I used to use a palm pilot device for contacts, to do lists, and calendar, and I would sync it to my desktop with jpilot. This worked really well, but it became difficult finding palm pilot like devices after the battery in my last one died. So, I now do have a smart phone running LineageOS (which is a more open source version of android). It has a calendar app, which I use offline, since I don't want to feed my life plans to the friendly people of Google. But I would like a copy to be kept on my desktop computer. So, is there software that will sync with the calendar app? Is there a way to sync with Thunderbird or something?

My attempts thus far: from F-Droid, I installed Syncthing, since it sorta sounded like something I was looking for. I then installed the Debian package to my computer. But, well, nothing was obvious to me, so I figure it wasn't what I wanted and removed them.

something not being obvious doesn't mean it's the wrong thing.

https://staging.f-droid.org/search?q=sync
i think you should try some more.

Yes, perhaps. I found this site and followed its instructions. It did allow for the camera photos to be copied to my hard drive, but that's something I was already able to do with gmtp. How to sync addresses and tasks and calendar events with Syncthing (IE, have a Calendar application on my desktop that can sync with the Calendar app on my phone), or whether Syncthing can do this, is a mystery.

Perhaps this, CalDav, is the answer: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/sync-c...linux-android/

Something I think I'll check out. I don't think Syncthing is the answer to what I'm looking for.

Well, I messed around with some CalDav stuff for a while, and decided it's too much of a bother. It then occurred to me that rather than sticking with the old jpilot sync format, I may as well simply export files from the phone and import them to compliant desktop applications. jpilot is not compliant (it only takes csv files, and not ics) so instead I'm using Orage, the XFCE calendar. It's pretty good, actually. And I also imported my contacts into Thunderbird, which is fine. I do gotta say though that the calendar addon for Thunderbird, called Lightning, sucks. Maybe I should check out Evolution again. But I digress.

The problem was figuring out how to export stuff from the phone. The phone contacts were not a problem, since that app gives an export option. But none of my calendars gave an export option. However, I discovered Calendar Import-Export. That solved it. I used gmtp to transfer the files.

I still prefer jpilot, since it had everything in one program and also came with syncing capability. Oh well.

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thanks for all this info, it is something i need to tackle myself soon.

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Yes, you're welcome. Admittedly, I'm glad I figured out how to get a copy of contacts and calendar appointments copied to my desktop (just in case I lost my phone), but I still would like to be able to have the same syncing ability I had with pilot-sync and jpilot (back when I was using Palm Pilots). I recently exported a newer calendar file from my phone to my desktop, importing that to the Orage calendar on my desktop, and I ended up with double copies of stuff that had been previously imported. So, I really haven't yet solved the sync issue. But, at least now I know that I have the calendar and contact information from my phone backed up onto my desktop.

I think I'll undo my "solved" marking on this. For now I'll just keep exporting and importing the contacts and calendar stuff, until I can figure out an actual way to sync stuff between the desktop and the phone (bypassing having to rely on Google). Syncthing seems rather primitive at the moment. The CalDav stuff I referred to likely is a solution, but I'm not quite diligent enough to really understand and set it up correctly right now.

I just posted this question on AndroidQuestions.org, which is the first time I've posted there (not sure what I think of how the site is set up yet, but I think I definitely prefer the set up that LQ has). Be interesting to see if any further answers can be had from there.

I have opted to use the Google calendar (Yeah...I know) to sync between the various installations of Thunderbird (two Windows, one Linux) and the calendar on my iPhone and iPad. It works very well. Adding an event on the web site or in any calendar application on any device results in it showing up on every device within minutes.

I've not tackled syncing contacts yet.

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Thanks scasey. What you describe sounds good. But yeah, I'm still trying to not use Google, since sharing my daily appointments with them kinda creeps me out. Granted, they likely already know more about me than even I know about myself, but still, I'd prefer not to make it so easy (which is why I only use duckduckgo to search for stuff now). Anyway, at some point I think I'm gonna have to dive into the CalDAV stuff and see if I can figure it out.

Regarding contacts, I think that's less of an issue. It's mostly the calendar that I'm hoping to solve.

Okay, decided to try to tackle this again. I installed "radicale" on my desktop, and edited its config file at /etc/radicale/config, to enable a bunch of stuff (everything before was commented out with a hashtag). I then checked out http://localhost:5232/, which seems to be the place to go to see if it's working. And yes, it says "Radicale works!" at this site. But that's all it says. It doesn't seem to detect my phone.

I then installed aCalDAV on my phone. It, like Radicale, runs in the background. Is it working? Well, not with my desktop. But, I noticed that the default calendar I had installed on the phone didn't seem to have any CalDAV option. So, I installed another calendar, with CalDAV support. Then, I enabled CalDAV within this new calendar, and it asked me if I wanted to sync with the other calendar on my phone. Sure, I said, so that worked. Still, it does not see my desktop, even though it's connected by USB, and even though supposedly "Radicale works!"

Puzzled.

i have similar experiences with radicale.
i read somewhere that they "deliberately implement only a small subset of the (somethingsomething) standard".
unfortunately i did not tackle it anymore after that, but i suggest using a different caldav server. there are a few around.

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It seems that people have to run their own webserver to be able to sync calendar events, which is nuts. The phone is connected by a USB cord, ferfuksakes! Supposedly Radicale was one of the few programs that allowed for people to not have to run a webserver to be able to sync their calendar events. But I've yet to figure it out.

Seems it's listening but not hearing anything. I gave up on aCalDAV and tried DAVdroid, since it has better reviews. Still no luck. It needs a user name (email) and password (email password) and URL... and that's a bit confusing.

no it's not.
either you, or someone else runs it for you.
something needs to "serve" the data over the "web".

of course there's still the usb cable option.
now that option is nuts because of the way android is implemented (mtp for storage, complicated permissions for apps etc.).
if you're very lucky, you can locate the file in question and simply push/pull it with when you connect your phone.
i am currently doing this with a keepasssx database and it works reasonably well.

My forays into trying CalDAV failed, so I'm going to try Syncthing once again. [later edit] In looking at it again I'm left with the same impression that I had earlier, in that it won't help sync calendar events from my phone to my desktop.