Sync private iCloud calendar with MagicMirror

mdefrancesco

So i’m not sure if anyone is still watching this thread but I’ve been banging my head against the wall trying to sync. The tutorial is awesome and clearly there was a ton of work put in, so I don’t ask questions lightly.

I followed the directions to the letter but i can’t seem to control the sync. one time it took 2.5 mins and the next time it took 9 mins.

here is my timer…
GNU nano 2.7.4 File: /etc/systemd/user/vdirsyncer.timer

[Unit]
Description=Synchronize vdirs

[Timer]
OnBootSec=1m
OnUnitActiveSec=1m
AccuracySec=1m

[Install]
WantedBy=timers.target

that’s the only thing i have changed. it’s like i can’t get the sync to activate.
I have maybe 5 different modules running but nothing crazy (weather, clock, jeopardy, etc)

if i manually vdirsyncer sync and then reload the mirror AWESOME, no problems. just cant get the damn timer to work

any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated…I’m still new to all this so thanks

Beh

@mdefrancesco Sorry for the late reply.

Hmm… that’ weird. Did you get it working by now?

If not:
Did you use the --user flag when activating the timer? And what does systemctl --user status vdirsyncer.timer say?
And did you try different times in the timer file? I could imagine that setting everything to 1 minute could cause problems…

cagey

@Beh first and foremost, thank you very much for setting out clear and detailed instructions. I’m a complete newbie but by following your instructions it works perfectly.

I saw that, when I run “vdircyncer discover”, I receive a list of all my calenders and, in addition, my iCloud reminders. The reminders seem to have similar UUIDs to the calendars.

I tried following the same process for my “Family” reminders by creating a CALDAV sync (in the vdirsyncer config file) called “pair iCloudTD_to_MagicMirrorTD”, including the Family UUID in the “collections” section and creating a %.ics file in /MagicMirror/modules/calendars/%s.ics. I have items_types as “VEVENT”, “VTODO”.

I also inserted the %.ics file as a calendar entry in the “calendar” module in MagicMirror.

However, the to do list does not appear in MM (it just says “No upcoming events”). The calendar however works perfectly.

I’m guessing it’s not possible to import iCloud reminders in the same way as iCloud calendars but I thought I’d ask before I spend more time reading through the vdirsyncer documentation and other Google searches.

Is there a config setting I’m missing or is it not possible at all? I’m struggling to understand the difference between VTODO and reminders.

thisistheplace

@cagey I tried that too and asked for help in september last year.

Somewhere in this thread @Beh said it should work with “VTODO” but the ics files are empty after syncing. Thats why nothing is shown in your calendar.

Would be really happy to have the icloud reminders on my mirror.

elliot1996

@Beh Hey, great tutorial! Im having the same issues as above, timers just not working. Followed your troubleshooting, still no luck, just says ; Unit vdirsyncer.timer could not be found.

Even though I can see it does exists and its editable in nano

Any ideas?

elliot1996

This post is deleted!

Beh

@thisistheplace I never tried syncing VTODO. All I can do here, is to refer to the vdirsyncer docs regarding this topic: https://vdirsyncer.pimutils.org/en/stable/config.html?highlight=VEVENT#storage-caldav

Unfortunately you have to dig into that yourself, my time is very limted currently…

Beh

@elliot1996 I would need more information to help you debug this. Are you sure you used the right directory for the file? And you used the --user option when executing systemctl?

Everything you need to know about systemd unit files is here: https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd.unit.html

The file must be in one of the directories mentioned at the top of the page.

elliot1996

@Beh I’m sure I have installed it in the right directory, I followed :curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pimutils/vdirsyncer/master/contrib/vdirsyncer.timer | sudo tee /etc/systemd/user/vdirsyncer.timer firstly under the MagicMirror Directory. Then activating using systemctl --user enable vdirsyncer.timer.

When looking at the status I get : Warning: The unit file, source configuration file or drop-ins of vdirsyncer.timer changed on disk. Run ‘systemctl --user daemon-reload’ to rel
● vdirsyncer.timer - Synchronize vdirs
Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/user/vdirsyncer.timer; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Drop-In: /home/smartm/.config/systemd/user/vdirsyncer.timer.d
└─override.conf
Active: inactive (dead)
Trigger: n/a

Apr 13 18:38:50 smartm-Latitude-E6230 systemd[915]: /home/smartm/.config/systemd/user/vdirsyncer.timer.d/override.conf:1: Assignment outside o
Apr 13 18:38:50 smartm-Latitude-E6230 systemd[915]: /home/smartm/.config/systemd/user/vdirsyncer.timer.d/override.conf:2: Assignment outside o
Apr 13 18:46:21 smartm-Latitude-E6230 systemd[915]: /home/smartm/.config/systemd/user/vdirsyncer.timer.d/override.conf:1: Assignment outside o
Apr 13 18:46:21 smartm-Latitude-E6230 systemd[915]: /home/smartm/.config/systemd/user/vdirsyncer.timer.d/override.conf:2: Assignment outside o
lines 1-12/12 (END)

Anything you could do to help would be amazing! Been trying to get it going all day, my mirrors close to perfect!

ShoeBox

@Beh this is a great tutorial. Thanks!