Set custom refresh rates for subscribed iCal calendars

May 18, '04 10:44:00AM

Contributed by: chyna4xena

I got annoyed with the fact that iCal only contains a few options for how often it will auto-refresh subscribed calendars, especially since the lowest interval is 15 minutes. We are publishing and subscribing over a LAN, so no worries about bandwidth; we wanted updates at most every two minutes. If you also want to change the refresh interval for subscribed iCal calendars, it is dead easy:

  1. In iCal, subscribe to all the calendars you want, and set the refresh to 15 minutes.
  2. Quit iCal (nothing will happen if you don't).
  3. In your ~/Library -> Preferences folder, open the com.apple.iCal.sources.plist file (TextEdit will do).
  4. Each calendar will have an entry in this file. Look for the line like this:
    <string>~/Library/Caches/com.apple.iCal/Indexes/cal_name.index</string>
    Where cal_name is the name of the subscribed calendar. Somewhere below that line, you'll find:
    <key>automaticUpdateInterval</key>
    <integer>900</integer>
    Change this value to your desired refresh interval (in seconds) - I use 120 (two minutes).
  5. Save and close the com.apple.iCal.sources.plist file.
  6. Re-start iCal
In the info window for the calendar, you will notice it now correctly lists your new refresh interval. A word of warning -- do not change the value with the pop-up menu in the info window. If you do, your custom choice will disappear, and you'll have to do these steps again.

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