FAQs – Easy Calendar Integration for Jira

Owned by Lukas Gotter _ Meetical
Last updated: May 24, 2024
5 min read

Table of contents

Is this app free?

This app is free for Jira instances with up to 10 total licensed users. The paid app version 3.x was released Apr 24, 2024. Please read the official announcement for further details.

In Outlook I get the error "Couldn't import calendar. Try again later." - How can I fix it?

Make sure you have the latest version of the app. The app should warn you internally if the subscription takes too long to generate and Outlook runs into a timeout.

  • Try to narrow down your Jira filter so it returns only relevant issues

  • Uncheck the option “show issues without due date as due today” if you don’t need it

  • Try to exclude resolved issues or older resolved issues (e.g. exclude all resolved issues with resolutiondate is empty or issues resolved 2 months in the past by adding this JQL (resolutiondate is empty OR resolutiondate >= startOfMonth(-2))

Can I change the due date to another field?

Yes, you can choose any date or datetime field. Both system and custom fields are supported.

  • Per default, the app will use the standard ‘due date’ and the ‘start date’ field.

  • When creating meeting events from the issue side panel, you can also specify the date/time fields to use. Note that this setting is currently saved per-user. Let us know your feedback if you need more fine-granular control.

How long does it take to sync my tasks/issues/releases to Outlook, Apple or Google Calendar?

Most calendars allow you to set a refresh interval appropriate for your use case from 5 minutes to weekly refresh. However, ics is not designed to sync immediately. Google and Microsoft calendars can take up to several hours (see below for details). Check our roadmap and let us know if you need real-time sync.

On Apple Calendar right click the subscribed calendar, then Get Info → Refresh interval. And you can manually refresh by using the keyboard shortcut “command + r” (could take up to 30 seconds).

Auto refresh your Jira issue subscription with Apple Calendar

This works very similarly on your iPhone. In Settings → Mail, Contacts, Calendars, find your Calendar Subscription and configure the Fetch Interval. Then you can even trigger a fetch manually by going to the Calendar, showing the list of all calendars, and pulling it down (loading spinner appears).

If you're using Apple Calendar, the default update interval is every 1-3 hours. You have the option to adjust this setting on your iPhone or iPad. Here's how you can do it:

  1. Open the Settings app on your device.

  2. Tap on "Calendar."

  3. Scroll down and tap on "Accounts."

  4. Look for your iCal feed in the list of calendars and tap on it.

  5. Set the update frequency to "Fetch."

To set your desired update frequency, go to the bottom of the page and adjust the Fetch time according to your preference: hourly, every 15 minutes, every 30 minutes, or manually.

Your settings will be saved automatically, and your iCal feed will be updated based on the new frequency you've set.

For Outlook with Microsoft 365, there seems to be no option to configure the refresh interval manually. According to documentation calendars should refresh at least every 6 hours on the web and additionally at the program start on the Desktop. However, users report some edge cases to take up to 24 hours. For testing, try to re-subscribe to the calendar and verify all issues appear correctly.

Also, Google Calendar does not specify the refresh interval, seems to update at least every 24 hours and some logic involved to update more frequently when the events are changing more frequently.

Please note that some users report that the calendar is not updating manually, even after adding removing it. Seems like Google is caching this data.

To work around this, try to add a random parameter at the end of the subscription URL like &nocache=1245.

For example: https://cc6e087a-85df-461e-b4ad-e2384c636ba4.hello.atlassian-dev.net/x1/LL_NgglPkYTmNr3RQ?sid=OxYveyTWx6TqafRR3BFuDW8ZFMOj4R3k&nocache=1234

Reach out to us, and vote for API integration, with push updates in real-time, maybe we can build that in the future.

My starred issues are missing on my calendar

Make sure your subscription includes the “my starred issues” filter. “All issues” does currently not include them. Go to Jira Top Menu “Apps” → Easy Calendar → Edit your Subscription

Screenshot 2024-05-22 at 10.46.38.png
Explicitly add ‘My starred issues’ to include them in your subscription

After you change the subscription, it could take some time to see the updates (see questions above)

Can I set an additional time?

Yes, we added datetime field support. Thanks for your votes on this feature. Please reach out to us for any questions or feature requests.

Can I share subscriptions with internal and external shareholders?

Yes, you can create both personal and global calendar subscriptions (docs). While personal subscriptions are intended to have one separate private link for every user, global subscriptions are designed with the intention to allow sharing the subscriptions with internal colleagues, external stakeholders and even public calendars.

My custom Jira filter is missing in the dropdown list. How can I add it?

You need to share the filter with the App.

  • Go to your filter,

  • click on “Details” → “Permissions”

  • and either share the filter with your organization, or add the user “Easy Calendar”.

  • Then refresh the configuration screen and your filter should be in the list.

How can I use Jira Dashboard Gadgets with Easy Calendar subscriptions?

We are currently evaluating if we build dedicated Jira Dashboard Gadgets to be included in the app. Please reach out to support for instructions on how to use existing 3rd party Gadgets.

What emoji statuses exist and how are they mapped?

The status of an issue is mapped according to this logic, using the associated status category. Note that this is not the actual status, but a category “todo”, “in progress”, or “done” associated with the status (Ask our support or your Admin for more info).

🔷 default

🚩 issue is flagged

🚧 in progress (status category)

✅ done (status category) - if a resolution date is set, the issue date on the calendar = resolution date

🔔 due today

🚨 overdue

Not all of my releases are shown in my release/version subscription

If any release is missing, check that the release has a start date, this is currently required. Also note that new and changed releases might not immediately appear as outlined in the FAQ about “how long does it take to sync my tasks/releases”.

Why do my issues appear as due today?

Issues without any due date are treated as due today. If they are in the status category done then the resolution date is used.

Can I add an alert/reminder?

You might be able to configure default reminders for all issues on your calendar. But custom alerts are not supported at the moment. During our tests, only Apple Calendar supports reminders and alerts via subscription URLs. Both Google and Microsoft do ignore the alerts. Reach out to us if you are interested in this feature.

I get an error subscribing to the calendar

Errors like “There was an error subscribing to the calendar.” are annoying. Sorry for that. “The data downloaded from … isn’t valid.”

If you see an error like this, make sure that you have more than 0 issues in your subscription.

 

Reach out to https://meetical.io/support for bugs and feature requests. Thank you.