program: Mozilla Thunderbird
add-on: gContactSync
address book: Google/Gmail
About Mozilla Thunderbird
Mozilla Thunderbird is software that acts similar to Microsoft Outlook whereas it allows you to send and receive emails from the desktop of your computer.
As an additional bonus, it also allows you to synchronize various other features of your email address providers (like Gmail or Zoho Mail) like a calendar, or an address book.
gContactSync Add-on for Mozilla Thunderbird
Mozilla Thunderbird has an addon called gContactSync. gContactSync is an add-on that synchronizes contacts between Google (Gmail) and an Address Book in Thunderbird. You can synchronize multiple accounts with multiple address books, and it fully supports regular and hosted Google Accounts.
To install, select Tools -> Add-ons
Search for gContactSync and click install.
Once installed, you will be prompted to restart Thunderbird.
Adding Accounts to gContactSync
In the top menu bar in Thunderbird, you will see a new item called gContactSync. This is what you’ve just installed! To add a new email address contact list, simply click the menu item: gContactSync -> Add Account. Follow the on screen prompts to connect your Google account.
This will likely be your one central address book that you synchronize all your other local (in Thunderbird) addresses to.
Edit Account Synchronization Settings in gContactSync
Once you’ve added the accounts you wish to have synchronized, you’ll be able to choose how you want the synchronization to happen.
What I like to do is have a central account that all others synchronize to. All in one spot that that on my phone I can just have the one address book synchronized. This is accomplished in the ‘Pick the direction for the synchronization‘ option, where one selects ‘Write only‘ (image above shows ‘Complete‘) if you wish to send the contacts to your Google Address Book, and not read all the addresses from the Google Address Book and put them into that local address book – doing this would create a copy on the Google Address Book and the local address book associated with the account selected for editing.
One can also disable synchronization of the address book, or re-enable the address book synchronization if there has been an error that has disabled it.
Hope this helps!