So EventON Sync Events addon wasn’t syncing Facebook events when I manually added their IDs, as I always did. Checked for answers here and figured I was supposed to update the plugin and addon. I did that, following the instructions on the documentation. I downloaded all the events both in CSV and ICS formats and exported my settings.
My settings were not saved, even though I marked “YES” on “Do not delete settings when I delete EventON plugin”. I tried uploading the settings file I exported, but it makes no difference.
Worst of all, I lost every event I had previously. All 634 of them. And I can´t figure out a way of using the backup CSV and ICS files to restore them.
So now I got three very serious problems for my business:
1. I need my events restored to my website
2. I need my settings back
3. Facebook events are still not syncing
Anyway you could help me, specially with restoring the events?
Apr 5,2018 AT 6:20AM - 4 years ago -Hi,
I have the same issue for syncing faceboook events since yesterday.
I don’t know if it’s related but my Instagram Feed plugin stopped working properly as well due to a change in Instagram API. Maybe Facebook API changed as well.
Thought this could help Ashanjay to fix the issue.
My Facebook Page Like widget stoped working westerday as well. Instagram one is working fine. Right now, I’m mostly worried about all the events I lost when I updated EventON.
I have the backup files for the events, if that helps Ashanjay at all. As I cannot upload them back again, maybe Ashanjay could do that for me somehow. Is that possible?
I can wait a couple of days for Facebook syncing to be restored, but the events are the core of my website.
So, as I really need this fixed by this friday, and I understand support might need some time to get back to me, I decided to add my events back one by one util I hear from support.
By doing that, I came across another issue that I didn’t have before when adding or editing an event: in “User interaction for event click”, I can’t change the default “Slide down event card” option. I prefer “Open event page”, but it can’t be selected. No other option can be selected, by the way.
What should I do? And is there an option, or maybe some code, I can use to set the default to be always “Open event page”?
I’ve had the same issues starting yesterday aswell đ
we all have the same issue. Facebook has changed privacy for event organizers and also the url of events in facebook now has changed. i try to sync events one by one, and all i get is a n/a information for each field of the event. have a look at the printscreen.
Yep, same here. That’s precisely the issue I first had and led me to update the plugin, making everything go downhill from there.
Thank you guys for letting me know of this issue. I live under a rock when I work on developing eventON features so I was not aware of it đ
Looks like we need to update the API requests. I am really sorry guys that you had to experience this. I have pulled off the sync addon off our site for now.
Will keep you guys posted on process.
Is there anything you can do to help me restore the events I had on my website?
Hey Eduardo,
You have no backup in place?
Your hosting company?
Is there some update regarding this Sync problem (some estimated time, etc)?
We would like to have some updates about this plugin, and how we are going to proceed in the future if you have pulled the plugin off your website
we have pulled the plugin off the site so no one buys it while we work out the new API facebook has- once this is fixed the plugin will be back on the site for sale (its kinda rude to sell something we know doesn’t work at the moment)
when you bought it – Ashan is working on the issue- he is one man, we understand it is very important to you, please be patient – it is not an easy fix.
Eric and others, as dave mentioned we are working on finding a fix as this is an important issue to us. Please stay tune and I will follow up in here as soon as I have updates on this.
Any news, please?
Thanks in advance!
I guess not yet.
we are working on it
Do you have some estimate?
It would be good to know, because right now Im in front of choice – switch to another calendar platform or not. As far as I know – problem unsolved remains only here. :/
I have not seen any calendar plugins that are able to sync to FB at this time. I am not sure which platform you are talking about Martins?
for $89 a year you can try modern tribes but then you’ll be paying an additional $89a year just for the calendar and that has limitations
however you will also notice for that lovely $89- they are having trouble with facebook as well
https://theeventscalendar.com/known-issues/
Many people bounce over to modern tribes calendar- I did at one point and then you bounce back because there are a few issues with it- year after year they don’t fix those issues
I am not sure if this will help but it might just be a very temporary solution
https://jasonsavard.com/wiki/Adding_Facebook_events_to_Google_Calendar
adding facebook events to google- and then using the sync addon to sync with google which we believe still works
https://theeventscalendar.com/known-issues/ provides heaps of info on the issue… It would be nice if Eventon did the same
Agree Benjamin – check out this page:Â https://theeventscalendar.com/knowledgebase/ea-fb-privacy-policy/
I figured out the FB-to-Google cal-to EventOn yesterday. We were importing about 200 events a week. It takes us about 6 hrs to do what we did in 1-2. But it is possible and can work in the short run.
