No writable calendars are configured for invitations

[timur-tabi]

When I add my Google Calendar using CalDav, everything works.

When I add the same calendar using gdata-provider, I cannot accept invitation sent to me via email, even though the calendar is NOT read-only and I can manually add events.

FYI, I had to use the work-around specified in bug #28 to get gdata-provider to work at all.

I'm using Thunderbird 60.9.0 on Ubuntu 19.04.

[sheldonmaschmeyer]

I have the same issue. Found a solution!

Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> Config Editor
Set calendar.google.enableEmailInvitations to True
Close thunderbird, reopen, should work :)
Also, go to Calendar, right click, select properties and make sure an email address is associated with the calendar. Then should be writable for other email accounts, not just the default, as well.

[jasonvincik]

@sheldonmaschmeyer - This has been plaguing me, and your solution totally worked! Thank you!

[CheariX]

Unfortunately, calendar.google.enableEmailInvitations=true only works, if you have configured a single Google Calendar.
If you have two, only the second Account can be used to accept invitations.

[unode]

Also bumped into this and was about to open an issue. Thanks to @sheldonmaschmeyer for the workaround.

Wondering about the default being false. Is there a reason for this or alternatively, a reason for it not default to true?

[JanaJarecki]

I have the same issue as @CheariX, seconding the issue about two calendars.

[fulcorno]

Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> Config Editor
Set calendar.google.enableEmailInvitations to True

It seems that the enableEmailInvitations property is no longer available in version 78.0.1. Are there any equivalent settings to enable the 'email' property?

[Pawouek]

The same as @fulcorno - that mentioned option does not exists.
Nothing even similar in configuration (calendar.google*) :/
Anybody have any clue what to do to enable email option?

[JanaJarecki]

bump is there an update on this?

[garyhooper]

Same issue here. Any solution?

[kienli]

calendar.google.enableEmailInvitations doesn't exist in TB 78.2.2 either. Do you have any solution?

[PatrickBauer]

Same, it looks like thats a new bug, not the same like the one the issue is about. Worked perfectly wie Thunderbird 68. I suggest you subscribe this thread for new information.

[bkiziuk]

Same here.
calendar.google.enableEmailInvitations is not available any more after upgrade to TB >=78 and thus it is not possible to accept any invitations.

[twain28]

Can confirm this on new TB... (on a Mac TB 78.3.1 64bit)...this is probably because the "calendar" settings syntax has changed in Lightlning...looks like now we now have "calendar.registry.CALENDARREGNUMBER.option" syntax ...so I tried adding a new "calendar.registry.CALENDARREGNUMBER.enableEmailInvitations" value, just to test if perchance it would work, but it does not.

just mentioning @kewisch here, so that hopefully he will take a peek into this...with many many thanks for all his hard work in this marvellous extension. :)

[sgrossberndt]

I had the same issue and was finally able to solve it! 🥳
Go to the calendar view, right-click on the calendar, choose "Properties". Here you find an option "Email", which was set to "none" for me. After selecting my Google Email account and saving I am finally able to accept invitations again!

Credits for this solution go to a stackoverflow answer from 2014 by the way: https://superuser.com/a/763313 🙈

Edit: Oh boy. This works on Thunderbird 78.3.2, with Thunderbird 78.4.0 the "E-Mail" option is gone again. 😭

[seanbright]

Nothing is going to 'solve' this problem short of a change to the code and a release. The bug is clear:

gdata-provider/src/legacy/modules/gdataCalendar.jsm

Lines 327 to 337 in 86bb9ef

	case "itip.transport":
	if (
	!this.isDefaultCalendar ||
	!Services.prefs.getBoolPref("calendar.google.enableEmailInvitations", false)
	) {
	// If we explicitly return null here, then these calendars
	// will not be included in the list of calendars to accept
	// invitations to and imip will effectively be disabled.
	return null;
	}
	break;

It is referencing a pref that no longer exists.

