this post was submitted on 09 Mar 2026
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44
What is Radicale and how do I use it? (thelemmy.club)
submitted 1 week ago by philanthropicoctopus@thelemmy.club to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
30 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Hi everyone

I'm trying to degoogle as much as possible. I've heard about this thing called calDAV and cardDAV but I have no idea how to use it.

With radicale, do I need to install some other somewhere in order to use it?

I'm just looking for basic useage for myself only at this stage. I'd like to be able to self host my own calendar and contacts. Is radicale appropriate for this?

Is it safe to self host a calendar?

Can a self hosted calendar still send and receive invites to other calendars?

Any help greatly appreciated, thank you

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[–] non_burglar@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago

but I have no idea how to use it

Install davx5, connect to radicale, and allow your calendar/contacts access to it.

I'd like to be able to self host my own calendar and contacts. Is radicale appropriate for this?

Yes.

Is it safe to self host a calendar?

Define "safe".

Can a self hosted calendar still send and receive invites to other calendars?

Short answer: no. You are describing caldav/cardav integration with email.

[–] sbeak@sopuli.xyz 1 points 4 days ago

I personly used Radicale. You have to click the plus icon to create a new calendar, then if you use an app that supports CalDAV (I personally use Thunderbird on desktop and Dav5x + Etar on Android) you can sync the calendars easily. Very nice!

[–] Nomad@infosec.pub 2 points 6 days ago

Short answer: you want sogo. It has webmail integration for calendars and integrated calendar sync and task sync and contact sync and all the config URLs can be copied directly in the web interface. Just install davx5 and any task manager and calendar app and you are good to go. :)

Its so good I even earn some of my money by renting my system out too others with their own custom domain. :))

[–] NinjaTurtle@feddit.online 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Can also check out Nextcloud. Yes, its more overkill than just calendar and contact sync but its not that hard to set up and self-host. It has an interface for you to fix your calendar and contacts graphically and works well with DAVx5, if on Android. Believe you can just add the CalDav and CardDav for iOS, but have not tried it personally.

[–] zenforyen@feddit.org 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I use Radicale for a self hosted shared calendar and todo lists and notes with my wife.

Radicale on raspberry pi

Android apps: Davx5 Jtx board Fossify calendar

[–] trewq@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago

Baikal was easy to migrate. All i needed to do was to copy the single db file.

[–] xtools@programming.dev 3 points 6 days ago

I've recently set up Baikal on a cheap shared host. It doesn't even need a dedicated database, it just creates a file-based sqlite db. i've just copied some files to a php webhost and followed the quickstart guide for setup, i'm pretty happy with the result

[–] FlowerFan@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 points 6 days ago

are you on android or iOS?

[–] Ooops@feddit.org 1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

With radicale, do I need to install some other somewhere in order to use it?

No, you just need to install Radicale. That's it. calDAV and cardDAV are widely used formats available as an option with basically any calendar.

Can a self hosted calendar still send and receive invites to other calendars?

Oh, I see your problem. You don't host your calendar. You host a service that is used to synchronise all the regular calendars you already use over different devices.

Or are you at the moment using Google's calendar in browser only?

[–] Shimitar@downonthestreet.eu 12 points 1 week ago (2 children)

My experience with radicale

https://wiki.gardiol.org/doku.php?id=services%3Aradicale

I currently use it, from android with dav5x (F-droid)

[–] irmadlad@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

https://wiki.gardiol.org/doku.php?id=services%3Aradicale

This is your wiki? I've been there before. Turned up in a search.

[–] Shimitar@downonthestreet.eu 9 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Yes it is, written by me by hand 100%...

Zero AI too.. Just old grumpy bashing

[–] irmadlad@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Well, thank you for making it public. IIRC, it did help me in a couple things so again, thank you.

Zero AI too

I think you will start to see the 'Zero AI' label starting to pop up on personal blogs and wikis.

[–] Shimitar@downonthestreet.eu 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Ahahah I like the "zero AI" logo idea, maybe will use AI to create one... :)

Yes I am that bad with graphics

Anyway check the main page of the wiki I explain why I did it.

