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Stay in Sync with GCal and Thunderbird.

bfish.xaedalus.net — View and Update your Google Calendar offline from within Thunderbird by making use of the Lightning and Provider Add-ons. This step-by-step guide will show you how to get up and running (and staying in sync) in no time!

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  • xtragedy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12Very good! Finally a step towards integrating gcal on the desktop! (that doesn't cost)
  • conradovina, on 10/12/2007, -5/+7Great hack!

    Now I only need an auto-sync with my mobile, and I'll be forever happy.
    • gaervern, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4With a program called oggsync you can sync two-ways with the calendar in a Windows Mobile phone and Google calendar, and it is free as long as one gcal is enough for you.
    • cawpin, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3It's not a hack. Somebody just finally used the feature set of iCal.
    • conradovina, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3@cawpin: You are right it is not a hack in that sense. I meant it as a "lifehack". And one I've been longing for some time.

      And to think it was sitting there in the TB betas, but nobody was noticing...
    • ritsma, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0No,...no,. Get GCal to work in windows mobile PCs that's the solution.....
    • stoppedcode12, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2WTF is a "lifehack"? It's not a hack period. Get it through your head. I am sick of people overusing the word "hack".
    • conradovina, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifehack
    • nic777, on 01/06/2008, -0/+1For Symbian decices, goosync is a great producy that works
  • pompom246, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7just fyi: if you read the mozilla wiki entry on provider, it states that recurring events are not internally supported and that they cannot be created or edited. somewhat of a drawback for me, but maybe some entrepreneurial people will help them get that support soon.
    • conradovina, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Let's hope so. I bet someone will.

      That, and the ability to work offline, as someone on the post comments pointed out it is missing too.
    • synarchy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Thanks for that tip. I don't mind, for now, creating recurring events via the Google web interface. Once created in the Google web interface, they do all show up in Lightening. That's fine with me since I rarely have to create those kinds of events anyway.
  • ahmerhussain, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4If onlly google supported a way to do two-way syncing with iCal...

    Tehn, I would use iCal so much more.
  • goat2, on 10/12/2007, -12/+1i prefer outlook 2007. and only outlook 2007
    • veza, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4why just Outlook 2007 ?
    • goat2, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1because it does everything i need, like ... has a calendar and manages my email and does reminders
  • gtluke, on 10/12/2007, -5/+0link dead
  • cbergeron, on 10/12/2007, -6/+4Can someone remind me why I want the most powerful marketing/advertising company (Google) knowing every peice of information that's in my calendar again?

    • jumpfroggy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Because they're UI is very convenient, and because it's always-on (internet) vs. having a program at home that can't sync to anything. Plus, for people like me there's nothing on my calendar that I'm scared for Google to "know", as if the thousands of TB's of data sitting in their server ever reaches their eyes. If you have sensitive information, by all means protect it. If you don't, who cares what server it's sitting on as long as it's reliable?
  • chrisharcourt, on 10/12/2007, -4/+5Yeah you did!
    • jues, on 10/12/2007, -5/+5Yeah sorry about ***** your server, Chris - we're still cool right?
  • lichme5000, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1that is hot, hot, HOT!
  • mcbeev, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0very very cool
  • heavensblade23, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3Holy *****, that's great. I've been wanting to use Google Calendar with Mozilla Calendar for like a year now. ***** DUGG
  • TroubleInMind, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Nice idea and good explanation on install and config. Although instructions say valid for 2.x+, thought I'd give it a try on my production build 1.5.0.10 by manually installing the extensions.

    Unfortunately for those of us on non-beta Thunderbird builds, Provider is not compatible :(
    • conradovina, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Get TB2.0 rc1. I promise you won't have any problems. I've been using it since the first beta, and works as good as 1.5
  • WasabiBomb, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1I'd love to use GCal, it seems like a very useful program. Unfortunately, I already keep track of my calendar on my Treo, and there's no way to directly sync the two. Until then, the Treo wins.
    • derning, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Yes there is >>> check out GooSync.com

      I just spent some time installing and testing out the free version with my Treo 700p. Seems to work pretty good so far. Now I've got my TB calendar syncing with Google Calendar syncing with my Treo.

      Man, life is gooooood.
  • brklynmark, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1Until Thunderbird provides decent means of exporting your email, even to use on another install of Thunderbird, I won't use it again. I wasted half a day trying to export a few hundred emails to my laptop last year.

    /Still use Firefox almost exclusively though.
  • jerr0328, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1But will it blend?
    Er, I mean, would there be a way to sync with iTunes/iPod?
  • bctmark, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I'm surprised the news broke today. The "Provider" has been in the add-ons for almost a week prior to the RC1 release of Thunderbird 2. It's a pretty solid integration.

    OggSync is pretty good, although it has the feeling of a bloated cow when it runs on my MDA.
  • arbulus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Now if we could just get Thunderbird's address book to import from the Mac Address Book.app, we'll be set.
  • rman666, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Thunderbird is great, but 2.0 does not work well with Plaxo or LinkedIn, yet.
  • dynacrylic, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I'm curious because I remember reading something that would allow you to sync gCal to an exchange server. Would this then mean that Lightning can FINALLY somehow sync with an exchange server through gCal?
  • riplikethat, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1Too bad Thunderbird is a piece of crap software that crashes and even refuses to get uninstalled most of the times.
  • th3space, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Damnit...I have been trying to just this for a while now, but now I have to bump up to TB2...

    The conundrum is this: do I care more about being able to use Enigmail or do I care more about scheduling.

    *sigh*
  • PirateTactics, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1I don't get it. What's wrong with just using Lightning?
  • synarchy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Thanks. Perfect. I have personal, work, wife's and other Google calendars all linked in. Works perfectly. Awesome! Thanks for cluing me in to the Provider add-on.
  • DesertLynx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I've been using Thunderbird beta 2 for some time with enigmail, the nightly build I used was both reliable and stable. Now I have google sync it's near perfect!!!
  • crossers, on 07/18/2008, -0/+0wow, great step by step guide!
    http://www.shpe-sac.org
    http://www.ocflex.com/
    http://www.trgovinca.org
    http://www.chasr.org/
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