IssueTracker

Has this been reviewed?

Really? It's been a year and we still can't open a .ics file and have it sync to the
android cal?

I also hope that this issue will be solved. Works great in the web client.

This needs to be fixed. Not being able to accept meeting notices sent from Outlook
on phone is bad. The work-around is to accept them using the googlemail website, but
this should be added to the googlemail android client so it can all be done phone
side.

iCal support would be great for my continued use of an Android phone.  My other
coworkers want to join too but there is no iCal support.

I concur. If Android wants to arrive in the business world then supporting .ics files
is a must-have rather than a
nice-to-have-lets-look-again-in-3-years-if-we-can-support-it-then.

This would be very useful - all the more so as a phone is the last place you want to
be typing in numerous pre-existing details when the phone could do the work for you.

Facebook have an export for .ics files, which I'd find handy if they could go
straight into the calendar.

These .ics files come up everywhere - it would be good to focus on making the file
association work (at an O/S level) rather than any interception directly within
Googlemail, since there will be cases where a file is obtained on the phone (eg from
the browser or some other process, like file sync) and there's no point in demanding
all those apps replicate the functionality when it can be done once and work across
the board.

Still waiting for this must have fix!

Kind of silly for Google to develop a phone operating system which does not have the ability to accept invites
from Google Calendar.

This is an important feature - please fix it!

Otherwise Android is great, if one is clever enough to find work-arounds for not being able to email file
attachments other than pictures (it can be done through file manager programs.)

Seriously a medium priority? I have a new sprint Hero and am loving it so far, but i
just recieved 3 invites/ics files in my gmail this morning and was unable to accept,
add to my calendar or do anything with them, except of course save them to my SD
card. Still couldn't open it after that. Thisd caused a ton of confucion becuase i
could not respond to the invites for 1 hour until i got to my PC and people were
boking over each other, etc.

This is critical to anyone that uses this OS for work. This would seem like a
MASSIVE oversight to me.

 

I can't believe this is still not possible. I'm going to have to go back to my
Windoze Mobile phone or get the POS iPhone so that I can have a phone that works in
the field with me. The whole point of buying a MOBILE smart phone is so I don't have
to go back to a computer and accept the appointments. This feature is available on
WinMo, Blackberry and iPhone. Unacceptable!

This works when the iphone 3.0 'S' is tethered to Exchange but after deleting my
Exchange work related email account on the iPhone and setting up a fresh IMAP based
gmail account setting on the iPhone, I cannot accept meeting invites/ics files with
the gmail based calendar?

I just went and bought a Moto Droid this morning in *an attempt* to switch off of my
Blackberry, which I use VERY heavily for work -- sometimes not being able to get in
front of my PC for days at a time.

Within minutes of setting up the Droid (nice & easy, btw), I found this major
limitation.  It may be a dealbreaker.  This makes the phone unusable for business.
I'm going to keep searching for a workaround, but if I can't find one, I'm taking the
phone back to Verizon.

This is really upsetting.  If I had have found this one day ago, I would not have
purchased my new Motorola Droid.  Love all the other features on the Android, but it
is like buying a new car only to discover it does not have a transmission.

Shame on me for assuming a basic function of a smartphone (found on ever other
providers OS) would not be included on a mobile OS created by Google.  What a swing
and a miss...

[Comment deleted]

FYI, the HTC hero calendar app magically extracts calendar invites from vmail and adds them to your
phone calendar.  So at least you can get reminders on your phone.

FYI, the HTC hero calendar app magically extracts calendar invites from vmail and adds them to your
phone calendar.  So at least you can get reminders on your phone.

FYI, the HTC hero calendar app magically extracts calendar invites from vmail and adds them to your
phone calendar.  So at least you can get reminders on your phone.

[Comment deleted]

a year and no fix for a basic function? Not even recognition from Google that they
are working on it? What's wrong in this picture?! My Droid is going back to Verizon
and I'll be going back to rotten 3G AT&T for the iPhone.

(Possible solution for Exchange)

I got an invitation yesterday at my corporate (MS Exchange) account on my Moto Droid.
 I went and looked on the calendar at that time slot, and it was there.  I then
opened the calendar item, and there was a drop-down inside the event that allowed me
to accept / decline / tentatively accept the invitation.

Would be nice to be able to do it directly from the invitation, but it appears that
the Android design point is to have calendar items managed from the calendar.

Motorola / Google, please update your documentation to explain this feature to users
of corporate email accounts.

This feature only works on a corporate system or if you allow to auto accept calendar
invites on Google Calendar. Since there is a ton of calendar spam going around it
leaves only corporate exchange systems.

If you turn on auto accept on google calendar invites, good luck, as you will have a
1000+1 invites auto populate your calendar from spammers sooner or later.

Dito the comments above.  very disappointed this isn't possible out of the box.  does
anyone have an alternative or workaround?

Here are some notes from Verizon regarding Droid issues, looks like there are some
fixes planned:
Exchange Active Sync Email: You cannot accept a calendar appointment received via email.

Short term work around: The customer can accept or decline the meeting invite by
accessing it under the Corporate Calendar application.
Planned Resolution: A fix for this issue will be included in a maintenance release of
software for this device. The target date for the next release of software is January
22, 2010.

Exchange Active Sync/Google Mail: Messages sent from the A855 only support picture
attachments, no other types of attachments are supported.

Short term work around: There is no known work around.
Planned Resolution: A fix for this issue will be included in a maintenance release of
software for this device. The target date for the next release of software is January
22, 2010.

