The Omni Group Forums

The Omni Group Forums (http://forums.omnigroup.com/index.php)
-   iCal Sync (http://forums.omnigroup.com/forumdisplay.php?f=54)
-   -   Still can't sync with ical (http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=5912)

artwag 2007-11-28 04:21 PM

Still can't sync with ical
 
I've reset my sync on my mac, restarted a couple of times, downloaded the latest version (11/28) of the beta and I still can't fully sync OF with ical. Every time I try to sync, whatever I have in my ical "to do" list appears in my OF "inbox", but nothing from OF appears in my ical "todo" list (or anywhere else on ical). Is anyone else continuing to have this problem? Any solutions? I'm using the most recent version of Leopard.

snpower 2007-11-28 04:26 PM

I can't sync either...

debz0r 2007-11-28 04:32 PM

I can't sync either
 
I spent the last 2 hours or so reading through the discussion threads. I imported a kinkless database along with the context fields and could not, even after carefully assigning relations to my calendar in the Preference|iSync panel get it to move anything from OF to iCal. I threw out the entire DB and started from scratch, experimenting for another hour to get one singe todo onto iCal.

I am not getting any error messages, it simply doesn't write any todos to iCal.

Using Leopard; will throw in the towel on OF if the sync doesn't work and go back to KinklessGTD .

artwag 2007-11-28 05:49 PM

I agree. It doesn't make sense to me to use OF unless it syncs properly with ical. I'm not a fan of kinkless either because I don't like having a dozen "calendars" in ical representing every context. I like the idea in OF of putting contexts within existing calendars but if it doesn't work, what's the use? Would love to see this issue addressed by Omni Group prior to the release so I could either pre-order or not.

chuckbo 2007-11-28 08:32 PM

Well, what's tough is that I see at least a couple of different ways that someone might want to fuse iCal and OF. The problem I have is I would really like to sync them so that I can use the printing function in iCal. I'd like to have the calendar with meetings and also my to-do items for the day. The problem is that iCal doesn't print tasks that I've flagged as items to work today; it prints tasks that are due on a certain date. So the print I get rarely shows any OF tasks (esp. since most of my tasks don't have hard due dates). And that was one of the things I learned from GTD and changed -- I stopped assigning arbitrary due dates to tasks that really didn't have hard due dates.

OrionDog 2007-11-29 11:09 AM

I am having same problem. Funny thing is one and only one action does sync to iCal. Reset sync history and still no success. Using Leopard on and Intel Mac.

hexatron 2007-11-29 03:36 PM

same issue, leopard, intel mac. killing me, you guys.

OrionDog 2007-11-30 12:49 PM

I figured it out. In Preferences>Sync check the box titled "Publish blocked actions". Amazingly simple. I had wondered what this did.

artwag 2007-11-30 03:20 PM

I checked the "Publish Blocked Actions" box, restarted and got the same result - nothing went from OF to ical and whatever I had in ical went to OF even if it was already in OF, so I had duplicates.

Waiting to hear if anyone else is still having issues with syncing.

OrionDog 2007-11-30 03:45 PM

When Sync History was reset was it done via iSync or Terminal? Apple says if problems persist after resetting via iSync then do it in Terminal. See doc [url]http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306484[/url]

One thing I forgot to mention is I had turned off .Mac synchronization before resetting Sync History and checking "Publish Blocked Actions". I turned it back on after successfully syncing with iCal. I vaguely remember something about .Mac interfering with resetting sync history.

snpower 2007-12-01 03:44 AM

I tried resetting sync via the terminal. Still no sync with iCal...

debz0r 2007-12-01 07:10 AM

still skunked
 
[QUOTE=artwag;27071]I checked the "Publish Blocked Actions" box, restarted and got the same result - nothing went from OF to ical and whatever I had in ical went to OF even if it was already in OF, so I had duplicates.

Waiting to hear if anyone else is still having issues with syncing.[/QUOTE]

I continue to not be able to sync for any practical purpose, now in a mind-bending totally frustrating way. I still can not see anything from OF appear in my iCal. Here's my "progress report":

I have tried experimenting repeatedly with my intel-based Leopard running iMac. As the week progressed, I packed up my bag of paperwork, left the downtown condo and drove out to my home on the coast. The before-departure ritual also includes syncing calendars, contacts and mail to .mac. I telecommute extensively, from two locations. Two homes, three macs and a heavy reliance on .mac to keep everything synced.

