Incomplete synced contacts under Tb 17.x and Jelly Bean

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cbhihe
Posts: 21
Joined: Sun Nov 16, 2008 11:27 am
Location: Barcelona, Spain

Incomplete synced contacts under Tb 17.x and Jelly Bean

Post by cbhihe »

Hi all !

I use a Samsung Mini III running Android Jelly Bean 4.1.2. My Tb is v17.0.2 along with the appropriated BirdieSync.
I read a great deal of what is posted on the Forum for/by Android users because I recently migrate from a s--- Win Mobile 6 system on HTC to Android on Samsung.
I could not find an answer to what I observe, as described below.

My 2 calendars and all my 2800+ contacts synchronize (almost) flawlessly both ways. I am delighted by it.
However, I see that although the Title and Organization fields in my Tb contacts cards are synchronized into Jelly Beans, it is NOT the case in reverse.
If I fill in the 2 fields under "Organization" in Jelly Bean with for instance:
- (1st) the contact's title and
- (2nd - on the field below) the organization,
it doesn't show up in Tb after syncing.
Additionally and curiously, if there already exists a title and organization on the Jelly Bean contact card and one fills in anew the title and organization fields in Tb, they are indeed synchronized and 2 new fields appear in Jelly Bean under the two previously existing ones !

I know that curiosity killed the cat a long time ago, but I'd like to know the reason for such a quirky behavior and whether there is a work-around or a fix in the pipeline...
The fact that nothing of the organization or the role / title of the contacts entered first in Jelly Bean appears in Tb is verrrry inconvenient. To top it all there is no trace of a Department on the contact card in Jelly Bean, if that field is properly filled in in Tb.
Could BirdieSync concatenate that with a separation character (,) after the role/tile and sync it all with the first organization fill in Jelly Bean ? :mrgreen:

Cheers and thanks to y' all as well as to the Birdie Team.
Laptop: Dual boot Win XP SP3 || Linux Trusty Tahr (LTS)
Cell: OS Android 4.1.2

Birdy
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Posts: 3118
Joined: Tue Apr 18, 2006 11:43 am
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Re: Incomplete synced contacts under Tb 17.x and Jelly Bean

Post by Birdy »

Hello cbhihe,
if there already exists a title and organization on the Jelly Bean contact card and one fills in anew the title and organization fields in Tb, they are indeed synchronized and 2 new fields appear in Jelly Bean under the two previously existing ones !
Actually, as a lot of fields on Android device, Title and Organization fields are not plainly stored on the Android device. They are also attached to a type: "Home", "Work", "Other", etc. It means that for instance your could have a "Work" Organization field and a "Other" Organization field. BirdieSync synchronizes Organization and Title fields with a "Work" type (seems rather logical). So if on your Android device you have Organization and Title fields attached to "Home" or "Other" types, they will not be synchronized to Thunderbird. And if you have these fields present in Thunderbird, it will create 2 new fields on the Android device with a different type ("Work"). So that may explain the behavior you see.
When you add an Organization field or Title field on the Android device, can you choose the type of the field ? ("Work", "Other, etc.) If yes, can you try to add "Work" Organization and Title fields ?
To top it all there is no trace of a Department on the contact card in Jelly Bean
The Departement field should already be synchronized on the Android device.
Can you confirm that when you manually create a new contact on the Android device, you can enter the "Department" ? (it may be not possible to enter/display this field on some Android devices depending on the manufacturer)
Can you choose the type of this field ? (should be "Work")

Thanks.
Birdy

cbhihe
Posts: 21
Joined: Sun Nov 16, 2008 11:27 am
Location: Barcelona, Spain

Re: Incomplete synced contacts under Tb 17.x and Jelly Bean

Post by cbhihe »

Thanks Birdie for you reply.

[Config reminder: I use a Samsung Mini III running Android Jelly Bean v4.1.2. I run Tb v17.0.2 along with BirdieSync v2.4.5.1.]
[Config reminder: I sync between an Jelly Bean account called "BirdieSync", as created automatically upon the first sync with Tb, via BirdieSync]

- there is not way to manually create fields such as "Company", "Department" and "Position" under the category "Organization" on the mobile device .
- there is not readily visible way to associated a "type" with the 2 pre-existing fields "Company" and "Position" on the mobile device while "Department" does not show up at all as a pre-existing field.

When you create a new contact on the mobile device and fill its "Company" and "Position" fields, the corresponding fields "Company", "Department" and "Position" are left blank in Tb.

When you create a new contact on Tb and sync it with the mobile device, the "Company" and "Position" fields are correctly synced.
"Department" on Tb is not synced onto the mobile device.
If the "Company" and "Position" fields were already filled on the mobile device (on a pre-existing contact) and you add them to Tb, the sync yields 4 fields:
- the 2 pre-existing (already filled) "Company" and "Position" fields under "Organization" on the Mobile Device,
- the two new fields "Company" and "Position" newly synced in from Tb.
In that configuration, any change to the the NEW fields "Company" and "Position" on the mobile device or on Tb are correctly propagated to the sync partner. Changes to the PRE-EXISTING fields "Company" and "Position" on the mobile device are not synced.


