ICal import creates new calendar When Open the ics file

Question

I'm working on "Add to Calendar" feature from my Sharepoint webpart (created using VS2010).

I have exported the ICS file programatically with no issues.

But the problem is when I try to open the ICS file from OUTLOOK.

If the ICS file has single appointment, no issues....

If the ICS file has multiple appointments, the problem comes...

When I do File >> Open >> Import >> Choose ics file, it works fine

But If I try to just double click the ICS file, it creates a NEW calendar instead of updating my existing default calendar

Any suggestions...?

Answer 1

See this SO post which suggests that Outlook will only support multiple events using ICS as a feed or subscription - not directly as a single ICS import.

Answer 2

We had a similar problem and found that if the ICS file had the X-WR-CALNAME field in it, even if is was blank, then Outlook would automatically create a new calendar. If it did NOT have this field in it, then Outlook imported it.

Answer 3

I had the same problem. When clicking on a .ics file outlook creates a new calendar rather then updating a existing calendar.

I solved this by adding this descriptor in the .ics file:

X-WR-RELCALID:XXXXXX

where XXXXXX is a unique value for the calendar. Outlook will then ask you for replacing the calendar, rather than adding a new.

The descriptor was found on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICalendar