Synchronize Calendar and Contacts with your Google account!
This no longer works! See the new tutorial.
Video instructions
Instructions
Ever since I used “Gcontactsync” to synchronize my contacts and calendar with Thunderbird. Unfortunately the plugin does not longer work for newer versions of Thundbird. The better alternative is TbSync.
You can install the plugin directly in Thunderbird.
Officially Google Accounts are no longer supported by the plugin. However the functionality can be activated in the extended settings. Open the Thunderbird settings and scroll to the bottom and click on the “Config Editor” button.
Accept the warning which appears. In the editor we have to create a new “boolean value”. Right click somewhere and select “New” – “Boolean“.
Enter “extensions.dav4tbsync.googlesupport” as value and click OK.
The boolean value must be set to “True”.
The value is displayed in the config editor.
Restart Thunderbird to apply the new setting. After restart, we have to open the TbSync settings.
Add a new “CalDAV & CardDAV” account.
The plugin will now tell us, that we need another plugin for CalDAV and CardDAV support. Click the link in the settings and install the plugin.
Once this is done, we again try to add the account. Notify that the icon has changed:
The server profile dialog shows up and now select “Google”. If its not shown check the extended settings me made before for typos.
Enter an account name on the next page. On the next page we are asked for the credentials of our Google account.
After login you need to allow the access to your Google account.
That’s it! The account is created, just click finish on the last page.
Synchronize
Now all we have to do is synchronize our account. Activate the synchronization and select the contact lists and calendars you want to synchronize. You can also define read/write access.
Once you click the “Synchronize now” button the items are synchronized. You can also set a periodic sync by changing the number from zero to any other value.
If you look at the calender and contacts in Thunderbird your items should appear.