Location number two: G5 dualcore Tower. Same current version of Leopard, no intel processor. Bring up the system, sync to .mac. Now discover that every calendar item (added in the usual way - not thru OF) that I synced during the week post-omnifocus install did not sync to .mac. And standing items (monthly board meetings etc) that have worked for several years are screwed up, with extra items on the wrong dates. (I had the same problem with my iPhone but I had JUST updated the iPhone software so assigned blame there, with no time to goof around and figure THAT out.)

But the most bizarre event was this; sync warned me that it had dozens of new items to add, and was I sure I wanted to do this? So I hit the "show detail" button, and I'll be damned if it doesn't display all the OF TTDs I had tried to sync in the first place! Sure, go ahead I say, let's get'm on the iCal. But....when I open iCal, these items STILL do not show, I try searching in the iCal spotlight window, searching in the system spotlight window, still do not show anywhere.

BTW I'd already turned on the "Publish Blocked Actions". And I haven't let my Powerbook be touched by any of this yet, but I may have already screwed up my calendar to the point of no return.

I spent some time at the Kinklesss site; does it look to you that the author plans to abandon kGTD once OF is released?

Wow. This band is more stumped than ever.

hexatron 2007-12-01 10:52 AM

resetting sync in terminal fixed it for me. thanks!

librarymonkey27 2007-12-01 06:59 PM

all of these don't work
 
and on top of it not working...like others have mentioned, lots of time spent watching the beach ball spin

snpower 2007-12-02 02:35 AM

I reset sync via terminal again and now it appears to be working. Nothing on the Calendar, but everything is on the 'to do' list in iCal. I suppose that is the way it works?

Russ 2007-12-02 05:24 AM

well, mine synces with iCal, but due dates become a day ahead in iCal.. I sync iCal to-do items to my phone and this bug really makes me mad...

PS: I am sure my advise will backfire at me for being so obvious, but anyway here it is: OF won't send anything to iCal until you assign contexts to appropriate calendars in OF's preferences.

librarymonkey27 2007-12-02 06:41 AM

perhaps my bad
 
so I open the side bar "to do" and there is my OmniFocus tasks

why don't these go into the calendar??


[IMG]http://s169.photobucket.com/albums/u202/librarymonkey27/various/omnifocus_28.gif[/IMG]

Ken Case 2007-12-02 08:24 AM

[QUOTE=librarymonkey27;27202]so I open the side bar "to do" and there is my OmniFocus tasks

why don't these go into the calendar??[/QUOTE]

We don't control iCal's interface; they've chosen to present all their "to do" items into a sidebar rather than somewhere on the calendar itself. (We create to do items rather than calendar events, because events have fixed start and end times and our tasks don't: a five-minute task might become available today but be due next Thursday.)

--

Taking a step back, how many people are still having trouble with iCal sync'ing, and what exactly seems to be the trouble? How exactly are you configuring Synchronization Preferences (which contexts are mapped to which calendars, and which checkboxes are set), what happens when you select "Synchronize with iCal" (do you get error messages? does anything appear in your Console log?), and what are you seeing when you look in iCal's to do list for the calendars you're synchronizing against?

Jwheeles 2007-12-02 09:38 AM

I have tried resetting my sync data but OF is still not syncing with iCal. I have set all my contexts to sync with one calender in iCal and I have checked off all the boxes under the iCal tab in the OF preferences. When I click "Syncronize with iCal" nothing changes after the process is completed.

debz0r 2007-12-02 11:34 AM

[QUOTE=Ken Case;27213]We don't control iCal's interface; they've chosen to present all their "to do" items into a sidebar rather than somewhere on the calendar itself. (We create to do items rather than calendar events, because events have fixed start and end times and our tasks don't: a five-minute task might become available today but be due next Thursday.)[/QUOTE]

--

Ken: Taking a step back, how many people are still having trouble with iCal sync'ing, and what exactly seems to be the trouble?
Deb: I am still having trouble. I expect to see my todos appear in the iCal side bar, but they do not show up there or anywhere.

