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Google Contacts and TBSync (groups and labels) question...

  • 16 respostas
  • 2 have this problem
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  • Last reply by Chris

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I recently updated to version 78 of Thunderbird. I was using gContactSync (which is no longer compatible). I have switched to TBSync.

Now my question:

In my Thunderbird Address Book. I have my contacts in groups/folders. i.e. Family, Friends, and Business. In my Google account I have the same set up but with labels. I had to do a lot of messing about to get gContactSync to maintain the groups.

I am concerned if I turn on the sync in TBSync for the Address Book that it will trash one or both the address books in Thunderbird and in Google! Would this happen?

Also what is the difference (in TBSync) between "Contacts" and "Address Book"? Contacts seems to be read only.

Thanks.

I recently updated to version 78 of Thunderbird. I was using gContactSync (which is no longer compatible). I have switched to TBSync. Now my question: In my Thunderbird Address Book. I have my contacts in groups/folders. i.e. Family, Friends, and Business. In my Google account I have the same set up but with labels. I had to do a lot of messing about to get gContactSync to maintain the groups. I am concerned if I turn on the sync in TBSync for the Address Book that it will trash one or both the address books in Thunderbird and in Google! Would this happen? Also what is the difference (in TBSync) between "Contacts" and "Address Book"? Contacts seems to be read only. Thanks.

Chosen solution

I did some tests with TbSync. If Address Book is selected in TbSync settings, a two-way sync between Address Book and Google Contacts is established, although it doesn't seem to work with mailing lists in TB and Labels in Contacts (even if the box is checked on the Options tab in TbSync). A separate Google address book is created in Address Book.

If you select Contacts as well as Address Book in TbSync settings, a calendar is added to the Lightning calendar list, which I think adds events such as birthdays that are defined in Contacts. The explanations are a bit obscure, but the important feature, syncing contacts between TB and Google, works, except for lists/labels.

I haven't tested calendar syncing.

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Chosen Solution

I did some tests with TbSync. If Address Book is selected in TbSync settings, a two-way sync between Address Book and Google Contacts is established, although it doesn't seem to work with mailing lists in TB and Labels in Contacts (even if the box is checked on the Options tab in TbSync). A separate Google address book is created in Address Book.

If you select Contacts as well as Address Book in TbSync settings, a calendar is added to the Lightning calendar list, which I think adds events such as birthdays that are defined in Contacts. The explanations are a bit obscure, but the important feature, syncing contacts between TB and Google, works, except for lists/labels.

I haven't tested calendar syncing.

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So I think you are saying, if I enable "Address Book" in TBSync, it will create a new entry in Thunderbird with "Google" in its name and all my Google contacts will appear under it? Thus duplicating the contacts I already have in my Thunderbird Address Book. Is that correct?

I have five Google calenders. Four are my own, one is a holidays one. It seems to be working reasonably well. Though I have noticed that an event I my main calender (which shows up on my phone) is missing in Thunderbird. :(

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Yes, a new address book named Google appears in Address Book, and its contacts are synced with Google Contacts, i.e. a change at either the TB end or the Contacts end is reflected at the other end.

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This has lead to an interesting issue.

So I have 51 addresses in my Google account. All are under labels. A few a Starred. However only 9 of them appear under "Contacts" on the Google Contacts web page. If I set TBSync to get my Google contacts it only gets those 9 contacts and not the rest. I am not sure why the other 42 addresses are not in the "Contacts" list on the Google web page.

Needs some more investigations...

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If I add a new contact to a gmail label, the contact is automatically added to Contacts as a separate entry, as well. The new contact syncs with the TB Google address book, but as before, the label doesn't appear as a mailing list. It may be that when you added contacts to labels, they weren't added also as separate contacts, but now they do.

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Yes. I added them all back into the contacts list and they all appeared. I have added them as read-only. I will manage them in the web page for Google as you say it doesn't retain the groups.

Thanks for your help.

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I am lost. I have installed the TBsync add-on, but I can't find any menu in Thunderbird 78.4.1 that lets me configure it.

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It is under the "Tools" menu item. Called "Synchronization Settings (TBSync)".

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Note that the latest version of TbSync/Provider for CalDAV/CardDAV doesn't support Google, but Card Book does work for Google Contacts, except for labels.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1311530#answer-1365427

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But what about calenders? Does TbSync still support them? Only is it only the address book bit that has been dropped?

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Haven't tried a calendar with TbSync, but if you already have it syncing Contacts, try selecting the 4th box in TbSync settings which is after Contacts and Holidays. See this post about an alternative.

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I was looking at it earlier. I am using the latest version of TBSync. Google Calendar & Address book both seem to still be in sync.

Very odd...

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The author of TbSync/Provider for CalDAV/CardDAV has issued another update today, so the situation is 'fluid'. But it's not possible to add a new Google account.

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Hoping to compare notes with other TbSync users. First - it appears to be a great tool and I suspect I need to figure out how to use it properly. I turned on the extensions.dav4tbsync.googlesupport TRUE and was able to add my Google account on Thunderbird using the TbSync interface. Below is a list of what I've seen so far... does this match your experience? Has anyone run across a "how to" for TbSync? Thanks

  • My first sync of Address Book and Contacts resulted in my Personal Address Book being sync'd up to Google and an address book called "Google" being created in my Thunderbird client
  • No other changes wither on my Thunderbird client go up to Google (new contact or changes to contacts)
  • No changes to Google contacts appear to be getting sync'd down to Thunderbird
  • It appears labels/lists don't sync (but that could be related to the 2 above points where I'm seeing no changes sync'd after the initial sync from Thunderbird up to Google

Would appreciate an opportunity compare notes with other Google users on Thunderbird. THANKS

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I just tested with TbSync 2.19 and Provider for CalDAV & CardDAV 1.24. Adding a contact in the Google address book in TB, or adding a contact in Google Contacts, syncing works both ways after the account is synced in Tools/Synchronization Settings (TbSync). Labels and lists don't sync, but I don't think that's ever been possible with this add-on.

Card Book is an alternative that does sync Contacts in both directions (but not lists or labels). CardDAV is available in TB, but it doesn't currently support Google OAuth2 authentication.

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That seems to be my experience too. I have TbSync 2.19 and CalDav 1.24. Though, at the moment, Thunderbird only accesses my Google Contacts one way (read only). I tend to manage my contacts on Google's website or on my phone/tablet.

I have installed Card Book and "Provider for Google Calendar" on the Ubuntu version of Thunderbird and it seems to work too. (Though Thunderbird on Ubuntu is the 64-bit version 68 not 32-bit version 78 I have on Windows 10).