Frequently Asked Questions

BusyCal is licensed per user. An individual may install and use the Program on up to two computers used solely by that individual. A Family Pack may be used on up to 5 computers in a single household. The Family Pack license does not extend to businesses. Businesses must purchase single user licenses. When purchasing multiple copies, you will receive a single serial number that can be used on all licensed computers. If you need more licenses in the future, you can purchase additional serial numbers that can be used along with your existing serial numbers.

• BusyCal costs $49.99 for a Single User or $79.99 for a Family Pack.
• Family Packs may be used on up to 5 computers in a single household.
• Family packs are not for businesses. Businesses must purchase single user licenses.
• A 20% volume discount is applied when purchasing 5 or more single user licenses.
• BusySync registered users can upgrade to BusyCal for $20 per copy.

BusySync is a System Preference pane that adds calendar sharing capabilities to iCal, allowing you to sync calendars on a LAN and/or with Google Calendar.

BusyCal is an alternative to iCal that combines the functionality of iCal and BusySync into one integrated application. If you're using BusyCal, you don't need BusySync.

BusyCal provides a number of productivity enhancements that you won't find in iCal, including a non-modal info panel; To Dos, including recurring To Dos, that display in the calendar and auto-forward until completed; customizable calendar views including a List View and scrolling Month and Week Views; live weather feeds, moon phases, graphics and sticky notes; customizable font styles and sizes; and a list of today's events in your menu bar.

For upgrade instructions see how do I transfer my data from iCal to BusyCal?

• BusyCal supports Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, 10.6 Snow Leopard, and 10.5 Leopard.
• BusySync supports Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, 10.6 Snow Leopard, 10.5 Leopard and 10.4 Tiger.

You can sync calendars on your LAN between a mix of computers running BusyCal and BusySync.

You cannot run BusySync and BusyCal simultaneously on the same computer. If you launch BusyCal on a computer that is/was running BusySync, a confirmation dialog will appear informing you that your BusySync data will be converted to BusyCal. Once the conversion is complete, BusyCal will launch and BusySync will be stopped. You can then uninstall BusySync.

If you attempt to start BusySync after running BusyCal, a dialog will ask you if you wish to convert your BusyCal database to BusySync format. BusyCal must be installed in order to perform the database conversion. Once the conversion is complete, you may delete BusyCal from the Applications folder and start BusySync.

BusyCal fully supports iCloud. For more information see:

• Overview of iCloud
• Upgrading BusyCal to iCloud

BusySync has read-only access to calendars hosted on iCloud. You can use BusySync to publish iCloud calendars on your LAN, or to Google, but the calendars will be read-only and not editable by others on your LAN or on Google. If you need to publish iCloud calendars on the LAN, or to Google, with read/write privileges, you may upgrade to BusyCal — a desktop calendar that combines the functionality of iCal and BusySync into one application, with full read/write access to iCloud calendars.

For more information see:

• Overview of iCloud
• Upgrading BusySync to iCloud

BusyCal supports Lion iCal Server and Snow Leopard iCal Server. It may work with other third-party CalDAV servers but has only been tested with Apple's iCal Server. For more information see Syncing with CalDAV Servers.

BusyCal does not support Exchange. If you are subscribed to an Exchange calendar in iCal, you will have read-only access to that calendar in BusyCal. In order to make changes to that calendar, you'll have to launch iCal.

BusyCal supports subscribing to calendars on a WebDAV server, but does not support publishing to a WebDAV server. If your primary interest is in making a calendar available for others to subscribe to via WebDAV, you may do so through iCloud or Google. If the calendar is hosted on iCloud, you can share the calendar publicly as a WebDAV feed, as described in iCloud Help. Or, if the calendar is hosted on Google (or you are using BusyCal to publish a calendar to Google), you can then make it available as a WebDAV feed, as described in Google Calendar Help.

There is no BusyCal app for the iPhone. BusyCal syncs with the built-in Calendar app and Reminders app on the iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch the same way that iCal does. Any events you create or edit in BusyCal will sync to your iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch via iTunes, Google, or iCloud.

