Bug: Not able to connect to any Google account during initial setup

[jaklan]

macOS version

14.7.4 (23H420)

MeetingBar version

4.11.2

Installation source

Homebrew

Calendars provider

Google Calendar

Bug description

After the last release (4.11.2), I'm not able to connect any Google account to MeetingBar anymore. It worked without issues in the previous versions.

I tried to do a fresh install - I select GCal integration, my default Chrome profile opens to ask about GCal permissions, I accept them, the pop-up about redirection to MeetingBar appears, I accept it, but... nothing happens. The page in the browser is redirected to the main Google site, but MeetingBar is stuck at the below view:

When I try again - the same happens. I tried with two different Google accounts (== two different Chrome profiles), I also tried with Safari - the effect is exactly the same.

Reproduction steps

No response

Expected behavior

No response

Screenshots/screen recordings

No response

Additional context

No response

[dosubot[bot]]

I could not find any existing issues or documentation that directly address connecting a Google account via a non-default Chrome profile in MeetingBar. Based on the code, MeetingBar opens the Google authentication URL using the system’s default browser profile through macOS’s NSWorkspace.shared.open(url) call, which does not provide a way to select a specific Chrome profile or force the profile picker to appear. This means MeetingBar always opens the default Chrome profile for OAuth sign-in, regardless of Chrome’s own profile settings or startup options (source).

The browser configuration options in MeetingBar allow you to add custom browsers and set arguments, but these are used for opening meeting links, not for the OAuth authentication flow for Google Calendar integration. There is no code or setting to specify Chrome’s --profile-directory or similar arguments for the OAuth sign-in step (source).

As a workaround, you could try temporarily setting your corporate Chrome profile as the default browser in macOS before connecting your Google account in MeetingBar, then switch back after authentication. Copy-pasting the URL to another profile does not work because the OAuth redirect will not reach MeetingBar unless the authentication is completed in the browser instance that was launched by the app.

There were no documented changes in version 4.11.2 related to this behavior, and the codebase does not show any recent changes affecting browser profile selection for Google authentication.

If you need to use a non-default Chrome profile for Google sign-in, MeetingBar currently does not support this directly. If this is a critical workflow, you may want to track for future updates or request this as a feature.

To reply, just mention my name @dosu.

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[jaklan]

I was able to workaround the issue by selecting MacOS Calendar first and then switching to Google Calendar in the "Calendars" view of the main menu.

Btw, I also found an interesting bug - when I selected "Birthdays" calendar from the list... the integration broke, all calendars disappeared from the list and I had to switch to MacOS Calendar and switch back to the Google one to reinitialize the integration.

[leits]

Thanks for the report! Working on it.

[leits]

Please, check out the new release 4.11.3. I have changed the integration and hope it will work now

[grosser]

tried with 4.11.3 it works a bit better now ... it shows the calendars after connection but then after 10s or so they vanish and refresh goes through the auth flow again but nothing happens

[leits]

Created 4.11.4 for this particular bugfix: https://github.com/leits/MeetingBar/releases/tag/v4.11.4

GitHub

Release v4.11.4 · leits/MeetingBar

Fix for the bug: Not able to connect to any Google account during initial setup #831 Full Changelog: v4.11.3...v4.11.4

[grosser]

same as before

• list from ical still shows up when switching to google
• on first setup new list briefly shows and when clicking 2 calender checkboxes it disappears
• refresh still tries to re-login and then nothing happens

[leits]

Please, check this out: https://github.com/leits/MeetingBar/releases/tag/v4.11.6

GitHub

Release v4.11.6 · leits/MeetingBar

Additional bug fixes for Google Calendar integration Full Changelog: v4.11.5...v4.11.6

[grosser]

seems to work now :D

[leits]

Issue seems fixed. Reopen if it happens again.