Announcing a modernized version of TbSync and its providers.
The core work is done, but it still needs testing, and I’d appreciate your help.
Areas that need testing
- Setting up a Microsoft business/work account
- Setting up a personal Microsoft account (Outlook, Hotmail, etc.) - now a separate account type
- Setting up a non-Microsoft EAS account using auto-detection
- Setting up a non-Microsoft EAS account using a custom configuration
- Server → local sync
- Local changes syncing back to the server
- Recurrence support (disabled by default; enable it in the config dialog after account creation)
- Migrating an existing setup from TbSync + EAS v4.* to v5.* by installing the new versions over the old ones
How to test
Please test in a dedicated test profile, not your daily work profile. In order to test the migration, please setup the v4 versions of TbSync and EAS in a test profile, connect, sync and then upgrade the add-ons to v5 and check if all the settings are still correct and the account can still be synced.
Please also do not use a production EAS account, but if possible use a dedicated test account. If a sync goes bad, it could wipe your contacts and calendars.
You can install the test add-ons by dragging the .xpi file links from the Assets section below into Thunderbird’s Add-on Manager. Thunderbird will see the link and download and install the add-ons automatically.
To restart testing, users of previous test verisons should follow this process:
- remove all TbSync accounts in the TbSync Manager
- verify no local copies of synced contacts/events/tasks remain
- remove all the currently installed TbSync related add-ons
- restart Thunderbird
- check online if the actual address books/calendars may have duplicated entries created by previous test versions
- start fresh with latest test versions
If users tested the migration process (manually updated from v4.* to v5.*), they should follow the following process:
- remove all TbSync accounts in the TbSync Manager
- verify no local copies of synced contacts/events/tasks remain
- remove all the currently installed TbSync related add-ons
- restart Thunderbird
- check online if the actual address books/calendars may have duplicated entries created by previous test versions
- re-install the official v4 versions again, which will pick up the old v4 config again
- disconnect/reconnect each account to get back on a valid sync state
- manually upgrade to latest test versions
Release plan
These versions will auto-update to every new released test version up to Thunderbird 153 (the next ESR). Please subscribe to this repository or #309 to learn about new versions being released.
With the release of TB153 ESR (or shortly after), the new version will be published on ATN (addons.thunderbird.net) for general availability.
Technical notes
This rewrite is on track to eliminate the use of Experiment APIs and become fully compatible with Thunderbird's Release Channel. TbSync and its providers will become pure WebExtensions.
The current test versions still rely on Experiments for:
- Migrating existing data to WebExtension storage
- Calendar support (not yet an official API, but expected before TB153)
See: #309 for discussions.
Important bug fixes:
- TbSync manager no longer opens a second manager window after Thunderbird restart
- EAS provider returns to legacy DeviceOS values (
WINNT,Linux,Darwin) - EAS provider should now correctly handle timezone in EAS v14.*
- correctly handle recurrence across DST
- rerun provision if needed
- better contact modification check
- fix data loss bug
- fix attempt for status 141 and status 165
New features in v5:
- Removed ESR restriction (should work with Release 151)
- EAS GAL is back (global directory lookup)
- EAS provider allows to manually set the DeviceOS value in the global EAS add-on options (#257)
- TbSync action button in the toolbar has context menu entries to sync without opening the manager