Email, Messaging, & Video Calls Email 71 71 people found this article helpful How to Sync Google Calendar With Thunderbird Don't like Thunderbird Lightning? Use Google's calendar instead by Jack Wallen Writer Jack Wallen is a former Lifewire writer, an award-winning writer for TechRepublic and Linux.com, and the voice of The Android Expert. our editorial process LinkedIn Jack Wallen Updated on August 21, 2019 Pixabay Email Yahoo! Mail Gmail Tweet Share Email Do you depend on Google Calendar, but don’t always want to leave your Thunderbird email client to view it? You’re in luck, because with the help of two add-ons for Thunderbird, Google Calendar can sync to the email client, with both read and write access. These instructions were created using version 60.7.1, running on Pop! OS, but this process should work with any version of Thunderbird (newer than 52.0), running on any platform. Install Thunderbird Google Calendar Add-ons The first you have to do is install two add-ons that help Thunderbird sync with Google Calendar: Lightning: the actual calendar plugin.Provider for Google: allows bidirectional access to Google Calendar. The steps for installing each plugin are the same. Let’s demonstrate by installing Provider for Google. Open your web browser and go to the Provider for Google Calendar page. Click Download Now. Save the file to your Downloads directory. Open Thunderbird and click the Menu button > Addons > Addons. Click Extensions. Click the gear icon drop-down, then click Install Add-on From File. Navigate to the Downloads directory and select the newly-downloaded file. When prompted, click Install Now. When the installation completes, click Restart Now. Wait for Thunderbird to restart. That finalizes the installation of the Provider for Google Calendar. Repeat the same steps above, only with the Lightning Calendar add-on. Once you have both add-ons installed, you’re ready to setup your Google Calendar to sync with Thunderbird. How to Add Your Google Calendar Click the Calendar icon in the top right corner of Thunderbird, right-click a blank spot in the left navigation, then click New Calendar. Click On the Network, then click Next. Select Google Calendar, then click Next. In the resulting window, type your Gmail address and click Next. If prompted, retype your Gmail address, type your Google account password, and click Next. When prompted, click Allow to give the Lightning the necessary permissions to access your Google Calendar. In the resulting window, select the specific calendars you want to sync and click Next. Click Finish and your Google Calendar should begin syncing with the Thunderbird Lightning add-on. Depending on how much information you have in your Google Calendar, this can take some time to initially sync, as it will sync all data, from the first Google Calendar appointment you created to the latest.