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Here is simple ics file, that passed ics validation and should be up to ics spec

BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//repro
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:some-random-id
DTSTAMP:20230414T184045Z
DTSTART:20230415T184045
DTEND:20230415T194045
SUMMARY:A reminder with broken newline
DESCRIPTION: This \nline \nuses \nmany newlines
 and \nhonours \nthe 75 char length per line.\n
 Still Windows Calendar app ignores them.\n
 Outlook does not and work correctly.
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR

There is only one issue: The newlines are being ignored by windows calendar app: enter image description here

But they are fine in outlook

enter image description here

Any idea on how to fix this? If this happens the issue might happen at google calendar, apples calendar, etc. as well.

Double newlines

Edit: I forgot to mention it, thank you @harrymc to pointing it out: Multiple \n do nothing to windows 11 calendar. Here are plenty of newlines after "This" in comparison. Sneaky windows 11 calendar ignores them. enter image description here

Another encoding

I've also tested =0D=0A using ENCODING=quoted-printable. Outlook was fine with it. Windows calendar not :/

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9
  • This post suggests using \n\n, as the first \n is ignored.
    – harrymc
    Commented Apr 14, 2023 at 20:46
  • @harrymc I've edited my post to include an image. I stumbled upon the double newline thing before, did not work. Also setting different encoding did nothing.
    – Samuel
    Commented Apr 15, 2023 at 14:32
  • Some you have not tried : \r\n and \\n. Long shot: I'm not using Outlook or Calendar, but perhaps this is affected by a Mail option : File > Options > Mail, "Message format" section, option "Remove extra line breaks in plain text messages".
    – harrymc
    Commented Apr 15, 2023 at 14:50
  • @harrymc \r\n is not working, and is not according to spec (not that sometimes microsoft does interpret things differently 😉). \\n actually escapes the newline rendering it in the calendar. The option you mentioned does not really exist in the Calendar app and since Outlook currently behaves like for example google calendar, I tend to keep its settings.
    – Samuel
    Commented Apr 15, 2023 at 16:43
  • 1
    I have added an answer summarizing our exchange.
    – harrymc
    Commented Apr 16, 2023 at 9:29

1 Answer 1

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Negative answer (for the moment) : Calendar just ignores newlines in any format.

We have tried every formulation we could think of : \n, \r\n and \\n.

The \\n formulation especially came out as the string \n verbatim, showing that the \ character functions truly as the escape character, but that Calendar explicitly ignores newlines.

The poster has tried notifying Microsoft via the Feedback Hub, if it will help in the future.

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