Thunderbird 60.x unable to use caldav/carddav

[egal88]

When trying to access calendar (Lightning) and addressbooks (CardBook) on a Nextcloud 13.0.4 server, Thunderbird 60.0b9 receives status 503 from the server and therefor cannot access any data.

Using Thunderbird 52.x everything works as expected.

Cross reference see https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1468912

The admin of our webserver tried the same with owncloud 7.0.4, but he did not test newer versions.
Using this really old version of owncloud, Thunderbird 60.0b9 manages to access the caldav and carddav urls without any error.
Since Nextcloud is a fork of owncloud, it might be, that the described issue is not Thunderbird related.
Perhaps the bug has to be searched for in Nextclouds code.

[nextcloud-bot]

GitMate.io thinks possibly related issues are #8766 (Caldav ), #6291 (Thunderbird/Lightning Events pop up after each caldav update), #3031 (Carddav/Caldav api confusion), #8469 (Allow remote caldav/carddav servers), and #8500 (Unable to access CalDAV as LDAP authenticated user).

[painxcess]

I can confirm a working Thunderbird 60.x with ownCloud 10.0.2.
I can confirm a not working Thunderbird 60.x with Nextcloud 11.0.3 and nextcloud 12.0.9.

[MorrisJobke]

cc @georgehrke

[egal88]

Thunderbird 60.0b10 still has the same issue

[biva]

We might be investigating the same issue here: https://gitlab.com/CardBook/CardBook/issues/306 and https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1468755

Could you confirm that TB60 beta 4 did not have the issue, while beta 5 and following have it? (you can find these versions here: https://filehippo.com/fr/download_thunderbird/history/

[biva]

And for reference, I closed my initial issue because I thought it was cardbook related: #9869

@egal88 could you correct your bugzilla link (it's broken)?

[egal88]

@biva Bugzilla link corrected. Thanks for your info.

[biva]

@georgehrke @MorrisJobke Thunderbird developers ask for Nextcloud developers' support in https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1468912#c33 as it might be specific to Nextcloud. Could you have a look?

[MorrisJobke]

@georgehrke Could you answer their questions, as you know a bit more about it.

[MorrisJobke]

Or maybe @rullzer regarding the auth stuff.

[biva]

@rullzer and @georgehrke It looks like if this issue happens with Nextcloud server only. Could you have a look at this Thunderbird issue? https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1468912#c54

[biva]

@adi-dev @georgehrke @rullzer Thunderbird 60 has been released and this issue is the single "Known Issues" in the release notes https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/60.0/releasenotes/

And apparently, only Nextcloud is having this issue. Thunderbird developers are begging for a support from Nextcloud to investigate this (https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1468912#c61). Could you have a look?

[j-ed]

@georgehrke I just read the description of the Thunderbird bug report and it seems that the interesting part starts at comment 43. By disabling the newly introduced parameter network.cookie.same-site.enabled the problem can be solved. So it seems to be a kind of cookie handling problem?!

[georgehrke]

By disabling the newly introduced parameter network.cookie.same-site.enabled the problem can be solved. So it seems to be a kind of cookie handling problem?!

Yes, there is an issue with the cookie handling. I'm talking to the person at Mozilla who implemented it to see what causes this issue and how we can resolve it.

As a workaround:

(as described in Thunderbird's release notes):

• go to the config editor (Settings -> Advanced -> General -> Config Editor)
• search for network.cookie.same-site.enabled
• set it to false

For your own security you should set it back to true once this issue is resolved.

[georgehrke]

Did you find the causes?

No, we are still looking for what causes this. If we know more, I will comment here.

[MichaIng]

👍 Great both sides are working on this, this issue drove me crazy for the last two days 🤣.

[gohrner]

Is there a way to disable this functionality on the server side? I'm asking because this particular issue is what's currently preventing me from upgrading one of my nextclound instance to v15.

Not upgrading NextCloud won't help you - at least V13 and V14 are affected as well.

You will have to keep your users from updating Thunderbird to V60, which in turn probably would be a bad idea from the security perspective. (Not even speaking of the difficulty of preventing users to update their software which possibly also auto-updates.)

So giving your users instructions of how to configure Thunderbird to work around the issue probably is the best approach.

[j-ed]

I had trouble with this function too in the past with Thunderbird v60.3.1, but after I exactly followed the tip of @svenmauch, I was successfully able to configure Thunderbird 60.4 with Lightning 6.2.4/Cardbook 33.5 and NC 14.0.4/.5.
I would recommend to always give it a personal try before relying on others feedback. There are so many system in the wild, which are all configured differently, that you couldn't rely on it.

