Evolution ICS files Keep Appearing at Random on My Desktop

DaveHighland · 8 June 2025 20:44

I don't use Evolution, preferring Proton's web app.

And yet, ICS files keep showing up on my desktop, seemingly at random. And they're empty except for some generic product and version info. Here's the contents of one:

BEGIN:VCALENDAR
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
PRODID:-//Ximian//NONSGML Evolution Calendar//EN
VERSION:2.0
X-EVOLUTION-DATA-REVISION:2025-06-04T19:28:38.885232Z(1)
END:VCALENDAR

Currently, these are the latest two such files to appear on my desktop:

-rw-rw-r-- 1 dave dave      173 Jun  4 12:28 "Dave's Calendar-2022-12-05.ics"
-rw-rw-r-- 1 dave dave      173 Jun  4 12:28 "Dave's Calendar-2023-04-14.ics"

They showed up four days ago, but the date stamps in the file names are two- and three-years old.

I have tried deleting these files, I've tried moving them to the trash, but within a couple of weeks, one or more will reappear.

Redacted output of neofetch --off:

OS: Ubuntu MATE 22.04.5 LTS x86_64 
Host: NUC6CAYH J26843-411 
Kernel: 6.8.0-60-generic 
Shell: bash 5.1.16 
DE: MATE 
WM: Metacity (Marco) 
CPU: Intel Celeron J3455 (4) @ 2.300GHz 
GPU: Intel HD Graphics 500 
Memory: 2731MiB / 7790MiB

EDIT:
Based on information from this webpage (https://askubuntu.com/questions/1317784/how-to-stop-evolution-alarm-notify), I am disabling "Evolution Alarm Notify" in Startup Applications Preferences. I'll delete the files, restart, and see whether the files do or don't show up again within a couple of weeks.

Another reply on that webpage suggested deleting the file ~/.local/share/evolution/calendar/system/calendar.ics. I checked, and that file does exist on my system, and it has the same date, Fri 14 April 2023, as in the name of one of the ICS files on my desktop, but it is 638 kbytes, and has a lot of outdated appointments. I don't remember ever using Evolution to create it. If the desktop files come back, I'll try deleting all of the ICS files in that directory.

guiverc · 8 June 2025 23:04

You are aware that Ubuntu MATE 22.04 LTS is End of Life, as being a flavor the LTS life is 3 years with 5 years being Ubuntu Desktop, Ubuntu Server, etc... ?

Maintenance updates will be provided for 5 years from the initial 22.04 LTS release for Ubuntu Desktop, Ubuntu Server, Ubuntu Cloud, and Ubuntu Core. All the remaining flavours will be supported for 3 years.

DaveHighland · 9 June 2025 20:50

Okay, @guiverc, you win.

I upgraded to 24.04.2. Went smoothly, everything seems to be working: wifi, bluetooth, sound, music, video, printing.

But the stupid ICS file still shows up on my desktop after every restart.

jymm · 10 June 2025 11:05

"ICS files, also known as iCalendar files, are plain text files used to store and exchange calendar information, such as event details, start and end times, and locations. They are commonly used for sending meeting requests and can be opened with various calendar applications like Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook."

Are you talking about calendar files? Maybe it's not Evolution, but did you back up your mail and calendar somewhere ONLINE that could be placing them on your desktop to add to your mail client?

I also don't use Evolution. I uninstall it as I use Thunderbird. I don't uninstall everything as some is integral to the Mate Desktop, just basically evolution and evolution-common. That should give you the answer to if it is Evolution causing the problem. I doubt it is, it would have no reason to have backup files of a calendar on a new clean installation. Are you using Proton's free mail and storage or paid service?
Have you ever used Protons Desktop app on any OS, not just Linux?

DaveHighland · 10 June 2025 14:59

Thank you, @jymm. I'm using a paid version of Proton. Initially, I used the Proton linux bridge with Evolution (not the desktop app). The Proton Linux desktop client wasn't available back then. The bridge worked, but not well, so about 18 months ago I switched to using the Proton web app exclusively.

I don't make extra back-ups of my mail and calendars; I rely upon Proton's servers to do that (multiple copies on separate hardware, etc.) , and I'm satisfied that is a low risk approach.

I briefly investigated uninstalling Evolution, but I was aware that it is integrated with MATE, and never felt confident to determine what Evolution packages could be safely removed, and I didn't think it was worth experimenting.