Edit: To clarify - identifying why it is not working is relatively straightforward. Implementing a fix is more difficult and requires a level of domain knowledge that most users (myself included) do not possess.

[timur-tabi]

If we already know what the bug is, then why is it taking months to fix it? Who is responsible for this code?

[colans]

@timur-tabi Because folks like yourself are spending time complaining instead of providing pull requests that make it easier for the maintainer to review and merge. Instead of complaining, why don't you help?

If you're not a developer, you can also offer to pay the maintainer. That's how free software gets built. (The software is free, but the labour isn't.)

Comments like yours only serve to spam everyone subscribing to the issue; they don't add any value.

[seanbright]

If you're not a developer, you can also offer to pay the maintainer. That's how free software gets built. (The software is free, but the labour isn't.)

I don't know if there is a policy against linking directly to contribution pages, but you can find the 'Contribute' button on the project's add-ons page.

[unode]

Edit: Oh boy. This works on Thunderbird 78.3.2, with Thunderbird 78.4.0 the "E-Mail" option is gone again. sob

Thunderbird 78.3.3 here and the "E-mail" option is only present for calendars not managed by this plugin.

I think everyone in this thread agrees that a pull request will push things further and lowering the effort bar to the maintainer is the fastest path to a fix.

I just updated to 78.3.3 and started to bump into the most recent issues mentioned here...

[DominikTrenz]

There is a workaround until it is fixed:
Just add the missing config option "calendar.google.enableEmailInvitations".
Go to "about:config" like described above and rightclick -> new -> boolean -> paste "calendar.google.enableEmailInvitations" and select true.
It should work now.

[gombosg]

I tried, and the calendar.google.enableEmailInvitations config option is magically removed each time I restart TB. But only this - if I create a config with any other name, it is persisted.
Same if I add it to a user.js file like

user_pref("calendar.google.enableEmailInvitations", true);
user_pref("test.setting", true);

If I start TB config editor, the first config item simply won't show up, but the second will. Strange.

EDIT: surely the extension itself is the culprit, since if I start TB with disabled extensions, then both settings will show up.

TB 78.3.1, extension version 78.0.1.

[gombosg]

It looks like that the TB 78 compatibility commit did this. Essentially, the bulk of the extension is "legacy" and a wrapper has been created.

For some reason, config keys (prefs) are also considered legacy and are purged in the code:

gdata-provider/src/background.js

Lines 6 to 13 in 0d41a41

	async function migrate() {
	let legacyprefs = await messenger.gdata.getLegacyPrefs();
	if (legacyprefs) {
	console.log("[gdata-provider] Migrating legacy prefs", legacyprefs);
	await messenger.storage.local.set(legacyprefs);
	await messenger.gdata.purgeLegacyPrefs();
	}
	}

But these local storage settings don't seem to show up in the config editor. I'm not even sure if they work any more. Probably it needs some fixing.

[kewisch]

The fix here is indeed to change the property value to return the pref from storage.local. That is async, so it looks like we'll need a wrapper that keeps the preference in memory using storage.onChanged. I'd love to fix this immediately, though I'm not doing well on free time currently.

If you want to view storage.local, you can go to add-on debugging and inspect the extension, there is a storage tab which will also contain the extension storage.

[MatthewVernon]

Thunderbird 78.4.0 here, and while this provider has worked for me in the past, I now can't find any way to associate an email address with my google calendar (and thus have it usable for accepting invitations). the about:config editor doesn't want to let me create a new property (as suggested by @DominikTrenz above); I'm afraid I don't understand the comment by @kewisch (or at least, not how one might use this to restore the ability to reply to invitations?).

[gombosg]

@MatthewVernon tl;dr it's a bug (or missing feature - compatibility with the latest TB extension framework), it needs fixing, and @kewisch will hopefully do that given some free time, unless someone else steps up to fix it. I never touched FF/TB extensions personally so trying to figure everything out on my own would take ages.

[ALfuhrmann]

So I ran afoul of this bug, too. I tried using CalDav instead, but could not get it to work consistently.