FYI, with my HTC Hero when you get invited to a meeting or forward the invite to your
gmail account, the Hero calendar app will automatically add the event to your Hero
calendar so at least you won't miss the reminder and will have the info for the event.

But I don't see any documentation on this magic feature.

BTW, this page doesn't work from the Google browser on my Hero.  Posting the comment
results in a 'content-length is required for POST data' or similar.  Lame Google!

[Comment deleted]

Hi axleyjc,

I have tried this on the Motorola Droid, and it does not work. I have forwarded the
message from an
IMAP account to my gmail account with no luck.

I also tried forwarding from my hosted Zimbra server connected as Exchange account
(there is another known issues with EAS support through Android on Zimbra server) and
this did not work either.

Invites did not show up in gmail calendar nor corporate calendar and when trying to
open the attachment in IMAP account or gmail account, Android report that the file
format is not recognized.

I am still struggling with the fact that Verizon is committing to enhancement my Jan
22, the Zimbra bug was opened yesterday evening and they have already committed
resources to fix, and this issue has been known for months and Google has not even
acknowledge it.  I really thought Google was more responsive than this.  

Isn't it really amazing that I have read at least a dozen reviews of the Moto Droid
from so-called journalists and various bloggers that received advanced copies of the
phone, and NOT ONE, covered this issue and the other broken mail feature (inability
to undelete an email from corporate or IMAP accounts)? Not One.
Makes you wonder what else they might be receiving under the table.

Given Google's position in the free email marketplace, they ought to be ashamed at
letting this defect persist as long as it has. Shame, shame on you big G.

Not being able to read ICS attachments is a major problem. This makes the device
useless for participation in most real business environment. The only workaround that
I know about is to call the sender and ask them to send the invite as inline text
(versus ICS attachment). This needs to be fixed (or realistic workaround offered).

Anyone know of a 3rd party email app that may address the problem?

I just downloaded Road Sync from DataViz earlier today to my Moto Droid (Android
2.0). It is working for me.  When an ics attachment comes in it recognizes it and
allows for accept/decline within the mail client.

It is a free 14 day trial, then $9.99 for an unlock key.  On the DataViz website
they have a long list of hardware supported.

Not being able to read ICS attachments is a major problem. This makes the device
useless for participation in most real business environment. The only workaround that
I know about is to call the sender and ask them to send the invite as inline text
(versus ICS attachment). This needs to be fixed (or realistic workaround offered).

I agree, this is a basic feature, and google's calender won't work with itself.  
Shame on Google, might be returning my Droid as well.  Deal breaker

Before returning your droid because of this, you may want to note that Verizon is
planning to get this fixed by the end of January (noted above).

The Road Sync. App seems to be a good fix to the issue of not being able to integrate
your corporate calendar with e-mails, however, what lacks with this client is the fact
that it only syncs your inbox and not any other folders you have within your inbox.  I
guess if you have both e-mail clients running, the Android Corporate E-mail client and
the Road Sync e-mail client, then you'd be OK.  This is kind of a ridiculous work
around though, hopefully its only until Jan 22.

It was sad to read this thread from top to bottom.  I'm already a little frustrated that I
have to give up iCal for gCal in some sense... but not being able to open .ics files just
made me completely rethink my purchase.

There is going to be a swarm of DROID returns if this isn't fixed before the 30-day trial
period runs up.  Any status update would go a long way for me not returning.  At this
point, the clock is ticking.

This is so incredibly unfortunette.  I was loving my new "Samsung Moment" Until I
attempted to open my first invite and am NOT ABLE TO RESPOND!  This is ridiculous.

I guess it's good for me that I still have time to return the phone and go back to
my wm phone. :(  Perhaps when this is fixed I may return to android.  I can't
believe this wasn't 1st on the priority list.

please make this heppen...

business user. need email full function. Touchdown user at this point.

also - text size adjustment??? maybe i'm getting older but that's a no-brainer.

Without ics integration, this thing is a pretty sweet brick.  28 more days until this
Droid has to go back, hopefully this is resolved by then.

Please fix this. I agree with rbalaian. Calendar integration is highly important.
Most of us use outlook at work, and having the capability to see calendar events on
my phone is key. Without that feature, I don't have much of a reason to continue
using this phone.

Meeting invitations accepting and sending I will have to have to be able to use the
android.

I would also add that many larger corporations are limiting the ability sync from
our corporate email (Outlook) with personal calendars so having a way to export
certain calender events in an .ICS and import them via email (or other means) will
help us.

There is a market app that is free that 'helps' with this a little ...
http://www.androlib.com/android.application.com-android-calendarimporter-jjxB.aspx

It can import .ics files from the SD card, but it does not support repeating events
(or I could not get it to work).

On the HTC Hero, you can still use the standard calendar interface to view the events
and just use the calendar app to load them up.

Come on guys. This is not rocket science. Even Microsoft can do this and they
couldn't find their bum with two hands and a map

Still can't open invite.ics file in Android 2.0. If Android is going to be taken
seriously, this has to get resolved...

Just bought an htc droid but must be able to accept/decline invites from bb,iphone; and integrate those
events with my Calendar.

Hello,

I am also frustrated by this issue and would like to receive information about when
an enhancement will be available to the mail program on the droid.  I am willing to
participate in a beta program in order to help move this forward if that will help.

Please advise on a date when either a beta change or the completed change will be
available.

Thanks

My lowly Palm could sort by business name, but my Droid insists on first name only. Dumb!

Another m2, if the guys at G listen to the stats, they shuld be working overtime on
this issue ... My momy told me to never ever buy a .0 software ... Should have
listend to what she said.

