UGent address book support in Mozilla Thunderbird

Ghent University has an LDAP address book which contains all students and staff. Adding this address book to Thunderbird is non-trivial, though. Follow these steps to add it.

1. Install the extensions “TbSync” and “Provider for Exchange ActiveSync”. (Press alt to show the menu and choose Edit > Preferences > Add-ons and Themes)

2. Open TBSync settings, click Account actions > Add New Account > Exchange ActiveSync.

   

3. Choose the option Microsoft Office 365.

   

4. A screen pops up to login into your UGent account. Fill this in. This supports two-factor authentication using OAuth SSO.

5. Click on Enable and synchronize this account, enable the Contacts resource, and click Synchronize now.

   

That’s it! Now when you compose a new email, Thunderbird will auto-suggest email addresses from the UGent address book.

Manually searching the address book

You can also search the address book directly.

1. Start by clicking on the “go to address book” button.

   

2. Because the UGent address book is so large, Thunderbird doesn’t show anything until you start searching. Select the address book and type a name in the search bar to see the contacts.