I unzipped the XPI and looked for the code lines @seanbright mentioned. Changing

!Services.prefs.getBoolPref("calendar.google.enableEmailInvitations", false)
to
!Services.prefs.getBoolPref("calendar.google.enableEmailInvitations", true)

there, and at another occurrence seemed like a good idea, so I did it, not knowing what would happen.

Rezpping and installing in Thunderbird 78.4.1 seems to lead to a working calendar with associated mail address:

I am going to test it for a few days and then submit a pull request here, if everything works out fine.

You can download the tweaked version HERE. Please keep in mind that I do not have the slighted idea what I have been doing and cannot take any responsibilities. If you install this and all your mail gets eaten or posted publicly, I will not be held accountable.

(You can open the above file with any ZIP utility and compare it to the original, if you are paranoid. The online changes should be the two lines in gdataCalendar.jsm)

[gombosg]

@ALfuhrmann and do accepting/rejecting invitations work properly after this tweak? For me, the menu item shows up as above but I'm still unable to accept invitations.

[kewisch]

I've identified the cause for this, please expect it to work again in Provider 91.0.2

[Gwalior-84]

I've identified the cause for this, please expect it to work again in Provider 91.0.2

Thanks @kewisch Is Provider 91.0.2 available? The latest version available in github is 91.0.0 and on the Thunderbird Add-ons page is 91.0.1. (How does the Thunderbird Add-ons page get a more recent version that github?)

[RickKukiela]

If anyone else stumbles upon this its important to note that you cannot use a "group" calendar for accepting ICS emailed invites. It took a bit of trial and error but I figured out that only the default calendar for the google account can be configured this way and has the "Email" drop down when editing the settings in lighting. In google calendars, on the site, if you edit the calendar the calendar ID shown there will be your "account email" (even if its not a gmail address) and that calendar can be used correctly with your mail. The other calendars you add or are shared to have some kind of unique character string + @group.calendar.google.com - If your calendar has an ID like this it will not work. You can rename the main calendar that has the ID that matches your account email address to whatever you want and it will work fine. I'm not sure if this is covered anywhere in the docs for the connector, but if it isn't, it should be. Also the interface should have a note about this where the email address drop down would normally show up for compatible calendars informing the user that the calendar they are looking is not compatible with inbox invites for the reasons I have stated above with the above information. Would have saved me an hour or two of dicking around with this trying to figure out why I couldnt use the calendar I wanted with my work email...

My final work around was to create a google account with my work email then I used that "main / default" calendar that had my work email as the ID. I then shared that calendar with my main / personal gmail account so I could see my "work" calendar on my home computer and personal devices and still have it work with my thunderbird client the way I have always wanted... Its been 15 years or so and I finally have an integrated work calendar...

[mauromol]

Any chance to get this fix to a version compatible with Thunderbird 78.x?
No 91 version available yet on Ubuntu 20.04...

[IanBlakeley]

Any chance to get this fix to a version compatible with Thunderbird 78.x? No 91 version available yet on Ubuntu 20.04...

I had this issue as a Mint user. in the end jumped off the lagging version in the repositories and I now use the direct update path from Mozilla

[MartinX3]

Any chance to get this fix to a version compatible with Thunderbird 78.x? No 91 version available yet on Ubuntu 20.04...

I switched from mint to arch linux because of the ubuntu lts update policy.
(I created issue tickets about backporting all the time before, because otherwise they ignored new versions)

[Crandel]

Just use Thunderbird 91.3 via AppImage on Ubuntu/Mint. I also use it works fine

[MartinX3]

Just use Thunderbird 91.3 via AppImage on Ubuntu/Mint. I also use it works fine

Sadly solutions like AppImage, Snap, Flatpak, etc are all having the (dis)advantage to included all needed software libraries.
So if a library needs a minor update from x.y.1 to x.y.2 because of a security bug, you won't get the update via your regular system updates. Instead you need to wait until a new Image for the software got created.

