DAVx⁵ dropped all my contacts locally [temporarily] after update to 4.4.3(.1)

[SanskritFritz]

Here is what happened:
I updated DAVx⁵ to 4.4.3.1-ose and started it to test if it works. My setting is: sync only on wifi. Android was on data, no wifi was turned on.
On the main screen I pressed the green refresh button at the bottom right. Some seconds later all my contacts were deleted. I had to revert to a previous backup.
Then I synced again with Radicale and all my contacts got duplicated on Radicale but not on Android.

[rfc2822]

Unfortunately, the current update requires to re-sync contacts (because there were big, unfortunately necessary changes in the address book management). The local contacts are dropped, and they will be resynced at the next sync.

This is addressed in #1085. Updating directly to 4.4.3.2 won't cause this problem because 4.4.3.2 can rename address books without having to re-sync.

About the duplicate contacts I suspect that:

I had to revert to a previous backup.

This added the local contacts again, additionally to the original contacts which would be re-synced at the next sync.

Then I synced again with Radicale and all my contacts got duplicated on Radicale but not on Android.

The backup you had inserted has been uploaded to Radicale, so they're duplicate there. Android has possibly merged the contacts.

[SanskritFritz]

Thank you, this is reassuring. So this was not a bug, but a planned event. The main point is I didn't lose my contacts, and solved the duplicate issue by simply deleting all again and resyncing.

[Mat0vu]

Hi @rfc2822, is there any way to restore the dropped contacts? I updated davx5 in the morning via f-droid package manager and was also surprised that all contacts were gone. Since I haven't been home (where my contacts are synced with radicale to an raspberrypi) for a few weeks I am not able to initiate a full resync and the status on the radicale server is quite old... Have I now lost all contacts added after the last successful sync?

[devvv4ever]

Unfortunately yes, unsynced changes are lost and you can't get them back. Sorry for this!

[bege10]

Hello, I am relieved that there is a quick solution. But it was a big shock for me when I opened my address-book a moment ago and all contacts where gone. I will go to a meeting tomorrow morning where I need the contacts.
Is there a way to give a notification about this after the update in future cases?
Thank you very much for your work. 🧡

[devvv4ever]

Currently we do not have a possibility to inform users about whats new if there were important changes. We did not need this in 11 years of development, but we'll discuss this internally and maybe it is time to implement something for this for future updates.

[bege10]

Hi @devvv4ever , it definitely was necessary in this case. I was lucky that I noticed the loss of data at home and could sync my phone immediately with my Radicale server. But what happened to @Mat0vu is the pure horror. I think an update that is known to cause data loss must not start without user consent.
Once again thank you for your work.

[cheesemonkeyboy]

I am thankful for DAVx⁵, but this current update made me think for a moment of stopping use = I also lost all of my contacts, with no notice that complete CardDAV data was going to be trash-canned. It is not comforting to perform an app update and then wham-o, all data bye-bye. I too run my own Radicale server on a pi, and my updates do not occur every day. Had I known about the situation about to befall my contacts, I could have waited to upgrade to 4.4.3 after first performing a sync using 4.4.2. I lost a few CardDAV changes due to the unannounced data wipe - I for sure lost all of my contact app Favorites (contacts marked as Favorites), and all of my custom ringtone assignments. I am certain I do not have my data back exactly how it was before applying 4.4.3.

I recommend pulling 4.4.3 right away from use = several others are bound to be negatively affected by this "The local contacts are dropped" situation.

[cheesemonkeyboy]

Currently we do not have a possibility to inform users about whats new if there were important changes. We did not need this in 11 years of development, but we'll discuss this internally and maybe it is time to implement something for this for future updates.

Somehow, somewhere in F-Droid, there is a way to put in the description "NEW IN VERSION 4.4.3" with grey background. See for example the "DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser" in F-Droid = they show a "What's new in this release?" type of section. In this section, you could warn users that they should have a fresh and verified-good sync prior to upgrading - that due to upgrade users will experience a complete drop of local contacts.

[devvv4ever]

4.4.3.2 is now in f-droid, too.

Just to summarize - if you can – please avoid 4.4.3 and 4.4.3.1 - update right to 4.4.3.2 where contacts will be preserved during an additional copy-over-operation after the migration of the address book(s). Unfortunately we found the solution to the move process a little bit too late. Sorry for the inconvenience!

[dnalor]

I also seem to have lost all contacts after the last update, but also all calendar entries, so I'm wondering if this is the same issue or not.
What happened:

• updated DavX (tbh, not sure to which version. Currently 4.4.3.2, but maybe 4.4.3 was installed before)
• contacts gone, calendar still ok
• made the mistake of reconfiguring CalDAV in my calendar app (Fossify) while looking for cause. When having to select which calendar to use, the DavX one isn't listed anymore (only Google)
• calendar entries gone

So the current situation is:

• DavX still displays the accounts, including CardDAV and CalDAV configs
• DavX is still listed in Settings/Accounts
• neither the address book app (tested Fossify and Android), nor the calendar app show the DavX account
• since there are unsynced local changes, I haven't tried syncing

Just for testing, I created a new DavX account with a CalDAV entry (on a different server). This one the calendar app can see and use.

So my question is:

• is this the issue described here?
• there are unsynced local changes, are they lost as well?

[bege10]

I simply had to resync in DAVx5 to bring the account back, but that kills all local changes.
@devvv4ever Shouldn't this be solved with updating to the latest version? Or does this not fix the issue if it was updated to 4.4.3 before?

[dnalor]

The reason I asked here is because I'm not 100% sure if it is the same issue as discussed here (mainly because no one mentioned the calendar issue, but maybe no one noticed - I wouldn't have either if I hadn't reconfigured my calendar app), so I had hoped that someone could confirm that before I gave up on recovering my lost local changes.

[hjudt]

I do not know if my issues are related to this, but recently some of my contacts have not been deleted but lost information, e.g. only one phone number instead of three, no e-mail or other data. Strangely, not all of them, and information missing in Fossify Contacts was still shown in Samsung Contacts (I had such issues in the past too). So in DAVx5 accounts, I deactivated the CardDAV address book and synced. Behold, the contacts not missing information vanished, but those missing information remained. So what I did was deleting all those contacts that remained from that address book via Fossify Contacts, then activated the address book again in DAVx5 accounts and synced again. All information present now, all seems fine. Maybe this helps someone experiencing similar issues.