As a former Treo user with an IMAP EMail account, I felt completely disabled without
this feature.
I have developed and uploaded a trial version of an App that will open iCal
attachments and create Calendar Appointments automatically for you. It's called iCal
Manager TRIAL.
Search for "iCal" in your Marketplace...

And check out http://www.treodroid.com for other apps that might be useful for former
Treo users who have decided to "upgrade" to the Droid...

Thanks!

*** sorry, I would have posted on the author's site instead, but the email submission
form does not work.  Plus, I thought everyone should try it out, it works very well.
***

Hi jholstein, thanks for this app!  When you eventually charge for it, if you keep
the price low enough I think you'll do quite well.  I don't know anything about iCal,
but I do have a few suggestions -- can you add a way to notify the sender if you
can't make it to the event?  Also, the text on your buttons is a little weird.  I'd
expect "Accept" instead of "Done", and "Cancel" instead of "Revert".

Anyhow, nice job, this application is really quite excellent.  :)

Why is this medium priority?? This needs to be fixed or a free app developed now!

As a work around I setup a new gmail account and forwarded my IMAP email to the
gmail account, then set the gmail account to send as my IMAP accounts address... The
DROID gmail app does accept the ics files and places the appointment on the calendar
to be accepted. Not pretty but at least I have some appointment functionality.

Hi Mr. Matz,
 Thank you so much for the kind feedback! I'm expecting to charge $3 for the full
version. I'm not looking to take anyone for a ride, just to get compensated for the
time I spent on the app...

 Unfortunately, I don't control the text of the "Done" and "Revert" buttons - I
actually call that portion of the screen from the native Calendar app. Perhaps a
future release of the native app will let me modify those button names...

 I do hope in the future to have an option where it will allow you to properly reply
to the event as you described, but I just moved two days ago, and haven't had time to
do that (also why the website isn't quite right yet either).

 Again, thanks for the compliment, and enjoy the app!

This needs to be added to the Android family of devices!

[Comment deleted]

If you're still stuck with Android 1.5 like myself, jholstein's iCal Manager will
only work on Android 1.6 or newer at the moment. He wanted to check whether it's
possible to compile it for 1.5, but apparently he is not quite done with moving into
his new home.

Everybody who was complaining here and has Android 1.6 or above: please install that
app, vote for it, send your comments to the market! At the moment it still has zero
ratings, no comments and less than 50 downloads on
http://www.androlib.com/android.application.com-treodroid-icalmgrt-xnEi.aspx 

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@jholstein i get app not found here in the uk too using the QR code

[Comment deleted]

found iCal Manager trial by searching, currently downloading...

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[Comment deleted]

Hi All!
 First, I would like to thank those of you who have been kind enough to give me good
reviews and speak kind words.

 I uploaded an update to iCalMgr Trial that is compiled to work with both 1.5 SDK as
well as the new 2.0.1 SDK. It also now reacts to a few more calendar Mime types that
I missed before.

 You can download it by pointing your browser to
   market://search?q=pname:com.treodroid.iCalMgr

 Or can scan the QR Code at

    http://bit.ly/4TUvaG

 I hope to be updating the www.treodroid.com website before the weekend is out...

 I also have released a vCard manager that will allow you to open vCards directly
from your EMail and automatically create the contact record.
 
 Again, thanks all!

jholstein

So no that we know it's possible based on jholstein's work, refine his code and
implement it in the Android Gmail app before he starts charging your customers for
something that clearly should be free. Sorry jholstein, but there's no way you should
be making any money off of this, especially when we have to use someone else's app to
take advantage of it. I could see if you coded a whole new email app that has this
functionality in it, but you want to charge for a plugin for someone else's app?? An
app that is free by the way. Maybe K9 should refine your code and implement it. I
think you should have put it on your own site and took donations. It's quite a slap
in the face to opensource and the Android platform that you think you should charge
for this.

I too agree that Google should have developed this and implemented in Android by at
least 2.0, and there are a whole host of other Mail App failures to go along with
this issue. However, I also think it is petty and small of people to complain about
being charged a very small fee for add-ons that greatly increases the functionality
of their phones. JHolstien and others put in the work, have added significant value
and they have every right to ask for modest compensation.
I left the very polished Blackberry platform to give Android a try, and had it not
been for the work of developers like jholstein that have contributed to making the
Droid's messaging features business ready, I would have returned mine. I am sure I am
not alone in this assessment, and their work has contributed to building market share
for the Android platform which in the end is good for all Android fans.
Stop bitching and either develop your own FREE software, or go get a freaking life.

So far I have paid for at least 3 modestly priced apps that increase the usability
and functionality of my beloved Droid and I thank the developers that produced this
code, while I patiently wait for Google to clean up their act.

I absolutely agree with somertech.droid.  I personally find nothing wrong with paying
a few bucks for a feature that I need very badly at my startup that doesn't have much
IT infrastructure in place.  If you don't like it, simply don't download and bitch at
Google instead.  And wait.  And wait.

The difference is that Blackberry is a closed platform, Android is opensource. They
give you the SDK so that you can enhance what they have done. Like I said though, if he
coded a whole new app I might consider it worth paying for, but all he did what make a
plugin for the K9 email app. They coded a very robust email client and it's still free,
it seems wrong for him to charge a for a plugin.

My point is we don't have to wait anymore. He wrote this with their opensource SDK,
they can just take his code and implement it. That's what I'm asking them to do.

This is not the place to advertise apps, free or otherwise.

A single post with a link offering a helpful solution would have been fine, but
hitting 135 people with emails arguing and trying to fault find a link is just
detracting from the purpose of this page; to formally fix this issue within Android
or the Google Calendar App.

