261405 - palm sync does not change TB address book even if log and return codes indicate successful sync

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(MailNews Core Graveyard :: Palm Sync, defect)

Description

[Nik the Greek]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; rv:1.7.3) Gecko/20040913 Firefox/0.10
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; rv:1.7.3) Gecko/20040913 Firefox/0.10

The Palm sync extension, once installed, adds Mozilla Address Book conduit to
the synchronization list - but when syncing the 'Mozilla Address Book' conduit
appears for a fraction of a second and no changes are made to Thunderbird's
address book.
I tired setting the conduit to 'sync'/'handheld overrides' but it makes no
difference.
The synchronization with Palm Desktop works ok.


Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1.
2.
3.

Comment 1

[Henry]

I also have the same problem.  I am running TB 1.0.

Comment 2

[Geoff]

Me too with Windows XP and TB 1.0

Comment 3

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Is this a problem using current version of TB, and you don't get any error
message of any kind, unlike bug 234391   (note: someone found bug 214407 to be
helpful)

version  1.0.5 available at
http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/thunderbird/releases/1.0.5/

Comment 4

[Dara Dorsaneo]

I've seen this. It most commonly occurs when changing "use secure connection (ssl)" option. It generates a second secure or not secure address book.

TB 1.5 (20051114)

Comment 5

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Henry, Geof - does comment 4 apply in your case?


(In reply to comment #4)
> I've seen this. It most commonly occurs when changing "use secure connection
> (ssl)" option. 

"use secure connection" where? - imap, ldap, ...


>It generates a second secure or not secure address book.

Please explain in more detail.
 

Comment 6

[Henry]

I don't know what comment #4 is refering to...  I don't think there is a "secure connection" option for address book synchronization.  I have never used IMAP with TB.

(In reply to comment #5)
> Henry, Geof - does comment 4 apply in your case?
> 
> (In reply to comment #4)
> > I've seen this. It most commonly occurs when changing "use secure connection
> > (ssl)" option. 
> 
> "use secure connection" where? - imap, ldap, ...
> 
> >It generates a second secure or not secure address book.
> 
> Please explain in more detail.
> 
> 

Comment 7

[Dara Dorsaneo]

(In reply to comment #5)
> Henry, Geof - does comment 4 apply in your case?
> 
> 
> (In reply to comment #4)
> > I've seen this. It most commonly occurs when changing "use secure connection
> > (ssl)" option. 
> 
> "use secure connection" where? - imap, ldap, ...
> 
> 
> >It generates a second secure or not secure address book.
> 
> Please explain in more detail.
> 
> 

Sorry, was navigating through some bugs and somehow posted the comment into this bug. I was aiming for https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=313073, which would make more sense.

Comment 8

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Please consult http://kb.mozillazine.org/PalmSync_%28Thunderbird%29, bug 261405 and the Thunderbird forum at http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewforum.php?f=28 - then please report back your results (I hope it will be good news).

If no response in 2 weeks I'll assume it's working for you and will close the bug. (Sorry it's been so long since last contact)

Comment 9

[Geoff]

Several folk in my office continue to have the same problem.  We've followed all the prescribed solutions with no success.  Hotsync says its doing the work and seems to spend an appropriate amount of time on it but we can't see any effect in either the Palm or the Thunderbird address books.

I'd be happy to supply any documentation you need.  Let me know.

Geoff

Comment 10

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

1. Go to: Control Panel > System > Advanced > Environmental Variables
2. setup the variable MOZ_CONDUIT_LOG with a value of C:\mozconduitlog.txt
3. c:\mozconduitlog.txt will log your hotsync progress
4. please add contents of mozconduitlog.txt as comment to this bug 

Comment 11

[Geoff]

Attachment: Geoff's comment of 1/1/06

Comment 12

[Justin M]

Attachment: Hotsync log while not changing address book entries

Comment 13

[Justin M]

Same problem here.  I have Win2K, Thunderbird v1.5 (20051201) and Firefox 1.5. Palm Hotsync w/ regular Desktop conduits works fine.

