Connect a CalDAV server

Before you start

• An app password: a password your provider creates for one app, which you can revoke there at any time. Most providers offer them, and some require them. If yours doesn’t, use your account’s password.
• Your user name, usually your e-mail address.
• The server’s address, for servers other than Fastmail and Yahoo, whose address Attaché knows.

Every path below ends in Attaché at Settings → Connections → Connect another account (when you’ve just signed up, Attaché starts there, at Connect your calendars): under Other CalDAV server, choose Connect a server and pick your Service. Connecting Apple iCloud? Follow the iCloud guide instead. Google, Microsoft and Zoho connect on their own sign-in pages, with no password to create.

Fastmail

1. 1

   Step 1: Open Fastmail’s app passwords

   Sign in to Fastmail on the web and open Settings → Privacy & Security. Under Connected apps & API tokens, choose Manage app passwords and access, then New app password. Fastmail may ask for your password first.

2. 2

   Step 2: Create a password for your calendars

   Name it Attaché (choose Custom… to type a name of your own). For access, Calendars (CalDAV) is all Attaché needs; the default, Mail, Contacts & Calendars, works too but opens more than your calendars. Choose Generate password and copy it.

   On screen

   Your new app password. Fastmail can’t show it again later, so keep the page open until the password is in Attaché.

3. 3

   Step 3: Connect it in Attaché

   Pick Fastmail as the Service. Enter your full Fastmail address, paste the App password and choose Connect.

Fastmail’s Basic plan doesn’t include CalDAV or app passwords, so a Basic account can’t connect.

Nextcloud

1. 1

   Step 1: Create an app password in Nextcloud

   In Nextcloud, open the menu under your picture, choose Settings, then Security. Under Devices & sessions, type Attaché in App name and choose Create new app password. Confirm with your Nextcloud password if it asks.

   On screen

   The user name and the password Attaché will sign in with, shown only this once; a Done button closes them.

2. 2

   Step 2: Copy the user name and the password

   Copy both, or keep the page open while you connect. The user name may differ from the one you type to sign in to Nextcloud, so use the one shown here.

3. 3

   Step 3: Connect it in Attaché

   Pick Nextcloud as the Service. In Nextcloud address, enter the address you open Nextcloud at, such as cloud.example.com (Attaché adds the calendar path itself); then the Username and the App password Nextcloud showed, and choose Connect.

Your Nextcloud must be reachable from the internet over https. One that only works on your home network can’t be connected (why).

Yahoo Calendar

1. 1

   Step 1: Open Yahoo’s Account Security page

   Sign in to Yahoo and open your Account Security page. Under External connections, choose Create app password.

2. 2

   Step 2: Generate the password

   Enter Attaché as the app’s name and choose Generate password. Copy the password, then choose Done.

   On screen

   The new password, shown only this once.

3. 3

   Step 3: Connect it in Attaché

   Pick Yahoo Calendar as the Service. Enter your Yahoo address, paste the App password and choose Connect.

A Yahoo app password keeps working when you change your Yahoo password; to stop it, delete it (below).

Other CalDAV servers

Synology Calendar, Posteo, mailbox.org, Kolab, Zimbra, Baïkal, Radicale and other CalDAV servers connect the same way.

1. 1

   Step 1: Find your server’s CalDAV details

   Your provider’s help pages give its CalDAV address, which starts with https://, and your user name. Create an app password if your provider offers them; otherwise use your account’s password.

2. 2

   Step 2: Connect it in Attaché

   Pick Other as the Service. Enter the Server URL, your Username and the Password, and choose Connect.

What you’ll see in Attaché

• The calendars of that account, including calendars other people share with it. After the password is checked, Choose calendars lists them, every one ticked: untick any you don’t want in Attaché and choose Continue.
• You can add, change and delete events in them, and so can the delegates you allow to. Read-only calendars on the server, such as subscriptions, stay read-only.
• Attaché doesn’t send invitations from CalDAV calendars yet. It shows the guests of an event, but to invite people, use your provider’s own calendar.
• Attaché looks for your calendars when you connect and whenever you give it a new password. A calendar you create later doesn’t appear on its own (how to add it).

If it doesn’t work

“Fastmail didn’t accept that username and password”

Or Nextcloud, Yahoo or “the server”. Check these:

• Use the app password, not your account’s main password, if your provider has app passwords.
• Use your full e-mail address as the user name for Fastmail and Yahoo, and the user name Nextcloud showed with the app password.
• Check that the app password is still listed with your provider; if it was deleted, create a new one.

“We couldn’t reach that server”

• Check the address for typos. It should start with https://.
• Open the address in a browser on a phone using mobile data (not your Wi-Fi). If it doesn’t open there, Attaché can’t reach it either (why).
• The server needs a certificate that browsers trust: Attaché doesn’t accept self-signed certificates.
• “That server isn’t reachable from Attaché” means the address points to a private network or uses plain http, which Attaché refuses (why).

“That address doesn’t look like a CalDAV server”

The server answered, but not as a CalDAV server. Use the CalDAV address from your provider’s help pages, which is often not the address you open in a browser; for many servers the plain https:// address of the server is enough, and Attaché finds the rest.

Attaché shows “Update password”

The password stopped working: it was deleted or revoked at your provider, or your provider ended it when you changed your account’s password. Create a new one, choose Update password by the account in Settings → Connections, paste it as the New password and choose Save. Your calendars, events and your delegates’ access are kept.

A calendar is missing

Attaché looks for calendars when you connect and whenever you give it a new password, and the Update password button appears only once the old password has stopped working. To bring in a calendar you created later: delete the Attaché app password at your provider (how; if Attaché uses your account’s own password, change that password), wait for Attaché to show Update password by the account (a few minutes, at its next check), create a new password and paste it. Calendars Attaché hasn’t seen come up as New calendars, every one ticked: untick any you don’t want. Your other calendars, their events and your delegates’ access are kept. (Disconnecting and connecting again also works, but then you choose calendars, colours and your delegates’ access again.)

Stop Attaché’s access

• In Attaché: in Settings → Connections, choose Disconnect by the account. Attaché stops syncing it and deletes the password and the calendars and events it copied, normally within minutes. Your calendars on the server stay as they are.
• At Fastmail: Settings → Privacy & Security → Manage app passwords and access; choose Remove by the Attaché password (Disable only pauses it).
• At Nextcloud: Settings → Security → Devices & sessions; open the menu by Attaché and revoke it.
• At Yahoo: on the Account Security page, under External connections, open your app passwords and choose Delete by Attaché, then Delete again to confirm.

Attaché can’t revoke an app password at your provider for you, so when you stop using it, do both.