Hey Ellen, are you able to get the images with the FB-to-Google Cal? If so how?? I love EventOn’s visiual component so would love to find a short term work around as well.
Hi Michael: We had to bring the images over by hand. We brought the locations over in batches. And the locations do not import properly so you have to make a new location for every event.
I just processed about 35 events this way. Used a stopwatch to figure out how much time we are looking at. It is an average of about 1:60 per event just to scrub and post. It is easily twice or three times that if you add in the time to find events and bring them over to your FB page.
So for 100 events that is about 6 hours of work. Unsustainable for us if you multiply by 3.
(I am worried that none of these plugins will have a solution….)
-EM
Ellen, are these 200 events from your own facebook page or are they from other peoples?
(I am not directly working on the Sync issue- thats Ashans department I am trying to figure ways to make your life easier while its being fixed)
@benjamin, thank you for sharing known bug link. We actually have the similar thing but its internal and shared only between our admin staff. We will certainly make that available to customers in the future. However I have posted a news article on this http://www.myeventon.com/news/sync-addon-facebook-api-update/ so people are aware of it.
I have been in talk with the developer for WP Event Aggregator and they are also having issues and are not able to find a work around. And I think facebook have its own problems with privacy policies and allegations on using user data to influence US election. And because of this they have made their API restricted and they are still making changes.
But I am in talk with WP Event Aggregator and we are hoping to find a solution or a work around to get Sync addon for fb back again.
I am glad that dave was able to provide you a temp solution with google cal.
Any news? For us the google temporal solutions is not viable at all. We normally import a thousand events from multiple facebook pages.
Thanks.
any news about syncing? I need it so much…
we can’t work on the sync addon until facebook stops changing things
we have to wait for the dust to settle. we understand it is vital to some customers however we cannot do anything when facebook is constantly changing things- and they will most likely continue to change things while the zuckerberg trial is still going on
https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2018/04/24/new-facebook-platform-product-changes-policy-updates
My WordPress site is unfortunately dependent on the Facebook event import functionality, too. And I would appreciate more details on the progress as well!
Facebook released Graph API 3.0 yesterday so everything API related should be in a stable environment again now, right?
Where can I find more details for the temporary workaround solution using the google calendar?
yeah, some updates would be nice!
I have around a 1000 events to sync from our 5 nightclub pages for the summer season, great timing from facebook on this one.
So, Facebook has released details on what will be needed to sync events.
What would step by step be for Event Sync?
Facebook’s response to the “Can’t fetch public events” bug report sounds like they won’t offer any possibility to scrape public events anymore.
https://developers.facebook.com/support/bugs/1697903980256107/
So any ideas on how to find a work around?
In the thread it notes that they are Google Crawlable.. so looks like scrapers will need to minic crawling… or build a web scraper app.
We can currently still export Facebook events via ICS files. Even though event pictures are not included in this files unfortunately it would still be a bit of a help to get the EventON ICS importer to import those ICS files at least.
Or any recommendations for a WordPress scraping plugin?
I am disappointed! I spent money unnecessarily
Hey,
Thank you all for your feedback. Ashan is already focusing to find the best solution.
So I think to get the Event Sync working again with the Facebook API the EventON âFacebook Appâ has to be submitted for an app review at Facebook.
Has the submission already happened Ashan?
Following…
not the best news
https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2018/04/24/new-facebook-platform-product-changes-policy-updates/
in particular:
Deprecations:
On August 1, 2018, two endpoints used by Facebook Analytics will be deprecated: the app_event metric
in the App Insights API and the application_analytics_app_events_exports
in Graph API.
Do the bad news imply we won’t have an inter-rim solution until the mentioned deprecations on the 1st August will be effective?
What’s the status of the required app review submission on your side?
I am disappointed too.
The Events Calendar submitted theirs…
https://theeventscalendar.com/knowledgebase/ea-fb-privacy-policy/
@Ellen Lauricella: You mentioned you are importing over 200 events per week. Have you been copying them all manually like I mentioned in the tread below?
