Sync rules by event property: title, location, all-day and more
Updated 10 October 2026
A sync rule has one condition and one action: if an event matches the condition, do the action. The condition is chosen under IF on the Sync Rules screen, from the Field list. This article lists every field the screen offers, what it matches, and which values it accepts, so you can see what a rule can and cannot look at.
The fields fall into three groups: words in the event, what kind of event it is, and when it starts. Matching on words and on Visibility is in every plan. The rest needs Premium, Pro or the 14-day trial.
Which fields look at words in the event?
| Field | Reads | How it matches |
|---|---|---|
| Title | the event's title | The keyword you type, matched the way you choose (below) |
| Content | the event's description or notes (shown in your rules list as "Notes contain") | The same |
| Location | the event's location | The same |
| Visibility | whether the event is marked private or public | Is Public or Private |
How a keyword matches
Next to the keyword, Match picks how it is compared. Take the keyword "art":
| Match | "art" matches | But not |
|---|---|---|
| Contains (the default) | Art class, Party, Martha | — |
| Contains the word | Art class, "Art." | Party, Martha |
| Starts with | Art class | Party, My art |
| Is exactly | Art | Art class |
Upper and lower case are ignored unless you tick Match case, which stops "US" from matching "us". Accents count ("Ecole" doesn't match "École") unless you tick Ignore accents.
A Contains keyword needs at least three letters, because a shorter one would match almost anything ("HR" is in "three"). For a short word like "HR" or "PT", choose Contains the word, Starts with or Is exactly, or tick Match case; then two letters are enough. Rules made before these options existed keep working exactly as they did: Contains, with case ignored.
Which fields look at what kind of event it is?
These fields use "Is" rather than "Contains". They work when the calendar you copy from is a Google, Outlook or Apple calendar, or a calendar feed, and neither calendar is connected through Cronofy. A calendar feed can't use Reminder, because most feeds leave reminders out, and it can only say Free or Busy for Show As. If a connection cannot offer a field, the screen leaves it out.
| Field | Values you can pick |
|---|---|
| All-day event | Yes, No |
| Repeating event | Yes, No |
| Reminder | Yes, No (whether the event has a reminder) |
| Longer than | a number of minutes, hours or days |
| Shorter than | a number of minutes, hours or days |
| Show As | Free or Busy on a Google source; Free, Tentative, Busy, Out of office or Working elsewhere on an Outlook source |
| Importance | High, Normal, Low (Outlook source only) |
| Event Meeting/Status | Tentative, Confirmed (Google source only) |
| Label / color | a color from the source Google calendar |
| Category | a category from the source Outlook calendar |
"Longer than" and "Shorter than" are strict: an event of exactly the length you enter matches neither. An event with no start and end time matches neither. A reminder set to zero minutes still counts as a reminder. An event that says nothing about Show As counts as Busy.
Importance and Event Meeting/Status each belong to one calendar type, and the list shows only the one that fits the source of the connection you chose. Label / color and Category work the same way; see how to skip events by color.
Which fields look at when the event starts?
| Field | Matches |
|---|---|
| Starts inside set hours | events that start inside hours, days and a timezone you set |
| Starts outside set hours | events that start outside them |
See how to sync only during working hours.
What can the rule do when it matches?
Under Then you choose an action: Don't Sync, "Sync, but hide the details", "Sync, but mark it private", and, where the plan and the calendars allow, the copy actions and sending to a different calendar. See how to stop certain events from syncing, how to keep private events private, how to label copied events and how to send certain events to a different calendar.
What cannot a rule look at?
The Sync Rules screen does not offer the attendees, the organizer, whether you accepted or declined, attendee count, meeting links or attachments. A rule also cannot combine conditions, such as "all-day and Busy". To catch two cases, add two rules.
Which plans include these?
Title, Content, Location and Visibility are included in every plan. The kind-of-event fields, Label / color, Category and the working-hours fields are included in the 14-day trial, Premium and Pro, not in Free or Basic.
On Free and Basic the premium fields still appear in the Field list tagged "(Upgrade to: Premium)". You can build the rule and preview it, but the button reads "Save, switched off" and the rule does not run. The number of rules is limited by plan as well; see why a sync rule was switched off after a plan change.
What to know
- Rules that contradict each other are refused when you add them, for example a Don't Sync rule and a "hide the details" rule on the same condition, or a Don't Sync rule on one side of a yes/no field and a "hide the details" rule on the other.
- A rule that adds only a label, importance, title text or mark to the copy can sit beside a Don't Sync rule on a different condition; on the same condition the Don't Sync wins and the other has nothing to act on, so the screen refuses that pair too.
- What happens to events already copied when you add or delete a rule is covered in what happens when I add or delete a keyword.