Thunderbird 78.7 - How to sync Google contacts and calendar

I have seen countless messages about this question (though none specifically for Ubuntu) and lots of references to TBsync and Caldav (which I don't know what is), and I have tried adding TBsync and Caldav whatnots, but have obvilusly not done it right.

Sync of Calendar and Contacts was seemless until last update.

I can afford to loose Calendar (now switched to Gnome calendar), but I really need contacts to be integrated in my email client. I cannot use Evolution as it does not allow exporting messages to external folder in any format (eg. html or PDF) other than its own. (TB does this beautifully with addon importEexportTool)

My Ubuntu version is 20.04.

Please, please could somebody explain exactly how to proceed to sync contacts in Thunderbird 78.7? I would be very much obliged.

3 Answers

Problem solved. On the Mozilla forum, I received a reply, which worked like a charm. So let me summarize, for clarity's sake, the steps to take.

1. Tools/addons/search:
   "TbSync"
   "Provider for CalDAV & CardDAV"
   Both are installed straight into Thunderbird – no need to download first.

2. Edit/preferences/general
   Scroll to the bottom of that page and find: "Config editor"
   Open (you will get a warning, but "accept the risk") Scroll down till you find:
   "extensions.dav4tbsync.googlesupport"
   Click that line to change from false to true.

3. Edit/Synchronization settings/Account actions/Add new account/CalDAv & CardDav ->
   Find Google down the list, and click it.
   Add account name - Just a name. Call it anything, e.g. Work or Private
   Click "Next", and now you are in Google territory.

And, oh yes, you have to allow cookies in privay settings.

All your calendars, tasks and contacts will be there, definitely better than ever before, but the process should have been explained. Most people don't think of editing the config list; I certainly didn't.

Probably you found the solution, if not, try the following, it worked with "TbSync" + "Provider for CalDAV & CardDAV" installed in a windows machine. Don't use auto mode and give: account name: "name for local book" user "gmail_account" password "your password" URL "gmail_account"

I found the information here:

The Thunderbird extension Cardbook also works in version 78, although not as seamlessly as the old gcontactsync (which does not work in 78 as of this writing)

I am going to experiment with your method.