FAQ for Thunderbird contact sync with Zimbra

  1. What is synchronized?
  2. What isn’t synchronized?
  3. Can I select an addressbook to sync?
  4. Contact conversion
  5. Where do I create an addressbook that will sync?
  6. Shared addressbooks
  7. What is soapURL?

Also see the FAQ for thunderbird contact sync.

What is synchronized?

Only selected addressbooks and their contacts are synchronized:

  • Thunderbird “Personal Address Book” syncs with Zimbra “Contacts”
  • Thunderbird addressbooks prefixed with “zindus/” sync with Zimbra. For example, a Thunderbird “zindus/friends” addressbook will sync with Zimbra “friends”.
  • Thunderbird “zindus>GAL” is generated from the Zimbra GAL (Global Address List). Don’t try to change contacts in this addressbook because the changes will be lost. Zimbra generates the GAL from it’s directory of users. Only Zimbra administrators can change the GAL.
  • Thunderbird addressbooks prefixed with “zindus+” and “zindus-” are synced with Zimbra shared addressbooks.

What isn’t synchronized?

These aren’t synchronized:

  • mailing/distribution lists
  • tags
  • calendars
  • email

Thunderbird - these aren’t synchronized:

  • addressbooks that aren’t prefixed with “zindus”

Zimbra - these aren’t synchronized:

  • nested addressbooks, ie. those that aren’t at the top-level
  • Trash

Can I select an addressbook to sync?

See: What is synchronized.

Most Zindus users want to sync their Personal Address Book with Zimbra Contacts.

Users who don’t want to sync Personal Address Book but do want to sync other addressbooks can move their contacts out of Personal Address Book and then alter Thunderbird’s default configuration:
* Tools/Options/Composition/Addressing
* Tools/Account Settings/Junk Settings

Zindus requires users to unambiguously distinguish which addressbooks are to be synced and which remain private. For an addressbook to be synced it must be prefixed with “zindus/”.

Contact conversion

Synchronization doesn’t merge contacts. When a contact is updated, it completely replaces the corresponding contact on the other side of the sync.

Thunderbird and Zimbra don’t support exactly the same set of contact fields. There is a large overlap, but there are some Thunderbird fields not supported by Zimbra and vice-versa. Zindus tries to preserve all fields but there are some scenarios where the data in a field that’s not supported by both Thunderbird and Zimbra gets lost. Here is an example involving the “Custom1″ field in Thunderbird:

  1. contact is created in Thunderbird with something in the “Custom1″ field.
  2. sync with Zimbra. Zimbra doesn’t support the “Custom1″ field.
  3. contact is edited in Zimbra.
  4. sync with Thunderbird. Contact in Thunderbird is replaced by the one from Zimbra. Custom1 field in Thunderbird is now empty.

Thunderbird fields not supported by Zimbra:

  • Nickname, AllowRemoteImagesInHtml, ScreenName, UseHtmlMail, Custom1, Custom2, Custom3, Custom4

Zimbra fields not supported by Thunderbird include:

  • middleName, email3, workPhone2, assistantPhone, companyPhone, callbackPhone, homeFax, homePhone2, carPhone, other*, birthday, pager, Suffix, namePrefix, nameSuffix

Other conversion issues:

  • while Thunderbird DisplayName is populated from Zimbra fullName, the latter is computed by Zimbra from (first, last, middle). So a change to Thunderbird DisplayName isn’t reflected in Zimbra.

Address line conversions:

  • Thunderbird has two fields to support a home street address: HomeAddress and HomeAddress2
  • Zimbra supports one field homeStreet which can contain newlines
  • here is how the extension converts between the two:
    • Thunderbird HomeAddress maps to line 1 of Zimbra homeStreet
    • Thunderbird HomeAddress2 maps to lines 2 onwards of the Zimbra address - comma separated
Thunderbird                           Zimbra
===========                           ======
HomeAddress:  Unit 1, 123 Acme st     homeStreet: Unit 1, 123 Acme st
HomeAddress2: Melbourne, VIC, 3000    Melbourne
                                      VIC
                                      3000

Where do I create an addressbook that will sync?

You can create an addressbook in either Thunderbird or in Zimbra and it will sync.

If in Thunderbird you create a “zindus/Friends” addressbook. the next sync will create “Friends” in Zimbra.

If in Zimbra you create a “Friends” addressbook, the next sync will create “zindus/Friends” in Thunderbird.

Don’t create both Zimbra “Friends” and Thunderbird “zindus/Friends” - the next sync will fail with a conflict. To resolve the conflict you’d either:

  • rename/remove one of the addressbooks or
  • “Reset” to force a merge.

Shared addressbooks

Shared Zimbra addressbooks are synced with Thunderbird.

Here are two examples of shared addressbooks as they appear in Thunderbird:

  • zindus+mothers group

The “zindus+” indicates that this addressbook has been shared on a read+write basis with you. You can add, modify and delete contacts in it.

  • zindus-resellers

The “zindus-” indicates that this addressbook has been shared on a read-only basis with you. Don’t add, modify or delete cards in it. If you do, the next sync will fail with a error that says you don’t have sufficient rights to modify the contact. To proceed, select “Reset” followed by “Sync Now” and any changes you made to the read-only addressbook will be lost.

To get access to an addressbook that someone has shared with you, you must to log in to Zimbra - you can’t initiate access to a shared addressbook from Thunderbird.

You never need to create an addressbook named “zindus+” or “zindus-” in Thunderbird. Zindus creates and removes these addressbooks for you as you gain and lose access to shared addressbooks on the server.

If you do create a “zindus+blah” addressbook, the next sync will likely fail with an error message saying that you don’t have access to “blah” on the server.

If you delete a “zindus+blah” or “zindus-blah” addressbook, you are
deleting your link to the shared addressbook, not the owner’s addressbook.

What is soapURL?

Zindus logs in to the server using the URL provided in the Preferences window. After login, the server may ask Zindus to continue the conversation using a new URL - the soapURL. Reasons the server may do this include:

  • the organisation has a lot of accounts that are partitioned across multiple servers
  • the server supports both http and https (zmtlsctl)
  • the domain used for email is different from the domain used to access webmail (eg example.com vs mail.example.com). This is the “virtual host” feature.

The soapURL is generally invisble to the user. But if the Zimbra server is misconfigured, users may notice a delay while the request to the bad soapURL times out. The most common misconfiguration is the use of a domain name that is not in the public DNS.

If you notice delays relating to soapURL, contact your system administrator.