[Crandel]

When just use Ubuntu Mozilla Security ppa it has the latest version

[mauromol]

I think we're going off topic here. The problem is not that all the world must want to get the latest version of Thunderbird at all costs (I don't feel it is necessary for me to upgrade to Thunderbird 91 right now from a feature point of view), but rather that there still are fully supported Thunderbird installation scenarios where this severe bug of gdata-provider currently stands.

So, question is again: is there any hope to get a backport to support Thunderbird 78 or not?

Of course, the maintainer may just respond "no, it's not planned" and I would respect it. After that, it will be my choice to perform all the necessary actions required to update Thunderbird with any of the multiple options there are, or prefer to just wait for Ubuntu to upgrade their official packages, if I can live with this problem meanwhile. It's just a matter of personal priorities.

[Crandel]

In 91 version there are no needs for this addon anymore, it will automatically pick up your calendar during setup with full synchronization

[MatthewVernon]

FWIW, with Thunderbird 78 (and presumably later), I found these instructions on adding CalDAV support sufficient to get calendar support working without this plugin; mentioning it here in case that's useful...

[Ryushin]

Just use Thunderbird 91.3 via AppImage on Ubuntu/Mint. I also use it works fine

Sadly solutions like AppImage, Snap, Flatpak, etc are all having the (dis)advantage to included all needed software libraries. So if a library needs a minor update from x.y.1 to x.y.2 because of a security bug, you won't get the update via your regular system updates. Instead you need to wait until a new Image for the software got created.

I just download the Thunderbird tar ball, put it in /opt, change the ownership to myself and it auto updates like normal.

Though I allowed Thunderbird to update to the latest version and the readability of the fonts being used was terrible, so I downgraded until I have time to get that sorted.

[MartinX3]

Just use Thunderbird 91.3 via AppImage on Ubuntu/Mint. I also use it works fine

Sadly solutions like AppImage, Snap, Flatpak, etc are all having the (dis)advantage to included all needed software libraries. So if a library needs a minor update from x.y.1 to x.y.2 because of a security bug, you won't get the update via your regular system updates. Instead you need to wait until a new Image for the software got created.

I just download the Thunderbird tar ball, put it in /opt, change the ownership to myself and it auto updates like normal.

Though I allowed Thunderbird to update to the latest version and the readability of the fonts being used was terrible, so I downgraded until I have time to get that sorted.

That's a bad practice.
/opt needs to be owned by root:root and software only updated by the administrator (by using sudo).
And never execute a software with sudo just to workaround filesystem permissions.

[Ryushin]

Just use Thunderbird 91.3 via AppImage on Ubuntu/Mint. I also use it works fine

Sadly solutions like AppImage, Snap, Flatpak, etc are all having the (dis)advantage to included all needed software libraries. So if a library needs a minor update from x.y.1 to x.y.2 because of a security bug, you won't get the update via your regular system updates. Instead you need to wait until a new Image for the software got created.

I just download the Thunderbird tar ball, put it in /opt, change the ownership to myself and it auto updates like normal.
Though I allowed Thunderbird to update to the latest version and the readability of the fonts being used was terrible, so I downgraded until I have time to get that sorted.

That's a bad practice. /opt needs to be owned by root:root and software only updated by the administrator (by using sudo). And never execute a software with sudo just to workaround filesystem permissions.

/opt is owned by root, /opt/thunderbird is owned by me.

[MartinX3]

Just use Thunderbird 91.3 via AppImage on Ubuntu/Mint. I also use it works fine

Sadly solutions like AppImage, Snap, Flatpak, etc are all having the (dis)advantage to included all needed software libraries. So if a library needs a minor update from x.y.1 to x.y.2 because of a security bug, you won't get the update via your regular system updates. Instead you need to wait until a new Image for the software got created.

I just download the Thunderbird tar ball, put it in /opt, change the ownership to myself and it auto updates like normal.
Though I allowed Thunderbird to update to the latest version and the readability of the fonts being used was terrible, so I downgraded until I have time to get that sorted.

