Trouble syncing with iCal? [See first post in thread.]
 

Several of us have bumped into an issue when trying to sync with iCal where Sync Services hasn't properly managed its cache. With OmniFocus, this can manifest itself in different ways ("Cannot sync..." error messages, duplicate or no TODOs, etc.) so I thought I'd make note of a couple solutions to this problem.

The first thing to note is that OmniFocus 1 only syncs with local calendars. In order to maintain compatibility with Mac OS 10.4, support for calDAV calendars was pushed off the 1.x feature list. If you're having trouble synching to a local calendar, read on.

Before we try to fix the Sync Services problem, let's double-check a few other things that could cause this problem.

In iCal, select View -> Show To-Do List. The actions you synched to iCal should appear in that list. (We sync actions as To-Do's, not as events on the calendar.) If the events do not show up on the To-Do list, continue reading.

Next, open the Sync pane of OmniFocus' preferences and double-check that the OmniFocus contexts you want to synch have been mapped over to your calendars in iCal. (If all your OmniFocus contexts are in the 'Unsynchronized' category, that's what's preventing the synch from doing anything.)

If the synch still isn't working properly, open up iCal's preferences. Switch to the "General" tab and uncheck the 'Show Birthdays calendar' box. Quit and restart iCal, quit OmniFocus, restart it, and try to sync.

If none of those steps fix the problem, go ahead and proceed with the following.

The first method of fixing this is by far the easiest, but it will reset every application that interacts with Sync Services, effectively making the application appear as if it's never synced. For some people who need to maintain a sync history, this might not be the best approach but for most applications, it should be okay. Please feel free to [URL="mailto:omnifocus@omnigroup.com"]get in touch[/URL] or post here if you have questions.

For method one, please paste the following into Terminal.app (found in the Utilities subfolder of the Applications folder on your hard drive):

killall SyncServer
Then, press return. You may get a 'no such process' response. That's okay. That just means that SyncServer wasn't running when we told it to stop.

Next, enter the following command into Terminal and press Return again:
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/SyncServices/*

If no error messages appear, you can quit Terminal. (If one does appear during the second step, please copy it into a message to us at the address above.) The second command totally resets the Sync Service database, forcing it to rebuild everything from scratch.

For the folks that don't want to completely reset Sync Services, the other option is to think of everything that's interacted with Sync Services since using OmniFocus and then to go through and reset each application or service individually until it's fixed.

The usual suspects are .Mac, Entourage, and iSync. If you sync via .Mac, logging in and logging out in the preference pane should do the trick. If you use Entourage, the fix is as easy as quitting and relaunching (just like OmniFocus) and in iSync, going into iSync Preferences and then clicking the button at the bottom that reads "Reset Sync History..." should help there.

Again, please feel free to [URL="mailto:omnifocus@omnigroup.com"]get in touch[/URL] or post here if you have questions.

Thank you very much!

trouble synching with iCal?
 

hi, when i attempt to synchronize with iCal, nothing happens, not an error message or anything. It says it is synchronizing for a few seconds, then nada. In your fix it solution one, i don't understand when you say the terminal is found under the utilities folder of the Application. Since you say Application singular, do you mean the application folder of Omnifocus? but that i can't find. There is a terminal under the general utilities folder. Is that where is should paste the kill synch message?

thanks

Yes, the Terminal in Applications/Utilities.

hi guru,

i follow your direction and input killall SyncServer, terminal replies there's no such process.

and i suffer the same thing of syncing with iCal, no sync at all.

something wrong with my machine?

trouble synching with iCal
 

i pasted messages into Terminal, but no synching with iCal. I have never had any error messages, and it says it is synching, but then nothing happens.
I am evaluating Omnifocus, and overall i love it, i've inputed a lot of data, so i hope this iCal thing can be solved.

now i get this when i tried to synchronize after pasting messages into Terminal. "Use Synchronization Preferences to synchronize OmniFocus contexts to iCal calendars."
and in synchronization preferences window, Calendar just shows (Unsynchronized), and the contexts show up in right hand window.