Ken: How exactly are you configuring Synchronization Preferences (which contexts are mapped to which calendars, and which checkboxes are set),
Deb: I have tried this every way I could possibly think of:
1) Started by importing my kinkless GTD contexts. Using the preference window, associated "email" context to "email" Calendar and "calls" context to "calls" calendar and so forth. These calendars already existed from using Kinkless. On checkboxes: Tried at first only checking "When synchronizing, log debugging information to the console" and later tried checking "Publish blocked actions" and then all the rest.
2) Getting nowhere, I threw out the kinkless db and started from scratch, to see if the import was screwing things up. Repeated the entire process with a test set of data from the original OF.

Ken: what happens when you select "Synchronize with iCal" (do you get error messages? does anything appear in your Console log?),
Deb: When I select "Sync with iCal, it appears to be working and displays the message "reading".

Ken: and what are you seeing when you look in iCal's to do list for the calendars you're synchronizing against?
Deb: I only see the todos that were already on the calendar.

I have reported this through the "send feedback" process. I have more detail on my post of Dec 1 at 8:10 a.m. regarding seeing todos go by during a .mac sync process, but still not display on the iCal. I hope this helps.

THANKS very much for checking on this thread. I have been a long time OMNI customer and your products are great.

Ken Case 2007-12-02 12:19 PM

Jwheeles: What messages are logged to the Console when you try to sync? (You can check by running the Console application in /Applications/Utilities.) Please send those log messages to [email]omnifocus@omnigroup.com[/email] and carbon-copy me at [email]kc@omnigroup.com[/email].

debz0r: Thanks for those additional details! What shows up on your Console when you synchronize? (Please send log messages to [email]omnifocus@omnigroup.com[/email] and carbon-copy me at [email]kc@omnigroup.com[/email].) What happens if you create a new calendar in iCal and synchronize a context with it? Do any of the items show up in that new calendar? I should note that iCal's search window doesn't search all the calendars, only the active ones (the ones with the corresponding checkbox checked in the left sidebar).

debz0r 2007-12-02 01:59 PM

[QUOTE=Ken Case;27233] debz0r: Thanks for those additional details! What shows up on your Console when you synchronize? (Please send log messages to [email]omnifocus@omnigroup.com[/email] and carbon-copy me at [email]kc@omnigroup.com[/email].) What happens if you create a new calendar in iCal and synchronize a context with it? Do any of the items show up in that new calendar? I should note that iCal's search window doesn't search all the calendars, only the active ones (the ones with the corresponding checkbox checked in the left sidebar).[/QUOTE]

Ken: I've emailed console logs describing a sync attempt, but attempted with the current calendars; I created a new calendar but it will not show up in the pref window.

I've since gone to a totally fresh OF document, added a few context and dates and then resynced. The tasks that I had sent to iCal earlier from my first OF doc - which had NOT shown on iCal - came back to OF during the sync (showed up in the in box of the new doc). Still nothing showing in iCal.

sprocketjockey 2007-12-04 02:45 PM

"/System/Library/Frameworks/SyncServices.framework/Versions/A/Resources/resetsync.pl full"

type the above into terminal (no quotes)
When the sync conflicts came up I chose omnifocus for all (omni was giving priorities to tasks, while ical wasn't)

Worked for me as it was very frustrating, but seems to be ok now!

Ken Case 2007-12-04 06:16 PM

Debz0r:

I'm not seeing anything wrong on the OmniFocus side of those logs; I wonder if that BirthdayCalendar exception might be blocking iCal from synchronizing properly? OmniFocus seems to be synchronizing to the sync database properly, but if iCal doesn't also sync then it won't see any of the changes we're making--and we wouldn't see all of the changes it's making either.

That would explain why your new calendar isn't showing up in OmniFocus, and it would also explain why the synchronization dialogue did list all of the OmniFocus tasks that were pushed.

Our support ninjas tell me that they've helped other users solve this BirthdayCalendar exception by turning off the birthday calendar in iCal preferences and then turning it back on (recreating it).

Unfortunately, I don't have any other advice on how to get iCal itself to stop misbehaving except to make some backups of your calendars and then to try resetting everything (following the process suggested by [url]http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306484[/url]).

