Sync 3 ways

[Bytheseaside]

I have successfully synced Lightning on my desktop to my Android mobile via my wireless network using BirdieSync!

I now plan to buy a laptop. Of course, I will install Thunderbird & Lightning, & so I thought I'd need BirdieSync too. Then I wondered - when I run BirdieSync on the mobile with desktop & laptop both on the network together, will my calendars all be synced, or will BirdieSync sit there all confused & wonder what to do first? Will I need to switch one computer off at a time to sync them individually?

[Birdy]

Hello Bytheseaside,

BirdieSync on the mobile device can only connect to one PC at a time. So you cannot synchronize simultaneously with 2 PCs.
If you also synchronize with a laptop, the first time you synchronize your mobile device, I would suggest you to have empty address books and calendars in Thunderbird on your second PC and populate them choosing "Combine" at the very first synchronization. This to avoid having duplicates when your synchronize with your second desktop or replacing items on the first PC.

[Bytheseaside]

Thank you for the info. I was intending to import the Home.ics file to the laptop that I had exported from my desktop calendar as a start, assuming that would give me matching calendars. I will ensure only one computer is on/connected when I sync. If I mistakenly did a BirdieSync sync between the desktop & the mobile while the laptop was switched on & connected, would there be a data disaster?

[Birdy]

Hello,

You can synchronize with your desktop while your laptop is on the network without problem: BirdieSync app only connects with one PC at a time.

The import of the ICS calendar on the laptop instead of using BirdieSync to populate the laptop calendar is not recommended for the following reason:

If you had previously synchronized your mobile device with the desktop computer, then all the calendar data is already present on the mobile device. Now if you synchronize with your laptop which also have calendar data, you have two options at the beginning of the synchronization: Replace or Combine.

If you choose "Replace", then it will delete all calendar data on the mobile device and replace it with the calendar data from the laptop. Now if you then connect your mobile device to the desktop, it will delete all calendar data on the desktop (since data was removed/replaced on the Android device) and replace it with data from the mobile device.

If you choose "Combine", then you may have duplicates since data is present on both the mobile device and the laptop. During the removal of duplicates at the end of the synchronization, some events initially present on the mobile device could have been replaced with items from the laptop. If you then reconnect your mobile device to the desktop, it could then lead to the replacement of these items on the desktop. Also if some items were duplicated and couldn't be removed because not strictly identical, these duplicates could then be transferred to the desktop.

That's why it's rather recommended to let BirdieSync populate the second calendar on your laptop.