[QUOTE=liangbolo;31352]i follow your direction and input killall SyncServer, terminal replies there's no such process. [/QUOTE]

That's okay - that just means there wasn't a sync in progress when you entered the command. It's not a big deal.

[QUOTE=liangbolo;31352]
and i suffer the same thing of syncing with iCal, no sync at all.

something wrong with my machine?[/QUOTE]

It's possible, but let's double-check a few things first.

If you select View -> Show To-Do list in iCal, your actions do not appear, correct? (Remember, we sync actions as To-Do's, not as events on the calendar.)

If they do not appear there, open the Sync pane of OmniFocus' preferences and double-check that the OmniFocus contexts you want to synch have been mapped over to your calendars in iCal.

If all your OmniFocus contexts are in the 'Unsynchronized' category, that would be one explanation.

If that doesn't help, go ahead and repeat those instructions from earlier in the thread. Enter the first command, hit return, enter the second command, hit enter, and then try to synch.

If that doesn't work, send an email to [URL="mailto:omnifocus@omnigroup.com?Subject=OmniFocus%20Support"]OmniFocus support[/URL] and we'll work with you to figure out what's going on.

[QUOTE=forrestevans;31386]now i get this when i tried to synchronize after pasting messages into Terminal. "Use Synchronization Preferences to synchronize OmniFocus contexts to iCal calendars."
and in synchronization preferences window, Calendar just shows (Unsynchronized), and the contexts show up in right hand window.[/QUOTE]

This means that OmniFocus cannot see your iCal calendars for some reason - I would expect that the Terminal commands would have fixed that. Send us an email at the address in the post above - we'll ask you for more information and get this figured out.

Trouble synching with iCal
 

hi, my problem was that i didn't understand that i needed to look in To Do list in iCal. But how do i get the to do's into events in the calendar? i guess that's an iCal question?

thanks

hi, thanks for your patience, it seems that i can drag items into the calendar from the to do list? is that the only way to get them to actually show up in the calendar?

only syncing FROM iCal to OF, not from OF to iCal, OF entries duplicating
 

I have gone along a number of angles in this thread, and I am not syncing correctly.

Leopard fully patched, MB.

I quit all of the following:

* iCal
* OmniFocus
* Mail (it has to-dos!)
* iTunes (which is slowly taking over the Apple universe)

Ejected:

* iPod
* iPhone

Dashboard was not running.

Ran killall SyncServer, no error message so I think it found a syncserver and killed it.

I have a Time Machine disk on.

OF database switched to a Flash drive using Preferences -> Database Location chooser.

I am

MORE INFO...

I had also killed my MenuCalendarClock iCal

rebooted the machine, no dice....

I synced all contexts to the same new local iCal calendar

I set prefs in OmniFocus to sync basically everything -- completed items, blocked items, include context

[QUOTE=forrestevans;31530]hi, thanks for your patience, it seems that i can drag items into the calendar from the to do list? is that the only way to get them to actually show up in the calendar?[/QUOTE]

1. If ACTIONS are synched as TODOs and not EVENTs in iCal and it doesn't carry the time and date information of an ACTION item. It doesn't make sense!? So, I shouldn't bother with entering the time date information in OF but wait until I am in iCal?

2. When I drag a TODO item to a date and time in iCal brought in from OF - making it now an EVENT. After I synched OF to iCal again, I don't see the time and date information updated in OF. ??

Thanks.

Just one thought...
 

I had the same syncing problem, and after doing the terminal thing, I wondered why there are certain todos not coming over to iCal.

Secret to this was: The project in question was a sequential (?) action type, and the todo nor getting synced was nor the next one. Just bring it to the top (or change project type) and voila...


wok4

(Sorry for my bad english, ich kann besser deutsch schreiben...)