Thanks again for helping us investigate this!

librarymonkey27 2007-12-04 09:49 PM

[quote=Ken Case;27213]We don't control iCal's interface; they've chosen to present all their "to do" items into a sidebar rather than somewhere on the calendar itself. (We create to do items rather than calendar events, because events have fixed start and end times and our tasks don't: a five-minute task might become available today but be due next Thursday.)
[/quote]



can you make it an event? I've mentioned this elsewhere in the forums, but Bento seems to have it down, you can list things both ways and it updates iCala.

librarymonkey27 2007-12-04 09:52 PM

++
 
I would like to add that I think the potential of OF is much higher than what I see with Bento as far as GTD, but the functionalability of Bento is a tango compared to the waltz of OF

Ken Case 2007-12-05 06:38 AM

[QUOTE=librarymonkey27;27565]can you make it an event? I've mentioned this elsewhere in the forums, but Bento seems to have it down, you can list things both ways and it updates iCala.[/QUOTE]

I don't understand what it would mean to make it an event.

If I have three things due today (a two-minute phone call, a three-week project, and writing an email message), what sort of events would I create for them? What time would these events start and end?

OmniFocus isn't intended to schedule your time, it's intended to help you track what you want to get done. You can then look at what you want to get done and schedule your time using another tool (whether that tool is as simple as a calendar, or as complicated as a Gantt chart), but OmniFocus doesn't have enough information to make those scheduling decisions for you.

kaioslider 2007-12-08 09:22 AM

[QUOTE=Ken Case;27593]I don't understand what it would mean to make it an event.

If I have three things due today (a two-minute phone call, a three-week project, and writing an email message), what sort of events would I create for them? What time would these events start and end?

OmniFocus isn't intended to schedule your time, it's intended to help you track what you want to get done. You can then look at what you want to get done and schedule your time using another tool (whether that tool is as simple as a calendar, or as complicated as a Gantt chart), but OmniFocus doesn't have enough information to make those scheduling decisions for you.[/QUOTE]

But OF does have due dates, yes? Perhaps I'm missing something within OF, but while OF allows me to list things that need to get done and organize them into contexts, ie errands or phone calls, some tasks become urgent based on when they are due. While OF has some tools available to promote these "due-dated-task", a list is not the ideal interface when trying to develop a schedule based on the bigger picture, a calendar is, and while I can go into iCal and drag these task to dates, it's an extra step that can become time consuming. OF offers tools like "clipping" and "quick entry" to capture what you need to get done without getting in your way and allows for ease of entry. In my mind, and with the way I seem to be evolving in my task management using OF, better integration with iCal seems a logical feature in line with the other stream-line tools already available. I wouldn't make it a default, but allow the user to define these options, ie, list due dates as events? all-day event? time due? list start date?

If it can't be done it can't be done, but if it can be done than it should be include. Nonetheless, even without this feature I love this application and have already purchased it.

librarymonkey27 2007-12-09 06:01 AM

[quote=Ken Case;27593]I don't understand what it would mean to make it an event.
.[/quote]

sorry, I meant a calendar event ---- iCal Event

as in when you double click on an open space in iCal it starts with the beginning


---> New Event

Kaz219 2007-12-11 05:24 PM

The synchronization doesn't work either for me. I'm still on Tiger, so I couldn't try "/System/Library/Frameworks/SyncServices.framework/Versions/A/Resources/resetsync.pl full".

I've mailed some console ouput.

But anyway, the main reason I'm posting here is that I have another motivation to implement "synchronizing tasks as events in iCal" in OmniFocus: you can set up google calendar to send an SMS to your mobile when an event begins (or some time before if you prefer). Thus, if you synchronize an ical calendar both with OF and with a google calendar, you get "synchronization of reminders between OF and *any* mobile phone".

And that would rock =) Because not everybody has a PDA.

Another solution would be to synchronize ical tasks with google calendars, but I didn't find a way of doing this yet.

grichar1 2007-12-12 09:25 AM

iCal sync with contexts vs projects
 
I've dug through the various threads and suggestions about ical sync-ing, and seem to have things working reasonably well at present. (Resetting sync in Terminal (see above) appeared to be the active ingredient for me.)

Now I can send items from OF to ical calendars in deference to assignments in OF preferences and back again. However, iCal (or Mail) to-dos that are assigned to calendars that are NOT linked to a specific OF context are not put in the inbox. I know that OF sees the calendar: it's listed in the left panel of the preference window and is listed in the Console output during "Calendar sync". But to-dos put in this calendar don't appear in OF. (if I move them to my generic work calendar from within iCal, the calendar that is sync-ed to my work contexts in OF, then the events turn up fine.Is this fixable?