That's a bad practice. /opt needs to be owned by root:root and software only updated by the administrator (by using sudo). And never execute a software with sudo just to workaround filesystem permissions.

/opt is owned by root, /opt/thunderbird is owned by me.

Yes, that's a bad practice.

[Ryushin]

Just use Thunderbird 91.3 via AppImage on Ubuntu/Mint. I also use it works fine

Sadly solutions like AppImage, Snap, Flatpak, etc are all having the (dis)advantage to included all needed software libraries. So if a library needs a minor update from x.y.1 to x.y.2 because of a security bug, you won't get the update via your regular system updates. Instead you need to wait until a new Image for the software got created.

I just download the Thunderbird tar ball, put it in /opt, change the ownership to myself and it auto updates like normal.
Though I allowed Thunderbird to update to the latest version and the readability of the fonts being used was terrible, so I downgraded until I have time to get that sorted.

That's a bad practice. /opt needs to be owned by root:root and software only updated by the administrator (by using sudo). And never execute a software with sudo just to workaround filesystem permissions.

/opt is owned by root, /opt/thunderbird is owned by me.

Yes, that's a bad practice.

Yea, well, it is not bad practice. /opt/tomcat is owned by tomcat:tomact, and many other software packages do it the exact same way. Having /opt/thunderbird set to 777 is wrong. Having it owned by me is correct.

Though for a multi user system a little cron job can have it auto upgrade by downloading and installing the latest version on a weekly basis:

#!/bin/bash
export PATH=/sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin

cd /tmp/
wget -O ThunderbirdSetup.tar.bz2 "https://download.mozilla.org/?product=thunderbird-latest&os=linux64&lang=en-US"
tar xjf ThunderbirdSetup.tar.bz2 -C /opt/
chmod -fR 755 /opt/thunderbird

[MartinX3]

Just use Thunderbird 91.3 via AppImage on Ubuntu/Mint. I also use it works fine

Sadly solutions like AppImage, Snap, Flatpak, etc are all having the (dis)advantage to included all needed software libraries. So if a library needs a minor update from x.y.1 to x.y.2 because of a security bug, you won't get the update via your regular system updates. Instead you need to wait until a new Image for the software got created.

I just download the Thunderbird tar ball, put it in /opt, change the ownership to myself and it auto updates like normal.
Though I allowed Thunderbird to update to the latest version and the readability of the fonts being used was terrible, so I downgraded until I have time to get that sorted.

That's a bad practice. /opt needs to be owned by root:root and software only updated by the administrator (by using sudo). And never execute a software with sudo just to workaround filesystem permissions.

/opt is owned by root, /opt/thunderbird is owned by me.

Yes, that's a bad practice.

Yea, well, it is not bad practice. /opt/tomcat is owned by tomcat:tomact, and many other software packages do it the exact same way. Having /opt/thunderbird set to 777 is wrong. Having it owned by me is correct.

Though for a multi user system a little cron job can have it auto upgrade by downloading and installing the latest version on a weekly basis:

#!/bin/bash
export PATH=/sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin

cd /tmp/
wget -O ThunderbirdSetup.tar.bz2 "https://download.mozilla.org/?product=thunderbird-latest&os=linux64&lang=en-US"
tar xjf ThunderbirdSetup.tar.bz2 -C /opt/
chmod -fR 755 /opt/thunderbird

You should use ~/.local/opt for your user application.

[bbceg]

FWIW, with Thunderbird 78 (and presumably later), I found these instructions on adding CalDAV support sufficient to get calendar support working without this plugin; mentioning it here in case that's useful...

Thanks for this, those instructions worked a treat on 91.4.1 for two calendars. The only downside seems to be a lack of tasks but I guess I can use the addon for that.

[ElizaZadura]

I have the same issue. Found a solution!

Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> Config Editor Set calendar.google.enableEmailInvitations to True Close thunderbird, reopen, should work :) Also, go to Calendar, right click, select properties and make sure an email address is associated with the calendar. Then should be writable for other email accounts, not just the default, as well.