;-)

killall SyncServer
Then, press return. You may get a 'no such process' response. That's okay. That just means that SyncServer wasn't running when we told it to stop.

Next, enter the following command into Terminal and press Return again:
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/SyncServices/*

-------------
FYI - I was having same nightmare with OF not syncing (OF->iCal only it was syncing from iCal back to OF). Did the above and it synced first time AND was really much faster!

Thanks for the fix.

Clarifications, please:
 

Something I didn't quite understand in your post:

[QUOTE=kaebot;30633]
In iCal, select View -> Show To-Do List. You want to make sure your actions do not appear in that column before proceeding. (Remember, we sync actions as To-Do's, not as events on the calendar.)
[/QUOTE]

Let's say I have a task in OmniFocus e.g. "Eat Lunch" and I have the same task in iCal e.g. "Eat Lunch" (and the OmniFocus context and iCal calendar are linked in OmniFocus preferences). That is what you are referring to? In this case, you would recommend that I delete one or the other before syncing?

Or should the iCal task list be free of ALL tasks?

Another question:
 

[QUOTE=kaebot;30633]
For method one, please paste the following into Terminal.app (found in the utilities subfolder of Application):

killall SyncServer
Then, press return. You may get a 'no such process' response. That's okay. That just means that SyncServer wasn't running when we told it to stop.

Next, enter the following command into Terminal and press Return again:
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/SyncServices/*
[/QUOTE]

As you mention later, this completely resets SyncServices. Is this a more complete reset than the one that you can do through the 'reset sync data' button in the 'advanced' menu of the 'sync' tab of '.Mac' in 'System Settings'?

[QUOTE=forrestevans;31530]hi, thanks for your patience, it seems that i can drag items into the calendar from the to do list? is that the only way to get them to actually show up in the calendar?[/QUOTE]

Yes, you can do this, but OmniFocus won't synch with events, so any changes you make to the iCal event will not make it back to OmniFocus. iCal stores events and To-Dos in two separate databases; we don't touch the event database at all.

There are a couple reasons why we synch as to-do's, not as events, but the main one is this: we didn't think that folks wanted an event that starts on Monday and is due on Friday to cover up their entire week in iCal...

[QUOTE=awolfe_ii;31539]OF database switched to a Flash drive using Preferences -> Database Location chooser.

I am[/QUOTE]

It looks like your post got cut off - did you run the second terminal command?

I don't really have enough information here to figure out what's going on - you probably want to send an email to [URL="mailto:omnifocus@omnigroup.com?Subject=OmniFocus%20Support"]our support ninjas[/URL].

[QUOTE=klamshops;31578]1. If ACTIONS are synched as TODOs and not EVENTs in iCal and it doesn't carry the time and date information of an ACTION item. It doesn't make sense!? So, I shouldn't bother with entering the time date information in OF but wait until I am in iCal?[/QUOTE]

I have OmniFocus (with the [URL="http://growl.info/"]Growl notification framework[/URL] installed) as a repository for the things I specifically need to take action on. I enter start and due dates in OmniFocus so it can notify me as needed.

This way, my calendar is free for other events that aren't strictly actionable. Both applications can pop up a notification, and there's a clear separation between OmniFocus telling me I need to take action on something vs. iCal telling me 'hey - today is your Mom's birthday'.

I have far too many actions in Focus (many repeating daily) to want them spamming my iCal calendar...

[QUOTE=klamshops;31578]
2. When I drag a TODO item to a date and time in iCal brought in from OF - making it now an EVENT. After I synched OF to iCal again, I don't see the time and date information updated in OF. ??
[/QUOTE]

See the previous answer in the thread: iCal displays two kinds of information which are stored in two different databases. We don't touch your event database at all.

