Sync outlook.com calendar with Lightning in Thunderbird

Anonymous
2013-04-15T10:20:24+00:00

Hi.

I am looking to sync the calendar in Outlook.com with that available in Lightning, a calendar add-on available for Thunderbird.

Can anyone help?

Thanks in advance.

Outlook | Web | Outlook.com | Calendar

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Anonymous
2014-04-11T06:28:55+00:00

Hi JeffRusk,

first of all: I think we all hear you but MS doesn't seem to hear us. In today's TechWorld it just must be clear that the chances of someone having a Windows Phone while having a Mac at home and a Windows PC at work are not that slim. Still no one agrees on any standard and just keeps doing their own stuff.

But the initial question for this thread was how to get the Outlook.com calendar into Thunderbird's Lightning add-on.

I'm not quite sure that's what you're trying to figure out here.

However I hear you: I used Outlook 2010 with shared calendars.

So maybe I can give you some more insight.

First of all: saving an ics-File and importing it is NEVER any solution when you're trying to share calendars that you want to sync.

The ics file is just one file that contains all your calendar entries from the moment you created that file. The file only updates when you manually create a new file and import it again.

So the way to go is definitely the "link" option. This way your program or interface connects automatically to the file on the Outlook servers were the file is kept up to date.

As I've written before: out of 3 attempts, 2 worked when I pasted the link from the "Get a link" page on Outlook.com and substituted the webcals-prefix with https. The second time I faced the same problem as you: for no reason it just wouldn't work until my Thunderbird erased all account information and I tried again.

And still, there's always the issue of not being able to write data to the calendar if it's shared. It's always read-only.

But when you're using Outlook 2010 or 2013 there shouldn't be any problem with viewing and modifying your own Outlook.com calendar. In 2010 you must download the Hotmail Connector from

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-help/microsoft-office-outlook-hotmail-connector-overview-HA010222518.aspx

From what you're writing I assume you use a not synchronized, offline, profile-based Outlook 2010 calendar. You should then definitely switch to using the Outlook.com one in Outlook 2010 with the above mentioned tool since from what you write MS seems to have canceled the feature that would allow you to share internal calendars (publish option).

The connector tool adds full Hotmail/Outlook.com support to Outlook 2010. I just upgraded my Outlook to 2013 so I'm not sure about specifics but in my opinion full support is included in 2013 without the need for the addon.

As for your colleagues I'm sorry but I have no other idea than trying that ics-LINK thing.

Good luck to you..

Andy

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-10-01T08:53:37+00:00

    Looks like these guys (http://www.threenine.co.uk/blog/setup-office365-calendar-thunderbird/) have it solved. Just follow their directions.

    It worked for me.

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-09-08T16:27:13+00:00

    iCalendar file format export is not a viable solution for real-time calendaring & scheduling groupware. What we need is CalDAV synchronisation access.

    Calendaring, scheduling, task management, note-taking, and group discussions have long been unreasonably difficult without committing to a single platform. I have personally been working on this issue since the 1990s, and I have yet to see a 100% cross-platform solution that works with all major desktop and mobile platforms. The major players in this market space—Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Mozilla—are never going to work together to create entirely interoperable solutions, and of these four, Mozilla is lagged so much on development that certain aspects of the Thunderbird/Lightning package are no more advanced than they were under Netscape Communicator 20 years ago.

    Outlook.com does not support CalDAV or CardDAV, and likely never will, because Microsoft is focused on Mac OS X and Windows versions of Office, web browser access, and native applications and system integration for iOS and Android.

    Yahoo's offerings are probably the most cross-platform, but their CalDAV can be wonky and their CardDAV only works downstream, not upstream, but otherwise offers entirely cross-platform email, calendaring, task management, and note-taking.

    Google refuses to use CalDAV for Google Tasks, which means Mozilla Lightning doesn't work for Tasks. Obviously, Google supports Android 100%, but iOS support is limited, as is support for Apple native Mac OS X apps.

    Apple's iCloud uses a split-server CalDAV setup for Reminders and Calendaring, and won't expose those interfaces to the public. Nor does Apple offer business-class services for distributed organisational management.

    Even the commercially available packages to run on your own servers are limited in their cross-platform support. I have been in IT for over 20 years, and this area has been a particular focus of mine; I do not see any solutions happening any time soon, if ever. For all of these providers, their answers to support are generally irrelevant to the client's problem, or are limited to, "You'll just have to use a browser interface, or switch to a platform we support.

    Because I am a professional IT consultant, it is vital that I be able to access my data comprehensively from all platforms. I use Mac OS X, Linux, and Windows, Android and iOS, but none of the relevant companies consider it to be in their business interest to offer cross-platform compatibility, and the Mozilla Project just doesn't consider groupware functionality a priority.

    When it comes to business-class service, with central administration and delegation, only Microsoft and Google contend. Apple, as usual, ignores the business space entirely, and Yahoo's information is so out of date, you can't tell whether or not they even have these features. Between Microsoft and Google, Microsoft won't support Mozilla at all, and Google won't support Tasks on any non-Google app, so it seems that Google is the only viable cross-platform business-class service that will support Mozilla to any extent, but you will be limited to using a third-party task management app on iOS and a web browser on Linux, at least, and possibly Mac OS X and Windows, as well, for task management.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-05-21T08:07:35+00:00

    Hi,

    what's your point? How did you find the post not helpful? Is there anything you need help with?

    Thanks for sharing your opinion.

    Greets, Andy

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-05-21T07:50:55+00:00

    I'd rather say you've read a page and a half and didn't understand anything. Try again and tell me if you still need help then...

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