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Two users with common calendar

Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2017 4:58 pm
by hngw47
Me and my wife has identical smartphones (LG G3). We use the same PC with two users. I have a calendar in Thunderbird/Lightning that my wife wants to sync with her smartphone. My wife also use Thunderbird/Lightning but very rare but she has her address book on her user side. She also wants to sync that address book with the address book on her smartphone. Briefly she wants to sync the calendar on her smartphone with my calendar and the address book on her smartphone with the address book from her Thunderbird/Lightning.

Is this possible?

Regards
Håkan from Sweden

Re: Two users with common calendar

Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2017 7:54 pm
by Birdy
Hello Håkan,

So each of you has its own independent Thunderbird profile, stored in its own Windows user account ?
Thanks.

Re: Two users with common calendar

Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2017 9:37 pm
by hngw47
Yes

Re: Two users with common calendar

Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2017 8:34 pm
by Birdy
Presently, BirdieSync is more designed to run on a single Windows user account, with possibly 2 Thunderbird profiles (one for each user) on this single Windows user account.
I'll first describe this procedure, even if it's not your specific configuration but it may give some hints.

By default BirdieSync synchronizes users in an isolated way. It means that if you create 2 different users in BirdieSync configuration and bind to each user its own sources (mobile device and Thunderbird profile), they will be isolated by default and will not be synchronized together. This is for instance to avoid mixing up personnal contacts present on the mobile devices or in "Personal address book" in Thunderbird with ones belonging to another user.

So if you wish to allow the synchronization of a specific calendar in Thunderbird with another user declared in BirdieSync configuration, you must explicitly set it as "Shared":
- In BirdieSync main window on the PC, open BirdieSync Configuration view
- Select a calendar (named "Common" for instance in Thunderbird) in the list, then click on the gear button on the right above the calendar list and select "Share this calendar with other users").
Note that it is not possible at the moment to share a "Main" address book or calendar.
After being Shared, it will be possible to synchronize this calendar with other users.
(you may refer to BirdieSync help (menu Help/Help) section "Configuration/Folder matching" for more information).

After this common calendar is marked as Shared in one Thunderbird source, you must enable it (set it ON) in each Thunderbird source (one for each user Thunderbird profile). The first Thunderbird source would be bound to the first user, and the second Thunderbird source to the second user. Note that a source can only belong to one user in BirdieSync configuration at a time.
The 2 Thunderbird profiles would then have their "Common" calendar synchronized together, even if each Thunderbird source belongs to a different user.

So this solution is more designed for a single Windows user account, holding the 2 Thunderbird profiles (one for each user).

If BirdieSync is only running on the first Windows user account, and the second Thunderbird profile is stored on another Windows account, it should still be possible for Thunderbird running on the second Windows account, to connect to BirdieSync running on the first Windows account (Thunderbird should be launched from the second Windows user account if its Thunderbird profile is stored in this Windows user account). In this case, this Thunderbird source should be declared as installed "on another PC" since the Thunderbird profile would not exist in the first Windows user account.

As an alternative, it may be possible to run BirdieSync on the 2 Windows user account (but not simultaneously), each one having its own configuration of synchronization. Note that only one instance of BirdieSync can run on Windows (so it may cause some problems if the 2 Windows users are opened at the same time on the PC and want to execute BirdieSync).
If Thunderbird would be launched on the first Windows user account, it may connect to BirdieSync server running on the second Windows user account and synchronize the Shared common calendar (if the calendar was marked as Shared as described above in BirdieSync configuration for the second user).

As a third alternative, in case of 2 Windows user account, each one holding a Thunderbird profile, it may also be possible to share a local ICS calendar between the 2 Thunderbird profiles (you'd need to create a "remote" ICS calendar in Thunderbird and set the writting permissions for both users on this calendar file in Windows), and then manage 2 independent BirdieSync configurations (one for each Windows user). But sharing an ICS file calendar between 2 running Thunderbird may possibly lead to problems if both programs want to write simultaneously in it.