EteSync - Secure Data Sync

This is a CalDAV and CardDAV adapter for EteSync

This package provides a local CalDAV and CardDAV server that acts as an EteSync compatibility layer (adapter). It's meant for letting desktop CalDAV and CardDAV clients such as Thunderbird, Outlook and Apple Contacts connect with EteSync.

If all you want is to access your data from a computer, you are probably better off using the web app.

Installation

The easiest way to start using etesync-dav is by getting one of the pre-built binaries from the releases page.

These binaries are self-contained and can be run as-is, though they do not start automatically on boot. You'd need to either start them manually, or set up autostart based on your OS.

For Linux users there's a short installation guide in the wiki.

Configuration and running

1. Run etesync-dav and open the management UI in your browser: http://localhost:37358/
2. Add your EteSync user through the web UI.
3. Copy the DAV specific password by click the "Copy Password" button next to your newly added username.

For advanced usage and CLI instructions please refer to the advanced usage section.

Please note that some antivirus/internet security software may block the CalDAV/CardDAV service from running - make sure that etesync-dav is whitelisted.

Don't forget to set up EteSync to automatically start on startup. Instructions for this are unfortunately OS dependent and out of scope for this README.

Setting up clients

You now need to set up your CalDAV/CardDAV client using your username and the password you got in the previous step.

Depending on the client you use, the server path should either be:

• http://localhost:37358/
• http://localhost:37358/YOUR-USERNAME/

On most clients this should automatically detect your collections (i.e. calendars and address books).

If your client does not automatically detect your collections, you will need to manually add them. You can find the links in the management UI when you click on your username.

Specific client notes and instructions

Thunderbird

Thunderbird (using native CalDAV and CardDAV support available as of Thunderbird 91) - preferred

To add calendars

1. Add a calendar by hitting the "+" symbol in the toolbar that is usually on the left of Thunderbird's Calendar view, or right-click for the context menu and select "New Calendar"
2. Select the "On the Network" radio button
3. For Username put the name of your local Etesync account
4. For Location, you will get the information from Etesync. Head to http://localhost:37358/.web/login/ and log in
5. Then click the link to collection list
6. Then copy the link for the calendar you're trying to add, and put that in for Location in the Thunderbird dialog
7. Click "Find Calendars"
8. You will see a "Password Required" popup. You need to get the password from the Etesync web interface. Go back to http://localhost:37358/.web/ and click the "Copy Password" button. Paste this password in the Thunderbird popup.
9. Hit Subscribe and you are finished, that calendar is added
10. Repeat for any additional calendars

To add address books

1. Click the "Address Book" icon in Thunderbird's mail view to open the Address Book
2. Within the Address Book, click File-->New-->CardDAV Address Book
3. For Username put the name of your local Etesync account
4. For Location, you will get the information from Etesync. Head to http://localhost:37358/.web/login/ and log in
5. Then click the link to collection list
6. Then copy the link for the address book you're trying to add, and put that in for Location in the Thunderbird dialog
7. Click "Continue"
8. You will see a "Password Required" popup. You need to get the password from the Etesync web interface. Go back to http://localhost:37358/.web/ and click the "Copy Password" button. Paste this password in the Thunderbird popup.
9. Hit Subscribe and you are finished, that address book is added
10. Repeat for any additional address books

Thunderbird (using TbSync, for Thurderbird older than version 91)

1. Install TbSync and the accompanying DAV provider.
2. Open the TbSync window: Edit -> TbSync
3. Add new DAV account (choose manual configuration).
4. Use http://localhost:37358/ for both servers, your EteSync username as the username and the DAV password you got in configuration and running as the password.

Note: if you enabled SSL in etesync-dav, you should follow the TbSync instructions for self-signed certificates.

Thunderbird (no additional add-ons, for Thurderbird older than version 91)

TbSync includes address book support (Lightning does not), automatically discovers all your calendars/address books/tasks, and just works better in general than this solution for versions of Thunderbird older than 91. However, you can also do the following:

1. Install a CardDAV add-on such as Cardbook if you want to sync your contacts
2. Open http://localhost:37358 in a browser, log in with your username and account password (not encryption password), and click on the link to your DAV colection to see a list of all the calendars, tasks lists, and address books in that collection
3. For each item in the collection that you want to sync, copy the [link] address and subscribe to that address in Thunderbird using File > New Calendar > On the Network > CalDav for calendars and tasks, or New Address Book > Remote > CardDav in Cardbook for address books

Evolution / GNOME Calendar / GNOME Contacts

GNOME Calendar and Contacts do not support adding WebDAV calendars and address books directly, but you can add them in Evolution and they will appear correctly in all the apps.

1. Open Evolution and click File -> New -> Collection account
2. Put your username in the user field.
3. Click Advanced Options and use http://localhost:37358/ as the server.
4. Make sure "Look up for a CalDAV/CardDAV server" is ticked, and untick all the rest.
5. Click "Look Up" and when prompted, the DAV password you got in configuration and running.
6. Click Next/Finish until done.

Windows 10 (Outlook, Windows Calendar and Windows People)

While EteSync-DAV works great on Windows 10, due to bugs in Windows itself, the instructions require a few extra steps for syncing with Outlook, Windows Calendar and Windows people. Other clients, such as Thunderbird, do no require these extra steps.

