More on How to Use Mozilla Thunderbird as Your Calendar Application at SU

This is a supplement to the main page which describes how to set up Thunderbird as a calendar at Stockholm University. The calendar works smoothly under normal circumstances, but there are a few caveats that you should be aware of, both in installing and using it.

A. Newer Thunderbird distributions may already contain Lightning

Check if your version contains Lightning already by checking Tools > Add-ons.

If you can already see Lightning, then there is no need to download and install it. In fact, Thunderbird can get a bit confused if you still download a separate Lightning instance if it was already bundled with your Thunderbird distribution.

B. New step between steps 6 and 7

In the newer TbSync versions, you get an error message when you click Add account at the end of step 6.

This is because you need to change to your username from your email address. There is nothing wrong with your password, instead update the username.

Some users report that you can actually enter your username in the first place in step 6. Nevertheless, if you get this error message just change to your username in the error correction dialogue box.

The calendar should now by synchronising by pulling all calendar items from the central server to your client.

C. Sometimes Lightning loses track of where your calendar resides

Your calendar is simply a designated mail folder. Due to its special function, it is a reserved folder in e.g. Microsoft Outlook and will not show in the Outlook folder view. But Thunderbird will treat it like any other folder. Normally, Lightning is connected to your mail account, but sometimes it loses track of your calendar. Typically, you detect this by Thunderbird telling you that there is no writable calendar when you view an incoming mail containing a meeting invitation.

Then all you need to do is to go to your Calendar view and right click your calendar.

Select Properties and then select your email account from the drop-down list that says None as default.

D. Sometimes Lightning loses contact with the server during edit of an item

If you have a calendar item open and somehow lose the connection to the server even for only a short while, Lightning will be confused. Then it will display the following:

DO NOT opt for overwriting the “other changes” as there are no such ones and you might end up in a confused state. Instead, simply abandon your editing and redo it. This way, you ensure the integrity of your calendar.