"On My Mac" iCal versus iCloud

I think the iCal data ARE on our Macs. You can test this by taking your Mac offline (remove the Ethernet plug or inactivate your WiFi). You can still edit existing date entries, or add new entries. However, these changes / additions will be synced into iCloud when you go back online. Obviously, this is required to use iCal on devices like laptops / iPhones that are not always online.

As far as I understand, the "On My Mac" accounts (which you can have in all Apps that connect to iCloud, even in Mail.app for IMAP mailboxes) contain local data which are NOT synced.

After moving from MobileMe to iCloud, I found on both my ML-Macs and also on my iPhone & iPad (with iOS-5) in many Apps data that were in "On My Mac" accounts (e.g. in Notes). After cleaning these data (with cut & paste to the iCloud account) and after removing the last entry, it seems that I can not access or create new entries (e.g. in Notes) on the local device in the "On My Mac" account. Also in Mail.app, the "On My Mac" data show only up when Mail.app is in IMAP or sync trouble, I have not found a way to create these via the GUI.

Hope this helps.

Bests, BW

I'm having a similar and perhaps the same problem as Karl. I am trying to add a calendar that will just be on the mac and not iCloud. I tried Preferences/Accounts/New Account, but that didn't seem to be leading me in the right direction since there was not a pull down option for the iMac.

I was having the same problem. I tried signing out icloud and creating a new calendar On My Mac, but as soon as I signed in again, the new calendar was merged with iCloud. But at the end I found a way out.

First uncheck syncing iCloud with calendar and reminders in System Preferences, and then set up a new calendar in iCal under On My Mac (this may not be necessary at all, but that's what I did). Then choose Find > New Calendar. Enter your iCloud account and set it up from there. In this way you will keep both On My Mac and iCloud. Hope this helps.

splithsc wrote:

First uncheck syncing iCloud with calendar and reminders in System Preferences, and then set up a new calendar in iCal under On My Mac (this may not be necessary at all, but that's what I did). Then choose Find > New Calendar. Enter your iCloud account and set it up from there. In this way you will keep both On My Mac and iCloud. Hope this helps.

Attempted your method, splithsc. There are a couple of things that seem a bit unclear to me in your procedure. Besides that it didn't work for me.

I can set up a new calendar in On My Mac, but in order to do so, I had to unsubscribe from ALL shared calendars (I share some Google calendar events too) first AND turn off iCloud in order to create a calendar in On My Mac. Once that was accomplished I was able to create a calendar and an event in that Calendar that way though.

Curiously, shared Google accounts do not delete the On My Mac created calendar when they are re-enabled.

When entering iCloud again the "merge" action somehow replaces calendars On My Mac not merge them as the menu states, merges the calendar created in On My Mac and deletes the entry sort of as it says! Events created in the Calendar are gone but the calendar is gone!

Turning off the iCloud doesn't bring back the missing "On My Mac" nor data in it, however.