Show Busy to clients, full details to you

Yes, you can. Set it per destination calendar with the Settings for chips, in the What copies look like section of your sync. This needs a Pro plan. On Plus, rules that look at the source calendar get you most of the way, as shown below. More setups are on the use cases page.

The usual case: your client or employer calendar should see nothing but "Busy", while your own calendar keeps the real titles and details. In calendar terms you mirror Work and Personal, and you want Work to show only "Busy" while Personal shows the real titles. One sync, two different treatments.

New syncs copy events as Busy. A two-way Mirror between calendars you own keeps the real titles, so for a client calendar pick Busy yourself rather than relying on the default. You can change either before you start.

How to set it upCopy Anchor Link

1. Open the sync and go to What copies look like.
2. Set the shared default first. That's what every copy gets unless you override it. For the example above, set Original as the title under All calendars.
3. Under Settings for, pick your work calendar's chip.
4. On that calendar, set the title to Busy.

Now anything landing in Work reads "Busy", and anything landing in Personal keeps its real title.

The thing to get straight: a calendar's own settings describe the calendar events arrive in, not the calendar they came from. You're answering "what should copies look like when they land here", not "what should this calendar send out". People set it backwards the first time and then see the mask on the wrong side.

Keep details on the original, leave them out of work copiesCopy Anchor Link

Your original personal event stays in its source calendar with its original details. To keep those details out of Work, set the work destination's Description, Location and Guests to Leave out, as well as setting its Title to Busy. A Private flag alone does not remove fields that were copied. Check the destination event before relying on the configuration.

Title and Free or busy answer different questions. Choose Always busy if each eligible personal event should block work time; choose Same as original if personal events marked Free should remain Free. A copy called Busy can still be Free. Check the work calendar your Scheduling Assistant or booking tool actually reads.

If you want to hide Busy copies on your own screenCopy Anchor Link

In a calendar app showing both calendars, you may see the original plus its Busy copy. Those are two views of the same commitment. Choose a planning view that shows the originals you need; keep availability copies in the calendar colleagues schedule against.

Hiding Work from your app's view also hides Work's original meetings from that view. SYNCDATE's Title setting changes the copy's text; it does not provide an app-wide hide-copies switch. Do not delete Busy copies just to tidy the display. See Mirror or Push for visual duplicates and genuine extra copies.

On Plus: decide by where the event comes fromCopy Anchor Link

Inside one sync, a Plus rule can check Source calendar and set the title, privacy or free or busy for events from that calendar only. A rule decides by the calendar an event comes from, while Pro's settings for each destination calendar decide by the calendar the copy lands in, so in a mirror of two calendars the two give the same result, and with more calendars they can differ. In short: Plus rules can branch on the source calendar, but every destination in the sync gets the same result; Pro gives each destination calendar its own rule. Hide details only for some events shows the steps.

Two rules that fit this arrangement. On the Privacy row, pick Custom, add a rule with the check Source calendar is your personal calendar, set the result to Private, and set Otherwise to Same as original: everything from that one calendar is Private. On Free or busy, add a rule with the check Guest count is at least 10 (10 or more guests) and the result Busy: large meetings always block the time. A rule can only make a copy Busy, never Free. See pricing for which plan has rules and which has a different rule for each calendar.

What you can vary per calendarCopy Anchor Link

Title, colour, privacy, description, attendees, reminders, free/busy, location, and whether the SYNCDATE line appears at the bottom of the copy.

What you can'tCopy Anchor Link

Filters are shared across the whole sync. There's one setting for each of these, and it applies everywhere:

• which events sync at all (skip all-day, skip by title, skip by day or time of day)
• the accepted/tentative filter
• how far ahead the sync reaches

So you can't have Work receive only accepted meetings while Personal receives everything. If you need that, build two separate one-way syncs instead of one mirror, and give each its own filters.

Check both directions with harmless eventsCopy Anchor Link

Create a Busy test event in Personal with a non-sensitive title and placeholder details. Check that the Work copy has the expected time, Busy title, omitted fields and actual Busy state. Move the original and verify the copy changes, then delete the test original and verify cleanup.

Create a second test event in Work and check the Personal copy against the shared default. If that direction should retain meeting details, inspect those fields too. With Same as original, also test a Free event and confirm it remains Free. Run these checks again after changing rules, calendar membership or plan.

These are checks for your particular accounts and permissions; connecting both accounts alone does not establish the result.

Known limitationsCopy Anchor Link

• Pro only. On Free and Plus there's one appearance setting for the whole sync. If you're on Plus, a rule on Source calendar can cover the title, privacy and free or busy, as above. For anything else you want asymmetric, two one-way syncs pointed at each other is the workaround, and it costs you a second sync against your plan's sync count.
• Existing copies don't change until the sync runs again. Adding an exception re-renders copies on the next run, not the moment you save.
• If you downgrade from Pro, exceptions stop applying and every copy falls back to the shared default. The exception isn't deleted, so it comes back if you upgrade again.

Related

Different settings per destination calendar

Set 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.

Appearance: how copied events look

Every setting that decides what a copy looks like when it lands: title, availability, privacy, colour, guests and reminders.

Hide details only for some events

Use a rule to show Busy or Private for the events you pick, such as big meetings or one source calendar, and leave every other copy as it is, on Plus.

Mirror or Push: which one do you need

Push feeds one calendar from another and never touches the source. Mirror goes both ways. How to choose, and what switching later deletes.

Three useful rules for Google and Outlook

Join link in Location, guests in the description, personal events as Busy at work. Rules for syncing Google Calendar and Outlook; rules need Plus.

How to sync two Outlook calendars from different accounts

Choose a combined view, one-way availability copies or a two-way Mirror between Microsoft accounts. Check access, privacy and the actual result.

Label copies with the calendar they came from

Put a client's name before each copied title, like [Acme] Standup, to see which calendar it came from. Every plan; a label per calendar needs Plus.

Work ↔ Personal, detail one way only

Keep work and personal calendars in step both ways: work shows Busy, your personal calendar keeps the full details. Needs Pro for the per-calendar settings.

Keep private events private, copy the rest in full

Events marked Private or Confidential copy as Busy with no details. Every other event copies in full. The rules are already written. Needs Plus.

Label client meetings, show everything else as Busy

Meetings with a guest from your client's domain show with a client label. Everything else shows as Busy. You add one rule. Needs Plus.