Calendar events only triggering once

Configuration
1

Hi, just as a test i’ve build this simple automation:

alias: Vakantie
description: ''
trigger:
  - platform: calendar
    event: start
    offset: '0:0:0'
    entity_id: calendar.stijn_inge
condition: []
action:
  - stop: ''
mode: parallel

This automation only triggers once per calendar.
I have 4 Google Calendars, all integrated in HA and showing up on the Calendar tab.

But it is in no way triggering it more than once. I’ve added a listener to the * event, but no calendar events here.
I cannot let the automation trigger again, except when I add a new event, on a different calendar and changing the entity_id in the automation trigger.
Any ideas?

Nothing in the logs, no events on the * event bus

2

Not sure I understand the question.

In the above automation you reference to one Callander entity and use the trigger with no offset, so the automation will trigger exactly once at exactly the time of the event. It will trigger again at the start of the next event in the same calendar.

What is it you want to achieve?

3

I just want to build something complex, starting from something easy :slight_smile:

  1. Calendar 1, item at 09:00, triggers fine
  2. Move it to 09:05 in Google calendar, never triggers, but is present at 09:05 in the HA Calendar
  3. Create new event at 09:10 in Calendar 1, is present in the HA at 09:10, but never triggers
  4. Create new event at 09:15 in Calendar 2, change the entity_id in HA Automation, triggers fine
  5. Create new event at 09:20 in Calendar 2, never triggers
  6. etc etc
4

Calendar triggers looks for events within a fifteen minute window, so it won’t notice if you’re creating events in the immediate future.

What are you actually trying to accomplish in your life with these automations?

1 Like
5

Is this 15min window documented somewhere?
Can’t find it on Calendar - Home Assistant

My actual use case is not relevant here. Just need an automation to trigger based on calendar events :slight_smile:

6

I think it maybe, as quite clearly by your comments you can make a calendar entry and it works, however all the examples you are giving are when I move it 5 mins or create another entry for 5 mins later they don’t work, I personally can’t think of any use case for doing such things.

So without a use case explained I think the help that can be given is going to be pretty limited.

7

The 5min window is just to test since I don’t want to spend days trying to figure out why even the dumbest automation won’t trigger

8

Well like @allenporter pointed out there is a 15 min window. You also have to consider that there is a time delay between adding events and HA registering them.

So essentially, your testing is not relevant to your use case anyway!

9

Correct. But when you try to build something and there is an undocumentend 15min window that makes the automation appear broken, people start topics asking for help :slight_smile:

10

You are quite welcome to post here – and I happily gave you the answer to the problem you are experiencing. Your help improving the documentation would be welcome if this is something you think is important to you and the community. Currently the documentation is geared toward simple common cases, and I often can’t think of all the ways people will run into issues, and it’s a fairly new feature, so it’s not at all surprising that folks might hit cases like this. I read the forums and literally search for “calendar” to find topics people might be stuck on, like this thread, which also has the side effect of helping other folks looking for answers.

11

This may have just helped me; I’ve been attempting to test a verbal reminder system, using a local calendar that a script adds a reminder event to, and then an automation that fires on the event and using whatever media entity(s) I specified (stored to the location of the event), and was wondering why repeated tests to ensure it’s working properly were not firing at all or seemed to at random.

This is definitely something that should be documented, but I’m not really an expert on documenting something of this nature, as I feel I’d fall short of defining it because I don’t think I entirely understand what it’s actually doing under the hood based on the description here. If a simple warning of “Events scheduled within 15 minutes of being created may not fire an automation event” is enough to cover it, that’s probably all that should be added.