[horde] ActiveSync disappearing and reappearing contacts

[Matthias Marx]

On Wed 15 Jul 2015 01:49:18 PM CEST, Michael J Rubinsky  
<mrubinsk at horde.org> wrote:

> Quoting Matthias Marx <mmarx at netdmon.de>:
>
>> On Mon 13 Jul 2015 05:00:55 PM CEST, Michael J Rubinsky  
>> <mrubinsk at horde.org> wrote:
>>
>>> Quoting Matthias Marx <mmarx at netdmon.de>:
>>>
>>>> On Mon 13 Jul 2015 02:15:58 AM CEST, Michael J Rubinsky  
>>>> <mrubinsk at horde.org> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Quoting Matthias Marx <mmarx at netdmon.de>:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Hi everyone,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I have a strange problem with ActiveSync since a while but  
>>>>>> ignored it since CardDav syncing is working as a workaround.  
>>>>>> Maybe someone has the same issue or could point me in the right  
>>>>>> direction what's wrong with my installation.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I have a very small horde installation where I used only one  
>>>>>> account since a couple of years, this account is working fine.  
>>>>>> Recently I added more user accounts, including a brand new test  
>>>>>> account, and they are experiencing the following issue.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> When I add the test account as and Exchange Account on a Nexus  
>>>>>> 5 or Nexus 9 device the setup process is working fine. I'm  
>>>>>> using a self signed certificate so I accept all SSL  
>>>>>> certificates during the setup process and I'm currently only  
>>>>>> testing contacts syncing.
>>>>>> The contact syncing seems to work correctly and the contacts  
>>>>>> appear in the devices address book but on the next sync  
>>>>>> operation all contacts vanish from the device, they are still  
>>>>>> on the server(horde webinterface) though. On the next sync all  
>>>>>> contacts reappear in the address book, it's like toggling  
>>>>>> between "no contacts" and "all contacts" between sync events. I  
>>>>>> also tried creating contacts on the device while it was showing  
>>>>>> "no contacts" or "all contacts" but after the next sync event  
>>>>>> those contacts are gone and they are not synced to horde.
>>>>>> I have even seen, when I have a lot of contacts in the address  
>>>>>> book, that the horde contacts appear one by one in devices  
>>>>>> address book while it is syncing and at the end of the sync  
>>>>>> process, at the moment it is finished, all contacts disappear  
>>>>>> from the device.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On a side note, for the calendar it is something similar. While  
>>>>>> the device is syncing I see(can select) the test account  
>>>>>> calendar appear in the calendar App but as soon as the syncing  
>>>>>> finishes the calendar disappears from the device.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Here is the ActiveSync log of two syncs:
>>>>>> http://netdmon.de/public/2015-07-08_horde_active_sync.txt
>>>>>>
>>>>>> There are no errors in the horde logfile, just the notice that  
>>>>>> the user login succeeded.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> If you need more information please ask. I can also provide  
>>>>>> access to the test account and the ActiveSync log but not  
>>>>>> publicly.
>>>>>
>>>>> This works fine locally on all of my actively tested Android  
>>>>> devices, as well as a 5.0.1 emulator. Your log shows a normal  
>>>>> sync cycle of requesting and receiving a single set of contact  
>>>>> data consisting of 2 contacts.
>>>>>
>>>>> I noticed that you don't have any email folders being synced.  
>>>>> Some clients don't behave very nicely when you do that so you  
>>>>> might want to try synchronizing email as well to see if that  
>>>>> helps.
>>>>
>>>> Hi Mike,
>>>>
>>>> thanks for looking into it. I tried enabling the e-mail sync as  
>>>> well as a result the behavior changed. Now, while the  
>>>> device(Nexus 5, with Android 5.1.1) is syncing the two contacts  
>>>> appear, then disappear, then appear again and finally disappear,  
>>>> then the sync is finished. I tried it a couple of times, here is  
>>>> the log, but I see no obvious errors there either.
>>>> http://netdmon.de/public/2015-07-13_horde_active_sync.txt
>>>>
>>>> Also my primary horde account, which is also enabled on this  
>>>> device, is working fine, btw. there I don't have e-mail syncing  
>>>> enabled, only calendar and contacts.
>>>
>>> Oh, you have two accounts on the same device, connected to the  
>>> same Horde install? There may be some strange interaction there  
>>> I'll have to test when I have time. Would you know if the same  
>>> issue occurs on one of your new accounts when it's the only  
>>> account set up on the client?
>>
>> Sorry for the late reply ... I'm in the process of migrating my  
>> server from Debian 6 to CentOS 7 ...
>> I wanted to do that anyway and thought that maybe some kind of odd  
>> behavior of the old php5.3/mysql5.1 version could cause this, but I  
>> still see the problem with php5.4/mariadb5.5.
>>
>> Back to your question I didn't explicitly test my test account as  
>> an only account on the Nexus devices but I remember that I had the  
>> same issue with a new account when I first setup the device, my  
>> workaround was then to use CardDav for the contacts and no calendar  
>> syncing because that's not used on this device. But now the user on  
>> that device would like to use calendar syncing as well, so that's  
>> the reason I'm trying to fix the ActiveSync stuff.
>> Could you point me in the right direction for the Android emulator  
>> you are using, I could set it up and try to recreate the same  
>> behavior with my test account.
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> Matthias
>>
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>
>
> http://developer.android.com/tools/devices/emulator.html

Thanks, using that is easier than I thought.
Here is what I tested:

* Lollipop 5.1.1; One/Same test account
   * Sync contacts; Sync calendar; no email
     * Same behavior as described before
     * During sync, contacts appear and vanish again
   * Sync contacts only
     * Same behavior as described before
     * One sync, contacts appear, next sync contacts vanish, and this  
cycle continues.
* Lollipop 5.0.1; One/Same test account
   * Sync contacts; Sync calendar; no email
     * Same behavior as with 5.1.1
   * Sync contacts only
     * Same behavior as with 5.1.1
* KitKat 4.4.4; One/Same test account
   * Sync contacts; Sync calendar; no email
   * Works fine, as it should, contacts stay visible on the device  
even after several syncs.
   * Can also create a new contact on the device and it is synced back  
to horde correctly
   * Can also create a new contact in horde and it is synced to the  
device correctly

So it looks like KitKat is working properly, after adding the new  
contacts I started 5.1.1 again and the contacts also appear there but  
the behavior is still broken like before.

I'm a puzzled by the fact that I have one account which is working  
correctly. I thought that it may work correctly on 5.1.1 because I'm  
using this account since android 2.3 ... 4.x ....
So I deleted all userdata for my test account by using the  
horde-remove-user-data script.
Then I started the KitKat AVD again, deleted the account and synced it  
for the first time. Created one contact, it was correctly synced back  
to horde.
Then I used the 5.1.1 AVD to sync that account but the behavior there  
is still broken.

Kind Regards

Matthias