[QUOTE=torlundgren;31853]Something I didn't quite understand in your post:

Let's say I have a task in OmniFocus e.g. "Eat Lunch" and I have the same task in iCal e.g. "Eat Lunch" (and the OmniFocus context and iCal calendar are linked in OmniFocus preferences). That is what you are referring to? In this case, you would recommend that I delete one or the other before syncing?

Or should the iCal task list be free of ALL tasks?[/QUOTE]

Sorry for the confusion: when we said 'make sure your events do not appear there', it was meant in the 'you should expect your events to show up in this column, not on the calendar' sense. We weren't saying that anyone should delete to-dos before synching.

I'll edit that to make the text less confusing.

[QUOTE=wok4;31579]Secret to this was: The project in question was a sequential (?) action type, and the todo nor getting synced was nor the next one. Just bring it to the top (or change project type) and voila...
[/QUOTE]

If you check the "Add blocked actions to calendars" box in Synch preferences, that will also accomplish what you're looking for...

[QUOTE=torlundgren;31855]As you mention later, this completely resets SyncServices. Is this a more complete reset than the one that you can do through the 'reset sync data' button in the 'advanced' menu of the 'sync' tab of '.Mac' in 'System Settings'?[/QUOTE]

Either Ken or Kaebot would be better able to answer this, but they're not here right now, so you're stuck with me. ;-)

We used to recommend that folks reset their sync data that way. Sometimes it would work, sometimes it wouldn't. This way has worked more often than the old approach, in my experience. I don't have any specific evidence, though; just anecdotal.

Would using Calendar Store solve these syncing problems? Can Calendar Store be used under Leopard with out breaking support for 10.4?

I'm having the most appalling problems keeping OmniFocus, iCal and PocketMac Blackberry happy with each other. It's currently a complete mess. I end up with large numbers of duplicated tasks in OmniFocus after syncing, none of which have the decency to appear in iCal. and the number of Calendar Sync errors that sync services is giving me seems to be increasing exponetially. I'd tend to think that the problem was the fairly ghetto (imo) PocketMac but OmniFocus isn't jiving with the task list in iCal, so it's probably not the problem *this* time.

Barring a better solution from Omni, anybody out there keeping OmniFocus and PocketMac in better rapport?

[QUOTE=wok4;31579]I had the same syncing problem, and after doing the terminal thing, I wondered why there are certain todos not coming over to iCal.

Secret to this was: The project in question was a sequential (?) action type, and the todo nor getting synced was nor the next one. Just bring it to the top (or change project type) and voila...


wok4

(Sorry for my bad english, ich kann besser deutsch schreiben...)

;-)[/QUOTE]
@wok.

THANKS! your english was fine and your solution was the user error i was looking for. I hoped it was me and not OmniFocus. Of course, it was. I was synching sequential tasks. Now most things are parallel so i can try to do everything at once.

Found this guide to resetting .Mac syncing via Merlin Mann's 43 Folders. Haven't tried it yet, but it looks useful!

[url]http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2008/02/25/how-to-truly-reset-your-mac-sync-data[/url]

Randy

Hi Guru - thanks. My problem is a bit different, and may not be a problem but a feature. When I have completed tasks, and mark them done in Omni focus, they continue to appear in iCal after syncing. Even if I mark them done in iCal as well, they continue to sit there. Aren't "done" items supposed to go away?

how about adding a button in the inspector "post to event in ical"

This would allow to have an active role in deciding what goes to ical as an event and what goes to ical as a to-do.

Brian, Given that OF gets transferred as to-dos, what's the purpose of
the time option in OF action? Trying to figure out how to use it. Apologize,
if this has already been answered.

I don't think I'm the Brian you meant, but I'll give it a shot:

The duration option (with the little clock tooltip) is intended for your estimate of how long an action will take. If you use the View Bar, you can filter out actions that will take longer than 5, 15, 30, or 60 minutes.

That way, if you have 20 minutes before you have to do something on your calendar (also known as "hard landscape" in Getting Things Done jargon), you can show only actions that you think you can complete in 15 minutes or less. It's a way of helping you use your time more productively.

