Alternatives to EteSync for contacts sync?

Privacy
1

I have been trying to use EteSync for contacts sync (FYI, I will still use Google Calendar for calendar to easily share calendars with normies).

Unfortunately, EteSync just doesn’t seem to work well for me: slow to sync, logging in to the web app spins forever (currently, I’m unable to login), etc. I don’t mean to sound harsh, but I don’t have the patience and mental bandwidth to use software that I feel unsure about whether it’s going to work or not.

I was wondering what alternative options there are? I don’t necessarily want to jump straight back to Google Contacts.

I need to access/sync my contacts from Thunderbird and Android, and a web UI would be great. I don’t want to self-host anything.

FYI, I use ProtonMail and while I would love to store all my contacts on Proton, I don’t think is a way to sync Proton contacts to Thunderbird and Android; IOW, they are isolated to inside Proton apps only.

Thanks!

2

I think I’m going to try NextCloud by following this: Secure Contacts Storage | Free Cloud Storage Android | Nextcloud - YouTube

2 Likes
3

The setup in the video is what I use and it has worked really well for me for years. If you have the time, you can set up Nextcloud locally so you don’t even have to sign-up for NC hosting.

4

Doesn’t sound like a good recommendation for someone who doesn’t want to self host.
It doesn’t encrypt anything. I would probably rather have it a t Google than some random small nextcloud supplier.

1 Like
6

I switched to decsync and syncthing from etesync. Its not too bad to set up and then it pretty much just works.

7

Are you using Windows or Linux?

8

Windows. I forgot I am also using the Radicale plugin for thubderbird.

9

I am always surprised when people say they use this without issues.

I have encountered multiple issues.

And there are many other unaddressed issues on GitHub.

I really want it to work. But even if it started working reliably, I would be very nervous to keep using it.

10

At this point I am really just using it to back up my contacts and tasks but I’m debating moving to something else for tasks and just exporting my contacts from graphene contacts to something like proton drive.

11

Pretty much why we decided not to list decsync. Least friction/most privacy is probably a small Radicale instance on a server you own that has full disk encryption. A lot less trouble than Nextcloud.

Radicale can also do tasks.

There’s also a fairly complete docker container GitHub - tomsquest/docker-radicale: Docker image for Radicale calendar and contact server + security + addons

1 Like
12

I use Radicale together with Davx5. But you have to be willing to self host.