[–] irmadlad@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

[–] Shimitar@downonthestreet.eu 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Thanks! Tomorrow will see to upload to my wiki...

.

[–] irmadlad@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Might want to crop it a bit. Go nuts!

[–] Shimitar@downonthestreet.eu 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Was it.... Made with AI?

[–] irmadlad@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Actually one of these free logo maker sites and I just screen grabbed it instead of paying for it, then flooded the background with Gimp. However a logo made with AI that says Zero AI would be irony.

[–] Shimitar@downonthestreet.eu 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Yes, I was trying to be funny.... Don't worry... ;)

[–] irmadlad@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

No worries mate. I was just sitting here jamming some blues on the guitar and felt inspired.

[–] philanthropicoctopus@thelemmy.club 4 points 1 week ago

Thanks for the link

I see it doesn't have a dashboard, would I be better off with something like Baikal?

I'm quite basic and only really selfhost cause I don't like big tech, not cause I'm a linux wizz

[–] yaroto98@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

It's how you can copy/backup/sync calendar and contacts.

on my phone I installed davx5 which does the copying over to my radicale instance on my server. Then my server backs up my calendar and contacts.

When I get a new phone I can sync all of it over easily. Bonus points, google doesn't have that data.

[–] philanthropicoctopus@thelemmy.club 1 points 1 week ago

Is it hard to set up? Sound perfect for what I want, just also seems complicated for my skills haha

[–] philanthropicoctopus@thelemmy.club 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Follow up questions:

I seed to have created multiple users, how can I manage users?

Does Radicale have a dashboard?

[–] eskuero@lemmy.fromshado.ws 1 points 6 days ago

Doesnt have a dashboard per-se for centralized administration. It has a web ui to manually create create/upload collections. I personally use it a very simplistic way and just reupload an updated .vcf file with all my contacts from time to time.

About user management, I dont know how you installed radicale but they have this docs https://radicale.org/v3.html#authentication

[–] fozid@feddit.uk 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Exactly for what you want it for. I've been using it about 3 months. Contacts and calender. It's a real pain to set up. Not straight forward. I didn't a lot of time with ai as could not get my head round the guide.

[–] philanthropicoctopus@thelemmy.club 1 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Yeah I hear you. I've installed it but I have no idea what to do from here. Cant access any kind of dash. I've just learnt it doesn't have a native dash but you need a third party app for that?

[–] fozid@feddit.uk 1 points 4 days ago

You don't need a dashboard. Think of it as just a database. And then other apps interact with it. On my android phone I have davx5 which does all the syncing of things like calendar and contacts. Setting up and syncing with davx5 is the easy bit. The hard bit is getting authentication working and creating the databases. Mine works perfectly but I couldn't tell you how I set it up. If I want to add another calendar or contacts list to it Id have to go and figure it all out again.

[–] Ooops@feddit.org 1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Take a look at the config file (/etc/radicale/config). It's extensively commented. Although you barely need to change any defaults for regular use.

Just create an htpasswd file (with htpsswd, apache-tools or just any of the one million available online generators) and edit two lines under [auth] to read type = htpasswd and htpasswd_filename = <the location and file you created>.

And you can start (and enable) Radicale via the systemd service usually included in the installed package. (Or for early testing just start the server manually... radicale starts it with the defaults from the config file. You can also configure everything with parameters but that's an insanely long list (radicale --help if you are interested in seeing them)...)

The webinterface to login will be available (by default settings) under http://localhost:5232/.

All you have to do then is change the config so Radicale listens on the server's IP instead so it's available in in your network. (Plus the usual stuff of making it available from the outside if you need that like for any other sevice)

And any calendar/contact software will bring a wizard that guides you through the process of sync'ing, usually just asking for an address to reach your server, as well as user and password.

EDIT: I looked up the defaults and you can skip all the autehntification stuff in the beginning. By default just anyone can access the webpage at port 5232. So you can just test it and only bother with authentication later (definitely when you plan to make it available from the outside, for example to sync phones).