It seems like a one-to-many problem that derives from the different ways calendars get used in ical. In my case, I've organized iCal calendars by project rather than by context. This arrangement is dictated by my use of iCal's calendar sharing feature. I have specific calendars for big projects and share those calendars on the web in .Mac with specific collaborators. Different people for different calendars. But to-dos added to those calendars don't show up in OF because the various contexts I've created for work organization cannot map to more than one calendar.

One idea would be that this mapping feature could be switched from either 1) context <---> calendar or 2) project <---> calendar. Is that feasible?

p.s. I'm loving OF, although the biggest project on my desk at the moment continues to be "Get OF to work".

b86dog 2007-12-12 02:32 PM

I Can't sync with ical either
 
I Have just started playing with omnifocus, and can't get it sync with ical at all. I have set the preferences in OF (ie checking the allow blocked items) according to the posts in this forum, disabled all syncing to .mac, and tried resetting syncing both thru isync, and then later thru the terminal. The two programs remain completely separate.
What gives? It's going to be hard enough to learn to use the program as it is. I bought a mac so I wouldn't have to do this kind of stuff.

grichar1 2007-12-12 04:21 PM

[QUOTE=b86dog;28394]I Have just started playing with omnifocus, and can't get it sync with ical at all. I have set the preferences in OF (ie checking the allow blocked items) according to the posts in this forum, disabled all syncing to .mac, and tried resetting syncing both thru isync, and then later thru the terminal....[/QUOTE]
Have you assigned contexts to specific iCal calendars? If yes, skip to 4. If not, step by step:
1. In "OF Preferences/Sync" all of your iCal calendars should appear in the left box. The top entry in this window is the default assignment "(Unsynchronized)".
2. Selecting that should show you all of your contexts in the right box (either OF defaults, or revised contexts as you've defined them).
3. Drag each context on the right to the appropriate iCal calendar on the left. This will determine the specific calendar in iCal in which To-Do items are listed. [The outstanding issue (to my view) is what happens to new tasks created in iCal/Mail (or other programs that feed the sync pipe from that end). If they're assigned to an iCal calendar that has no contexts attached to it, they will not appear in the OF inbox. If you assign them to an iCal calendar that does have a context associated with it, they will appear in the inbox with that context assigned. If you have multiple contexts assigned to the calendar, they will appear in the first one. (Nice feature I just discovered: If you append "[Project name]" (with brackets but not quotes) to title of task created in mail or ical and OF will pre-assign the right task and file it for you. Good if you have short, easily remembered project titles.
4. If you have already assigned contexts, check the integrity of that assignment by clicking on the assigned iCal calendar. The assigned contexts should reappear in the right window. If they don't (this has happened to me twice), click reset in the lower left to put all contexts back in the (Unsynchronized) box and start over.

Hope this helps.

b86dog 2007-12-13 09:09 AM

thanks
 
Checking the assignments fixed things for me. thanks for the tip.

danicomar@gmail.com 2007-12-21 06:43 AM

I can't even see my iCal calendars in the sync panel
 
Has anyone else had this problem? The calendar field only shows the (Unsynchronized) option. Can't see my iCal calendars in it, therefore I can't match my contexts with it.

And I didn't manage to find the answer in the forums. OF is the best GTD app I've seen so far, but if it can't sync with iCal I don't see how to switch.

Thanks.

pvonk 2007-12-21 07:28 AM

[QUOTE=danicomar@gmail.com;29498]Has anyone else had this problem? The calendar field only shows the (Unsynchronized) option. Can't see my iCal calendars in it, therefore I can't match my contexts with it.
[/QUOTE]

If in OF's Sync preferences you only have "(Unsynchronized)" showing up in the left column (Calendar), then there's something very wrong with your system. OF is not picking up iCal's calendars. There is a "reset" button at the bottom - have you tried pressing that? (I'm not sure exactly what is reset, and I'm not willing to try it out - at the risk of losing my settings.)

