Join the AMA (Ask Me Anything) with the Firefox leadership team to celebrate Firefox 20th anniversary and discuss Firefox’s future on Mozilla Connect. Mark your calendar on Thursday, November 14, 18:00 - 20:00 UTC!

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 replies
  • 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)