BusyCal syncs Events with the built-in Calendar app on the iPhone, and it syncs To Dos with the built-in Reminders app on the iPhone. BusyCal can also sync To Dos with BusyToDo on the iPhone.

Currently, BusyCal only supports syncing calendars. Address Book syncing has been a popular request. We hope to provide an Address Book syncing solution in the future but we don't have a specific time-frame to announce at this time.

BusyCal does not work well with Entourage. BusyCal is designed to work with Sync Services, which Entourage also supports to a limited degree. You can sync Entourage with Sync Services in Entourage Preferences > Sync Services > "Synchronize events and tasks with iCal and MobileMe". This will create an "Entourage" calendar in iCal and BusyCal containing all of your Entourage events. Once there, you can use BusyCal to publish the Entourage calendar to others on your LAN or to Google Calendar. However, Entourage will only sync that single calendar and will not sync with any of the other calendars in iCal or BusyCal, so it is rather limiting. In addition, Entourage doesn't play well with Sync Services, which may result in duplicate events and other strange behavior. Therefore, it's not recommended that you use BusyCal with Entourage.

Note: You can use BusyCal to publish the Entourage calendar to Google Calendar, but it is not possible to publish the Entourage calendar to iCloud.

BusyCal can sync with Outlook via Sync Services, provided you have installed Office 2011 for Mac Service Pack 1 or later. This will enable you to create and edit calendar events in Outlook and sync them with BusyCal, and vice versa.

Note: You can use BusyCal to publish Outlook calendars to Google Calendar, but it is not possible to publish Outlook calendars to iCloud.

Yes, BusyCal can sync with Google Apps accounts and regular Google accounts.

No, BusyCal does not sync tasks with Google Calendar. BusyCal only syncs events with Google Calendar.

Yes, but Alarms are not synced with Google Calendar by default. If you wish, you may choose to sync Message Alarms on your Mac to a popup, SMS or email alarm on Google.

When enabling Alarm syncing, the change is not retro-active and will only affect new events that you create and not existing events in your calendar. If you wish to make it retro-active, you must unpublish and/or unsubscribe from the calendars you are syncing with Google, enable the Alarm syncing preference, and then republish or re-subscribe to the calendars.

Note: If you edit an alarm on an existing event on your Mac, the change will be synced to Google immediately. However, any alarm changes made on Google Calendar won't sync to your Mac unless you edit some other attribute of the event as well, like the event title or description. This is a bug in the Google Calendar API. Google is aware of the bug and will hopefully fix in a future update.

Attendee information is synced with Google Calendar only when the attendee is added to an event on Google Calendar. Attendee information is not synced when an attendee is added to an event in BusyCal. Therefore, if you want attendee information to sync between BusyCal and Google, you must add attendees on Google Calendar. And for best results, you should edit events with attendees on Google Calendar so that meeting update notifications are sent from Google.

This occurs when you have a timezone setting misconfigured on Google. Login to Google Calendar on the web, and verify that the global and per calendar time zones are correct. Here's where to set the time zones on Google:

• Global setting: Google Calendar > Settings > General > Your current time zone.
• Per calendar setting: Google Calendar > Settings > Calendars > Calendar Details > Calendar Time Zone.

After making those changes, new events you create should have the correct timezone set. Existing events may need to be edited for them to get their time zones updated. The easiest way to do that is to unsubscribe/resubscribe or unpublish/republish any calendars you are syncing with Google.

You are encountering Google Calendar temporary server errors, which means the Google server is busy or experiencing errors. This is a temporary error on Google's end and usually clears up within minutes or hours, at which point syncing will automatically resume. This error is limited to apps that sync with Google Calendar using the Google Data APIs (like BusyCal), and does not usually affect your ability to use Google Calendar on the web.

These errors are quite common and usually go unnoticed since BusyCal recovers from them automatically once the server is back online. In rare cases, however, the errors can go on for many hours or days, particularly on weekends when there's nobody home at Google.

Trying to solve the problem by altering your Google sync settings when these Google server errors are occurring will not solve the problem and may make things worse. The best course of action is to be patient and wait for the Google server errors to clear up, at which point syncing will automatically resume.

