[horde] ActiveSync disappearing and reappearing contacts

Michael J Rubinsky mrubinsk at horde.org
Wed Jul 15 20:16:39 UTC 2015 

Quoting Matthias Marx <mmarx at netdmon.de>:

> 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
>>>
>>> -- 
>>> Horde mailing list
>>> Frequently Asked Questions: http://horde.org/faq/
>>> To unsubscribe, mail: horde-unsubscribe at lists.horde.org
>>
>>
>> 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'm puzzled by the fact that this doesn't happen on ANY of the test  
devices or emulators I've tried. Including the 5.0.1 version.

  When I get time, I'll try a 5.1.1 AVD, but otherwise I really don't  
know what else to tell you since I can't reproduce it and there have  
been no other reports from other users/admins either.

One thing I *will* say is that Android almost always breaks if you try  
to synchronize without providing any email folders to sync. We get  
around this in Horde by sending phony INBOX/Trash etc... when you  
disable email sync in the activesync config. I assume this is disabled  
since you say you are not using email sync?


> 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
>
> -- 
> Horde mailing list
> Frequently Asked Questions: http://horde.org/faq/
> To unsubscribe, mail: horde-unsubscribe at lists.horde.org



-- 
mike
The Horde Project
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