gContactSync Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is gContactSync?
gContactSync is an add-on that synchronizes contacts between Google (Gmail)
and an Address Book in Thunderbird.
You can synchronize multiple accounts with multiple address books, and it
fully supports regular and hosted Google Accounts.
Click on a section to show or hide its contents.
Which applications does it support?
gContactSync supports Thunderbird 2 and above, including 3.0 - 11.0, SeaMonkey 2.0 and above, and Postbox (Postbox 3 will be supported in version 0.4).
It works in
Icedove
as well.
Where can I download it?
You can download it
here.
Why do some of my contacts have strange e-mail addresses?
Thunderbird does not allow contacts without e-mail addresses in mailing lists,
so in order to sync groups with mailing lists, gContactSync adds a fake
e-mail address to that contact in Thunderbird only. These fake e-mail addresses
will never be added to Google.
I know it is ugly, but the alternative is having a broken, unsynchronizable
address book.
I filed Bug 492695
for the bug in Thunderbird. See Dummy E-mail Addresses for more details.
What happened to phone numbers? Why don't the phone columns match between
the top and bottom half of the address book?
gContactSync ignores the actual names of the phone number fields in Thunderbird and
instead adds types (Work, Home, Mobile, etc) to make it match Gmail, and improve
the address book IMO.
You may also have noticed the new phone number types added by the pre-existing
phone number fields when you edit (and create in TB 3) contacts. However,
different phone number fields can now be of multiple types (Home, Work,
Mobile, etc.) so it is impossible to accurately label a column. Please see
this blog post for a more
detailed explanation.
You can turn this feature off in Version 0.3 by checking
Add phone number type fields... under the Interface tab
Why do I get an "Unresponsive Script" error?
Some people have reported an "Unresponsive Script" error while gContactSync
is synchronizing a large address book.
That message appears when some JavaScript (the language in which gContactSync
is written) has been running for a certain amount of time as a precaution.
I have never managed to get stuck in an infinite loop with gContactSync
(which is what this dialog allows you to break out of), so it is safe to
click Continue.
If you want to stop receiving these messages you can do the following:
- Go to gContactSync -> Preferences
- Next, go to the Advanced tab
- Enter a higher number under 'Unresponsive Script' warning delay time. You can
enter 0 if you never want to see that message, but that also prevents
the dialog from appearing when it actually should.
Why do some contacts get updated when I haven't changed them?
Thunderbird keeps track of the number of times you have received or sent
e-mail to a certain contact, so gContactSync sees that the contact has
changed and updates it.
Why doesn't drag and drop work to mailing lists?
Mailing lists are buggy in Thunderbird (check the
forum if you don't believe me) and drag and drop
doesn't work well to mailing lists. I also modify the drag and drop method
to copy over extra attributes that gContactSync adds. gContactSync tries to
fix drag and drop as much as it can, but it can still be broken if you try.
How can I add contacts to my address book without drag and drop?
You can copy the contacts to your main address book without many problems.
Once they are in there, synchronize. The best way to get them into
individual groups is through Gmail, although you can try using Thunderbird.
Can I synchronize to multiple address books instead of mailing lists?
This feature has been possible since version 0.3.
Look in the Accounts dialog under the gContactSync menu.
Why does gContactSync always say "Synchronizing..."?
There was probably an error during the synchronization. Every error I have
seen recently has been relating to mailing lists. Unfortunately, when a
mailing list is broken you must 'reset' that address book. Read the two
previous questions for why mailing lists might break.
You should also enable verbose logging (see
Troubleshooting gContactSync)
and check the log.
I sure would like the convenience of the automatic contact sync, but adding my gmail login credentials to this (or any) plugin makes me uneasy. How can I be sure this is secure?
gContactSync is completely open source, so anyone who knows JavaScript can
view the source
and check if it is secure. It was reviewed by a Mozilla Add-ons reviewer.