You should not use both BusyCal and Spanning Sync to sync with Google Calendar. If you are migrating from Spanning Sync to BusyCal, please read on.

BusyCal and Spanning Sync use different models for syncing with Google Calendar. Spanning Sync requires you to create parallel calendars in iCal and Google Calendar and map them to each other. BusyCal uses a Publish and Subscribe model where one side is the host (the Publisher) and the other side is the client (the Subscriber). You can host a calendar on your Mac or on Google. Regardless of whether your are the host or the client, you can make edits on your Mac and on Google and synchronize between the two.

If you are migrating from Spanning Sync to BusyCal, it is assumed that you have duplicate calendars setup in iCal and Google and you will need to remove the duplicate calendars before configuring BusyCal, as follows:

1. Reset and uninstall Spanning Sync.
2. Decide whether to host each calendar on your Mac or on Google. You can host all calendars on your Mac, host all calendars on Google, or host some on your Mac and some on Google. Whatever makes sense for your situation.
3. Once you've decided where each calendar will be hosted, you need to delete the duplicate calendar that exists on the client. For example, if you are going to host the Work calendar on your Mac, you should delete the duplicate Work calendar on Google (the client).
4. Once you've deleted the duplicate calendars on the client, you can then setup BusyCal to sync with Google Calendar. For example, you can Publish the Work calendar from your Mac to Google, and the Work calendar will be automatically created on Google.

If an error is displayed when launching BusyCal that the file couldn't be opened because it isn't in the correct format, your BusyCal database may be corrupted. You can solve this by resetting BusyCal, as follows:

1. Hold down the option-key while launching BusyCal. When the startup options dialog appears, select Reset BusyCal and click Continue. Resetting BusyCal will clear your publish and subscribe settings, delete your BusyCal database, set iCal as the default calendar application, and quit. All of your calendars will be preserved in iCal, iCloud, MobileMe and/or Google.
2. Launch BusyCal and delete any orphaned calendars that were left behind after step 1. An orphaned calendar is a calendar you were subscribed to from another BusyCal user on your network or from Google that is still showing up in BusyCal. If any orphaned calendars exist in BusyCal, you should delete them in BusyCal. Likewise, if you were publishing any calendars from BusyCal to Google and those calendars still exist on Google, you should delete them on Google. In other words, each calendar should only exist on the publisher, and not on the subscriber.
3. Reconfigure your Publish and Subscribe options. If you were syncing with iCloud and your iCloud Calendars do not automatically re-appear, you can connect to iCloud by selecting Calendar > Connect to iCloud/CalDAV Server. If you were syncing with Google and your Google Calendars do not automatically re-appear, you may connect to Google by selecting Calendar > Connect to Google Calendar, and then subscribe to your Google calendars by checking them in the left sidebar.

If resetting BusyCal does not solve the problem, or you would like help prior to resetting BusyCal, please send your logs to BusyMac technical support, as follows: Launch BusyCal while holding down the option key to display the Startup Options dialog, then select Send Logs to BusyMac and click Continue.

If you're encountering errors or conflicts when syncing with Sync Services (e.g. syncing local calendars with iCal), your Sync Services database may be corrupted. You may be able to solve this by resetting sync history, as follows:

Launch BusyCal while holding down the option key to display the Startup Options dialog, select Reset Sync History and click Continue. Then wait several minutes for BusyCal, Sync Services and iCal to get in sync.

If resetting Sync Services does not solve your problem, please send your logs to BusyMac technical support for help troubleshooting the problem.

If BusySync is unable to sync with Sync Services, an error may display alerting you to the problem. Typically, restarting your computer will "wake up" Sync Services and solve the problem. If not, you may be able to solve it by resetting your sync history, as follows:

If you're running Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, 10.6 Snow Leopard, or 10.5 Leopard:

• Open the BusySync prefpane, select the Reset tab and click the Reset Sync History button. Then wait several minutes for BusySync, Sync Services and iCal to get in sync.

If you're running Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger:

• See Reset Sync History in BusySync on Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger.

