How to synchronise your diary with Caldav

Hello community,
This is my first message here, I’ll try to be clearer as possible!
I have a Fairphone with /e/os running it. I have a Outlook diary on my emails, synchronized with Caldav. I would like to get this diary on my phone. When I select the parameter “add a diary CalDAV”, the phone get back to the welcome screen. I tried to download the app “opensync” on the apploundge, and when I enter my credentials, the answer is "no caldav services is found.
If someone had the same issue and solved it, it would be great!
Cheers,
Coustou

Regain your privacy! Adopt /e/ the unGoogled mobile OS and online servicesphone

just for clarification in terms, as I’m not an Outlook user - this is outlook the desktop client connected to some online-account, as in murena.io or outlook.com / office365 instead?

“add a diary CalDAV” is an option inside which App specifically?

In principle any CalDAV source can be added to the already present accountmanager (davx5 fork), no need for opensync. There can be issues with some authentification schemes though

Outlook is the app developed for PC, linked with my office account. The email adress is linked with my company name (@labonnecollecte.fr)

"add a diary CalDAV is an option in the basic diary app pre-installed in the phone running with /e/OS.

The CalDAV synchronisation within /e/ is not handled by “calendar” directly, but rather by another app, called DAVx5. I think it is not preloaded by default, but you can always install it from e.g. AppLounge or F-Droid (Clicking “Add CalDAV calendar” should open browser/app store to install DAVx5 and once installed, it will simply open DAVx5).
If you install it, then you can setup your CalDAV through the DAVx5 app.

true

as tcecyk already pointed out above there is no need to install DAVx5 because the accountmanager (which is integral part of /e/ system settings) actually is (a fork of) DAVx5 and that´s where you set up your caldav account. (of course you can do this little extra install or use opensync etc. but there´s really no need to do so from a technical/functional perspective)

@coustou Are You 100% positive your outlook is capable of CalDAV-sync in the first place?
I´d be surprised.

I presume that /e/ is not your problem, it´s rather outlook - to my best (but maybe aged) knowledge outlook does not provide a native interface to serve CalDAV synchronisation.
To achieve CalDAV-sync with outlook you probably still need some extension installed in your outlook-application (my experience is a few years old)… search for keywords like “outlook caldav sync” in your favourite search engine and find some options … if you have no admin privileges at your office-pc you may try to convince your admin to install it.

edit 1: this one worked pretty good for me years ago: https://caldavsynchronizer.org/ there may be others or better options, just an example

edit 2: from what I recall it worked for me only because I synced outlook (via extension) with an online-instance/cloud that hosted my caldav “master” and from there to my phone… I assume trying to sync outlook directly with your phone will not work … my way of explanation: outlook (incl. extension!) is able to sync with caldav but it does not provide/host caldav for sync (? :slight_smile: ) … the latter is what you need for sync with your phone.
I therefore guess you will need that “caldav-capable-cloud”, e.g. /e/ (murena) cloud in between … your chain of dependencies would then be like this:
outlook incl. extension (tbd) ↔ cloud (hosting caldav-calender, eg murena, nextcloud or else) ↔ your phone
… could be done :slight_smile:

Yes, I use it daily. But if it’s a O365 account, it may be disabled by admin…
From OWA: Settings gear, Advanced Settings, Calendar, Shared calendars, Publish a calendar.
Then use the ICS link.
Personally I inserted it into my /e/ Cloud, then synchronized on my phone using ICSx5: this way I can see it both ways :wink:

1 Like

…that sounds less complicated :grin:
I thought there should be more options by now…
At that time I couldn’t find other ways to achieve this in a setting of local OL-installs (and an exchange server)…
In fact I AM surprised :sweat_smile:

You are right, I was not aware of this - thanks for pointing it out.

But I know where does the initial problem come from, tested on fresh install of /e/:

  1. When opening calendar and clicking on “Add CalDAV calendar” it doesnt take you to account manager, but rather opens a link to download DAVx5 (either through AppLounge, Browser or any app that can handle these links)
  2. If you choose Brower, it will take you to F-Droid DAVx5 webpage, this is fine. But if you select AppLounge, it will crash. So if you have these link open by AppLounge by default, then you will simply go to home screen (and this is part of the initial OPs problem I think)

If you dont mind, I will share the bug with the developers.

1 Like

You are right @NoNeed, of course it should take you directly to the account manager.
And in case the account manager (or therein caldav) is not available in system settings that really is an extra bug and davx5 is an appropriate workaround!

Just in case you are not aware of how to, check this guide on how to report issues (you may also search gitlab and check if the issue is already reported): Report an issue

I have a big trouble with the e/OS/ fork of DAVx5 (so called accountmanager): I am unable to create two differents account for CalDAV calendars.

The first I created is OK (calendars are synchronized and visible). Each time I try tro create a second account everything seems OK (connexion for instance) but no calendars are visible and thus not synchronized either.

Boths calendars are managed by two differents Nextcloud instances.

My phone is a Google Pixel 5, running the last available e/OS/ release (which is 1.18-t-20231207360613).

The only solution I found, for now, was to install DAVx5 and then I am able to create different DAVx5 accounts for differents calendars without trouble.

I am not sure if I get the “visible”-part …so just to be safe:
after creation of those 2 accounts - have you checked in calendar settings and made sure both are set “sync” and “show”?

Not “visible” means that when I try to sync to the available calendar from the second account nothing appears.

What do you mean by setting sync and show? Where will I find these settings?

in calendar-app → upper left hamburger-button/menu → settings → now the lower area of the screen should show all calendars that are available on the phone (by available I mean there´s accounts with calendars defined and the calendar app can “see” them)
→ click and check each entry → enable/disable “sync” and “show”
(the wording might be slightly different, not sure about the correct English terms…)

OK.

So I tried that but calendars from the second account are not visible(not in the list).

They are visible when I use DAVx5, which is what I used to workaround the problem (deleting all caldav account from e/OS/ account manager and creates new ones with DAVx5).

OK, than that’s obviously a real usecase for DAVx5.
I always presumed the eOS account manager would be a full replacement (because it is a fork of DAVx5) but as it seems that´s not the case (or there’s a bug, who knows)
But good anyways that it works for you with DAVx5! :+1: