Import fails with permissions error (probably a Google bug)

[hlein]

I previously said in #836:

I then run into what I'm pretty sure is a different problem, maybe a pebkac one, where I get permissions errors trying to import into my primary calendar (for the email address that was invited). It might be a problem with how I set up the API access, or how my workspace org is configured; I haven't investigated further yet (and if it's not pebkac it's a different issue than this one, I think).

Adding some more context and possible lead/workaround.

A coworker doing a bog-standard "import an ICS file in the web UI" was getting "Imported 0 out of 1 event. Could not upload your events because you do not have sufficient access to the target calendar." (IIRC I did not see that exact text when gcalcli fails, but it is definitely some kind of permissions error.)

It turned out to be a longstanding GMail import issue, with a simple workaround: https://nocurve.com/2018/03/14/importing-an-ics-file-to-google-calendar/

Look for 'UID:' in the .ics file, and add an X to the value to change it/make it unique.

Others said they had to delete the line entirely, not modify it, but then that worked.

Others said they found more than one UID: line in a single .ics, they had to update or delete each one.

I checked the .ics files I was getting import failures on, they all contained UID: lines. I have not actually modified and retried, have to set up my tests & reload into my brain, but putting this here in case others reproduce this and can try the workaround. Obviously if others hit this and the workaround works, gcalcli could be updated to do that automatically.