At one point syncing worked great. now syncing causes me to spend too much time trying to trouble shoot and fix issues.
Nothing in OF will sync to i-Call. I have tried the recommended fixes, except the terminal commands.
I deleted a calendar from i-cal but it still shows in the Omnifocus Sync preference panel.
Will there be an update soon that fixes sync issues?

OmniFocus and iCal both send data to a piece of the OS called Sync Services; sometimes things don't work because we did the wrong thing, sometimes iCal does the wrong thing, and sometimes Sync Services just does the wrong thing all by itself.

Unfortunately, we can only fix the problems that occur on our end - the other parts we don't have any influence over.

You should send us an email from the Send Feedback... item in the help menu; we'll gather some information and try to determine what's going on here.

Changing the from sequential to parallel fixed my problem. Boy, do I feel dumb, but thank you wok4 !!!

Wow, this has been a frustrating bug. The iCal calendars in OF Preferences suddenly stopped refreshing, as did the iCal calendar list in applications like iBiz, which probably also uses SyncServices. I did the requisite killall SyncServer followed by the rm -rf on its directory, but nothing changed.

Console showed me that there were many errors related to the Birthday Calendar, like this:

[CODE]28/04/2008 06:15:13 iCalExternalSync[8445] [ICalExternalSync ]Encountered you referenced the following records (in a relationship) but did not actually push them: (
"node_BirthdayCalendar/p1"
) [/CODE]

I tried disabling the birthday calendar from within iCal Preferences - the General pane has a checkbox - but the calendar did not go away. So, I deleted the calendar physically from iCal. Then, the console immediately filled up with pleasant messages of success. Ahhhh.

I have not yet tried re-enabling the Birthday calendar, but I had the sync working before for the longest time while also having the Birthday calendar, so I imagine something just got stuck.

Hope this helps someone.

OF URLs in iCal printed list view
 

When I print out my iCal To Do's in List format, there's an omnifocus URL under each task. ( URL: omnifocus://task/iZ2jHNCoK2l)

How can I get rid of the URL? It takes up too much room.

Thanks.
Caroline

OK I ran the terminal scripts and after numerous "conflicts" were cleared I am now syncing again to i-cal. However, I notice in OF Sync preferences there are calendars that I had deleted in i-cal. How do I delete the non-existen calendars?

Fear of terminal.app: a question
 

When I open terminal.app, my cursor lands after a text string, which includes my username. Do I paste the new text string where my cursor lands or do I need to start a new line?

Thanks in advance for any help with this!

Can anyone answer this one for me? See above.

You do not need to start a new line. The text string is called a prompt; it indicates that you can enter a command.

birthday calendar option fixes sync issues!
 

I find it hard to believe but my sync problem went away after I unchecked the birthday calendar setting, just like you recommend. Crazy. Thanks for the tip!

Hi and thanks for your message.

I've sync'd successfully with iCal but must admit I was a little surprised that the items link with iCal as "to do" and not as actual actionable items in the calendar itself - rather annoying. Why is that?

One of the main reasons I purchased Omni was to organize quickly and effectively, using this method I now find myself going through my to do list in iCal and literally dragging and dropping the items into their respective calendars... and putting effective times on them!! which brings me to my next point - is it possible for omni to further specify not only the date that the items are due on but also the time?

Less destructive way to reset sync info: OmniFocus <-> iCal
 

If you've read this:

[QUOTE=kaebot;30633]The first method of fixing this is by far the easiest, but it will reset every application that interacts with Sync Services, effectively making the application appear as if it's never synced. For some people who need to maintain a sync history, this might not be the best approach but for most applications, it should be okay. Please feel free to [URL="mailto:omnifocus@omnigroup.com"]get in touch[/URL] or post here if you have questions.