[tleydxdy]

the safer workaround didn't work for my setup (Thunderbird 60.4.0 arch, and Nextcloud 15.0.2), but the official one did.

[rfc2822]

Just wanted to try some Thunderbird events with Nextcloud to notice TB doesn't work with NC anymore… cookies.same-site workaround helped. Which is the currently recommended workaround? Has this been fixed already (either in Thunderbird or in NC or in both)?

[JtheBAB]

Thundebird found the issue:

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1468912

See latest comments.

[rfc2822]

Ok thanks… I got it now working but I have to delete the credentials/cookies every time I want to see the other calendar. Confusing but it somehow works now.

[georgehrke]

@rfc2822 Hey, the recommended workaround is the one i mentioned further above.

Has this been fixed already (either in Thunderbird or in NC or in both)?

Looking at the latest comments in https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1468912, the issue was fixed on the Thunderbird side and I expect a fix to be released soon.

[georgehrke]

I'm closing this ticket, because it's an issue in Thunderbird.

Looking at https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1468912#c83, they already have a fix and consider releasing a new beta version of Lightning 6.7, so i expect this fix to be available soon.

[darmbrust]

Has anyone actually confirmed that things got fixed? It still doesn't work for me today, using thunderbird 60.7.0, CalDav 0.15.0.2, TbSync 1.7 against NextCloud 16.0.3. The TbSync folks seems to have closed it, just telling people to use the security hack workaround... jobisoft/DAV-4-TbSync#41 but its really hard to track which bugs are actually tracking this, as so many were opened across different projects, then closed again, claiming fixed... yet it still doesn't work.

[MichaIng]

@darmbrust
Why not just test it?
I just did, switched network.cookie.same-site.enabled back to true (default), closed Thunderbird, removed all cookies via CCleaner (shame on me...), reopened Thunderbird, toggled and re-synced my Lightning calendars and CardBook and it works 😃.
I also created a new calendar and successfully synced with Lightning.
So as long as there is no cache influence or something I forgot, the issue indeed seems to be resolved (Lightning 6.2.8).

[darmbrust]

Well, I did test it, thats how I got here. I recently set up nextcloud... installed the calendar app today, and tried to sync it with thunderbird, and could not successfully link to my calendar. Not until I changed the cookie setting. And this was with a clean install that has never attempted this before. Happy to change it back and get debug logs... if there is something you want to see....

[georgehrke]

@darmbrust I can confirm that plain Thunderbird Lightning without TbSync works.

As pointed out in the mozilla bug report, it was a bug in the mozilla implementation. So if it's still not working in DAV-4-TbSync, perhaps open a new bug report there?

[darmbrust]

well, as recently as 15 days ago, people are commenting on that bug that it isn't fixed either.

Though, perhaps they are using the DAV plugin too.

[darmbrust]

So, I upgraded Thunderbird to 60.8.0. Tried adding my nextcloud calendar via the Network -> CalDev option directly in Lightening. It adds the calendar... but shows nothing. Sync does nothing.

No errors are shown to the user.

Error log contains stuff like:
503 Service Unavailable.
[calCachedCalendar] replay action failed: null,
uncaught exception.

Toggled network.cookie.same-site.enabled to false, and suddenly the calendar syncs.

So, yea.... probably on the thunderbird side, but still not fixed... and doesn't work at all without finding this obscure toggle.

Of course, Lightening also doesn't let you view or edit the events properly either... they all come up with garbage times if you try to view them... but guessing that is on the lightening side too, since they show up on the calendar GUI with the correct dates and times.

[brunt82]

I cannot confirm any of your described behavior: Neither with Lightning nor with TBSync.
I tested it with:

• TB 60.8, TBSync 1.7, CalDavProvider 0.15.0.2, Nextcloud 15.0.10
• TB 60.8, Lightning 6.2.5.1, Nextcloud 15.0.10
  "network.cookie.same-site.enabled" is set to true in both cases.

Maybe it is any other issue?

[Benedikt81]

Works for me:

• TB 60.8, CardBook 37.5, Nextcloud 15.0.10
• TB 60.8, Lightning 6.2.8, Nextcloud 15.0.10

network.cookie.same-site.enabled = true

[darmbrust]

Maybe this is related to the issue, but I don't understand how people keep reporting they are testing with Lightning 6.2.8 when 6.2.5 is the newest version I see:
https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/addon/lightning/versions/

The other difference in versions with my setup, compared to the recent works for me posts is that I'm on NextCloud 16.0.3.

Happy to grab logs / debug from whatever parts people would like to see.