The third line of the ICS file (see original post) specifically identifies it as an Evolution calendar file. (Although that doesn't necessarily mean that Evolution created it.) In any case, the calendar file(s) that appear on my desktop are empty (no appointments/events) except for the headers that provide the basic framework (see original post).

I investigated using inotifywatch on the Desktop folder to monitor the creation of the file, but as far as I could tell from the man page, that won't tell me what process creates the file.

Latest results: After upgrading to UM 24.04.2 yesterday (thank you to @guiverc for some gentle prodding), I deleted the file, restarted, and it was there on the desktop again following the restart. I deleted the file again. Then this morning--with no intervening restart--the file appeared on the desktop again. I checked to see whether "Evolution Alarm Notify" in Startup Applications Preferences was re-enabled by the upgrade to 24.04.2, but it was not.

So now I'm going to try using Engrampa to zip all of the files from ~/.local/share/evolution/calendar/system into an archive stored elsewhere and see if that puts a cork in the bottle.

I'll let you know what happens.

jymm · 10 June 2025 20:03

Let us know. I am by no means an expert but here is what I would do if I was having this problem:

If not installed I would install bleachbit and catfish. (caja works but is much slower)
I would uncheck enable wifi and unplug any network cord so to be isolated from the outside world.
I would totally remove evolution and evolution-common. (mark for complete removal on synaptic, I think purge with the terminal).
I would use bleachbit to wipe and overwrite (once) the file on the desktop. (or the shred command if you are knowledgeable)
I would then run sudo apt-get autoremove and sudo apt-get clean in the terminal.
I would then use catfish to look for any .ics files in my home directory and wipe them also if found.
I would then look in system for .ics files and wipe them if found.
Now without reconnecting I would reboot, drop to recovery mode , and I don't remember the option exactly but it is something like make room on disk. This should remove unneeded files.
Now I would finish the reboot, and wait to see if the files return. If they do the problem is on your computer as you are isolated from the the Internet or any network.
If not there reboot with WIFI or Network enable and see if the files return, if they don't you have it. If they do you know it is an external problem. From there I don't know where you go, but hopefully they won't be on your desktop.

This is an ics file I downloaded from my dentist to add to my Thunderbird calendar. But it must be clicked on and added, it does not load to the desktop itself.

If anyone with more expertise than me sees a problem with this approach, please let DaveHighland know.

jymm · 10 June 2025 21:06

One last thing, I have removed evolution and evolution-common from every installation since it was integrated into the Mate desktop and it has never caused a problem. I would not go any further than that though.

DaveHighland · 10 June 2025 21:31

The apt-cache command has an option to list reverse-dependencies. That is, it can list all installed packages that depend on a package you are considering removing. Here's what I get for checking reverse-dependencies on evolution and evolution-common:

dave@Daves-IdeaPad:~$ apt-cache rdepends --installed evolution
evolution
Reverse Depends:
  evolution-plugin-bogofilter
  evolution-plugins
  evolution-plugin-pstimport
  evolution-ews
  evolution-common
  libecal-2.0-3
  evolution-data-server
  evolution-data-server
  evolution-data-server
  ubuntu-mate-desktop
  evolution-plugins
  evolution-plugin-pstimport
  evolution-plugin-bogofilter
  evolution-ews
  evolution-common
 |caja-sendto
  libecal-2.0-3
  evolution-data-server
  evolution-data-server
  evolution-data-server
dave@Daves-IdeaPad:~$ 
dave@Daves-IdeaPad:~$ apt-cache rdepends --installed evolution-common
evolution-common
Reverse Depends:
  evolution
  libevolution
  evolution-plugin-pstimport
  evolution-plugin-pstimport
  evolution-plugin-bogofilter
  evolution-plugin-bogofilter
  evolution
  evolution
  evolution-plugin-bogofilter
  libevolution
  evolution-plugin-pstimport
  evolution-plugin-pstimport
  evolution-plugin-bogofilter
  evolution
  evolution
  evolution

It seems that both MATE desktop and Caja depend upon Evolution.

jymm · 10 June 2025 22:42

Install Synaptic and mark evolution for removal. It will tell you everything it will remove before you hit 'apply'. Other that evolution-common none of those will be removed, but don't believe me, the screen shot or synaptic I showed you. It is really up to you.

There is one other thing you can try. Dconf editor (gui):

whether migration of old setting was already done> current value false, change to true.

Good luck, that is as much as I can help you.