Perhaps someone from Omni can comment on possible problems with this lack of connection between OF and iCal.

danicomar@gmail.com 2007-12-21 05:59 PM

Yes, you're right and I have tried the reset button and all the other obvious moves. Can't figure out what it is. I can sync my calendars with my phone via iSync without a problem.

lewis_studio 2007-12-26 04:40 AM

Hi there,

I can't find "Preferences>Sync check the box titled "Publish blocked actions". " Is this in OF?

Many thanks.
Jan.

Sean Kirkpatrick 2007-12-31 10:47 AM

[QUOTE=pvonk;29506]If in OF's Sync preferences you only have "(Unsynchronized)" showing up in the left column (Calendar), then there's something very wrong with your system. OF is not picking up iCal's calendars. There is a "reset" button at the bottom - have you tried pressing that? (I'm not sure exactly what is reset, and I'm not willing to try it out - at the risk of losing my settings.)

Perhaps someone from Omni can comment on possible problems with this lack of connection between OF and iCal.[/QUOTE]

I just had the same exact issue. I've lost all of the iCal calendars in OF Sync Preferences menu, so can't move contexts to anything at all.

This happened after resetting sync via Terminal

marieboyer 2008-10-21 07:25 PM

no sync
 
I have not had iCal syncing since I bought OF. Support ninjas stay with me for about 2-3 emails and then drop off. I feel like a leper.

Have tried every single suggested fix. Nothing has worked.

I really need iCal syncing. OF is otherwise flawless. Loving it on my iphone!

Any possibility a ninja could be assigned to stick with me?

Thanks.

Brian 2008-10-22 03:08 AM

Is it possible that there's something going on on the email side of things? You sent us a message on the 9th - the support ninja working with you responded to that the following Monday.

The following saturday, you emailed that you hadn't heard from us. She re-sent her previous email and sent another response the Monday after that email. You sent another email yesterday which makes me think the support ninja responses are being blocked or something.

I'll point our sysadmin at this thread so he can double-check the mail server logs. It would be helpful if you could check your spam filters, make sure your mailbox isn't full, etc.

marieboyer 2008-10-23 05:38 AM

Thanks for responding so quickly.

I went into Junk mailbox and saw no OF emails.

I get the emails from OF ninjas, I think. I believe they work with me for a couple of emails, but then just move on to help someone else. The ninjas are wonderful for the first couple of emails, and then I just do not hear back.

If I am getting the first few emails, seems unlikely my spam filter would be blocking. But I will keep checking.

I think the iCal sync issue is plaguing a lot of Mac/OF users. Maybe I just need to wait for an update? It really is the only thing that is holding back OF for me.

kaebot 2008-10-23 12:21 PM

Hey, there! I've been replying but it looks like there's an error with the mail server. I'm sorry about that! I sent you a private message here in the forums while we were sorting this out but it doesn't look like you've seen it. (They can be easy to miss.) I thought I'd let you know here since it looks like you're keeping an eye on the thread.

We've since corrected the issue with the mail server but, of course, only you can verify this. I've resent my replies and if you wouldn't mind checking it would be much appreciated. Thanks! :-)

marieboyer 2008-10-23 01:10 PM

Well thank you so much for keeping an eye on this.

I have not received any new emails from you today. I just checked my junk mail box and nothing there either.

Let me know what else I can do.

I am happy to have an ichat with a ninja to see if you can work your magic!?

marieboyer 2008-10-28 05:05 PM

I am still not finding any Ninja emails in my junk mail box.

Is there someway a ninja could stay with me via ichat until this is resolved?

I really love OF, but I need it to sync with iCal.

I have a brand new laptop. OF is installed and synced via mobileme. But it will not sync with iCal on brand new Macbook. I have installed very little on new Macbook.

Thanks in advance for any help with this!

Brian 2008-10-29 04:06 PM

Marie, I'm going to ask our system admin to have another look at this to figure out why we're not able to get emails to you, if possible.

In the meantime, I've sent you a private message on the forums about how we can move this forward. Can you respond to that message, please?

marieboyer 2008-10-29 04:40 PM

Just added email notification of private messages so I will get these in the future.

Thanks so much!

johnwd3 2008-11-26 04:54 PM

[QUOTE=Ken Case;27593]I don't understand what it would mean to make it an event.

If I have three things due today (a two-minute phone call, a three-week project, and writing an email message), what sort of events would I create for them? What time would these events start and end?