If resetting Sync Services does not solve your problem, please send your logs to BusyMac technical support for help troubleshooting the problem.

If you're encountering errors when syncing calendars with an iPad/iPhone/iPod via iTunes, you can overwrite the calendars on the device, as follows:

• Launch iTunes, dock your device, and select it in the iTunes source list.
• Click the Info tab.
• Select the "Sync iCal calendars" checkbox.
• Scroll to the Advanced section on the bottom and select the "Calendars" checkbox under "Replace information on this device".
• Click Apply.

For more info, see How to reset the iPhone via iTunes.

When creating an event in Mail using the Mail Data Detectors, the event is added directly to iCal. BusyCal syncs with iCal through iCloud. Therefore, if you use Mail to create an event in iCal, that event will not appear in BusyCal until you launch iCal and sync it with iCloud. Therefore, if you frequently use Mail to add events to iCal, you should leave iCal running in the background so that it is constantly syncing with iCloud and BusyCal.

In Lion, iCal is launched each time it receives a push notification from iCloud. So, any time you add or edit an event in BusyCal and that event gets synced to iCloud, a Push notification is sent to iCal, and iCal is launched. You can avoid this by changing iCal's refresh interval to something other than Push (like Every 5 minutes), in iCal > Preferences > Accounts.

BusyCal must be running in order to sync with iCloud, Google, or over the LAN. If you want to ensure BusyCal's data is current, you should leave it running as often as possible. You can minimize BusyCal to the Dock or close its window, and it will continue to sync as long as you leave the app running. You may want to add BusyCal to your Login Items so that it launches each time you restart your computer.

If you go offline, you can still view and edit your calendars. The next time you are online, the changes will be synced.

Duplicates are usually a result of a sync loop where you are subscribed to a Google calendar in iCal via CalDAV that you are also subscribed to in BusyCal or BusySync. The solution is to remove the redundant CalDAV subscription in iCal > Preferences > Accounts, and just sync the Google calendars via BusyCal or BusySync.

Another possibility is that you received a meeting invitation via email that you added to your calendar, and are subscribed to the calendar where the event originated, so you're seeing both copies of the event.

If there are too many duplicates to clean up by hand, you have a couple choices for batch deleting duplicate events:

• If you're running BusyCal, select Help > Find Duplicates, and BusyCal will display a list of duplicate events. You can then choose to selectively delete some or all duplicate events.
• If you're running iCal, checkout iCal Cleaner, an AppleScript utility that will remove corrupted data from iCal such as duplicate events, blank events, and duplicate alarms.

If you do not see calendars being published by other BusyCal or BusySync users on your LAN, it may be because they have their system firewall turned on and it is blocking incoming connections. They should either turn off their system firewall, or allow BusyCal and BusySync traffic to pass through the firewall. For more info, see BusyCal and BusySync Firewall Settings.

Yes, you can use the same BusyCal or BusySync serial number on a new computer that you were using on an old computer. You just need to make sure you are no longer running BusyCal or BusySync on the old computer.

The best way to handle this would be to reset BusyCal or BusySync on the old computer, backup your calendar, transfer the backup file to the new computer and restore it there, then reconfigure BusyCal or BusySync on the new computer the same way as the old one, as follows:

BUSYCAL

Old Computer

1. Select File > Back up BusyCal, and save the file.
2. Select Reset from the Help menu, and click Reset BusyCal. This will unpublish and unsubscribe from all calendars on your LAN and/or Google Calendar.

New Computer

1. Download and install BusyCal on the new computer.
2. If you were already running BusyCal on the new computer, you should reset BusyCal as described above.
3. Transfer the backup file from the old computer to the new computer.
4. Launch BusyCal and select File > Restore BusyCal, select the backup file you transferred from the old computer and restore only the local calendars. You do not need to restore any of the calendars that are hosted on iCloud, Google, or a LAN server, as you will be resubscribing to those calendars in the next step.
5. Reconfigure your Publish and Subscribe options.
• If your iCloud Calendars do not automatically appear, you can connect to iCloud by selecting Calendar > Connect to iCloud/CalDAV Server. Then subscribe to your iCloud calendars by checking them in the left sidebar.
• If your Google Calendars do not automatically appear, you may connect to Google by selecting Calendar > Connect to Google Calendar. Then subscribe to your Google calendars by checking them in the left sidebar.

