Appearance: how copied events look
Every setting that decides what a copy looks like when it lands: title, availability, privacy, colour, guests and reminders.
This group decides what a copy looks like when it lands. It's the first section in a sync's settings, headed 01 · Appearance.
Every setting here describes the copy. None of them change the original event.
Title
Four choices, and they only affect the words shown on the copy.
| Setting | The copy's title reads |
|---|---|
| Title says "Busy" | the word "Busy" |
| Use original title | the real event name |
| Add a prefix | your text, then the real name — "🔒 Personal Doctor appointment" |
| Replace title | your text, on every copy |
Add a prefix joins with a single space, and the real title still shows. If you're hiding what the meeting is, that's the wrong choice — use Title says "Busy" or Replace title.
Show real availability
This is the setting that decides whether the copy blocks your time. The title setting doesn't, no matter what it says.
It's on by default. On, a copy carries the same free-or-busy status as the original: an event you marked Free stays Free. Off, every copy counts as Busy regardless of the original.
The two settings are independent, which produces one result worth understanding before it confuses you: a copy whose title reads "Busy" can still count as Free time, so colleagues can book over it. That's the default combination, and it's usually what people want — the meeting stays private, the time stays honestly free.
If you want the label and the time to agree:
- Turn off Show real availability. Every copy then counts as Busy. You lose the real Free/Busy signal in exchange.
- Or pick "Use original title". Both then match, at the cost of the privacy mask.
Privacy
Default, Private, or Public. This sets the copy's own privacy flag in the destination calendar, which is what controls whether other people in your organisation can open it.
Default leaves the flag alone, which means the destination calendar's own behaviour applies. It's the right choice unless you have a reason otherwise.
Event color
Pick a colour for copies, or pick the crossed-out swatch — the one tooltipped "No color (use the calendar's own color)" — so they inherit whatever the destination calendar already uses.
A colour is useful when copies land in a calendar you also use for other things — the colour is what marks them as coming from elsewhere. If you rely on per-calendar colours to read your week, the crossed-out swatch is what gives that back.
Colour is approximate between providers and sometimes doesn't apply at all — see What SYNCDATE can't do.
On Pro the same control carries a choice above the swatches: One color for everyone, or Match source calendar. The second one decides the colour by where an event came from rather than where it lands, so everything from your work calendar is one colour wherever it goes.
Copy descriptions
Off by default. On, the description text travels with the copy. Leave it off if descriptions contain things you don't want on the other calendar — meeting notes, dial-in details, client names.
Copy location
Off by default. On, the location or video link travels with the copy, which is what makes a synced copy joinable.
Guests
Off, Text, or Full.
- Off — the copy has no guests.
- Text — the guest list appears in the description as plain text.
- Full — real attendees on the copy.
Full is the one to be careful with. Real attendees on a copy means the destination calendar may notify them, so people can receive mail about an event they were already invited to. Text gives you the information without the side effects.
Reminders
Off, Calendar default, or Match original.
Off is the default and the one that produces exactly one reminder. The copy carries none of its own; you still get whatever the original event has.
Calendar default leaves the copy's reminders unset, so the calendar it lands on applies its own default — which is usually 10 or 30 minutes, and usually produces the second alert you were trying to avoid. It reads like the safe neutral option and isn't.
Match original copies the original's reminders across. Useful when you get no notifications from the source account at all.
Show SYNCDATE branding
On for Free plans, and can't be turned off there. Plus and Pro can remove the "synced by SYNCDATE" line from copy descriptions.
Known limitations
- Changing a setting doesn't repaint existing copies immediately. They re-render on the next run. To push it through now, open the sync's menu and choose Re-sync. Give it a moment — back-to-back runs are ignored for 30 seconds, so clicking again straight away does nothing.
- These settings apply to every destination calendar, unless you're on Pro, where Calendar exceptions can vary them per calendar.
- Turning off Show real availability isn't neutral. Off means "everything lands as Busy", not "stop managing this".
Verified against the product on .
Related
- Calendar exceptions: different settings per calendarSet a shared default for a sync, then override it for one destination calendar. What you can vary, what you can't, and which way round it works.
- Why your free slots show as BusyShow real availability decides whether a copy blocks your time; the title setting doesn't. Which one you actually want, and what to check when it's already on.
- Stop synced events overriding your calendar's colourGive your calendar its own colours back, colour copies by where they came from, and fix Outlook copies that arrive grey.
- Duplicate reminders on synced eventsWhy a synced copy alerts you twice, which Reminders setting stops it, and why the one that sounds safest is the one causing it.
Everything else in docs
Still stuck? Support will read your actual setup and tell you what it sees — describe what you expected and what you got.