Please can we bring this back on topic before more people de-star just to stop
receiving these irrelevant emails.

Using Gmail app on Droid and Google Calendar, I still can't accept Calendar invites
after the Droid update. Hello, Google? It's YOUR calendar I am using, YOUR gmail
client. I can accept them with a full desktop browser, but not even that works on my
phone's browser? Crazy. Makes me look like an idiot at work when I have to find a
computer just to accept a meeting request.

Thanks jholstein!!

You are all idiots.  All you have to do is once you receive the calendar request is
then go to your calendar and the appointment is there.  You can then accept from your
calendar on your droid and it will show up on exchange/outlook.

Chai Reinie, you are very narrow focused and primative in your thinking.  There some
of us that a) don't use exchange/outlook and/or can't or don't have access to use
GMail or Google Calender [web interface].

This needs to be fixed soon.

Yesterday I went to the Verizon store for the 3rd time since the Droid was released
and for the 3rd time it was recommended I don't buy it.  This is so frustrating
since I really like the Verizon service in my area.  No one in the store has any
clue how to handle syncing with Microsoft Exchange.  It's shocking how little anyone
cares about this, especially at Verizon or Google.  Needless to say, I hate the
blackberry storm and I am going to switch my service to AT&T today and get an
Iphone.  I waited and waited for this product and can't believe a representative
from Google has not got on this thread and told us how to make this work.  I'm not a
techie, nor do I want to be.  I asked one of the more tech saavy people at the
Verizon store what to do about this and he said." I heard there are some apps for
that but the free ones don't work too well."

???  The point is to make everything easier and more accessible to the consumer...

@lewis.bi...

The DROID syncs fine with Exchange via ActiveSync, you get calendar, contacts and
emails (no todos, however).

You cannot accept exchange calendar invitations from the email app, but, you *can* go
to the corporate calendar application and accept the invitation from there!

The Droid DOES NOT sync "fine" with ActiveSync for the following reasons:
- frequently, replies or forwards get stuck in the Outbox.  Motorola level 2 support
told me directly that the only way to fix this was to delete the email and resend.
if this doesn't work, you have to wipe your account off the handheld and re-register
ActiveSync.
- Often, calendar invitations come into the inbox with no content in the body of the
invite, so even if I wanted to go to the calendar to accept the meeting, I have no
way of knowing the time & date of the meeting to do so.
- There are an unacceptable number of times the device is unable to connect to
ActiveSync.  I'm not sure if this is a network issue or just a testament to the
ActiveSync interface being less than robust.

In addition, I have a long list of gripes, not the least of which is the difficulty
(impossibility in some cases) of copy / paste, especially copying a section out of a
received email (can't copy more than one line).

Suffice it to say, I REALLY MISS MY BLACKBERRY.  I work on the road a lot, and have
very time-sensitive business to handle.  There's too much missing with basic Android
functionality for it to be a viable business platform yet, IMHO.

It's terribly disappointing that a company that thrives on concepts like cloud computing and works for
full integration of all its platforms is so tragically underdeveloped when it somes to simple things
like ical, and even .ivc.  If we can easily send events and contact information in those formats using
the base functionality of the device, how is it that we can't open them??  I really feel this issue is egg
on Google's face...

It's ridiculous that HTC, Google and Verizon promote the Droid Eris as a 'Google'
phone, yet the calendar app and Google mail will not sync....????????? WTF????

I will NOT recommend this phone to anybody, unless there is a quick fix!

[Comment deleted]

It is ridiculous that an OS created by google which supports sync to gmail and google
calendar cannot handle a request sent.  The web client shows the request properly but
not the "fat" client on the phone.  This is my only gripe so far with my droid and
luckily I dont use the calendar that much, mainly just a personal calendar, but on
the occasions where invitations are sent out it makes it a real pain.  This should
not be treated as an enhancement, it should be considered a bug in the software as it
fails to natively support a feature of the emailing/calendering systems google has.

I haven't gotten an iphone because of ics files and will not be able to get an
android phone until they support .ics files. So I shall go on with my Blackberry.

I returned my Android because of this issue

When you have voted (starred) this issue, please also do so for
  http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=2361

These two issues should be merged (including the stars)

NEED iCal vCal support on Droid.

The issue is simple. It is a way for Google to further invade our privacy by having to give them our calendars to
make them useful to us. If you don't, you are stuck with a locked in local organizer circa 1980.

Not really an "open" system.

Until now I was syncing my Nokia phone (7 years old) with linux and mac as simply as
it could be done.
So, hen I bought this wonderful HTC Hero just because it had a supose to be
marvelous Androïd in it, it was obvious for me that at least I would be able to
synchronize it with whatever I want it to be synchronized.... I came back to my
Nokia... Finally it is simple and just do the litle plus I am expecting from a phone
at the begining of this 21st century.

Completely agree. For me it is a necessaty for a phone
 

I have ics attachments sent to me all the time from people on Blackberries.  I need
to be able to open this on my Android phone!!!  Why do I have to open on a computer
in order for it be in my calendar??

Just bought a HTC hero and finding out this aint working is an huge miss. I had a
choice between a Iphone and a HTC Hero i choose android only to find out that this
function isn't there.

Really?! This make's it very difficult to use @work. Please fix this.

Is this supposed to be resolved with 2.1?  I realize that there have been a few
"release dates" for 2.1 and the Moto Droid that have come and gone; but I would like to
know if this is on it's way with a patch or if it's in the nebula of who knows when.

