Watch data sync is a known bug; they told me they are working on a fix.
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Maybe itās the Watch sync bug fix?
Iāve been following this thread and what Iāve decided is it is not worth it to keep using Fantastical if it going to be this confusing to figure out how to use my calendar. I think the best analogy so far has been itās like buying a new physical calendar every year, but I donāt really want to do that, and if I have to add overhead to my āsacredā tool, then thatās more than I really need to do.
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I have had Fantastical 1, then 2, for a long time and especially with v2 I appreciated and used its integration with Reminders on Catalina. I donāt use Fantastical on my phone or iPad, just my Mac.
On v3 release day Fantastical 2 offered to upgrade to v3 and told me I get to keep all v2 features. Seemed like that was OK, so I did let it upgrade from v2 to v3. (It also offered a 14 day trial of premium but I donāt use the app for collaboration and donāt use it on iOS, so that wasnāt necessary I thought)
In the upgrade process the app upgraded the database, so that might mean I could never go back to v2, if I could even find the installer.
Only one glitch so far. With Google Calendars v3 syncs and imports events with the wrong color ā I mean, it doesnāt respect the color I set in Preferences. In fact it uses a ācustom colorā, which shouldnāt happen since custom colors is a premium feature. Not a big deal. I assume v3.x will fix it.
Anyway, the upgrade was free and did no damage and didnāt take anything away on Mac. I donāt know about iOS upgrades. For me, this was a non-issue.
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Wow they are getting clobbered in reviews on the App Store. It must be very difficult for devs/companies to forecast how many users they will lose compared to how many will pay up, and what the net revenue gain will be (plus reputation damage).
I appreciate getting to keep most of the past features without upgrading, but could do without the nags. Also glad to read theyāve already pushed a fix for watch app.
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Typical for every app Iāve seen that went to subscription, regardless of how smoothly. Ulysses is 4.7 stars in the MAS now, but for the first year it was 3 stars or under.
Wow, prices rose on those apps - back in 2017 I got the Mac and iOS apps for $1.99 each. I use the Mac app but only for the menubar clock and to view events - I found it slightly painful to enter items on the Mac app, and I didnāt take to the iOS app at all. (On iOS I use the pay version of Readdleās Calendar [thereās a free version in the App Store too], and on the Mac a 3rd-party Google Calendar app thatās no longer available.
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Yea. I went looking at alternative calendar apps after Fantasticalās pricing, and it was amazing to me how expensive many of the apps are.
- Calendar 366 is decent, but still no where near as fluid as Fantastical. But on iOS itās the one closest to what Iām looking for that isnāt Fantastical. But itās $22 for both versions
- WeekCal is the closest in functionality to Fantastical on iOS, but itās a yearly subscription for $15, and no Mac app.
- BusyCal is a great app suite, probably the closest to what I want on the Mac. However, their iOS app is missing the Day Ticker view that Fantastical has, so itās a bit more cumbersome to see my schedule in a list. If you donāt have Setapp, the Mac app is $50 + $5 for iOS.
- Readdleās Calendar is decent & has a free option, but again no Day Ticker view, and no Mac app.
All in all, it has made me realize how much of a monopoly Fantastical has on multi-system calendaring now.
$40 is a lot to pay per year to use a calendar when I mostly keep track on paper (and I donāt collaborate with a lot of others), so I donāt think Iāll subscribe when my trial is up. But itās definitely the most seamless option when youāre trying to work across iOS, macOS, & watchOS. 
Long time user here. Just deleted and going back to the stock app. I donāt do subscriptions for apps.
There is opening a gap for developers that want to sell apps. Everybody imho loathes subscriptions
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I went ahead and got Calendar 366 for iOS - $6.99 - and so far it seems great for my needs. I havenāt experimented much with adding items though.
Update:
The 30 day trial on the Mac is greatā¦and so far as easy as Fantastical for adding new items.
Out of curiosity I reinstalled BusyCal on my Mac. I had purchased it sometime ago but for over a year now I have been using the default Apple calendar. When I put them side-by-side, there is minimal difference. I know there are a few tweaks here and there in BusyCal in terms of alarms and some other features but frankly, I donāt see much advantage in a program like BusyCal versus the stock app. Perhaps Iām missing something? And of course, I will need to continue upgrading BusyCal if I were to use it whereas the Apple calendar is completely free. To me, it makes sense to just stay with Apple calendar. In short, I just donāt see anything compelling to justify the cost in the non-stock calendar apps. Thoughts?
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Doesnāt BusyCal also offer natural language parsing on iOS and Apple doesnāt (currently just on macOS)?
Also smart filters and calendar sets should be available.
Smart Filters are the killer feature for me. It also has a menubar calendar option, in addition to natural language, weather integrationā¦
Anyone know how to install Fantastical 2 on iOS. I went through the install via Purchased Apps and chose Fantastical 2 but still it installs V3. What a mess they created.
This is ransomware from Fantastical. Leave my purchased App alone.
I may have spoke too soon 
Iām going to give BusyCal a two week run to see what I think. Thanks for the input.
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This is fixed in 3.0.1 and v2 customers even seem to get the new calendar selection for free 
Additionally they made several of the Premium starts grey instead of red, so itās less āin your faceā to v2 customers.
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Version 3 (iPhone & iPad) is an update to iPhone version 2.
Since you canāt install older versions of an App (unless the current version is not supported on the iOS version running on a device), you can only install iPhone version 3. You can install iPad version 2, since that was a separate App, which is not updated.
The key feature is customizability.
- Almost total control over font sizes
- Reminders integration
- Specify how many days are in a week for a 2-week āweekā view
- Menubar app
- Natural language
- Weather integration
- Timezone support
- Info panel customization
Thereās so much in there. Honestly, itās so close to Fantastical if you only need macOS and donāt care about feature parity with iOS, then BusyCal is a super solid choice.
Iām a heavy user of calendaring (I time-block my days). Appleās Calendar apps are not enough for me, and I really dislike the gestures on the iPhone to switch to different views. I never can remember how to switch between them; it just hasnāt clicked with my brain.
Because Iām a heavy calendar user, I regularly try the competition. Thus far, Iāve always returned to Fantastical. So after reading the release notes, it was a no-brainer for me to subscribe. Flexibits seems to be doing the right things here ā except for the auto-update from v2 to v3. They could have avoided a lot of the bitching here if theyād just abandoned v2 like other developers have. That method has its downsides, too, but only time will tell if the negative reaction here is enough to damage their sales.
As for watch sync, I rely upon it and itās ALWAYS been buggy. This fallās release of Catalina and iOS 13 screwed up calendar sync on the watch for me for weeks! And thatās with the stock Calendar app ā it has nothing to do with Fantastical. (Though I prefer to run Fantastical on the watch, when I have sync problems I switch to Appleās Calendar. In my experience, every calendar sync problem has been with Appleās data. Which is reassuring but also a bummer.)
I got my sync working again by restarting all of my devices. Not sure if it was the restart that did it or Fantasticalās point update that just appeared.
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I definitely need iOS syncāI spend 80-90+ percent of my time on the iPad Pro (varies by week and projects). But, as far as I can tell, it syncs fine. Thanks for the list of features. Iām going to have to spend more time with BC to learn some of the features. YouTube information is old or minimal.
Sorry, I guess I shouldāve written that as āfeature parityā. BusyCal on macOS is quite different to BusyCal on iOS as far as features go.
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