iCal, iPhone, iCloud, Lion - how are they supposed to cooperate?

I have some problems to fix, but mostly wish I understood how these things are supposed to be working together in the first place.

I have an iMac upgraded to Lion 10.7.2, an iPhone 4S running iOS 5.0.1, and an iCloud account updated from MobileMe. I have not tried linking calendars together on these before now. There are other things like PhotoStream and Keynote that appear to sync properly.

I want to be able to enter calendar events on the phone, or the iMac, or maybe even on the iCloud web page, and have them appear exactly once on all the others. I want this for myself, not linked to anybody else and not using any other services (e.g. Google etc), what I think of as just the basic Apple synced calendar. So far this hasn't worked.

At first whatever I entered on the iMac would appear on the other two but would reappear as a duplicate on the iMac, and deleting the duplicate just causes it to appear again or delete the event everyplace. Then based on a web posting I tried clicking off the Enable button for one of the two accounts that appeared in iCal's Preferences, which stopped the duplication but also stopped the syncing to the other two locations. So, I re-enabled it, and the duplication returned but the syncing did not. Now no Enable/Disable combinations for the two accounts allow syncing.

How are these things supposed to work together? Why does iCal have two Accounts listed in Preferences, one called iCloud CalDAV, one called [email protected] CalDAV, both with iCloud icons next to them? I read on a web posting that upgrading to Lion causes a second account to appear here, but don't know which of these would be that second account. Should one of these be deleted, and if so which one? Is there a functional difference between deleting and un-Enabling an account? I hear duplicate events are often caused by multiple accounts - true?

And, why does iCal have 6 calendars: They are ON MY MAC Home, ON MY MAC Calendar, ON MY MAC Work, [email protected] Home, [email protected] Calendar, and [email protected] Work. I think in terms of one calendar because I live one life with one timeline. How do they assume people are to use these? What's my mental "model" supposed to be?

Is there a good place to read what the idea behind it all is?

Thanks!

Well, my Lion instance does not have two accounts in the 'accounts' preference pane of iCal. So I would venture a guess that two is not normal. Which one to delete? I can't tell ya.

Why are there multiple calendars? Well, I can explain why I use them.

My 'Home' calendar has all entries for generic type items. You know, dentist appointments, payday, contractor appointments etc.

My 'Work' calendar has my vacation days, days the office is closed, and general work related things (my work schedules way too busy to even want on my phone).

Then I have a calendar for my kids school schedules, you know.. days there's no school, early out days, testing days, etc. I also have calendars for the kids other events (scouts, athletics, etc).

What does this do? Well, I can look at individual calendars and it can help plan things out. They're especially helpful if you're sharing calendars (I am, it would seem you're not).

The difference between anything that's labelled 'On My Mac' and those not? Where they're stored. Although since iCloud I no longer have an 'On My Mac' section, although I did with Snow Leopard and MobileMe.

Dysfunction said:

Well, my Lion instance does not have two accounts in the 'accounts' preference pane of iCal. So I would venture a guess that two is not normal. Which one to delete? I can't tell ya.

[...]

Although since iCloud I no longer have an 'On My Mac' section, although I did with Snow Leopard and MobileMe.

Click to expand...

Thanks!

The one account in your preference pane - does it have your icloud username or email address in it? Or does it just say "iCloud"? I mean, which of my two accounts has a name constructed like your account?

Also, since iCloud you no longer have an 'On My Mac' section - does that mean if your internet service is down, you can't see any calendar entries on your Mac? There's really no copy stored there?

Yes, you can still have an OnMyMac section. But there's no need for most of us. I turned it off and don't miss it.

Demapples said:

Yes, you can still have an OnMyMac section. But there's no need for most of us. I turned it off and don't miss it.

Click to expand...

But what is it for? I mean, I don't get how they are all supposed to operate. Is having an OnMyMac section equivalent to being able to look at your calendar on the Mac? If not, then what does the OnMyMac section do?

I have a lot of entries "printed" out of Lotus Notes to a .pdf file. If I can copy and paste them one by one into the right time slots on my Mac screen, that will be much easier than retyping them directly into the iPhone. Is that what we're talking about?