This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

macOS Monterey refuses Thunderbird's authorization request for Contacts

  • 2 cavab
  • 1 has this problem
  • 9 views
  • Last reply by Wayne Mery

more options

I've installed Thunderbird on a new MacBook with macOS Monterey, and the application is not requesting permission to access the Mac's Contacts. As a result, the macOS Address Book is empty and cannot read my contacts on my Mac.

This issue was first raised two years ago in an issue that was identified as a bug and was subsequently fixed and closed. It appears this bug has reappeared.

What should happen is Thunderbird should generate a system request to ask the user to allow it to access "Contacts". This request never appears. When I look at my Mac's System Preferences, under Security & Privacy -> Contacts, there is no entry for Thunderbird. I can't manually add this; the app has to generate the request.

Looking at my console, I found the following warning when I started Thunderbird:

Refusing authorization request for service kTCCServiceAddressBook and subject Sub:{org.mozilla.thunderbird}Resp:{<TCCDProcess: identifier=org.mozilla.thunderbird, pid=9492, auid=501, euid=501, binary_path=/Applications/Thunderbird.app/Contents/MacOS/thunderbird>} without NSContactsUsageDescription key

This message was reported in the bug referenced above. I believe something has probably changed in the latest version of macOS which is causing Thunderbird to incorrectly request access to Contacts from the system.

Should I reopen the bug? Create a new bug? Please advise.

Thunderbird 91.3.1 macOS Monterey (12.0.1) MacBook Pro 2021

I've installed Thunderbird on a new MacBook with macOS Monterey, and the application is not requesting permission to access the Mac's Contacts. As a result, the macOS Address Book is empty and cannot read my contacts on my Mac. This issue was [https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1269923 first raised two years ago] in an issue that was [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1586617 identified as a bug] and was subsequently fixed and closed. It appears this bug has reappeared. What should happen is Thunderbird should generate a system request to ask the user to allow it to access "Contacts". This request never appears. When I look at my Mac's System Preferences, under Security & Privacy -> Contacts, there is no entry for Thunderbird. I can't manually add this; the app has to generate the request. Looking at my console, I found the following warning when I started Thunderbird: Refusing authorization request for service kTCCServiceAddressBook and subject Sub:{org.mozilla.thunderbird}Resp:{<TCCDProcess: identifier=org.mozilla.thunderbird, pid=9492, auid=501, euid=501, binary_path=/Applications/Thunderbird.app/Contents/MacOS/thunderbird>} without NSContactsUsageDescription key This message was reported in the bug referenced above. I believe something has probably changed in the latest version of macOS which is causing Thunderbird to incorrectly request access to Contacts from the system. Should I reopen the bug? Create a new bug? Please advise. Thunderbird 91.3.1 macOS Monterey (12.0.1) MacBook Pro 2021

All Replies (2)

more options

It seems a fix might not happen soon.

Workaround https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1720257#c25

more options

This should be fixed by https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1720257 in one of the next updates of version 102 (but not 102.10.0)