One of our Scoutbook calendars has stopped working with Google. It works fine in outlook. I suspect there are formatting issues and Google isn’t handling them well. I put the link into an ics validator and it shows 23 errors and 12 warnings.
Problem! Found 23 errors
Errors
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Lines not delimited by CRLF sequence [near line # 1](javascript:void(0);)Reference: RFC 5545 3.1. Content Lines
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Missing colon ‘:’ in line (member into…) [near line # 352](javascript:void(0);)Reference: 3.1. Content Lines
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Missing colon ‘:’ in line (making a har…) [near line # 353](javascript:void(0);)Reference: 3.1. Content Lines
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Missing colon ‘:’ in line (standard 5-g…) [near line # 354](javascript:void(0);)Reference: 3.1. Content Lines
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Missing colon ‘:’ in line (" Leather gl…) [near line # 358](javascript:void(0)
The calendar used to work fine with google, but somewhere along the way it stopped.
Calendar URL: https://api.scouting.org/advancements/events/calendar/203051
The calendar not working has caused issues with scouts and parents missing events.
@ScottHuffman1 - i just verified that our ics subscription to the scoutbook calendar is working just fine in g-cal. I suspect something with the events themselves.
Is there a way to troubleshoot the events? I’ve looked for a way to download logs from google, but haven’t found anything yet.
Or a way for Scoutbook to sanitize the events so if there are formatting errors it cleans them up?
This stopped working months ago. (I just haven’t had time to look into it).
@ScottHuffman1 - you could get the ics file by pasting the url in a browser then open the resulting file in notepad or notepad plus to examine the entries. No doubt it is unexpected characters in the event
I just downloaded the file and browsed it in Notepad++. I don’t see any obvious issues, but I’m sure I’m missing something.
Could this be a feature request for Scoutbook to automatically sanitize the events? If possible I think that’s a better option than trying to ask a Scoutmaster to clean up their formatting.
I’m not the Scoutmaster for this troop, just an parent assistant who is trying to keep track of events and get my kids where they need to be. 
@ScottHuffman1 - it is on the key 3 and their delegates to makes sure events are entered properly and to fix those which cause a sync issue. The easiest process is to work from the last time an event was in the g-cal.
Before the system goes that far, it would be best to find out what is up that is breaking the system.
Using VI on the ics file I found the last event processed by google has a number of ^M, ^T, ^Y hidden characters. They don’t show in Notepad or Notepad++.
@ScottHuffman1 - I think perhaps they are doing a copy paste into the description box from some word processing app
Thanks, I had found that one in my google search earlier. That’s what made me run the ics file through a validation website.
I was able to remove the ^M and other odd characters from the events and the calendar is working again. It seems the calendar info came from a website or flyer and was pasted into the meeting description.
The characters do not show up in Word, Google Docs, or Notepad++, they were only viewable in vi.
If it’s possible for Scoutbook to sanitize the calendar input that would be helpful. I have a copy of the ics file with the characters that don’t work if it’s needed.
@ScottHuffman1 - i honestly doubt that the development team is going to scrub calendar entry issues created by the end user.
While I’m sure this does cause problems, it’s not the sole culprit. I noticed new events created sometime beginning Jan 2026 stopped showing up in GCal. I examined events that weren’t showing up, but couldn’t spot the offending characters (granted, didn’t use an ics validator). So, tried simply creating new events with subject “test” and body “test” - simple as possible. Showed up in SB+ and Outlook, but not GCal. So, something changed in Jan 2026 either with the way SB+ creates events or the way GCal treats imports.
But, it’s very frustrating bc I now have to manually add scout events to my GCal or do the export/import dance constantly - both irritating.
@JohnKelley7 - nothing has been changed in the scoutbook calendar. Beyond that we are not google support. I would not import.. you should be subscribing to the scoutbook calendar. Our subscription is working and has been for years now.
I do subscribe to the calendar, and the aforementioned issues are based on that. I just hope something gets resolved somewhere as I relied on several subscribed scout calendars. All the manual workarounds negates all the convenience.
And I’m not throwing shade at SB developers. I appreciate what volunteers do.
@JohnKelley7 - it is not something that scoutbook can fix if the units use a copy paste for the descriptions. It is up to the unit to fix the events. The google calendar sync is once per 24 hours so there is that.
I understand it’s on the unit to troubleshoot, but if the characters are hidden on all of the popular word processing systems, it’s not something a normal end users can find and fix.
I have been in IT for 20+ years and it wasn’t a simple issue for me to find.
I agree that google should also handle it better. It seems outlook/exchange works fine and ignores the characters.
@ScottHuffman1 - well if you are in IT then you should know that the ^ characters are format marks. The way around that is to not copy/paste from word processors or some other media. The real place to take this up is with Google and why it breaks a calendar sync. All that scoutbook is doing is provide the URL.. and that is it.
Outlook and exchange work because they are Microsoft
Is there a guide that tells users not to copy and paste into the scoutbook calendar system? If not then we maybe that’s a good option to create documentation.
Scoutbook is not just a URL, it’s taking the inputs, event date, event time, description. These inputs should be validated and sanitized to make sure they contain valid information. It won’t let you put in a date that is 30/30/2025 since it’s not valid. Description fields should also be validated for correct data.
If the end user can’t see the mistakes in a normal word processing system, how are they going to know it is causing their issues? They will just complain that it doesn’t work.
I will reach out to google too and ask them to look into why the characters break their calendar.
I do appreciate any and all volunteers and paid staff working for scouts. I’m just trying to help solve a problem that likely has been an issue for other people who aren’t going to have the skills to troubleshoot and fix it.
John, if you want to post or send me the link to your calendar I can look through it and see if there are any similar issues on ours. I’m not an expert but I know what fixed my issue.