Deleting a contact in Tb, that was originally created on the mobile device, in the Birdiesync account, does NOT delete the contact in the Birdiesync account.
Deletion of the same contact in BirdieSync is correctly propagated to Tb.
I just noticed that fields under the "chat" tab in Tb under IM on the Mobile Device are not synced at all.
Photos of contacts are synced both ways, no matter where the contact was originally created.

I am afraid I am missing something rather basic in the whole sync and "account" affair. :( Any help appreciated. :shock:
Laptop: Dual boot Win XP SP3 || Linux Trusty Tahr (LTS)
Cell: OS Android 4.1.2

Birdy
Site Admin
Posts: 3118
Joined: Tue Apr 18, 2006 11:43 am
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Re: Incomplete synced contacts under Tb 17.x and Jelly Bean

Post by Birdy »

- there is not way to manually create fields such as "Company", "Department" and "Position" under the category "Organization" on the mobile device .
- there is not readily visible way to associated a "type" with the 2 pre-existing fields "Company" and "Position" on the mobile device while "Department" does not show up at all as a pre-existing field.
I think I used the wrong term. When I was saying "creating a field", I meant filled a field with a new value. Sorry for the confusion.
BirdieSync doesn't create fields, it just fills them.
From what I understand, on the Android device you can manually fill "Company" and "Position" fields but cannot choose the type of this fields. I guess that the contact app choose a different type by default. I'll see if it's possible to address this problem and send you a new test version.

Regarding the Department field, if you tell me that you cannot fill it when manually creating a contact on your Android device, then it may be that the manufacturer chose to hide this field (at least in the Contact GUI) for some reason.
Deleting a contact in Tb, that was originally created on the mobile device, in the Birdiesync account, does NOT delete the contact in the Birdiesync account.
I tried to reproduce the problem but did not succeed:
I created a contact in Thunderbird, synchronized it in BirdieSync account. Then I deleted a contact present in the BirdieSync account, and the deletion was propagated to Thunderbird.
I also created a contact in the BirdieSync account and synchronized to Thunderbird. Then I deleted this contact in Thunderbird and it was properly deleted in the BirdieSync account on the Android device.
Are you sure that the contact belongs to BirdieSync account ? (it should be mentioned in the contact details).
I just noticed that fields under the "chat" tab in Tb under IM on the Mobile Device are not synced at all.
I need to check this. These fields may have been added with a recent version of Thunderbird.
Photos of contacts are synced both ways, no matter where the contact was originally created.
Is there a problem with photo synchronization ?
Birdy

cbhihe
Posts: 21
Joined: Sun Nov 16, 2008 11:27 am
Location: Barcelona, Spain

Re: Incomplete synced contacts under Tb 17.x and Jelly Bean

Post by cbhihe »

Hi Birdie ! Sorry for the loong delay in replying.
I now hail from a new laptop with a system recently installed (still Win XP SP 3 with Mozilla Tb and BirdieSync as before).

[Config reminder: I use a Samsung Mini III running Android Jelly Bean v4.1.2. I run Tb v17.0.2 along with BirdieSync v2.4.5.1.]
[Config reminder: I sync between an Jelly Bean account called "BirdieSync", as created automatically upon the first sync with Tb, via BirdieSync]

To close the matter, (because I believe that Samsung's Jelly Bean flavor of Android won't give us total satisfaction anyway):
- there is no problem whatsoever with syncing photos -- very smooth, perfect !
- effectively Department on Tb Lightning is not synced at all in Jelly Bean on the mobile device. Department does not exist on Jelly Bean, curiously enough.
- I also confirm that the chat tabs in Lightning are not present (they don't show up) in Jelly Bean on the mobile device.

I wrote:
-- Deleting a contact in Tb, that was originally created on the mobile device, in the Birdiesync account, does NOT delete the contact in the Birdiesync account.
You asked:
-- Are you sure that the contact belongs to BirdieSync account ? (it should be mentioned in the contact details).
I reply:
-- Yes, I am quite sure.

Conclusion :
I thank you for the time you spent and dedication you showed (per usual) in trying to anser my pleas. At this stage, please consider the problems as open requests to Samsung, not to Birdiesync. I don't think anything can be done about this at this point.
I am just a little disppaointed with Samsung implementation of Android as far as Directions and calendars are concerned and will voice my opinion in adequate circles.

Cheers !
Laptop: Dual boot Win XP SP3 || Linux Trusty Tahr (LTS)
Cell: OS Android 4.1.2

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