OT - Calendar Management

OK, I have a couple of smartphones on Android system and I'd like some suggestions for a calendar management system that can be synchronised across the both of them, one that will include support for recording various contracting jobs I'm involved with, places to be, people to see etc in different colours, as well as personal events such as family visits, holidays, anniversaries and the usual, again with different colours depending on the category.

I'd like to be able to enter the details on whichever device (work or personal) that I have available and have it propagate to the other device securely. I am leaning away from solutions that store the details in some sort of online account whether free or subscription based due to privacy concerns, but this is not a deal breaker if the security and privacy is good...

I tried downloading a calendar app from the app store and that failed miserably, I couldn't figure out how to add multiple calendars (which I'm guessing I need to get the different colours?), when I tried it took me to the accounts section of the phone in order to add extra accounts to the device. Meanwhile I just have one calendar called 'My Calendar' which adds all the events in the same colour which is not great when it comes to distinguishing between them at a glance.

Reply to
Rob
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I use google calendar coupled with Samsung S Planner ... works very well and (I think) does what you want. Whether it is acceptable to you depends on how much you trust Google.

Reply to
no_spam

Google Calendar.

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Try setting it up on a PC first. Adding coloured calendars there is easy.

Being sent to 'the accounts section' on your phone either was due to not being properly signed into google by default, or google having a security fit on your behalf. If the latter, you'll probably be guided into setting up two factor authentication - which is worthwhile IME.

Reply to
Adrian Caspersz

I find Google Calendar excellent. It is always available, PC and phone and tablet. I recommend it to students with organisational problems.

The alarms are also good, and we have a 'family' calendar to keep everyone aware of significant dates/times.

Reply to
Bob Eager

Google Calendar - (I saw that bit above re privacy, but if you don't put your financial details in, they are OK).

It's all backed by Google Calendar - and IMO it's easier to sort out the calendar setup on a PC web browser first. You can add as many calendars as you like, sort out sharing with anyone else.

Then tell the Android app (there is the Google official one and loads of API compatible ones) which calendars to display.

It works EXTREMELY well.

Reply to
Tim Watts

Time for Google to tweak it (bugger it up) then

Reply to
Stuart Noble

"My Calendar" is a right PITA, and is just there for the brain dead and to confuse everyone else. You can't delete it, you can't move events to from it from other user created calenders. Best to ignore it completely.

Personally I don't and use S-Planner syncing to SoGo running on my server. Synchronisation done by DAVDroid which does both mail and calendars if you want. I have devices set up such that any changes are sent straight away and to poll for changes every few hours or on using a relevant app. It Just Works... SoGo can be kicked into syncing with outlook but I've not looked at that in any detail.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

You might be trying to over complicate this a bit - the phones usually do all this out of the box very well ;-)

If you use / create a google account, and then point both phones at it, that's pretty much the job done. The "Calendar" app[1] that ships with Android 5 / Lollipop and later is quite easy to use and lets you play with colours etc. The phones will automatically synch via the google account, and you will also be able to visit calendar.google.com and access it there.

(If you want to get clever then using the "provider for google calendar" add on in thunderbird will also integrate the lightening calendar into the google one. Hence you can create and view events on the desktop, on the web and the phones etc.

[1]
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Reply to
John Rumm

It is easy to get confused between multiple accounts on multiple devices, especially of different manufacture. Everyone is trying to lock you into their own system.

Personally I'm not bothered about having a Google account. Use google calendar as your master system and you know you can pick it up anywhere you can find Google.

My wife and I share Google Calendars and, now that I have trained her to enter everything, we almost never have appointment clashes.

Reply to
newshound

newshound posted

Isn't it easier to hang a paper calendar on the kitchen wall?

Reply to
Big Les Wade

In message , Big Les Wade writes

That is exactly what we do, but then we're peasants :-)

Reply to
News

Kitchen walls are a bit difficult to carry everywhere with you.

Reply to
Bob Eager

You been talking to my wife?

Reply to
Huge

and "Nope, you don't get reminders from the paper calendar on the kitchen wall"

I accept these points, but it's not difficult to keep a paper calendar and copy the next day's reminders to your mobile. Perhaps it's easier to do that than to train a wife to keep a Google Calendar up to date.

Reply to
Big Les Wade

Not here. Wife and sons all happily use Google Calendar. One son for his shifts, one for his lectures. Wife for work and meetings. Me likewise. And we all use a common 'family' one.

Reply to
Bob Eager

Only if wifey writes her comitments on it. We have a paper family calender, week per A4 landscape, columns for each family member and a blank one. 'Er indoors updates it about once every 6 weeks... SoGo can email people when an electronic calandar entry changes, when I did that I got told off and had to turn it off. B-( She doesn't use an electronic calendar.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

Yep I use this. It is ok for events, but not so good for repeating tasks.

Reply to
Nick

Still doesn't remind you when the appointment time occurs.

Perhaps it's easier to

Likely easier to replace her with a younger one who already does that.

Likely more expensive tho, but with other real benefits.

Reply to
Sam Crean

It seems ok at repeating things for me... (to be fair I create most of those kind of events in Thunderbird - but they all seem to export just fine).

The client on the phone has repeat options for every day, week, month, year, and "custom" - what else did you want?

Reply to
John Rumm

I'm talking about tasks as opposed to events. Tasks are more like a todo list and events are more like appointments. For instance every three months I need to submit a VAT return. I do not need to do it on a specific day but it is a task that needs to be done in time within a period of 1 month. Paying a Visa Credit card statement would be the same. I like to see all the tasks I need to do and be able to tick them off when done.

Reply to
Nick

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