Appending my own rage.

Rage!

Definitely need this. Have been waiting a long time

Agreed

Groupwise and many other calendaring systems
use ics too

As a work around, I've done the following:
1.  installed the Dolphin browser
2.  Open Dolphin browser click on the menu button
3.  Go to Settings > Select User agent and change setting to "Desktop"

When a message arrives open Dolphin, click on the Gmail link (at top) open your
invite and you will have access to accept the invite.

It's not clean, but it works.
Mark

I'm a new Droid owner after being a Windows Mobile owner for many years and I must
say I'm shocked that Android doesn't support a native solution to accept meeting
appoiontments sent by email that can be accepted/rejected direcly, without some
bizarre work around. How is this possible and when will this be corrected?

Oh come on guys! Are you serious? No support for calendar events? I just received my
new HTC Hero for my birthday last night. I've been in love with my Blackberry and
didn't like the idea of a new phone. But I gave it a try and loved the new Android
phone UNTIL my office sent me a calendar event changing the time and location of a
business meeting I was to have this morning. And guess what? Not only did it not
autoadd to my calendar, I didn't have an option to ACCEPT nor was I able to view any
information within the sent calendar event.

This is not acceptable. Who do you think is shelling out money for these new phones?
15 year olds? No, it's the rest of us that work for a living and have such busy
schedules we rely on our calendar/phones.

PLEASE FIX IT SOON!

My phone is being returned tonight and I'm going back to my Blackberry.

And on a separate note a 5mp camera is useless without a flash.

A solution for this must be on its way. Everything else is disaster. Fundamental stuff.

Not being able to use own iCal files is really poor. No, i do not want to use Google
Calendar.

Has anyone been able to download the update to iCal manager from jholstein?  I can't
contact him, and the market page he posted doesn't work anymore.  I found a couple of
bugs in the app and wanted to update it first before reporting the bugs.

still wait for this to be sorted... HTC Desire

This was reported in 2008 as an enhancement but it really is a necessity.
I don't have proper access to my calendars.  The only way possible is if I
completely switch to google calendar.  My other family members have I phones but I
went with Android because I do not like the idea of the control Apple has on the
Iphone apps and Android is supposed to be open.  If the only way for me to use this
vital function is to switch to google then Google is no different than Apple.
The Iphone I know works well with the basic vital functions eg Email, Calendar,
Contacts.  I will stick with Android for now as it is newer on the market and has
potential but many have already become frustrated with the lack of full basic
functionality that they are switching.

New Incredible owner, was hoping that this issue was fixed already. Seems simple!

I am a new incredible owner... Hope this is supported soon

Yes please, implement this enhancement.  Android 1.5 / TMo Mytouch.

This sucks, My wife gets to plan every thing. She tells me if I can't decline it then
it must be OK.
Come on this issue seams to be pretty old, Get this fixed before I have to go to
another co ed baby shower!!!!

Seriously, this is STILL a medium priority for android?

Uhm....if I get a 2.1 update to my Hero and this isn't addressed, I might not be
buying the Evo when it comes out a few weeks later. It is that huge a deal for me
that I will shelve Android and look at a Win7 phone (gulp) until this is fixed.

Medium?

How could something as simple as Accepting meeting invites not be a feature of the
android operating system?  My boss just got the incredible and if he isn't able to
view/accept invites on his phone, he will go back to the iphone.

Come on Google this must be seen as core function of a smart phone today, please fix it!

Every other smartphone OS does this, please catch up!

[Comment deleted]

I never noticed it before, but today i noticed that not only is it not possible to
open .ics on your phone but also it is not possible to accept a new time proposal for
a meeting. Not even in the online gmail client. Google should really take a look at
it and fix these issue's soon or using any android system as my business phone might
not be such a good idea.

I just moved from the palm pro to the new Sprint EVO and i cannot believe this is even an issue. This is a horrendous oversight. I am considering going back to palm.

How can this be a Medium priority ??
Would have bought some other phone if I had known earlier that these basic features are not supported !!

Issue has been open since late 2008, and we are half way done with 2010 and no resolution. Accepting invites and adding it to a calender should be a top priority not a medium one. Please, please, please someone get this working.

There is a free app called ics bot that works great... associates ics files with your calendar and adds the events with one click.

Completely agree. I second this.

Just discovered this issue.  Being a blackberry user I forgot how crucial a feature this was until I made the switch to android.  I took this for granted on my blackberry.  How will android be taken seriously by the business world if they can't handle simple business like tasks?  I have an HTC EVO and have switched to using the HTC mail client as that allows importing items to the calendar, but without push notifications, I'm not sure what this will do to my battery life.

I really need to have android import ics documents... as well as group ics files such as ones created by ical

This is becoming absurd. The very basic feature: to be able to accept meeting invitations from outlook and gmail calendars. Unfortunately, google is imitating the same disgraceful behavior of microsoft - putting politics before customer service (outlook support) and ignoring basics (supporting its own calendar, jesus) while developing cool but less important features.

We are seriously considering to move all our employees from android to blackberry or iphone. i hear it from other companies. without the above it is obvious that the android is useless for business.

I have been loveing my HTC Desire so far. But when i discovered that meeting requests that didn't went trought my exchange server could not be ansverd i was furious. This is a wery big issue. If it isn't fixed in 2.2 i must with back to my windows phone again

Oh my... seriously?   This is a #1 priority for any email client.  This should be an embarrassment to the Android team.

Please fix!  I don't know why the guy that created ICS Manager pulled his market product but it worked great.  Having no solution really sucks.

Google.... Help!

