Calendar Delegation in Zimbra Version 8

Introduction 

Zimbra 8 changed the way appointments in shared calendars are shown on the iPhone. If “Enable delegation for Apple iCal CalDAV client” in Calendar Prefs is enabled, then shared calendars will not be shown on the iDevice – this is because iOS does not support delegation of calendars. Previously in Zimbra 7 a work around was employed at the server level whereby shared calendars were presented as your own calendar but this caused issues with invites and other naming problems, hence the change in v8. 

In Zimbra 8, if “Enable delegation for Apple iCal CalDAV client” in Calendar Prefs is disabled, then the list of appointments on the iDevice will show as read only and it will not be possible to edit or create appointments from the iDevice. 

Shared Calendars are not displayed via Active Sync connections 

How to edit shared calendars on iOS devices


NB – This is a workaround which is unsupported – following these instructions is entirely at your own risk. 

  • Share a calendar to your account using webmail – login to the host mailbox first, name the calendar you are going to share with a descriptive name, grant the share, then login to your mailbox and accept the share – make sure it all works fine in webmail before you continue to the next step. NB – it does not matter whether you have “Enable delegation for Apple iCal CalDAV client” on or off for this workaround to function.
  • Set-up a CalDAV account for your mailbox – save and let iOS verify the settings. Confirm you can see your calendar(s) before moving to the next step
  • Edit the CalDav account you just created – under advanced settings note the Account URL which will look something like this: /principals/users/yourMailbox%40yourdomain/
  • Modify the Account URL, replacing yourMailbox%40yourdomain with the name and domain of the shared mailbox. For example: /principals/users/companyshare%40example.com/
  • Back out to the main CalDav account settings screen and tap Done
  • It should verify the account
  • Assuming everything verifies OK, open your calendar app – you should see the shared calendar listed – note that it will be named as it is in the shared mailbox as per step 1.