[Help] Contacts don´t sync on some users

🍱 Features & apps 📇 Contacts
1

Hi there

I have the strangest problem with contacts.

I set up an NC 1102 on webhosted enviroment.

Now, there is a superuser which holds all contacts and files etc.

My own laptop and desktop are on my own user as a client.

I have set up some adresses for testing in the superuser and shared those adressbooks with editing power with my user. Everything works fine. Both macs sync those adresses.

I have shared - from the superuser - those adresses with another user on a mac laptop. The account seems to be working fine. I have trippled checked that this other user also has the shared adressbook.

However, the adresses will not show up on that second users mac.

I have no clue why. I have of course that strange WEBDAV error constantly popping up in the logs, where me and other people tried to get solutions here but so far seem to have failed.

The adresses do show up in the NC webfront interface. Also, one contact created on the second users computer does show up in the NC webfront interface - but doesnt get synced to my other users.

The aim is in the end to have one adress book for adresses shared from the superuser which can be subscribed or even edited by other users, so all team member adresses get synced on all computers.

thanks

2

moved to conatct, this is not a howto article.

3

Anybody any ideas?

4

The strangest things keep happening here, it seems to me contacts is not stable at all…

1.) I described a laptop which wouldnt sync the adresses (which were available on other machines and users and the users web-frontend in NC 11). Now when I did set up on this persons iPhone the same account for card-dav in contacts (as said on this users iPhone), suddenly, the computer did recieve (=sync) alle the adresses. However, the one single adress created in this users adresbook on the laptop did not sync back, but hell, problem seemed solved…

2.) Today, I went into the web front end of NC 11 for the super user and created an additional adress group in that account. Note that all former users stayed in the first group, they have not been touched - but as soon as I set up that new group, all my adresses were gone from my synced laptop and desktop… this is absolutely strange!

3.) i came across that there is a new version of NC, so I updated from 11.0.2 to 11.0.3 (and reactivated contacts app of course) but this didnt change anything.

This behaviour is totally weird to me. I can not make any sense out of it and more important it doesnt work for me…

Still hope to solve it, because distributing adressbooks and controlling who can read it, who can read and change nothing and who can read and change things are very important part of NC for me.

Thanks

5

This sounds buggy, so I’d very much suggest raising an issue here: https://github.com/nextcloud/contacts/issues

I can’t replicate it unfortunately.

For future reference please add logs and link to other topics you reference, we don’t know what webDAV error you’re referring to looking at this :slight_smile:

6

What helps in such cases is the webserver logs. So you can see what the clients try to access… on shared hosting you are a bit limited in debugging options but the logfile should be available.

1 Like
7

The .well-known redirects are in general a good idea especially with fruity products.

8

why do you think its a NC problem and not a problem of your caldav.client?

9

So, this problem has been lurking since April.

I have completely stopped to use Nextcloud for contacts, I even don´t know any more where I left of.

How can we get this thing started again? I´d like to dive into this thing once more, but I am a bit at a loss what I should exactly do to restart on the whole contacts issue ?

10

We need to be able to reproduce this error. What client is used? Which OS?

You can try to reproduce the error on one of the test setups (to separate client and server issues):

11

With several versions of Nextcloud now passed, I would like to try to get adresses working for me again.

The simplest solution for me would be to just start all over again. Can somebody give me a hint, on how to get rid of all old data ONLY CONCERNING ADRESSBOOKS? So my aim would be to delete all the necessary files with my ftp client and then start the distribution of adresses completely new. Because so far it seemed to me that some groups within adresses would pervail even when i deleted them in the browser frontend for my nextcloud…

12

Thanks everybody. Nextcloud Community and EndUser Support is killing it again!

In the truest sense of the word…

14

I deleted my comment after further investigation as the tables will NOT be recreated as I thought. This is only true with non-core apps

15

thanks to you, dear lex - there were several hints on what would be needed to even have the chance to help you. but you did not respond to any of those hints and so at least i am not sure that you even read them.

the forum knows nothing about your environment (“sharedhost” - but where? which one? etc) or your instance (NC 11.0.2, 11.0.3 - which one now?) - we need to know more…

and and and…

but you resist to provide any further info. so what CAN we do here? and sure enough this is the forum which is run by volounteers that is responsible for your problems, sure.

and “end-user support”? ha. if you’ll pay there will be help. sure they are responsible as well.

16

You can’t. Database access required as that’s where contacts are stored.

Lex my car doesn’t start. Tell me what’s wrong with it and how to fix it.