OmniFocus isn't intended to schedule your time, it's intended to help you track what you want to get done. You can then look at what you want to get done and schedule your time using another tool (whether that tool is as simple as a calendar, or as complicated as a Gantt chart), but OmniFocus doesn't have enough information to make those scheduling decisions for you.[/QUOTE]

johnwd3- To me OF is missing the ability to REMIND me of the key thing I said I was going to do next week at 11am on Thursday morning.
Yes the list is great - but without the reminder/alarm ability to catch my attention - I may be buried and just forgotten it.
OF can post the TO DO in iCal but then I have to open iCal after syncing and find it and then two steps to set the alarm. Too unwieldy! Should be able to chose to set a reminder when I create it.
PLLLLLEEEEAAAASSSEEEEEE! Other than that I love OF.

whpalmer4 2008-11-26 09:44 PM

Why don't you describe for those of us who are a little bit slow exactly what events you would have OmniFocus create in iCal for the cases Ken mentioned? Does the alarm indicates the start of the event or the end? Most of my items with due dates need to be completed by the due date/time. What does the iCal event that alerts me about paying a bill or returning a ilbrary book look like? When should iCal alert me? If I've got an alert for a meeting I need to attend, won't the lead time be dependent on where I am, if I can walk to the conference room across the hall, or have to catch the shuttle to another campus?

johnwd3 2008-11-28 03:18 PM

Why I need reminder alarms
 
I can only describe my ideal. I would like to be able to assign a specific time reminder to a task. “Call Joe at 9am” or whatever. “Sign & return end contract by Friday 5 PM with a reminder maybe at 8am Friday to remind me it has to be done during the work day”. Or “Dec 15th each year review assistants YTD performance with a 1 week before hand reminder”.

I am not that organized so a reminder is an imperative for me – even though I have written it down before and it is buried in my hundreds of To-Do’s.
Some friends are so organized that the go through every list every day and I wish I had that ability. Monday I just get into the day and totally forget that Friday I said I would have something done by Monday at 5. As a long term Palm/Treo user I counted on Now Up To Date to pop a reminder on my screen with a distinctive bong to remind me to DO IT!

So that is my story, and “I am sticking to it!”

;-)

Brian 2008-12-04 05:53 PM

[QUOTE=johnwd3;51634]To me OF is missing the ability to REMIND me of the key thing I said I was going to do next week at 11am on Thursday morning.
[/QUOTE]

If you have the Growl library installed on your Mac, OmniFocus (as well as many other applications) can use it to pop up notifications that you can customize to suit your needs.

You can grab Growl here:
[URL="http://growl.info/"]http://growl.info/[/URL]

Add start dates to the actions you need reminders for, and you're set.

That said, my own personal use style is to use iCal for appointments and events I need "pushed" to me - this is especially important because third-party applications can't do pop-up notifications on the iPhone. iCal, however, can.

CSJ78 2008-12-05 07:27 AM

I tried everything.. yet, iCal and OF wont talk to each other at all...
 
[QUOTE=grichar1;28405]Have you assigned contexts to specific iCal calendars? If yes, skip to 4. If not, step by step:
1. In "OF Preferences/Sync" all of your iCal calendars should appear in the left box. The top entry in this window is the default assignment "(Unsynchronized)".
2. Selecting that should show you all of your contexts in the right box (either OF defaults, or revised contexts as you've defined them).
3. Drag each context on the right to the appropriate iCal calendar on the left. This will determine the specific calendar in iCal in which To-Do items are listed. [The outstanding issue (to my view) is what happens to new tasks created in iCal/Mail (or other programs that feed the sync pipe from that end). If they're assigned to an iCal calendar that has no contexts attached to it, they will not appear in the OF inbox. If you assign them to an iCal calendar that does have a context associated with it, they will appear in the inbox with that context assigned. If you have multiple contexts assigned to the calendar, they will appear in the first one. (Nice feature I just discovered: If you append "[Project name]" (with brackets but not quotes) to title of task created in mail or ical and OF will pre-assign the right task and file it for you. Good if you have short, easily remembered project titles.
4. If you have already assigned contexts, check the integrity of that assignment by clicking on the assigned iCal calendar. The assigned contexts should reappear in the right window. If they don't (this has happened to me twice), click reset in the lower left to put all contexts back in the (Unsynchronized) box and start over.

