Spanning Sync Beta Frequently Asked Questions

Updated March 9

Q: One of my Google Calendars is listed as "Unknown" in Spanning Sync. What does that mean and how can I fix it?
A: This means Google has gotten confused about the name of that calendar and isn't telling Spanning Sync what it is. To fix it, just log into Google Calendar, change the name of the affected calendar, save it, then change it back, and save again. Then refresh Spanning Sync by quitting System Preferences, reopening it, and reopening Spanning Sync. The correct calendar name should be listed.

Q: I have an extra Spanning Sync icon in my menu bar. How do I get rid of it?
A: Check to see if you have either of these folders:

/Library/Application Support/Spanning Partners
~/Library/Application Support/Spanning Partners

Note: "Spanning Partners," not "Spanning Sync".

If you have either, delete them, logout, and login again.

Q: When I create a new calendar iCal, it shows up in Spanning Sync as "Untitled".
A: This is a bug in iCal and will be fixed in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. Until then, quitting iCal will make the correct name appear in Spanning Sync.

Q: Changes to calendars in Google Calendar aren't getting synced to iCal.
A: We've received numerous reports of this problem (which seems to affect people in GMT + timezones) and are working on a fix.

Q: We've implemented a workaround for the Google Calendar API bug causing this behavior. If you're still experiencing this problem, please post a message to this thread on the discussion group.

Q: I downloaded Spanning Sync, but I can't unzip it with StuffIt Expander.
A: StuffIt Expander doesn't seem to like OS X zip archives. You should be able to unzip it by selecting the zip file in the Finder and selecting File > Open With > BOMArchiveHelper.

Q: Everything seems to work fine, but when I click "Sync Now" nothing happens.
A: Please verify that you having syncing enabled for your computer by opening iSync, selecting File > Preferences, and selecting "Enable syncing on this computer".

Q: I sync iCal with Entourage. Should I use spanning Sync?
A: Not yet. We've had several reports of problems involving Entourage, so we're asking Entourage users not to use Spanning Sync until we can get them sorted out.

Q: One or more of my Google Calendars doesn't show up in the Spanning Sync interface.
A: This is probably because it doesn't have a timezone set up. To set a calendar's timezone, log into Google Calendar, selecting Settings > Calendars, click on the calendar in question, select a Calendar Time Zone, and click "Save". Then quit System Preferences, reopen it, and open Spanning Sync. The calendar should now appear in the list.

Q: What do I do if I still have a problem?
A: Submit a problem report! Open Spanning Sync, click "Reset...", then "Create report", and email the resulting file along with a detailed description of what you did, what you expected to happen, and what actaully happened to beta@spanningsync.com. Please use the title of the email to summarize the problem.

Q: I'm syncing multiple applications (Entourage, Zimbra), devices (phones, iPods), and services (.Mac, Spanning Sync) with iCal on my Mac, and somehow things have gotten corrupted. What do I do to start fresh?
A: From a Spanning Sync standpoint, the suggested method for "cleaning out the system" is to select "reset info on this computer" in the reset sheet. Uninstalling the software is obviously a more complete solution but probably overkill. From an Apple Sync Services standpoint, and some of these issues are caused by Sync Services bugs, the best way to reset things is to open iSync, go to preferences, and reset the sync history. This leaves the application data itself (such as your iCal calendars) untouched but deletes the central sync database so that next time you sync, every app will be asked for its complete set of data meaning the sync will take much longer.

Q: I moved an event from one iCal calendar to another and it didn't properly sync to Google Calendar.
A: The current version of Spanning Sync doesn't sync calendars themselves, only events in those calendars. As a result, we don't support moving events from one from to another by changing their "calendar" value in iCal. This will be fixed in a future release. As a workaround, you can cut and paste events from one calendar to another in iCal and they will be properly synchronized.

This FAQ will be updated over time, so please bookmark it and check back regularly.

Comments

[Jay]

Is there a preference that can be set to make SpaningSync one-way, that is publish iCal to Google but don't synch back. I would like to share my ical with non-Mac folks on the web, but read-only.

[John Fredrickson]

@Jay:

I am pretty sure that neither Google Calendar nor Spanning Sync are meant as publishing tools. I hope I am not off base here in recommending something else, but there is an app called icalPublish that is designed to do exactly what you are looking to do:

http://www.buddy.com/ical/

[Charlie Wood]

Jay,

You can do exactly what you want with Spanning Sync. Just set up a new calendar on Google Calendar and share it with your friends (or the world) but give them read-oonly access. Then create an iCal calendar and sync your two new calendars with Spanning Sync.

You'll have read-write access to your calendar, so you can update it either in Google Calendar or in iCal, but the people you share it will will have read-only access.

Regards,
Charlie

[Dylan]

Will Spanning Sync recognize iCal's calendar groups for syncing? I have 6 or 7 calendars grouped in iCal that I would like to publish to a single gcal.

dylan

[Charlie Wood]

Dylan,

Spanning Sync doesn't recognize iCal calendar groups, but that's a great idea. We'll look at including it in a future release.

Regards,
Charlie

[LCFlying]

Is there an update on earlier problems with mutiple user accounts on the same mac? Is this still a problem?

Also, I have noticed that occasionally spanning sync doesn't actually sync. It will say "syncing" and everything seems fine, but then the "last sync" isnt updated and no information was synced. This happens in both manual mode and authomatic. In automatic mode, say every 10 minutes, it will say "last sync at 11:20pm; next sync at 11:40pm". 11:40 will come, it goes through the motions, but still says "last sync at 11:20pm" but "next sync at 11:50pm". Any ideas?

[Charlie Wood]

LCFlying,

Verson 1.0b14, which contains many fixes, will be released soon.

When Spanning Sync encounters a condition that makes it unable to sync (for instance, when Google Calendar is inaccessible, which is more often than you might think), the "last sync" time doesn't get updated. The "next sync" time does though, so Spanning Sync will try again at that time.

Regards,
Charlie

[spanningsync user]

i have 2 google calendar accounts, is there anyway I can sync them both with ical?

[Charlie Wood]

Spanning Sync only allows you to sync with a single Google account, but you can you can get the result you're looking for by sharing calendars (with full read/write access) between your various Google accounts:

If you have two Google accounts A and B, log into A and for each of its calendars, choose "Share This Calendar". Add account B a a new person and choose "Make changes to events" as the permissions level. Then in Spanning Sync, log in as account B and you'll be able to sync calendars for both Google accounts.

[amoz]

I run os 10.3.9 and although the unpacking of the software goes well, and the installer seems to run fine, I get a Preferences error telling me it could not load Spanning Sync.
I find the icon in my System Preferences but am not able to run the program...

Any clues?
Thanks!

[chantellejoy]

I have the exact same problem as amoz. Help would be great. Thanks.

[amoz]

Okay, by now we found out that Spanning Sync simply does not work with 10.3.9... (Thanks Chantelle for pointing that out!).

One annoying problem remains: when running the uninstaller, one gets caught in a loop. When confirming that you want to uninstall, you are asked to enter your root password, which brings you back to a dialogue asking for the confirmation to uninstall... after which you are asked to enter etc.

Any suggestions?
Cheers