Can someone find out what happened to this guy - he actually fixed the issue, then disappeared like John Galt:

Comment 54 by jholstein, Dec 04, 2009 As a former Treo user with an IMAP EMail account, I felt completely disabled without
this feature.
I have developed and uploaded a trial version of an App that will open iCal
attachments and create Calendar Appointments automatically for you. It's called iCal
Manager TRIAL.
Search for "iCal" in your Marketplace...

And check out http://www.treodroid.com for other apps that might be useful for former
Treo users who have decided to "upgrade" to the Droid...

Thanks!

Google - not having support for iCal is ridiculous.

Everyone:  Let's coordinate our efforts.  
Please go to the issue below and add a star to indicate how important having iCal support is to the market:
  http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=2361&q=ical&colspec=ID%20Type%20Status%20Owner%20Summary%20Stars 

ICS Bot seems to solve the issue, at least for me on Android 2.1 (HTC Hero w. VanillainROM 1.1)

http://www.androidzoom.com/android_applications/tools/ics-bot_eyyd.html

Still, I would prefer a built-in solution.

Yes, just got laughed at by people at the office for not being able to respond to an iCal invitation on my new Droid. Love the phone, but this is pretty essential functionality at this point.

Just got a Droid X and now rather sad to realize this is an issue. This is such a "you have got be kidding me" kind of problem.

Add me to the list of disgruntled users. I have the HTC incredible. No luck using the ICS Bot app.

Wow... nice to see I'm not the only "crazy" one who doesn't get all the fuss about the Android.  I had a BB Storm up until August 5th where I "upgraded" to the Samsung Moment.  At first I was mesmerized by the bells-and-whistles and fluid screen movement, however the 1) lack of ics support, 2) lack of Google task synchronization, 3) insanely low battery life... I'm completely disenchanted with this phone.  Not to mention, there have been pleas from a loyal fan base to Google to address these issues for years!... "Let them eat cake".  I have a business to run.

Bummer... I have to go back to Blackberry at the tail end of my trial period because this phone, well, sucks.  I'm headed for the life rafts.  Good luck everyone.

Stunning!  I can't open an ics / iCalendar file on an Android (Droid) phone???? Seriously!  Wow.

ARRRGGGG JUST GOT OFF PHONE WITH TECH SUPPORT.  they carefully explained to me its not possible.
I explained the following..
  the gmail web client does it.
  the yahoo email app does it.

SOLUTION/WORK AROUND :  HAVE A YAHOO ACCOUNT.  AND THE YAHOO APP .. THE YAHOO APP WILL OPEN AND IMPORT THE ICS FILE TO WHATEVER CALENDER YOU WANT INCLUDING YES THE GMAIL CALENDER.  SICKNING ISN'T IT.  NOW THAT YAHOO HAS SOLVED THIS PROBLEM I WOULD SWITCH TO YAHOO EXCEPT YAHOOS CALENDER DOESN'T SYNC WITH THE ANDROID.  I MAY BE GOING BACK TO MY BLACKBERRY TOO. SO ITS A RACE.. WILL THE GMAIL APP SUPPORT ICS OR WILL YAHOO APP SUPPORT THE CALENDER. I WONDER.

OR WILL COMPETITION SQUASH THIS AS OPPOSED TO MAKE IT MORE COMPATABLE.

Just downloaded and used the free app "ICS Bot". Worked perfectly in the non-gmail email app on my Samsung Epic.  

THANK YOU ICS BOT!

http://github.com/florianf/ICalSynch

the readme:

Simple ICal Synchronisation for Android Phones.

Attention:
==========

Currently writing of ICal files is NOT supported! That means you can import your remote ICal in your phone's calendar,
but not synchronise it back to the server.

About 2 years later and still not able to open meeting requests?
It is extremely disappointing that something as basic as calendar is not even possible on an android phone.

Basically, you are never going to get any blackberry or corporate user without this functionalty. What are you waiting for to implement it?

Can we please get this functionality. It a major deficiency when compared to a black berry.

This highly desirable.

Just got my first Android phone. This omission was really surprising. I'd love to see it included.

Two years after opening this ticket, almost 600 people starred it - and still nothing happens? That may lead to certain suspections... So if there's no intention to implement it, please say so (and, if possible, include the reason).

new to android, it was obvious for me that ics was supported.
reading this... surprise !

seems clear that it's a strategic decision, we have to use gmail online...
but why no developper has proposed an ics calendar support on android ? google control ? i read that android market was open, on the contrary than iphone...

i'm a bit disappointed...

pam

@158: I know of at least one tool in the Market that can import/export iCal files.
"iCal Import/Export" by Dr.Lue

I hope this helps.

i can'T believe, that a basically function of ics is not implemented. LOL.
here we see again. google is a newby in business - LOL

Hey guys I am not sure if this will help you but I too had the same problem I downloaded the app from the market called ICS-Bot and it reads the attachment coming in. I am not sure what email account you are using but what I did was have any emails going to my corporate or/pop3 account from my work and I set a rule up that will forward any email with the subject titled Meeting in it and have it forwarded to my gmail account and once it arrives it will be read as an .ics file where you can preview it and set it up on your calendar. The downside is that you cannot edit or send a response back but you can inout the event onto your calendar and set reminders, I know it is not what we want but at least you have the event in your calendar, hope this helps.

One more month and this issue celebrates it's two year anniversary without any progress or update from Google. Ridiculous.

This a basic function that I expect. Android has some great features but if it cannot perform the basic functions then the utility needs to be questioned.