1 Like
17

All the stuff has been extensively discusses here. First, I had severall efforts to try to get answers on the subject at hand, several topics. Second, I myself participated in several discussions about the problems of the Nextcloud System for endusers - I also scolded several users, who complained about lack of support and pointed out the very things, you point out.

However, in the end, the problems I described with Nextcloud do remain and they do seem to stick with me and several other users here. It is probably time to think about solutions for people like me, if you want to really improve the nextcloud experience and the nextcloud installed base.

@JimmyKater: as mentioned on several occasions, I am ready any time to pay for end user support as long as it makes sense - eg it doesnt make sense to pay more for Nextcloud support then you pay for a whole professional dropbox account. I have allready advocated for a paying option to get support for less technical savy end users like me, So i am glad to take you up on your offer!

@JasonBayton: if you own a BMW, and your BMW doesnt start and you are trying to reach somebody at BMW to ask about it - their business wont live to long if the always answer “We dont know what to do, dont complain” - they will at least direct you to a location, where you can get it fixed and provide all the necessary information and professional training to get it fixed, no matter what streets you are driving on and who the passengers are. Sure, the difference is, a car costs up front, that money goes to BMW. But the interest of spreading the own product and support is quite the same here. Furthermore, I quite often found that digging deeper into technical issues, all smart options quickly fade and people stop to answer or a solution couldnt be found.

In the end it all boilds down to the question, where Nextcloud wants to go: stay where it is and maybe be something for specialized users or start becoming a very big thing.

And rigt now, I think that - being a defender of nextcloud - i am growing increasingly frustrated over the same problems for 1-2 years now and so are many, many more people, some of whom wrote here and many more dont write.

18

maybe so. i am not interested in reading through all your posts to find things out that are needed to help you, basically.
in this thread there has been direct questions to you which still are unanswered by you. even now you deny answering them.
answering them, or trying to answer them would have taken less time than your “reply”

i see your point. and nobody urges you to buy something that you don’t want.
but let me ask just one simple question: have you really tried - at least once - to get a personal offer from them? - pls take this as a rhethorical question - no answer needed.

sure. but i didn’t really offer anything to you.

nice image. and true, you should contact bmw directly. and accept (or not) the costs that would be needed to get your car running again.
but to stay within your image… you are talking to ppl on the bmw-forum here. volounteers. some experienced. some not. but all of them arent paid for anything. so you cant force THEM to make you help.
even less so with errormessages like: my car isnt running. its a bmw. i upgraded to a newer version. it still isnt running. so now you help me or i’m going to blame all of you. and if questions will come up like: “where do you have you car parked, which tires, which fuel?” all you do is insisting on your point “my car doesn’t work. help me now. i have waited vor 7 months and more now. there are more ppl like me. help me or i’m gonna go and switch to lada”

sincerely
jimmy

19

Right, but in this case we’re not telling you not to complain… we’re asking for logs, and information and nothing you’ve provided in this topic.

Just to confirm, that was:

Then:

Then:

And instead of providing logs or information, you reply with:

Then more requests to try to help:

But still no information, just:

So we’re here available to help for free, as your analogy is entirely incorrect (there’s a paid support option with NC which would be the same as taking it to a BMW garage). It’s your own fault this hasn’t progressed.

2 Likes
20

Some things are right you are al writing - and some are probably missing the point.

There is a reason I am frustrated. And many other people were as well and as I stated above, I have myself critiziced some people complaining here about that very fact.

My post post “nextcloud community killing it again” came after I posted another question on that subject and didnt seem to get any answer for around 8 days if i am not wrong on the timestamps I can see. At least I didnt see ANYBODY engage in the new question for approx 8 days.

It seems to be an internet thing, to get flamed then when you complain. I think, there is a part you should take seriously in my opinion, because it also provides you some feedback.

Now, some of you are going back to the older back and forth: yes, I didnt provide logs then, because (as written) I had dropped the issue for some time due to lack of time to deal with it. Also, I dont know if its wise to post logs here, especially since the probably contain a lot of server and file information.

But thats just a side note now.

On the more current matter, to be honest i dont understand the summary which has come out now:

if there is a way to completely reset and delete the adress book, adress book groups and settings and so on without touching or altering the rest of my NC installation (files, shares etc)?

21

Sorry for the late feedback!
We’re all very busy and unfortunately with the github/help division it’s sometimes a bit hard to follow both!

Yes there is a possibility if you have access to your database. It’s fairly easy. Just for clarification, when you say “settings”, you mean contacts related settings? Or full nextcloud settings?