If anyone is using the Google Calendar workaround I would highly appreciate any advice on this topic over here. Many thanks!
http://helpdesk.ashanjay.com/ticket/facebook-events-google-calendar-eventon/
what a pain in the ass
So I just received the following email from Facebook about the Facebook App that I created to get an App ID and Secret for the sync Events addon.
App Review required by August 1, 2018 to retain access to Facebook Platform APIsThe Facebook App Review process and API permissions model have been updated. Learn more.In order to maintain your current API access, your app will need to be submitted for review by August 1, 2018. If your app is not submitted for review, you will lose access to these permissions and features.
user_friends user_link user_gender user_age_rangeThe Facebook Platform APIs have been updated with these changes. Please review the FAQ to ensure you request the correct permissions and features with your app review submission.If access to the permissions and features is approved, the app may need to be associated to a verified business to complete App Review.
Do I really need to start approval? Or is this something that will be taken care of by an update of the addon? If I do have to start the submission process, which features and permissions do I need to select for the sync addon to work again. These are the choices:
Select the items you want to include in this submission
LOGIN PERMISSIONS
business_management
groups_access_member_info
manage_pages
pages_manage_instant_articles
publish_pages
publish_to_groups
read_insights
read_page_mailboxes
user_age_range
user_birthday
user_events
user_friends
user_gender
user_hometown
user_likes
user_link
user_location
user_managed_groups
user_photos
user_posts
user_tagged_places
user_videosFEATURES
Ads Management Basic Access
Page Mentions
Live Video API
Page Public Content Access
Groups APISelecting Items for Submission
Click on items on the left to view more details. Select items you want to include in your submission.
Thanks
JP
That’s a good question JP. Can someone clarify please?
Speaking of app review, I am still waiting for an answer if EventOn’s app review submission has already happened?
Yep, some ETA would be nice.
Hi,
As we have already said multiple times, unfortunately the ETA is not only on our hands. Plugin update is out #1 priority right now.
We respect your patience and we will do our best to have something out ASAP.
I didn’t expect an ETA just more transparency on the progress and an answer if EventOnâs app review submission has already happened?
I literally just got off the phone with Facebook’s support team and they told me we’re all out of luck and that this API will no longer be supported by Facebook.
Hey Andrew,
And what will be supported?
I really hope that the sync will work again soon.
Thanks
Hey,
We are doing our best based on what facebook provide us as in formations and we do hope to have it up really soon!
@basilis
Hi, it is good to know you are doing your best to fix this, but it would be nice to get an answer on my question above about Facebooks email regarding the “Facebook App Review process and API permissions model”.
My question above was if I need to do start the review process (+ all users of this plugin) or that EventOn will do something about it. To me this looks like some sort of opening to a fix.
Thanks
JP
PS: I don’t get notification when there is activity in this ticket. Can I enable that somewhere?
So has EventOnâs app review submission already happened?
Hi,
Unfortunately it is not so easy. As we are having not just one application but a complete event based app, we are looking the best possible way to make it happen.
Hi guys thank you for the message and for your interest, I know how important it is for you guys to have the facebook sync capability back again. Let me shed you some light on my thoughts on this and where we are at on this whole facebook issue.
Has the app review being submitted?
No, because EventON Sync is not one app that universally fetch events for all eventon customers. It is installed in each customer site and that itself will be the instance of the app that facebook want to review to give out event data.
Going forward..
Facebook high-profile privacy is still a very HOT issue with new GDPL privacy policies and this is making facebook change their API regularly. Also I dont see any other wordpress plugins that can successfully fetch facebook events following their API updates.
It is too bad that we have to spend hours and hours everytime a 3rd party vendor changes their API, that we rely on and have worked so well. That is the precise reason we dropped meetup and eventbrite API support. Going forward, I would like eventON to focus more on revenue creation for our customers with event tickets and event submissions.
However we are still keeping an eye on things to see what is going to happen with facebook API, but as of now we just dont want to spend our precious time on facebook API to find out it is no longer supported and working tomorrow.
Alternatives
I dont like leaving you guys stranded with no alternatives. Dave talked about some exporting method earlier.
Another method is to export facebook events into google calendar. Here is an article I found on that. https://jasonsavard.com/wiki/Adding_Facebook_events_to_Google_Calendar — and then using the Sync addon fetch events from google calendar.