Looks like no complete fix.  I can except from outlook an Outlook meeting request via the calendar only.  If I get a request from iCal(mac) it does not work at all.  I researched the issue on the file type headers.  see below

From a MAC .ics file

BEGIN:VCALENDAR
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
VERSION:2.0
METHOD:REQUEST
PRODID:-//Apple Inc.//iCal 4.0.3//EN
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE

From an Outlook .ics
BEGIN:VCALENDAR
PRODID:-//Microsoft Corporation//Outlook 12.0 MIMEDIR//EN
VERSION:2.0
METHOD:REQUEST
X-MS-OLK-FORCEINSPECTOROPEN:TRUE
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE

Some slight differences but not sure what this means. All I know is that I can except Outlook and not Mac?

The import/Export option is NOT an option if your working from the phone a lot and not at a workstation. They need to get this fixed ASAP!!!

Motorola Droid X, 2.2

I will be posting this text in issues 2361, 1257, 2445 since they are all very related. I hope you will help you, I had a really rough couple of days getting the android to work the way I needed.

Guide to a Happy Androidian

I am the proud owner of a Android Galaxy S Epic 4G phone. But like me, most of you have (specially the ones coming from the Blackberry World) been struggling with email, notifications, invites , etc.

So I wrote this little guide with my experience, testing and results.
Currently I am very happy with my current setup, feels just like a darn Smartphone!

I am assuming most of us have a basic-moderate level knowledge of IT, so I will not details the how-to of the steps taken, but will be happy to reply to any post if you get stuck.

[B]Issue#1 Push eMail for non-Gmail POP accounts[/B]

Other than Gmail account or Exchange servers, the android needs to poll emails out of the POP server on an scheduled time interval (From now on will call this POP Account ORG_POP; [username]@[mycompany].com). This is not efficient plus consumes too much battery, and we all need every bit!

[B]Solution[/B]

1. Create a new Gmail account for your company POP mail. This will give you sync and push capabilities (Will call this NEW_GPOP); I named mine : [companyname].work@gmail.com
2. In the Gmail settings, tell Gmail to Check mail using POP3: specify your ORG_POP account
3. In the Gmail settings, tell Gmail to send mail as: specify your ORG_POP account.

[B]For Android[/B]

Sync NEW_GPOP with Android. Note: adding a second account will sometimes create an error (cannot connect to server) on the Android, instead of adding the regular way, log in to YouTube from your Android phone with NEW_GPOP, this will create the new account. (don't ask me why!)

[B]For Outlook[/B]

After you have your account setup in Gmail, go to Outlook and add a new email account that connects to NEW_GPOP. You can use the automatic changes. After all is done go to 'More Settings' and under the General tab, specify the reply email to be ORG_POP.

You can still sync with ORG_POP if you like, just remember to leave a copy on the server from NEW_GPOP.

I will recommend not adding LABELED filters to ORG_POP if you also want Outlook to retrieve the message. Not sure, but I am under the impression that Outlook will not retrieve it if it is sitting in a labeled folder (unless you are using IMAP with outlook).

[B]What you get:[/B]

1. Push capabilities on your ORG_POP email, no need to sync, poll or wait for emails. (all PUSH for android and outlook)
2. Ability to send email under your ORG_POP email from Gmail , android and outlook, showing your ORG_POP as the reply to address.
3. Ability to keep copies (or delete them) in any of the three clients.
NEW_GPOP will work as a 'transport' mailer. You do not need to reference this email to the outside world (only if you want to), this will only be your account to log and manage your POP(s) account(s).

[B]Personal Note:[/B]

You can add multiple POP email address to NEW_GPOP account, to another existing Gmail account (filters with labels if you like) or create new email for each POP email address you want to sync. It all comes down to your organization methodology.

I am sure you could do this with any mail client on the Android, I prefer Gmail since I believe is it simpler and has better integration with Gmail.

I can now manage all my work emails in just one place. If I work for multiple companies and they assign me each one different email, I can compile them all together into my NEW_GPOP and label them individually (or not).

If I go for vacation, I go to Google and set an automatic response and any email from work will be auto-replied.

Since NEW_GPOP is POLLING the emails from ORG_POP this is not done instantly, depending on the server or how Gmail performs the scheduled polls, you will receive the emails between 1-5m (in my experience).

Another way to make the emails get faster to your NEW_GPOP is to log into your ORG_POP account and tell the server to Forward the emails to NEW_GPOP. This will PUSH the email from ORG_POP to NEW_GPOP instantly and then NEW_GPOP will PUSH it to your android or outlook. It might look redundant, but if you Forward and Delete, then NEW_GPOP will get the email (a few seconds in my experience) and will find nothing the next time it tries to POLL from ORG_POP. Then a few seconds later I get the email on my Android.

[B]Issue#2 Receiving/Accepting meeting invites on your Android[/B]

If you did follow the setup for issue 36903750, every time someone send you an invite to NEW_GPOP (meeting invite to NEW_GPOP email) Google will automatically add it to your calendar. This is great if you are giving away your NEW_GPOP email address, but if you receive email via the ORG_POP address, Google will stop the Quick Calendar entry and wait until you manually create the entry.
For some weird and mystic reason, Google decided not to include meeting invites in their Gmail account other than meeting submitted to a GMAIL account. If you receive an invite and you open Gmail on your PC, you will see the invite as a calendar option and insert it into Google calendar. Yes, if you accept it on Gmail on your PC, it will sync with the Android and show in your Android calendar. So, why not do this automatically for the ORG_POP account on the Android or Gmail??! ... Easy fix!