You may use Google's
2-step verification
to add additional security to your Google Account. Doing so lets you
generate an application-specific password that you use once with gContactSync.
gContactSync asks for your username and password so it can send them (securely, more info later) to Google and trade it for a token that will allow access to your contacts without gContactSync needing to store your password for future use (see Google's documentation). After the username and password are traded for the token, gContactSync discards the password. If anything happens to that token then gContactSync asks you for the password again.
In any case, extensions have access to the login manager which stores your credentials for e-mail accounts. If you have a master password then you are prompted to enter it before an extension can access the login manager. gContactSync uses the login manager to store only the authentication token.
Whenever gContactSync sends anything to Google, it is encrypted with TLS/SSL to prevent eavesdropping. You can verify this with a tool called Wireshark.
Why does the summary show a different number of deleted contacts than what I was asked to confirm?
The confirmation dialog that asks permission before deleting X contacts is shown for each account. So it may delete X contacts from account 1, which it asks you to confirm, and Y contacts from account 2, which may not meet the threshold for asking permission. The displayed number of deleted/added/updated contacts is the sum for all accounts. The log has a summary for each account.
I use 2-step verification on my Google Account, can I still use gContactSync?
Yes, but you will need to generate an application-specific password to use with gContactSync.
See this article
for more details.
Why aren't postal addresses synchronized?
Postal address synchronization is disabled by default due to differences in
the way Thunderbird and Google store addresses. Thunderbird stores what are
know as structured addresses, which are the individual components of an
address (street, city, state, zip code, country, etc.) while Gmail stores a
formatted address which contains the entire address in a single field.
Google now automatically converts addresses between these two formats, but it
did not when version 0.3 was released, so I turned it off by default. Version 0.4
has it on by default.
To change the preference and synchronize postal addreses:
- Go to gContactSync -> Preferences
- Click on Advanced
- Check Synchronize postal addreses (EXPERIMENTAL)
Once you change the postal addresses preference you have to update your contacts
from whatever source you wish to get the addresses from. Try updating a single
contact in the location (TB or Google) with the postal addresses then sync and
see if the address is synchronized correctly.
If that works, then right-click the synchronized address book and click on one
and only one of the following:
- Replace from server (if your postal address are in Google)
- Replace to server (if your postal addresses are in Thunderbird)
I like gContactSync but don't know how to program, can I help?
Absolutely. It is a completely open source project and I'll gladly accept any kind of help:
- Helping people on the forum.
- Finding and reporting bugs.
- Creating icons
- addons.mozilla.org
has a "Contribution" program that allows you to donate. Any and
all donations are appreciated, but I still provide equal support to
everyone (in my free time, usually in order of severity and then in
order of reception).
When will birthdays, nicknames, websites and photos be synchronized?
Version 0.3 synchronizes all recently added fields in both Thunderbird and
Google. This includes birthdays, websites, nicknames, and photos.
Which attributes/fields are synchronized?
Google* |
Thunderbird |
| Name |
Display Name |
| The first two Email Addresses |
Primary and Second(ary) Email Addresses |
| The next 2 email addresses |
Third and Fourth Addresses |
| Home, Work, and Mobile Numbers |
Home Phone, Work Phone, Cellular Number |
| Work Fax number |
Fax Number |
| Home Fax number |
Home Fax Number** |
| Other number |
Other Number** |
| AIM Screenname |
Screenname |
| The first six screennames: Google Talk, MSN, ICQ,
Yahoo, and Jabber screennames |
Google Talk, MSN, ICQ, Yahoo, and Jabber Screenname** |
| Title |
Job Title |
| Company |
Company |
| Notes |
Notes |
| Home and Work Address |
Home and Work Address*** |
| Other Address |
Other Address (multiple lines allowed)** |
Up to 10 extra attributes from Thunderbird are synchronized
. The default list includes: WebPage1, WebPage2, Department,
FirstName, LastName, NickName, PreferMailFormat, AllowRemoteContent, Custom1,
and Custom2.
All local data that is not synchronized (for example, extra e-mail addresses
in a Google Contact) is preserved.