This still worked for me (TB 91.13.0). The option wasn't there, but got saved when I added it, set to true. Only one gmail account though.

[af7567]

Adding the calendar.google.enableEmailInvitations manually in TB 102 doesn't work for me any more.

[AGI-chandler]

@kewisch still a problem with TB 102. calendar.google.enableEmailInvitations=true and I also tried adding my email to another calendar, looking at the config editor and noticing the calendar.registry.<uuid>.imip.identity.key was updated to id# with #=1 in my case. so I tried setting the calendar.registry.<uuid>.imip.identity.key for my google calendar to id1 also but it didn't help. Hope you could please fix this ASAP as it's interfering with my work.

[AGI-chandler]

Ok I have 2 google accounts added, with 3 calendars from the 1st acct and 1 calendar from the 2nd. 2/3 of the calendars from the 1st acct have the option to assign an email to it, while the 3rd calendar plus the 1 calendar from the 2nd acct don't have the option to assign an email. I compared all the calendar.registry.* settings and there wasn't anything different between them aside from the obvious URI's and names and whatnot, but nothing that indicated why 2 of them allowed an email to be assigned and 2 of them didn't.

But! I found a solution! @af7567
For the calendar(s) that didn't allow assigning an email address, I went to https://calendar.google.com directly. On the left side went to the calendar settings (3-dots menu > Settings and sharing), then exported the calendar. It sent me a zip file with an ical file inside. I extracted the ical file then went back to Google and just imported it back into my calendar (on the same page, Import & Export in the upper left (might have to create a new calendar first)). So now you should have two copies of the same calendar. Now go back into TB Calendar and add a new Google Calendar, select your existing account and click Find Calendars, it should show both of them now, put a checkmark in the new calendar and click Subscribe. With the new calendar you should be able to assign an email to it! If everything looks ok you can remove the old duplicate calendar from TB and delete it from your Google acct.

My guess is that our current calendars must be in some legacy format that is triggering this bug? Creating a new google calendar may have updated it with the latest metadata or something. I still have calendar.google.enableAttendees, calendar.google.enableEmailInvitations, and calendar.google.sendEventNotifications defined and set to true. Just tried deleting all three of those preferences and restarting TB, it didn't change or delete my ability to assign an email to my calendars, so perhaps those preferences are now meaningless. Hope it works for you! Let us know...

[af7567]

@AGI-chandler I had no idea there was even meant to be an option to assign an email address to the calendar :) I have never seen that in the calendar properties before. But after upgrading Thunderbird to 102.4 today I had the option to assign an email address to one of my Google calendars and luckily it is the one I would like my invitations to go to. I don't have an email selection box on my other 2 calendars though for some reason.

[pedjas]

I stumbled too onto this issue. Thunderbird 102.11.0.
Unbelievable that this issue is so old and not resolved yet.

Fix that worked for me with Google account:

Add new Calendar (click + on Calendar List)
Select option On the Network
Enter Google email address and click on Find Calendars.
Follow the procedure of authentication.

You will be offered to import calendar, do it.

New calendar allows adding event by clicking on invitation.

If you are adding calendar account that already exists in your Thunderbird just make sure you name them so you now which is which as they will both show up.

Disable old account until you are sure new one works.

When sure you may delete old account.

[xsonic]

I have set calendar.google.enableEmailInvitations=true (don't know if necessary). For me, it only started working after I deleted my local thunderbird calendar. I exported my TB calendar, and imported it into Google.

After deleteing all local TB calendars and selecting my email for the google calendar (Rightclick on calendar -> Properties -> Email), it started working and asking me, into which google calendar I want to import.

[KindlyThrive]

Strange, I have had this issue in Thunderbird for ages. Well, for the past few months it started working and it was great. Now with the most recent update, no more. :( I use 3 google calendars on 3 accounts and I have 4 more available. I wish it would at least just give us the calendar event file so we could import it. Or allow us to drop and drag the email into the calendar and understand what we wanted to do. :(