Cross-platform contacts program/app recommendations?

[Tom Browder]

I've been using Gmail and iOS contacts for years, and they are supposed to
synch; but neither has worked very well for me, except when I use the
Google Contacts on my Debian PC or laptop.

I am looking at Contacts+ as a possible solution. Has anyone had any good
experience with it, or do you have a better solution to recommend?

Note I spend most of my computer time via the Termius iOS app to my local
and remote Debian servers and usually have an iPhone readily available.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Best regards,

-Tom

[Charles Curley]

On Wed, 14 Aug 2024 19:11:07 -0500

Post by Tom Browder
I am looking at Contacts+ as a possible solution. Has anyone had any
good experience with it, or do you have a better solution to
recommend?

Take a look at Nextcloud. Open source, free, available in Debian repos,
syncs with IOS and Mac contacts. I've been using it for several years
now.

[Michael Kjörling]

Post by Charles Curley

Post by Tom Browder
I am looking at Contacts+ as a possible solution. Has anyone had any
good experience with it, or do you have a better solution to
recommend?

Take a look at Nextcloud. Open source, free, available in Debian repos,
syncs with IOS and Mac contacts. I've been using it for several years
now.

I too was going to suggest Nextcloud; with the caveat that I don't see
the server portion in the Debian Bookworm repos (though it is free and
open source). It is also available as a managed-hosting service from
multiple companies throughout the world if you don't want to have to
do the hosting and maintenance yourself.

For contacts, it speaks VCARD over HTTP/HTTPS so will sync with
basically anything; however, the more advanced features may not map
1:1 to the functionality of any particular other app and it's up to
that other app how that is handled.

[Charles Curley]

On Thu, 15 Aug 2024 11:36:02 +0000

Post by Michael Kjörling
I too was going to suggest Nextcloud; with the caveat that I don't see
the server portion in the Debian Bookworm repos (though it is free and
open source).

I sit corrected. Nextcloud itself is not in the Debian repos, although
a number of client and other related programs are. Thank you.

[Tom Browder]

On Thu, Aug 15, 2024 at 08:04 Charles Curley <

Post by Charles Curley
On Thu, 15 Aug 2024 11:36:02 +0000

Post by Michael Kjörling
I too was going to suggest Nextcloud; with the caveat that I don't see
the server portion in the Debian Bookworm repos (though it is free and
open source).

Thanks Micheal and Charles!

I'll check it out.

Debianly yours,

-Tom

[Ryan Nowakowski]

You can use davical[1]. While it focuses on caldav, it also supports carddav.

[1] https://wiki.davical.org/index.php?title=CardDAV

Post by Tom Browder
On Thu, Aug 15, 2024 at 08:04 Charles Curley <

Post by Charles Curley
On Thu, 15 Aug 2024 11:36:02 +0000

Post by Michael Kjörling
I too was going to suggest Nextcloud; with the caveat that I don't see
the server portion in the Debian Bookworm repos (though it is free and
open source).

Thanks Micheal and Charles!
I'll check it out.
Debianly yours,
-Tom

[Stefan Monnier]

Post by Ryan Nowakowski
You can use davical[1]. While it focuses on caldav, it also supports carddav.

AFAIU there's also `radicale` (which, contrary to `davical` is also
supported by FreedomBox).


Stefan

[Wesley]

Post by Stefan Monnier

Post by Ryan Nowakowski
You can use davical[1]. While it focuses on caldav, it also supports carddav.

AFAIU there's also `radicale` (which, contrary to `davical` is also
supported by FreedomBox).

also, Nextcloud ships a CardDAV backend for users to store and share
their address books and contacts.

https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/latest/admin_manual/groupware/contacts.html

I suggested this just b/c we are using this solution for webdav/carddav.

Thanks

[Michael Grant]

Post by Stefan Monnier
AFAIU there's also `radicale` (which, contrary to `davical` is also
supported by FreedomBox).

I installed radicale a while ago, it was easy, painless, and I haven't
touched it since. From my notes.

I followed these instructions:

https://www.howtoforge.com/how-to-install-radicale-caldav-and-carddav-on-ubuntu-20-04/#setup-apache-as-a-reverse-proxy-for-radicale

[Tom Browder]

Post by Michael Grant

Post by Stefan Monnier
AFAIU there's also `radicale` (which, contrary to `davical` is also
supported by FreedomBox).

I installed radicale a while ago, it was easy, painless, and I haven't
touched it since. From my notes.

...

Okay, great! But how do you access/manage it from Gmail and iOS and MacOS?

-Tom

[Tom Browder]

On Sat, Aug 17, 2024 at 08:06 Michael Grant




I’m too lazy at the moment to self-host. Anyone suggest a provider that is
in the US?

-Tom

[Jeffrey Walton]

[...]
I’m too lazy at the moment to self-host. Anyone suggest a provider that is in the US?

Ionos is reasonable. A machine with 2 cpu cores and 4 GB RAM costs
about % US. But you have to pay monthly, which means they keep your
credit card and ccv on file.

I recently switched to Hostinger. They are also reasonable, and allow
me to pay three years at a time. They are European, but they have US
data centers. And they have the best selection of VPSes I have seen.
VPS images include Debian and Fedora.

Jeff

[Dan Ritter]

Post by Michael Kjörling

Post by Charles Curley

Post by Tom Browder
I am looking at Contacts+ as a possible solution. Has anyone had any
good experience with it, or do you have a better solution to
recommend?

Take a look at Nextcloud. Open source, free, available in Debian repos,
syncs with IOS and Mac contacts. I've been using it for several years
now.

I too was going to suggest Nextcloud; with the caveat that I don't see
the server portion in the Debian Bookworm repos (though it is free and
open source). It is also available as a managed-hosting service from
multiple companies throughout the world if you don't want to have to
do the hosting and maintenance yourself.

NextCloud is currently in a phase of its life where major
version changes are coming frequently; rather more often than
Debian Stable releases.

It would need to be adopted into stable-updates, and have a team
of DDs willing to keep up with it.

NextCloud has its own internal update mechanism, which is now fairly
reliable (it was not in years past) so once you install it, it's
not so bad.

-dsr-

[Tom Browder]

...

I don't really need any Linux support as long as the app supports Gmail and
Google contacts.

-Tom