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Google Contacts has stopped synchronising to Thunderbird

  • 7 replies
  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by a.h.lohmann

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I have been using Thunderbird address book synchronized to Google contacts but it has stopped synchronizing this summer. I had been able to find new contacts in contacts.google.com add a label then later I found that they had synchronized and were in my various instances of Thunderbird.

This was working fine in the winter this year. But I added a contact this way in the summer and the contact has not appeared in any instance of Thunderbird Address book.

I am using Thunderbird 102.14.0 with Windows 7 and 10. But Linux may be using an older version Ubuntu is on version 102.15.0. The issue seems to have arisen this summer.

I disabled a few years ago; TbSync, Cardbook, Google-4-TbSync, Provider-4-CALDAV & CARDDAV, when Thunderbird Address book started to work with Yahoo and Gmail address books.

The only add-on that I use now is LT for grammar and spell checking.

I have been using Thunderbird address book synchronized to Google contacts but it has stopped synchronizing this summer. I had been able to find new contacts in contacts.google.com add a label then later I found that they had synchronized and were in my various instances of Thunderbird. This was working fine in the winter this year. But I added a contact this way in the summer and the contact has not appeared in any instance of Thunderbird Address book. I am using Thunderbird 102.14.0 with Windows 7 and 10. But Linux may be using an older version Ubuntu is on version 102.15.0. The issue seems to have arisen this summer. I disabled a few years ago; TbSync, Cardbook, Google-4-TbSync, Provider-4-CALDAV & CARDDAV, when Thunderbird Address book started to work with Yahoo and Gmail address books. The only add-on that I use now is LT for grammar and spell checking.

Modified by a.h.lohmann

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So I will set up all my instances of Thunderbird this way and remove the old address books in due cause unless something arises?

Sounds good to me.

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All Replies (7)

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I am running Thunderbird on Mageia OS which is version 102.12.0. This behaves just the same.

Modified by a.h.lohmann

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I had been able to find new contacts in contacts.google.com add a label then later I found that they had synchronized

What does this mean exactly? Using that URL you can get to your contacts via web browser. But Thunderbird supports CardDAV natively to sync with Google Contacts.

Try to create a new CardDAV Address Book. Open the Address Book tab - New Address Book - Add CardDAV Address Book Provide your Gmail email address for 'Username', and leave 'Location' blank. Provide your Google password when prompted, and give permission for Thunderbird to access your Google Contacts.

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Dear Christ1,

What you suggest is what I would have done with Thunderbird a year or two ago. It went through many changes between versions 50 and 90 hence those other add-ons I mentioned that I have not used for a year or two.

The reason I mentioned google contacts was because I found previously that the synchronization was only in one direction Google contacts to Thunderbird. I also found previously that once a contact had been added, by adding a label to it then it could be edited in Thunderbird and that change would synchronize back to google contacts. Now I find that what had been working until early this year does not work now.

Therefore should I delete my google address book in Thunderbird and create another or is there an issue with either Google or Thunderbird that I need to wait a bit longer for it to be resolved? I think the issue had arisen in mid summer this year.

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I don't know what caused the synchronization to stop for you. In any case, when managing contacts within a browser at contacts.google.com make sure contacts are part of the 'Contacts' group (for lack of a better term). Otherwise they won't show in Thunderbird. If a contact isn't part of the 'Contacts' group, there is a little button 'Add to contacts'.

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So I have experimented a bit. There is one new contact I added in the summer, it is in the contact group as you call it, that occurs when I apply a label.

So I created a new CardDAV address book using my same email@gmail.com address (this is not it obviously) and two address books were created (I amended there names slightly because they were both the same "address book"). Anyway having left it a short period and looked again I think all my contacts have been loaded including the new one I added this summer.

Things are not perfect though because the labels in google contacts which show as lists in Thunderbird have not been passed across. So the new address book is just one big list rather than many lists.

Both new address books properties look the same I guess they are not though because one of them is empty. So I will set up all my instances of Thunderbird this way and remove the old address books in due cause unless something arises?

I shall look at this again tomorrow and if it still seems okay I shall mark the support request solved. Thanks christ1.

Andrew

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So I will set up all my instances of Thunderbird this way and remove the old address books in due cause unless something arises?

Sounds good to me.

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I have applied the same with my yahoo account successfully. Using a yahoo created password. One of my gmail accounts was okay though I did not use its address book it was possibly set up a little more recently?