Sync Thunderbird Address Books using Funambol

Posted by Tommy

November 11, 2008

There is now an easy way to sync your Thunderbird addresses and calendars with, well, anything!

Our family uses Mozilla’s Thunderbird to get things done–it syncs up perfectly with Gmail (use IMAP for best results) and Google Calendar (with this plugin). The only persistent problem I have had is getting all our address books to sync across computers (not to mention cell phones, music players, etc). Until last night.

A wonderful sync web-based service called Funambol uses data standards to keep all your address books (and calendars) in sync. It even works across different software, and will sync with your iPhone or Blackberry or other smartphone. It’s free and open source.

First download the Thunderbird plugin. It’s experimental (so you will need to sign into Mozilla and tell them you’re cool), but I have had not problems. You also need a Funambol account (get one here). You may also be interested in a number of other plugins a plugins for Outlook and other applications. Give it a whirl!