Hope this helps.[/QUOTE]

I have read, spent, tried every ways to fix the situation, which iCal and OF don't talk to each other at all.. (iPhone OF and Mac one talk to each other just fine)

OF won't even sync with Mobile Me.

I spent good 5 hours.. trying to fix the situation and...

one of the reason why I paid for this program was the capability of sync with iCal but.. (cuz I really need that!)

it's really really frustrating.. HELP?

whpalmer4 2008-12-05 08:20 AM

Have you tried the most important step of all, which is sending email to [email]omnifocus@omnigroup.com[/email]?

Brian 2008-12-05 04:45 PM

Folks sometimes think that the OmniFocus-to-OmniFocus sync also syncs with iCal - but that's not the case; you want to select File -> Synchronize with iCal to send the data over.

The other thing that folks don't always realize is that actions in OmniFocus are synced to the ToDo database, not the calendar database. (See extensive discussion of this in other posts on the forums.) In iCal, if you select View -> Show ToDo List... do your actions appear?

If not, then you'll definitely want to contact the support ninjas. OmniFocus and iCal both talk to a part of Mac OS X (called Sync Services) that can be somewhat tempermental. The ninjas can help you get it un-stuck.

Apologies if you've tried all this already - I couldn't really tell what you had or had not tried before posting.

CSJ78 2008-12-06 10:53 PM

Thanks for the replies,

However, I tried all that as Brian mentioned.

Now, after trying for some (after the previous post) I gave up and stopped trying.

Last night, I just opened OF and iCal, just to see, then there they were!

iCal's todo had OF's lists or tasks!! however u call them.

I don't know how, and why but, somehow, it worked.... like after 12+ hours...

so... I can't really say what made it to work but...

all I can say for my case is...
I did all the steps that was discussed in this forum and on other sites..
gave it about 12+ hours... then it work...

hahaha.... I'm just happy it works now... lol

Freezer 2009-02-16 05:17 AM

[QUOTE=Brian;52097]Folks sometimes think that the OmniFocus-to-OmniFocus sync also syncs with iCal - but that's not the case; you want to select File -> Synchronize with iCal to send the data over.
[/QUOTE]

Hi Brian,

I have a question regarding OmniFocus-to-OmniFocus syncing AND OmniFocus-to-iCal syncing AND .me calendar sync.

I have OF-to-OF setup for 3 computers + iPhone. I also sync my computers (calendars, contacts etc) via .me.

How should I handle OF-to-iCal syncing, should I enable it just on one of the computers or can I have it enabled on all of the computers.

Best regards,
Boris

Brian 2009-02-16 08:40 PM

I have a feeling that the MobileMe calendar sync only syncs the event database, not the to-do database. If that's the case, you'll need to do the iCal sync on each machine.

Here's what I'd recommend - do an OF -> iCal sync on one machine. Sync that machine with MobileMe. Next, sync another one of your machines with MobileMe, then open up the iCal To Do list on that second machine; did the OmniFocus items show up?

If not, you'll need to set up and carry out the iCal sync separately on your machines...

WanderingYankee 2009-05-28 05:11 AM

Resetting sync services via the Terminal seemed to work for me. We'll see if it holds.

knego 2009-06-09 04:32 PM

Hi,

My ical sync worked perfectly for about a year and then just stopped one day. Now I sync with ical and nothing happens. I don't get any error messages, it looks like its worked but no tasks go across.

I've read this thread and the previous one and tried everything listed including:
using the script to resetting in terminal and isync
check, uncheck and delete birthdays
check and uncheck add blocked action to calendars
and still nothing happens.
I have reset (in omni under the calendar tab) but now it doesn't bring up all the calendars that are currently in ical.
I tried creating a new calendar in ical but it doesn't appear either.
i seem to be moving backwards. Please help.

Brian 2009-06-10 05:28 PM

Sync services can be a fickle beast; we can generally get folks up and running again, but it's not always a forum-friendly process. (If we need to get console reports, for example, it's a bunch of information that other forum visitors aren't interested in.)

If you email the [EMAIL="omnifocus@omnigroup.com"]support ninjas[/EMAIL], we'll be happy to help.


All times are GMT -8. The time now is 04:22 AM.

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.