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takeshin
Asked: 2010-10-02 04:42:57 +0800 CST

Sync calendar and contacts with Android smartphone

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I use Thunderbird with Lighting calendar addon, which stores calendar data in iCalendar format.

How can I synchronize this calendar and Thunderbird contacts with Android based smartphone (HTC Wildfire).

I know I can use Google Account, but I'd prefer to use bluetooth or even better, local access via wi-fi (no internet connection available).

Is there any complete Ubuntu smartphone synchronization guide somewhere?

android thunderbird

7 Answers

  1. I'm afraid there's no easy solution... Android phones are meant to be used with internet access, and to synchronize with the clouds (basically: with the Google cloud, but you could do it with some other things, like an exchange server or UbuntuOne account).

    In any case, synchronizing your phone directly to a local computer is not the way Android works.

    Offhand, I think you could make a exchange-like server on your computer (like Zimbra, or Open-Xchange), and make both your Thunderbird and Android sync to it... I'm not sure it would work, and I actually think it's overkill, but... Honestly, I don't see anything else :-(

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  2. Best Answer

    Use gContactSync thunderbird add-on for the Google Contacts sync: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/8451/

    And for the Google Calendar synchronisation you should use "Provider for Google Calendar" for lightning / sunbird: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/provider-for-google-calendar/

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  3. It is not perfect but this is what I did:

    1. I had installed Windows XP as a guest OS on VirtualBox on my Ubuntu machine. Then I installed MyPhoneExplorer on Windows XP. I had also created a folder named VirtualBoxFolder, which I can access both from Ubuntu and from Windows.

    2. I created a new Calendar in Thunderbird/Lightning. This calendar is On the Network, and the address is "file:///home/USER/VirtualBoxFolder/CALENDAR_NAME.ics" (without quotes; you must put your Ubuntu username and your calendar name instead of mine).

    3. Then I configured MyPhoneExplorer to syncronize with that calendar. So I get acces from my HTC Wildfire to the same calendar as my Lightning has. It runs in the two ways (from HTC to the PC and from the PC to the HTC device).

    4. I can also locate the calendar in a DropBox directory instead of the VirtualBox, but I do not like to become network-dependent.

    Hope this will help.

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  4. UbuntuOne for mobile devices supports contacts sync. And there is manual to sync contacts with Thunderbird. Hope this helps.

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  5. for contacts i'm using this app and extension https://sites.google.com/site/roger4apps/

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  6. i am using funambol, it works up to now (version 9) Jonas Maurus does great efforts to keep the version updated, despite the tremendous release of version from thunderbird

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  7. Use the Zindus add-in in Thunderbird. It works much better than gCaontactSync and has been very reliable over a number of years.

    Evolution has not reached maturity yet - its handling of contact data such as birthdays remains in deficit when it comes to syncing data.

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