1. I have installed Contacts Sidebar 0.6, Palmsync.xpi. 

2. I have changed the conduits ('Do Nothing' for Contacts and 'Synchronise' or 'Handheld overwrites Desktop' for Mozilla Address Book).

Here's what happens:

i. Each time I sync, a new category is added to the Mozilla address book from the Palm; however, it has no entries.   

ii. I did this 14 times and each time a new category was added, again with no entries.  Palm data seemed unaffected.

iii. I took the precaution of creating the conduit.log as described elsewhere and it has some rather interesting entries.  It logged all of the hotsyncs above in (ii).  I have attached it here.  I could speculate here - the category indices are not in sequence, I have 16 categories in the Moz address book (14 in Palm) and so on - but I don't really know what it means.

It spends about 25 seconds on the Mozilla Address Book each time, and now that all the categories are there, seems to do nothing.

Any ideas?

Thanks very much in advance.

Justin

Comment 14

[Justin M]

Here's my most recent Hotsync log which is set to 'Synchonise' instead of 'Handheld overwrites Desktop' as with the previous ones in the posted log.  Still nothing in the Address books, except the Personal Address Book which collects the addresses from Tbird emails and does *not* exist on the Palm.  

Forgot to mention: I have Hotsync v 6.0.1 and Desktop Palm 4.1.4 if that's relevant.

Thanks, Justin

------------ START OF PALM SYNC ------------ at Fri Jan 13 17:02:05 2006
Getting moz AB List ... Done getting moz AB List. 
first device = 0
Moz AB[0] category index/synced=-1/0, name= 'Personal Address Book', url= 'moz-abmdbdirectory://abook.mab'
Moz AB[1] category index/synced=-1/0, name= 'Collected Addresses', url= 'moz-abmdbdirectory://history.mab'
Moz AB[2] category index/synced=-1/0, name= 'Unfiled', url= 'moz-abmdbdirectory://abook-1.mab'
Moz AB[3] category index/synced=-1/0, name= 'Business', url= 'moz-abmdbdirectory://abook-2.mab'
Moz AB[4] category index/synced=-1/0, name= 'Personal FG', url= 'moz-abmdbdirectory://abook-3.mab'
Moz AB[5] category index/synced=-1/0, name= 'LBS', url= 'moz-abmdbdirectory://abook-6.mab'
Moz AB[6] category index/synced=-1/0, name= 'Personal BG', url= 'moz-abmdbdirectory://abook-4.mab'
Moz AB[7] category index/synced=-1/0, name= 'Clubs & Grub', url= 'moz-abmdbdirectory://abook-5.mab'
Moz AB[8] category index/synced=-1/0, name= 'Useful', url= 'moz-abmdbdirectory://abook-7.mab'
Moz AB[9] category index/synced=-1/0, name= 'Family-Winter', url= 'moz-abmdbdirectory://abook-8.mab'
Moz AB[10] category index/synced=-1/0, name= 'HH', url= 'moz-abmdbdirectory://abook-9.mab'
Moz AB[11] category index/synced=-1/0, name= 'Investors', url= 'moz-abmdbdirectory://abook-10.mab'
Moz AB[12] category index/synced=-1/0, name= 'FT96 02-04-02', url= 'moz-abmdbdirectory://abook-11.mab'
Moz AB[13] category index/synced=-1/0, name= 'Suppliers', url= 'moz-abmdbdirectory://abook-12.mab'
Moz AB[14] category index/synced=-1/0, name= 'Business Plus', url= 'moz-abmdbdirectory://abook-13.mab'
Moz AB[15] category index/synced=-1/0, name= 'Family-Mencher', url= 'moz-abmdbdirectory://abook-14.mab'

Processing Palm AB 'Unfiled' (catIndex/catId) = (0/0)... 
Category index = 0, name = 'Unfiled' has not been synced before
  Syncing with moz AB with 60 modified Palm record(s) ... Done syncing AB. retval=80004005.

