different that the default app and I am not sure which I prefer yet. But since I can, currently I have both on my phone.
November 29th, 2010 at 1:12 am
So is this for a Motorola Droid phone, specifically? I have an Android OS phone, but it’s not a Droid. I haven’t had any issues with calendar events. I’ve got the HTC EVO, and I think HTC may handle calendars differently? Seems like I’ve been finding that not all Android phones are the same, even if they have the same version of the OS. HTC, in particular, seems to throw in some other options in different areas.
November 29th, 2010 at 9:25 am
Allen — I installed Gemini. You’re right — it’s interface is different…. even ugly. I really like the look of the default calendar. I may just use the Gemini for repeat events.
Johnny — I think you’re right. Different manufacturers put different apps on by default. However, I am surprised that the calendar app you have is different. Are you able to create an event that repeats every Friday for five weeks?
November 29th, 2010 at 10:14 am
The only reason I tried Gemini was a) it specifically mentioned that it didn’t have the repeating event bug and b) was free.
There may be other calendar front ends that don’t have the bug.
Of course you can always do like I do, create your repeating events directly on google calendar then sync the phone.