BUSYSYNC

Old Computer

1. Select the Reset tab, and click Reset BusySync. This will unpublish and unsubscribe from all calendars on your LAN and/or Google Calendar.
2. In iCal, select File > Back up iCal, and save the file.

New Computer

1. Download and install BusySync on the new computer.
2. If you were already running BusySync on the new computer, you should reset BusySync as described above.
3. If there are any calendars in iCal on the new computer that you wish to keep, select them one at a time and choose File > Export, and save them.
4. Transfer the backup file from the old computer to the new computer.
5. Launch iCal and select File > Restore, and select the the backup file you transferred from the old computer.
6. If you exported any calendars in step 3, double-click each one to import it.
7. Start BusySync and reconfigure your Publish and Subscribe options.

BusyCal automatically creates a BusyCal Conflicts calendar and places events in that calendar if the same event is edited by more than one person or the event is rejected by the server. The rejected event will be moved to the BusyCal Conflicts calendar. That way you won't lose the edits you made and can compare it to the event that it conflicted with and choose which one to keep.

You cannot have more than one calendar of the same name. Therefore, if you subscribe to a calendar that has the same name as an existing calendar (e.g. "Home") the new subscription will be renamed "Home (2)". You can then rename it whatever you want (e.g. "Fred Home") by double-clicking the calendar in source list and renaming it.

BusyCal backup and restore

BusyCal automatically backs up your calendars every 24 hours and saves your last 10 backups in ~/Library/Application Support/BusyCal/Backup. You can increase the frequency and number of backups to keep in BusyCal > Preferences > Backup.

If you wish to restore your calendar from one of these backups, select File > Restore BusyCal, select a backup file, and click Open. Your calendar will be restored from the backup.

BusySync backup and restore

BusySync automatically backs up your iCal database every day and saves your last 10 backups in ~/Library/Application Support/BusySync/Backup.

If you wish to restore iCal from one of these backups, select the Reset tab, click the Restore iCal From Backup button, select a backup file, and click Open. Then click Restore in iCal, and iCal will be restored from the backup.

Google Calendar Backup and Restore

You can backup all of your calendars on Google Calendar by clicking the following link, which will create a zip file containing each of your Google calendars in ics format.

https://www.google.com/calendar/exporticalzip

Or, you can backup your Google calendars individually by exporting each of them as an ".ics" file to your desktop, as follows:

• Login to Google Calendar on the web.
• Click on the small down arrow to the right of a calendar name and select "Calendar settings".
• Scroll down to the "Private Address" section, control-click the green ICAL button, and select Download Linked File. This will save the calendar as an .ics file to your desktop.
• Repeat this process for each calendar you want to backup.

You can restore/import an .ics file into Google Calendar, as follows:

• Login to Google Calendar on the web.
• At the top of the calendar list on the left, click the "Add" down-arrow button and select "Import Calendar."
• Click "Browse" and choose the file you wish to import.
• Select the Google Calendar where you'd like to import the events, then click on "Import."

You can uninstall BusyCal by doing the following:

1. Launch BusyCal while holding down the option key to display the Startup Options dialog, then select Reset BusyCal and click Continue. Resetting BusyCal will clear your publish and subscribe settings, delete your BusyCal database, and quit. Your iCloud calendars will be preserved on iCloud, your Google Calendars will be preserved on Google, and your local calendars will be preserved in Sync Services.
2. Delete the BusyCal application from the Applications folder.

You can remove BusySync by doing the following:

1. Open the BusySync Preference Pane.
2. Select the General tab and uncheck "Show status in menu bar".
3. Select the Reset tab and click the Reset BusySync button.
4. Click Show All in the toolbar to return to System Preferences.
5. Control-click on the BusySync Preference Pane and choose Remove “BusySync” Preference Pane.
6. Restart your computer