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Thunderbird Calendar in Gnome 3

Note:

I do not use Gnome 3 anymore. I'm just leaving this up, because this post on my old blog had become very popular with a couple of thousand hits per month. So in case people still need it, here it is. My original guide has been improved upon by the people in the comments and they seem to have come up with a way to make it easier than the way I was doing it. Anyway, as I said I didn't verify it. If anyone wants to write an new guide, please post it somewhere on a blog or website and message me a link, I will gladly post a link to redirect those who still seek information on the topic.

I love Gnome 3, but I hate the Evolution Mail Client it ships with. Thunderbird (+Lightning Extension) is superior to it in any way. In fact, Evolution is pretty much the Outlook Express of the Linux World. However, Gnome 3 has this really nice calendar view when you click on the Clock in the Top Bar, but it pulls its calendar data from Evolution and there's no easy option to get the data from Thunderbird, which I personally prefer. There's an addon for Thunderbird called "evolution-mirror" which is supposed to sync the data, but it doesn't seem to work with Evolution 3 anymore. Another way to accomplish the sync is this:

First we publish the Thunderbird Calendar to a local file.

As you can see I put my Calendars into a hidden directory here, but you can really put them anywhere. After this is done, it's time to launch Evolution. Add a new local calendar and select the file you just exported your calendar into.

Note the "On file change" option here, so it automatically refreshes when the calendar updates. The downside of this method is that every time you update your calendar in Thunderbird you need to publish it again. However, Evolution picks up the updated calendar automatically, so that part works on its own. And there we go, having all our calendar date in the Gnome Top Bar.

Edit: In the comments there's a method to "auto publish" calendars using an extension.

Replies

Blaimi Says:

thanks for this info.

this helps for publishing calendars automatically: http://www.sunbird-kalender.de/extension/autoexport/en/index.html

patrick Says:

That's great. It actually works perfect now. Thanks!

Jack Says:

Thanks- although it's annoying that I have to do this, it's very helpful, and not at all as hard as I was expecting it to be. I just hope there are some extensions later on that tailor to using Thunderbird as the default Mail and Calendar application and integrating those features directly.

michael Says:

Hi,

so there is an plugin for Thunderbird which actually "mirrors" the calendar to evolution-data-server. It might be interesting for you

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/evolution-mirror/

Best regards, Michael

patrick Says:

Actually, no: 'There's an addon for Thunderbird called "evolution-mirror" which is supposed to sync the data, but it doesn't seem to work with Evolution 3 anymore.'

Manoel Jorge Says:

Thanks,

I was searching on Google how to integrate Thunderbird+Lighting on Gnome 3 and I found your site. It's working fine here !

Info about my system: Ubuntu 11.04 x86_64 with Gnome 3. Thunderbird 3.1.11 with Lighting 1.0b2 extension.

Reg Says:

"evolution-mirror" which is supposed to sync the data, but it doesn't seem to work with Evolution 3 anymore'

It works for me. Fedora 15 i686, Evolution 3.0.3, Thunderbird 6.0.2, Lightning 1.0b5, Evolution Mirror 0.2.3

Lardy Says:

Cheers for this. Running with Fedora 15, Gnome 3, Thunderbird 7.0 & Lightning 1.0b7.

Did not use AutoExport_0.5.0.xpi

Solution:

  1. Switch to Calendar mode in Thunderbird
    • Menu: Events and Tasks > Calendar
    • Can't see the calendar list?
    • In TB window grab the divider on the far left if you have hidden like me
  2. Export your calendar to /home/lardy/.calendar/home.ics
  3. Copy home.ics to another location, just in case
  4. In Thunderbird, Create a new calendar and select ?On the Network'
  5. Set Location to: file:///home/lardy/.calendar/home.ics
  6. Now you can delete your original calendar from Thunderbird
  7. Leaving you using home.ics
  8. Changes made to your calendar in Thunderbird will instantly show in Gnome 3

Federico Says:

evolution-mirror (version 0.2.3) works fine also here (Debian testing, evolution 3.0.3-2, thunderbird Patrick, you should update the guide. Thanks!

DrewLong Says:

Evolution-Mirror seams to have a problem with Evolution on Ubuntu .. It works OK on Fedora 15 & LMDE running in VB but not on anything with an Ubuntu base for some reason.

zenabi Says:

Lardy's solution together with the original post is beautiful! Works without any extensions and supports different calendars! Thank you so much, guys! PS: If you want that "Open Calendar" actually starts Thunderbird instead of evolution execute this in a terminal: gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.default-applications.office.calendar exec thunderbird

jsnjack Says:

Thank you. It works very good except one thing: in gnome 3 calendar any event has +1 hour? How to fix it?

Scugnizzo Says:

Hi all, to launch thunderbird from the panel made ??dconf-editor and in the path org / gnome / desktop / application / office / calendar and org / gnome / desktop / application / office / task (optional) replaced "evolution" with "thunderbird"

Thanks for tutorial.

Henk Says:

Do I have to start evoluton and thunderbird for the calander to sync after I changed/add events? I have used Lardy? solution and the original post.

Marco Says:

Try to use GCALdaemon, a small daemon which do all the sync work for your calendar. I used this to do offline changes to my Google Calendar. http://www.google.it/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=gcaldaemon&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCYQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgcaldaemon.sourceforge.net%2F&ei=-ehqT_3AO8KgOvSo9IUG&usg=AFQjCNFU31YNsIv0njDDFuhX0mTm41r9JQ

Jan Says:

"evolution-mirror" works for me. Ubuntu 12.04 i386 Evolution Mirror 0.2.3