Synchronization Methods
The Synchronization Method can be set by using the related controls in the Options drawer, which can be opened and closed clicking the Options button in the Toolbar either the appropriate Window menu's item.
Both the selected calendars will be affected by this kind of synchronization: the modifications made to a calendar are brought to the other one. It is only selectable (and is automatically proposed) when the sync Direction is set to Bidirectional.
Let's now suppose that on the local computer you have used iCal to modify 2 existing events (e.g. the start and/or end time or date has been changed, the description and/or the alarms has been modified) and to add 4 new events, while on the remote computer you have modified 3 events and added a new one to the remote calendar.
After a Full Synchronization, the modifications to the 3 events on the remote side are brought to the local calendar and the event added on the remote calendar is now present on the local side too; in the same way, the modifications to the 2 events and the 4 events added on the local calendar are brought to the remote one.
It works like the Full synchronization method, except that the Left or Right calendar (depending on the selected Direction) is used only as data source, therefore it is not modified in any way. Only the destination calendar is modified to reflect the changes and/or additions made to the source calendar's events and todo, as previously explained for the Full Synchronization method.
This method copies all of the source calendar's data (events and todo) to the destination. Running such a synchronization when a calendar with the same name of the source already exists on the destination path, the destination calendar's data is replaced by the source data; otherwise a new calendar, identical to the source, is created on the destination path.
This could be useful even for calendars backup purposes. In case this is your intention, set the sync direction to Left to Right and select on the Right side the backup destination folder (or volume's subfolder), clicking the rounded button with the Users folder icon if you need to manually select the destination. As usual, you must choose a path already containing a Calendars folder inside it.
Running a Smart Sync iSynCal takes care to automatically synchronize all the calendars with matching names and copy the non-matching ones between Macs or user's folders: at the end of such a synchronization the calendars and their content will be the same on both sides with a single click of the mouse ... no need to manually select the calendars to sync or copy, neither to setup again the MultiSync in case new calendars are added later.
A Smart Sync can be Bidirectional to copy both ways those calendars not yet existing on either sides and perform a Full, Bidirectional sync of all calendars with matching names. Running it instead in Left to Right or Right to Left direction iSynCal only copies the source calendars not yet existing on the destination and a One-Way synchronization of the source calendars having a matching name on the destination. Moreover, calendars deletions are also synchronized if you enable Synchronize calendars deletions option (see below), that is on by default.
Every single Full, One-Way or Calendar Copy synchronization invoked by the Smart Sync has its sync direction and options (e.g. Backup calendar files, Synchronize matching events/todo, Copy new events/todo, and so on) as they have been set in the Smart Sync itself.
Please note that a Smart Sync can only be run by registered users, therefore it doesn't work in Demo mode.
Synchronize calendars deletions
This option is selectable only for the Smart Sync method, so it is greyed out if you have selected another sync method.
If you enable Synchronize calendars deletions in the sync options then a Smart Sync, along with the copy and sync behavior mentioned above, will also synchronize an eventual calendar's deletion as well. For example, if you run a Smart Sync between Mac A and Mac B, then delete the "MyWorks" calendar with iCal on Mac A a subsequent Smart Sync will delete the whole "MyWorks" calendar on Mac B.
If Synchronize calendars deletions is instead disabled "MyWorks" would not be deleted on Mac B and will stay there untouched by iSynCal unless you manually delete it; even enabling Synchronize calendars deletions later and running a further Smart Sync between Mac A and Mac B would not delete "MyWorks" on Mac B because iSynCal records the state of the calendars at the end of each synchronization and only sync the changes occurred between the last sync and the current state. For this reason, on the computer running iSynCal you will find the file
~/Library/Application Support/iSynCal/CalsHistory.plist
Activating this checkbox a copy of the calendar files that would be modified by the synchronization process is created prior any synchronization occurs; please note that a backup copy of the original calendar file is made only when the synchronization has some modification to apply to such a calendar, otherwise the backup copy will not be created because unnecessary. If you have also enabled the Show pre-synchronization report option the backup files are created only if you confirm to proceed with the synchronization in the report panel.
For each calendar that will be modified by a synchronization a file named CalendarName dd-mm-yyyy hh.mm.ss.ics is created in the Calendars Backup folder, located into the user's Documents folder; if the Documents folder is not available (this usually happens when synchronizing with a copy of the calendars stored on a network shared folder) the Calendars Backup folder is instead created at the same folder level of the Calendars folder containing the original calendar to synchronize.
A backup calendar file is a snapshot of CalendarName as it was on date dd-mm-yyyy at time hh:mm:ss just before being synchronized and it can be easily re-imported in iCal by double-clicking on it in the Finder.
For example, if you enable the Backup calendars files for a bi-directional
synchronization between
~/Library/Calendars/Personal.ics <--> /Volumes/John/Library/Calendars/Personal.ics
and run it on 24-01-2005 at 18:12:42, before such a synchronization modifies
the calendars it will respectively backup the original, unmodified calendars
in
~/Documents/Calendars Backup/Personal 24-01-2005 18.12.42.ics
on your local Mac's Home folder and
/Volumes/John/Documents/Calendars Backup/Personal 24-01-2005
18.12.42.ics
on the remote computer.
Please note that such a backup procedure has been first implemented in iSynCal 4.5, whereas all previous versions used to simply duplicate the original calendars (like when you press [Cmd]-D in the Finder) in the same Calendars folder where the originals were located. Since the latter was often the same folder where iCal used to look for its calendar files, the backup copies, beside some potential issues and crashes in iCal, were a cause of confusion for the user (which apparently saw all calendar's items as duplicated), therefore the backup procedure has been entirely rewritten and now behaves as described above.