[darmbrust]

Ok, guessing this is where the fix landed:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/buglist.cgi?resolution=FIXED&product=Calendar&target_milestone=6.2.5.1&list_id=14828679

6.2.5.1, while my calendar is still at 6.2.5. According to this list:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Calendar/Calendar_Versions
I'm like 5 versions behind on Lightning.... I know its not your issue, but what the heck is wrong with the Lightning distribution that they aren't pushing their updates to the central update site?

Sigh... reading more, it appears that they want you to uninstall the extension, cause its no longer necessary... as its supposed to be bundled. That is the stupidest update path I've ever heard of.... something tells me they will bite a lot of people with this, when they didn't manage the extension properly for users that already had it installed.... and they aren't properly updating the update site, so if you installed it from there, the older version overrides the integrated version.

I'll retest after sorting this out so I actually get the current version of lightning. If anyone else encounters this bug, it appears that the solution is to uninstall the lightning extension, so that thunderbird will go back to using the embedded one released with it, and not the out-of-date broken version mozilla has published on the update site.

[MichaIng]

@darmbrust
What is wrong about the TB internal addons management? I installed Lightning from there and are automatically updated to the latest version since long time.

Lol this addons web page gets even worse when you download from the main Lightning page: https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/addon/lightning/
You will get 6.2(.0) there 😄. However as said I see no reason to use this website for downloading+installing addons manually anyway, at least in case of a single home PC.

EDIT

Okay now I am confused, TB internal addons management directs you to the same website. Somehow if offers slightly different versions there compared to opening in browser, found 6.2.5 offered indeed now instead of older 6.2(.0). So I am not sure now how I got updated to 6.2.8, if somehow the internal updater finds later versions or the new versions were revoked for some reason at a later time?
Indeed very confusing...

[darmbrust]

Ok, there is just a whole lot of stupid with the Mozilla / Lightning / Ubuntu package maintenance folks. I installed Thunderbird using the package manager, but they stripped Lightning, which is supposed to be included. Lightning as published by mozilla is 5 versions out of date. If you uninstall the extension again, its just gone, because Ubuntu stripped it.

To get the proper, up-to-date version, you have to install it using the Ubuntu package manager, (assuming you let ubuntu install thunderbird in the first place) which restores the extension they stripped, and you get the proper 6.2.8 version.

After sorting that out, I can confirm that it is indeed fixed, when using the native remote caldav option. Though I am still seeing issues when trying to use the TBSync addon. But guessing that problem is over there... jobisoft/DAV-4-TbSync#100

[MichaIng]

Okay, then finally things seem to match. Perhaps for @brunt82 the same works, as you're on v6.2.5 as well.

[r3pek]

Anyone here got it to work with thunderbird 68.x? I can't even add an account on TbSync :(

[MichaIng]

@r3pek
I suggest you open a new issue for this to not mix things with the different 60.x bug that was discussed+solved here.

[j-ed]

@r3pek I would recommend to ask for help in the official Nextcloud help forum first, because this is repository is primarily used to track bugs 😉

[MichaIng]

I just realized that TB 68 is now released and not beta anymore. However it is common that not all plugins support new versions immediately.

Not sure about the Nextcloud plugin (Lightning/CardBook), will try as well later, but this should then discussed in a separate issue or indeed Nextcloud forum first to verify and collect some info.

---

EDIT: Just tested and everything I use works very well, Lightning and CardBook including CalDAV/CardDAV sync with my Nextcloud server. I recognised that there is no network.cookie.same-site.enabled setting anymore, but so far no problems without it, as expected due to fix.

[xpressio]

I still cannot get syncing to work in our lab (5+ users). We are on Nextcloud 14/15 using TB 60.x or TB 68.x. Can anyone confirm that upgrading to NC 16 definitively solved their issues?

In my experience the recommended fix using network.cookie.same-site.enabled ceased to work some months ago. It used to work in earlier versions of TB, I have tested various combinations of NC, TB and Lightning - to no avail...

Any experiences / suggestions would be much appreciated - using the web interface for now but usability is less then ideal.

[j-ed]

Any experiences / suggestions would be much appreciated - using the web interface for now but usability is less then ideal.

Unfortunately this is the bug tracker for the development and NOT the Nextcloud help forum. You should use the search function of the help forum to find an answer on your question first, before you raise a new request.
I can personally confirm that the original problem described here has already been solved and Thunderbird 68.2.2/Cardbook 43.0 work like a charm with Nextcloud 17.0.1.

[manoranjith]

I was still facing sync issues with Nextcloud 19 and Thunderbird 68.10 (linux).

SOLVED: I was able to make it work using the TbSync and Provider for CalDAV & CardDAV plugins as suggested in this thread in nextcloud forum.