[horde] ActiveSync disappearing and reappearing contacts
Matthias Marx
mmarx at netdmon.de
Wed Jul 15 22:08:20 UTC 2015
On Wed 15 Jul 2015 10:16:39 PM CEST, Michael J Rubinsky
<mrubinsk at horde.org> wrote:
> 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.
>>>
>>> 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?
Ok, I always thought that enabling the e-mail syncing "worked",
because in the sync settings it was shown as finished, and did no
difference to the contacts syncing, but after you insisted that this
could cause problems I tested it again.
I removed all user data, removed the account from the 5.0.1 AVD.
Then I added the account again to the AVD and kept all sync checkboxes
enabled, i.e. syncing contacts, calendar, e-mail. Syncing finished, at
least it seems so, still the problem with the contacts.
I then wanted to check the mail syncing by accessing the Mail app but
it's always showing "Getting your messages" with a progress bar that
is running, but nothing happens. I also cannot send mail through this
account.
Here is the sync log for the whole process:
http://netdmon.de/public/2015-07-15_horde_active_sync.txt
Maybe you can read something more out of this logfile.
Thanks for your efforts anyway!
Matthias
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