Another similar approach is using zapier. https://zapier.com/apps/facebook-pages/integrations/google-calendar/10249/post-new-google-calendar-events-from-your-facebook-page-posts — this zap will create a google calendar event everytime a new facebook event is created.
I am aware that these are not perfect alternatives, but for the time being we will have to compromise.
I will keep you guys posted if I have any more updates.
I just had my new permissions approved pending my signature. Will these allow the eventon sync to function? If not… what additional permissions would the sync need based on its current coding?
Hi,
Do try it and let us know if it works and what steps you had to take.
Benjamin have you had any luck? I have also requested this information though still don’t have nearly enough to make a submission.
Happy to help from our side if we can by any way, but just a reminder that facebook has still to open the data.
THAT’S THE END OF THE ROAD…
https://theeventscalendar.com/important-facebook-api-changes/
Hey Adam,
Unfortunately it seems so yes.
Damn….That is one crap realisation….What a blow for Events Advertising sites…..
GoodBye Facebook Synq API!!!!
đ
Sorry I was too busy with our server migration past few days. Thank you for sharing the update Adam! I will also post news article about this on eventon.com site.
I mean its a terrible situation to be in. As I mentioned above, when you rely on 3rd party APIs to do certain jobs you are at their mercy, and when they pull a stunt like this… you basically have no other ways to get out of it.
But we will certainly keep our eyes peeled for possible work arounds. — The above mentioned alternatives using zapier might still be a possibility.
Just heard in a Facebook group that smashballoon can still import Facebook events. If have fixed it, then I suppose EventOn can also fix it. Right?
https://smashballoon.com/custom-facebook-feed/docs/displaying-facebook-events-using-wordpress-plugin/
Hey John,
We have notified Ashan to take a look.
Hey Basil, my previous comment and your reply (regarding smasgballoon having a fix for the Facebook event sync) is from a month ago now. What is the status of this? I believe everybody really would like to see this fixed.
Thanks
JP
Hey John,
We have already said previously ( and our CEO ) that he is trying to get it short out.
Hi Basilis,
Yes I know and 6 weeks ago I informed you about smashballon who apparently did sort out how to sync Facebook events. You notified Ashan to take a look, but there isn’t any update from him since then.
I really would like to see the sync option work again. That’s one of the reason I chose EventOn.
Thanks
JP
Hey JP,
He is notified so he can take a look again on the implementation and if there is a solution.
JP, I understand you chose eventON because of the sync addon. And since then facebook made several changes to API. Which showed us how easy for them to make changes to their API, which leaves us hanging here. Its not something we can control.
But we are currently looking at another facebook import developer to try to find ways to bootstrap sync addon to get it working back for the customers who bought sync addon.
Ashan, seriously ?
Source: Newsletter “Holiday Deals at EventON“
What?
1) It’s good to see there is going to be an alternative for the broken sync addon, but what’s the deal for people who bought your addon? Do we really have to buy another addon?
2) What newsletter is that? I am an eventon newsletter subscriber but have never received one.
3) How can I get a notification if someone replies to this ticket?
Thanks
JP
Hi,
I checked xylusthemes plugin.
It looks like xylusthemes allows to import only from ONE Page username, so importing from many pages is not possible with this plugin. To import many events you would have to look manually for the event ID and input many events IDs.
If I’m not mistake this would not work even close to what we need
Thanks
Adam
I got how it’s working now… You input your fb page in the settings and you have to manually click on INTERESTED on fb events so xylusthemes plugin will import those events into EventOn.
It’s a half way there, but it’s something at least for now.
Hey Adam,
Thank u for letting us know – we appreciate it.
I purchased a 1-5 license when there was no disclaimer on the website saying that this plugin was not working. So Basically I paid for nothing. If there is a new plugin that has been developed by you that IS working, I would expect to be GIVEN a 1-5 license for the new plugin, not be given a discount.
Can you please advise me how I would go about receiving this new plugin.
Hi,
You said that it is working, no?
IVe missed the discount thing. – is it still avaiable. i dun anna pay 50 bugs for it, bcs ive paid for this one here…
xylusthemes plugin working properly?
Its really double Work to do it on both pages. not really great
Nadine Grigoleit,
Thank you for your messages, I am going to assign this ticket to Ashan and he will be able to take it from here and answer your question. Please allow some time for him to get back to you, we greatly appreciate your patience and thank you for being a eventon customer!