For method one, please paste the following into Terminal.app (found in the Utilities subfolder of the Applications folder on your hard drive):

killall SyncServer
Then, press return. You may get a 'no such process' response. That's okay. That just means that SyncServer wasn't running when we told it to stop.

Next, enter the following command into Terminal and press Return again:
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/SyncServices/*

If no error messages appear, you can quit Terminal. (If one does appear during the second step, please copy it into a message to us at the address above.) The second command totally resets the Sync Service database, forcing it to rebuild everything from scratch.[/quote]

...then perhaps I can help you reset only the OmniFocus sync information without destroying sync data for you other applications. I did the following:

0. Close OmniFocus.app

1. cd ~/Library/Application Support/SyncServices/Local/clientdata

This appears to be where the Apple stores the sync data for all syncing applications.

2. grep -ri omnifocus *

This showed me which clientdata files related to OmniFocus. I got this output:

[code]
Binary file 0b1e938420001fb48bd1f805dba85b411524e968/changestore.changedb matches
Binary file 0b1e938420001fb48bd1f805dba85b411524e968/data.syncdb matches
Binary file 4e82de4aa49721652fa53fb53cc2774862e5c8b1/changestore.changedb matches
Binary file 4e82de4aa49721652fa53fb53cc2774862e5c8b1/data.syncdb matches
Binary file 7fef3df625cf55044d6bb962d9afcdcb3f182ede/data.syncdb matches
Binary file a42ff0467db06327510fd9af046aea90e00da9c8/data.syncdb matches
Binary file com.apple.DotMacSync/data.syncdb matches
Binary file com.apple.Keychain/changestore.changedb matches
Binary file com.apple.Keychain/data.syncdb matches
Binary file com.apple.Mail/changestore.changedb matches
Binary file com.apple.Mail/data.syncdb matches
Binary file com.apple.PreferenceSync/data.syncdb matches
Binary file com.apple.PreferenceSync/recordids.synciddb matches
Binary file com.apple.Safari/data.syncdb matches
Binary file com.busymac.busycal/changestore.changedb matches
Binary file com.busymac.busycal/data.syncdb matches
Binary file dc840cbe2aa73a713813aa1bcff80243b42babc1/changestore.changedb matches
Binary file dc840cbe2aa73a713813aa1bcff80243b42babc1/data.syncdb matches
Binary file e91660c392db590ccb318d50e0089cc12c0874ba/changestore.changedb matches
e91660c392db590ccb318d50e0089cc12c0874ba/clientname.txt:com.omnigroup.OmniFocus
Binary file e91660c392db590ccb318d50e0089cc12c0874ba/data.syncdb matches
Binary file ef5c023652c350b22b47d3e083534ca101217f1f/data.syncdb matches
Binary file ef5c023652c350b22b47d3e083534ca101217f1f/recordids.synciddb matches
[/code]

This line caught my eye: "e91660c392db590ccb318d50e0089cc12c0874ba/clientname.txt:com.omnigroup.OmniFocus"

I guess that this was the sync data just for OmniFocus, so I tried deleting it.

3. rm -fR e91660c392db590ccb318d50e0089cc12c0874ba/

Your folder name will differ. I hope there's only one folder with a clientname.txt file that matches OmniFocus. If I saw more than one, then I would probably delete them all and hope for the best.

4. Re-open OmniFocus.app.

You should see that the sync settings remain, but have no OmniFocus tasks on your iCal.

5. In OmniFocus: Sync with iCal.

Voilà.

I make no warranty, but I hope this helps you.

re: iCal sync
 

[QUOTE=kaebot;30633]
In iCal, select View -> Show To-Do List. The actions you synched to iCal should appear in that list. (We sync actions as To-Do's, not as events on the calendar.) If the events do not show up on the To-Do list, continue reading.
[/QUOTE]

It no longer says "Show To-Do List"... it is now called Show Reminders. That held me up a bit, but figured it out when I just started clicking around. Other than this little piece, this post was extremely helpful.