Processing Palm AB 'Business' (catIndex/catId) = (1/1)... 
Category index = 1, name = 'Business' has not been synced before
  Syncing with moz AB with 616 modified Palm record(s) ... Done syncing AB. retval=80004005.

Processing Palm AB 'Personal FG' (catIndex/catId) = (2/2)... 
Category index = 2, name = 'Personal FG' has not been synced before
  Syncing with moz AB with 73 modified Palm record(s) ... Done syncing AB. retval=80004005.

Processing Palm AB 'LBS' (catIndex/catId) = (5/128)... 
Category index = 128, name = 'LBS' has not been synced before
  Syncing with moz AB with 173 modified Palm record(s) ... Done syncing AB. retval=80004005.

Processing Palm AB 'Personal BG' (catIndex/catId) = (6/129)... 
Category index = 129, name = 'Personal BG' has not been synced before
  Syncing with moz AB with 172 modified Palm record(s) ... Done syncing AB. retval=80004005.

Processing Palm AB 'Clubs & Grub' (catIndex/catId) = (7/130)... 
Category index = 130, name = 'Clubs & Grub' has not been synced before
  Syncing with moz AB with 22 modified Palm record(s) ... Done syncing AB. retval=80004005.

Processing Palm AB 'Useful' (catIndex/catId) = (8/131)... 
Category index = 131, name = 'Useful' has not been synced before
  Syncing with moz AB with 90 modified Palm record(s) ... Done syncing AB. retval=80004005.

Processing Palm AB 'Family-Winter' (catIndex/catId) = (9/141)... 
Category index = 141, name = 'Family-Winter' has not been synced before
  Syncing with moz AB with 22 modified Palm record(s) ... Done syncing AB. retval=80004005.

Processing Palm AB 'HH' (catIndex/catId) = (10/134)... 
Category index = 134, name = 'HH' has not been synced before
  Syncing with moz AB with 42 modified Palm record(s) ... Done syncing AB. retval=80004005.

Processing Palm AB 'Investors' (catIndex/catId) = (11/144)... 
Category index = 144, name = 'Investors' has not been synced before
  Syncing with moz AB with 19 modified Palm record(s) ... Done syncing AB. retval=80004005.

Processing Palm AB 'FT96 02-04-02' (catIndex/catId) = (12/136)... 
Category index = 136, name = 'FT96 02-04-02' has not been synced before
  Syncing with moz AB with 125 modified Palm record(s) ... Done syncing AB. retval=80004005.

Processing Palm AB 'Suppliers' (catIndex/catId) = (13/16)... 
Category index = 16, name = 'Suppliers' has not been synced before
  Syncing with moz AB with 4 modified Palm record(s) ... Done syncing AB. retval=80004005.

Processing Palm AB 'Business Plus' (catIndex/catId) = (14/137)... 
Category index = 137, name = 'Business Plus' has not been synced before
  Syncing with moz AB with 38 modified Palm record(s) ... Done syncing AB. retval=80004005.

Processing Palm AB 'Family-Mencher' (catIndex/catId) = (15/142)... 
Category index = 142, name = 'Family-Mencher' has not been synced before
  Syncing with moz AB with 21 modified Palm record(s) ... Done syncing AB. retval=80004005.

Moz AB[0] category index = -1, name = 'Personal Address Book' doesn't exist on Palm so needs to be added to palm
  Loading moz AB records failed so can't create new Palm AB. retval=-2147467259.

