So to be able to use my iPad as an external device I had to enable 2 factor authentication on iCloud (which I hate BTW). OK, but then I had to sign out of iCloud and sign in. As soon as I did so the damned thing defaulted to syncing bloody near everything to iCloud IN SPITE of my mac preferences set to NOT use it except for find my Mac and Safari. I clicked the box to disable calendars and contacts and everything else as soon as I was able. I never got any messages about saving the data on my Mac that I was expecting. I had nothing up and running on my mac at the time. So no chances for conflicts that I am aware of.
Brought up the calendar app and EVERYTHING is gone! All my calendars, all events going back years, everything!
Also all gone on my iPad but still there on my iPhone.
I tried plugging in my phone with a USB cable and syncing but none of the calendars on the phone came over to the mac and there is no way to force the mac to accept the iPhone calendars that I know of.
iCloud is not an option.
How do I get all my calendar data out of my phone and back onto my mac?
Yeah, Apple really wants everything in iCloud. Optimize Mac Storage get selected “automagically” from time to time on mine. You’ve already tried everything I can think of except using iCloud to sync everything back to your Mac . . .
unless you have backups of your ~/Library/Calendars folder from before the problem. If you do, then replace the Calendars folder with the one from your backup.
I suggest you sign out of iCloud on your Mac and zip up your existing Calendars folder before replacing it. At this point your phone is your only copy of the data and needs to be protected. I’ve done this in the past with many folders in ~/Library but I’ve always had multiple ways to restore my data. Might not hurt to see what other MPUs have to say.
Did make a backup of the existing folder just in case and restored from the previous nights backup. I only had to enter in what I’d done yesterday. I use calendar both as a forward looking what’s coming tool but as a sort of diary by categorizing major projects and areas so I can see how I’m spending my time.