[B]Solution[/B]

1. On Gmail, click Settings, Google Account Settings.
2. Under Personal Settings>>Emails, click Edit and add your ORG_POP.
3. Confirm Verification. Done!
BTW: while you are in the account settings, select Multiple Sign-in. Will be easier to manage all your Google accounts.

[B]What you get:[/B]

All your invites sent to your ORG_POP will AUTOMATICALLY  be included into the Google Calendar. I tested invites from Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook Calendars.
This is because Gmail now recognizes that ORG_POP is now an email address that belongs to you. Regularly when invites are sent, it is addressed to many emails. Gmail will not include entries on your calendar because it does not recognize ORG_POP as part your account emails.

There is a catch! the entry will be recorded in your calendar using the NEW_GPOP address (yup, too good to be true). This means that if you reply or change the event the new reply-to address will be NEW_GPOP not ORG_POP. I think if you reply with GMAIL not GCALENDAR the reply will remain ORG_POP, but need to try this.

[B]Personal Note:[/B]

I have only test the ability to receive them automatically into the calendar. have partially tested (with good results):

1. Replying Yes, No, Maybe from Gmail or Android
2. Canceling or moving to another time.
I guess they will all work well since it is already within Gmail, but will try this later.
I only see a problem with this. [B]Outlook.[/B]

Some invites will arrive as emails with an ics attachment, This is not a problem, Outlook will not add it to your calendar at this point. But when you get an standard Outlook invite from another Outlook client, yours will receive it as an invite and add it to the calendar.

For some people this might be good or bad. for me is bad. If you don't have a Sync client like (CompanionLink - I am testing the Trial Version) you will want to keep it in outlook so you can see the invite. But if you have an Sync client, the sync client will send to your Gmail account another copy of the invite, hence creating multiple copies.

To overcome my problem was a 2 step solution.
1. In Outlook, go to Options>>email options>>tracking options>>uncheck all checkboxes.

2. Create a new rule: "which is a meeting invitation or update">>"mark it as read">>"delete it"

That took care of my problem.

Now when I receive invite, they will stay in Gmail, they will be added to my Gmail calendar and then my sync client will retrieve them (in 5min) and add them to outlook calendar.

Also when I send invites from outlook the process will be the same but in reverse order.

Initiating the invite in the android will not be a problem, but it has it drawback (read my conclusion).

[B]Alternative[/B]

Download from the Market: ICS Bot. This application will present you with the option of adding the calendar into your Android phone when you receive an invite with an ICS extension as an attachment.

Issue#3: Not Getting Gmail notification on Labeled and skip Invoice emails.
Some of us have filters in our inbox to properly manage our emails and organize them so we don't clutter the inbox. Gmail for Android will not notify you if you receive any of the emails that follow this filter criteria.

[B]Solution[/B]

1. Download from the Market Gmail Label Notifier ($1.50)
2. Setup each label individually with notification and ringtone.
3. Setup Gmail on your Android to SYNC the specific label you want to get notified.

[B]Personal Note:[/B]

I tried other apps without good success, confusing menus and double notifications (icons and sound)  and also was not happy with the look and feel. Gmail Label Notifier gave me exactly what I need.

Make sure you are NOT archiving really important email, since the notifier seems to use the SYNC feature to get the emails and not a push from GMAIL. This means that the email might take longer to pop in your Smartphone (but not long).

[B]Conclusion[/B]

I have to say I am very impressed about Google Integration between their apps. Definitely an Android user MUST have all his account in Gmail or at least polled or pushed into a Gmail account. Even Google Talk will notify me if someone canceled a meeting!

But at the same time I am disappointed at not seeing most of these issues already resolved or at least a viable workaround from Google to determine how to overcome some of these basic necessity problems.

[B]Other Notes:[/B]

[B]Sending Invites from Outlook[/B]

When creating invites or meeting from Outlook, you get the same transparency you will get from your original server. The attendee will receive something like this:

From: ORG_POP
To: xxxx@yahoo.com

This is good if you are only using your outlook desktop client to create meeting and manage them, but sometime you are on the run, need to reply, cancel or create a new meeting from the Android or Gmail and this is where I ran out of options to figure out a solution.

[B]Sending Invites from Gmail or Android[/B]

In Gmail, when you click on any appointment, and see the WHO, you will see that Gmail is matching the invitee with your NEW_GPOP account. This is where I don't like the address that is sending the invite, there is no option to select which account is sending the invite or no option to default to my ORG_POP. Attendee will get something like this:

To:
xxxx@yahoo.com 
Who: (Attendees)
1. NEW_GPOP@gmail.com - organizer
2. NEW_GPOP@gmail.com - creator  (or PERSONAL@gmail.com, I shared my Work calendar)
3. xxxx@yahoo.com 

[B] I need this to be corrected to the following:[/B]

To:
xxxx@yahoo.com 

Who: (Attendees)
1. ORG_POP [username]@[mycompany].com
2. xxxx@yahoo.com 

First, it is creating one extra entry too and it is not specifying the ORG_POP address. When xxxx receives the email they will see that came from Gmail not mycompany.com. Although replying to this email will results in properly updating calendar information, it more of a question of ethics of showing the right address.

This is the only problem I have not been able to resolve, I will play more with gmail and see if there are settings that could help. For the mean time I am creating and setting up, replying and changing my appoint ONLY in outlook, although I can see them on my phone and Google calendar. Thankfully at the moment I am not getting many meeting requests.

adding my vote

Utterly pants that Android STILL cannot accept ICS invites. Pull your fingers out of your holes and sort this.

like all gadgets, als o android is utter crap.
wasted my time on another linux clone.