Moz AB[1] category index = -1, name = 'Collected Addresses' doesn't exist on Palm so needs to be added to palm
  Loading moz AB records failed so can't create new Palm AB. retval=-2147467259.
------------ END OF PALM SYNC ------------ at Fri Jan 13 17:02:18 2006

Comment 15

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Justin and ALL users of Thunderbird 1.5 

Please try the updated palmsync for thunderbird 1.5 (on http://kb.mozillazine.org/PalmSync_%28Thunderbird%29 ) and report back
so we know that you are good. If not working then please supply build string and hotsync log per comment  10 when reporting back -- thanks  (justin you missed getting the new xpi by a few hours)

Note
1. the updated palmsync for 1.5 eliminates the need for contacts sidebar.
2. the updated palmsync for 1.5 AFAIK is NOT for TB 1.0

Users of contacts sidebar - CS 0.5 is for TB 1.0, CS 0.6 is for TB 1.5 - per http://jpeters.no-ip.com/extensions/?page=tb_cs

Comment 16

[Justin M]

Damn!  That sure is fine.  I can see my address book is in a good need of a clean up now, but everything seems to be working very well with Hotsync.

Thanks a million for working this out and for all the time you must have put into it.  It's really making Tbird so much more useful than just a standalone. Now for the Calendar...!

Best wishes,

Justin

Comment 17

[Worcester12345]

(In reply to comment #16)
> Damn!  That sure is fine.  ...

> into it.  It's really making Tbird so much more useful than just a standalone.
> Now for the Calendar...!
...


Is there a corresponding bug for the calendar part of this? Thanks.

Comment 18

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Justin  Is there a corresponding bug for the calendar part of this?   [repeat]

Comment 19

[Justin M]

Sorry for the delay in replying and if my previous comment sign-off falsely raised your hopes about a Calendar for FF.  I was referring to Mozilla Calendar, which while it looks extremely promising, does not offer any sync facilities I'm aware of.  I used version 0.3a (though I've just noticed there's a new one up on 21-Jan-06).  So that's not an option for me right now.  No point in doing everything by hand - nicer to use a pen & paper if I'm going to do that.

Update on the Address Book Sync:  Unfortunately, although I had hoped to use the Mozilla Address Book to get easy access to my up-to-date email addresses, I have found a couple of serious problems and have given up on it for now.  Here are the problems: 

1. Some records do not appear in the MAB, even after repeated syncing.  Strangely, they still show up on the Palm.  The records in question do not seem to have any weird characters in them and I can see no other reasons for being singled out.

2. I also found the functionality of the MAB extremely limited in practice. You must have an address book for each category and you can't choose not to sync an address book.  This means that you can't create a mailing list without duplicating the records (and the subsequent updating & syncing overhead) which defeats the whole purpose...

3. You *must* keep an addressbook & category called 'Personal' on your Palm.  It's the default I guess, but that means that you've got to copy whatever is Personal into that category and then delete the old copies.  And, since I don't know if the Address book actually 'sees' ALL of my addresses, I can't reliably know if I'm copying everything, or losing data.

So bad news all round from me, I'm afraid - not using Address Book or Calendar yet. Because of this inconsistency, I've gone back to the Palm Desktop for the time being.

Apologies if I've missed any health warnings on this code - no criticism meant if it's not for prime time yet.  Just doesn't serve my needs at the mo.

HTH.

Comment 20

[David :Bienvenu]

Justin, there is a way to choose not to sync a particular address book, though there is no UI for it. Just set the following pref using tools | options | advanced | config editor

pref("ldap_2.servers.<ab name>.disablePalmSync", true);

that's probably not sufficient to work around the issues you're having, but it might be a start.

Comment 21

[Geoff]

Seems to be working for me now - thanks so much.  Been waiting a long time for this.

Comment 22

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to comment #21)
> Seems to be working for me now - thanks so much.  Been waiting a long time for
> this.

Geoff is your office still 1.0? Or are you now 1.5?

Comment 23

[Geoff]

I tested using 1.5

Comment 24

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to comment #20)
> Justin, there is a way to choose not to sync a particular address book, though
> there is no UI for it. Just set the following pref using tools | options |
> advanced | config editor
> 
> pref("ldap_2.servers.<ab name>.disablePalmSync", true);

disablePalmSync is courtesy of Bug 227507

Comment 25

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Henry - what is your status?
Nick - what is your status?