Please take a look at the Windows 10 instructions for more information.

macOS (Contacts.app and Calendar.app)

While EteSync-DAV works great on macOS, due to bugs in macOS Mojave, the instructions require a few extra steps for syncing with Contacts.app and Calendar.app. Other clients, such as Thunderbird, do no require these extra steps.

Please take a look at the macOS instructions for more information.

iOS

By default, iOS only syncs events 30 days old and newer, which may look as if events are not showing. To fix this, got to: Settings -> Calendar -> Sync and change to the wanted time duration.

Or better yet, just use the EteSync iOS client.

Autostart on system boot

It's probably easiet to just follow these instructions for setting up autostart. Alternatively, you can try following the instructions below.

Linux (systemd)

Make sure you have /usr/lib/systemd/user/etesync-dav.service on your system (should be there when installing from your distro's package manager), and then, to start the service: systemctl --user start etesync-dav To enable auto-start on boot: systemctl --user enable etesync-dav

macOS

Make sure you installed etesync-dav.app by dragging it to your Applications directory through finder. Enable autostart by for example following these instructions.

Windows

Follow these instructions.

Alternative Installation Methods

This methods are not as easy as the pre-built binaries method above, but are also simple. Please follow the instructions below, following which follow the instructions in the Configuration and running section below.

Docker

Run one time initial setup to persist the required configuration into a docker volume. Check out the configuration section below for more information.

docker run -it --rm -v etesync-dav:/data etesync/etesync-dav manage add USERNAME

Run etesync-dav in a background docker container with configuration from previous step. This wil (re)start the container on boot and after crashes.

docker run --name etesync-dav -d -v etesync-dav:/data -p 37358:37358 --restart=always etesync/etesync-dav

After this, refer to the Setting up clients section below and start using it!

Updating

To update to the latest version of the docker image, run:

docker pull etesync/etesync-dav

Arch Linux

The package etesync-dav is available on AUR.

The package comes with a systemd unit. To see the status of the systemd service, run:

systemctl --user status etesync-dav

To inspect the logs, run:

journalctl --user -xeu etesync-dav

Windows systems

You can either follow the Docker instructions above (get Docker here), or alternatively install Python3 for windows from here.

Python virtual environment (Linux, BSD and Mac)

Install virtual env (for Python 3) from your package manager, for example:

• Arch Linux: pacman -S python-virtualenv
• Debian/Ubuntu: apt-get install python3-virtualenv

The bellow commands will install etesync to a directory called venv in the local path. To install to a different location, just choose a different path in the commands below.

Set up the virtual env:

virtualenv -p python3 venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install etesync-dav

Run the etesync commands as explained in the Configuration and running section:

./venv/bin/etesync-dav manage ...
./venv/bin/etesync-dav ...

Please note that you'll have to run source venv/bin/activate every time you'd like to run the EteSync commands.

Advanced usage

CLI

1. Open a terminal and navigate to the binary's loctaion by typing cd /path/to/file (most likely cd ~/Downloads).
2. Rename the binary to etesync-dav for ease of use, by e.g: mv linux-etesync-dav etesync-dav
3. Make it executable: chmod +x etesync-dav

You need to first add an EteSync user using ./etesync-dav manage, for example:

./etesync-dav manage add USERNAME

Substitute USERNAME with the username you use with your EteSync account or self-hosted server.

and then run the server: ./etesync-dav

Note: if you are using this with the legacy etesync server you should also pass --legacy

Self-hosting

If you are self-hosting the EteSync server, just enter your server URL when adding your account. Alternatively, you can set the default URL to be used by setting the ETESYNC_URL environment variable to the URL of your server when running etesync-dav. By default it uses the official EteSync server at etesync.com.

Using a proxy

EteSync-DAV should automatically use the system's proxy settings if set correctly. Alternatively, you can set the HTTP_PROXY and HTTPS_PROXY environment variables to manually set the proxy settings.

Self Signed Certs

If the etesync backend server is using self signed certs, the DAV bridge may refuse to connect. To solve this, run the following commands prior to starting the DAV bridge.

export REQUESTS_CA_BUNDLE=/path/to/your/certificate.pem

or

export SSL_CERT_FILE=/path/file.crt

Alternatively, if the security of certificate is not an issue (say the server is on a private network and not publicly accessible), you can ignore the certificate completely with the following commands prior to starting the DAV bridge.

export CURL_CA_BUNDLE='';
export REQUESTS_CA_BUNDLE='';

Debugging

In order to put etesync-dav in debug mode so it print extra debug information please pass it the -D flag like so:

./etesync-dav -D

While this works on Linux, BSD and macOS, the Windows pre-compiled binary is compiled in "no console" mode, which means it can't print to the terminal. In order to get the debug information on Windows, please redirect the output log to file, like so:

set ETESYNC_LOGFILE=output.log
etesync-dav.exe -D

Data files

etesync-dav stores data in the directory specified by the ETESYNC_DATA_DIR environment variable. This includes a database and the credentials cache.

ETESYNC_DATA_DIR defaults to a subdirectory of the appropriate data directory for your platform. For example:

1. ~/.local/share/etesync-dav on Linux.
2. ~/Library/Application Support/etesync-dav on macOS
3. C:\Documents and Settings\<User>\Application Data\Local Settings\etesync\etesync-dav on older Windows
4. C:\Users\<User>\AppData\Local\etesync\etesync-dav on Windows 7 and up (Most likely)

See the appdirs module docs for mor examples.

Credits

This depends on the Radicale server for operation.