Geoff is OK - comment 21
Justin was still having trouble - comment 19

Justin I think any major issues you have will be more effectively addressed in new bug(s). Some comments below.

(In reply to comment #19)
>... 
> 1. Some records do not appear in the MAB, even after repeated syncing. 
> Strangely, they still show up on the Palm.  The records in question do not seem
> to have any weird characters in them and I can see no other reasons for being
> singled out.

Need a new bug with minimal testcase - an address book (attached to the bug or e-mailed) that had only the "bad" addresses and a conduit log. Please exclude all the other address books with the exclusion pref David mentioned. 


> 2. ... You
> must have an address book for each category and you can't choose not to sync an
> address book.  This means that you can't create a mailing list without
> duplicating the records (and the subsequent updating & syncing overhead) which
> defeats the whole purpose...

known bugs - TB AB does not presently have a concept of categories, plus palmsync does not support mailing lists.

 
> 3. You *must* keep an addressbook & category called 'Personal' on your Palm. 
> It's the default I guess, but that means that you've got to copy whatever is
> Personal into that category and then delete the old copies.  And, since I don't
> know if the Address book actually 'sees' ALL of my addresses, I can't reliably
> know if I'm copying everything, or losing data.

I don't quite understand where you are coming from - why must you copy everything to "personal"?

Question - are you starting with all of your data in the palm, or in Thunderbird?


If there's no news from Henry or Nick this bug will be closed.

Comment 26

[Geoff]

Attachment: mozconduitlog.txt

The problem has returned for me.  I'm using Windows XP latest version, TB 1.5 and the latest versions of Hotsync and Palm software for Treo 650.  I rebuilt everything by removing the Palm Desktop with the Windows remove software function and then added everything back again and it still does not sync.  Attached are the and the sync log and the build string.

I notice that the version of the sync conduit in Palmsync.xpi for TB 1.0 is 0.6.0.0 whereas its 0.4.0.0 for the TB1.5 version - that seems weird!  Also, there seem to be different versions of palmsync.xpi around on the site.  As you can see from the install log, one of them has an extra step that deletes compreg.dat in the profile.

Is there a component on the Palm that might be missing that we should check?  It seems from the mozconduit.log that hotsync is asking a question that isn't getting answered by the Palm.

Comment 27

[Geoff]

Attachment: palmsync.xpi install log

Comment 28

[Geoff]

And now its working.  I don't know why!%@$!#@.  I think all I did was set Desktop to overwrite handheld then the sync worked.  Then I set back to sync the files and its still working.

Comment 29

[Gordon Dickens]

(In reply to comment #28)
> And now its working.  I don't know why!%@$!#@.  I think all I did was set
> Desktop to overwrite handheld then the sync worked.  Then I set back to sync
> the files and its still working.
> 

Congratulations!

If setting the Desktop to overwrite the handheld fixed your problem then your problem almost certainly resulted from data corruption on your handheld Palm unit. The odds are therefore very high that there was nothing wrong with TBird or PalmSync.

What you have seen here is a common Palm handheld data corruption issue regardless of whether you are syncing with TBird via PalmSync, the Palm Desktop or any other 3rd party conduit and the solution is always to overwrite the handheld with Desktop data. 

FYI,

Gordon

Comment 30

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

If we accept Gordon's experience that a solution is essentially not possible by changing palmsync, the this bug will be closed invalid.  

Before going that route, do we know if there was a time in palmsync's life, going back to the very earliest days, when this type of thing didn't happen?  In other words the possibility that this might be a regression?

noting in whiteboard the workaround is to set HSM to "desktop overrides handheld."

Comment 31

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

=> INVALID  in follow up to comment 30 (which got no new responses from reporters)

If workaround - set HSM to "desktop overrides HSM handheld" for one HS run and then change back to HS set to synchronize - doesn't resolve the problem and you still see a problem:
- reference http://kb.mozillazine.org/PalmSync_-_Thunderbird
- please file a new bug 

Thanks Geoff and others for your help.