Hello!

Though I can download my Google Contacts in Kaddressbook (this works), once I edit them they do not get uploaded to Google it seems.

I do not get any error messages. This is KDE on ARCH fully upgraded (Plasma 5.3, Kde 4.14.7). Also I can't find any possibility to force a manual sync. What am I missing or how to get this to work.... I think it worked before but I am not sure anymore...

thx, piedro

Are you using CalDAV / CardDAV, or the native Google resource?

I am using the Akonadi agent for Google contacts.

thx for looking at it, p.

Try enabling debug information (kdebugdialog) then restarting akonadi from the command line and watch for output on the console. To trigger a manual sync of contacts, go to KAddressbook, right click on the addressbook and select "Update addresbook". Then see if any output is printed on the console.

I started kdebugdialog but there is no console....

if i start kontact via Konsole I do not get any useful messages and it is still the same - download of contacts works, upload of contacts or changes to contacts doesn't...

Is this working for you?

thx for your help,
piedro

As it turns out, kaddressbook now uploads new contacts to my gmail account.

But it is not possible to change details (e.g. a telephone number) of an EXISTING contact. This just doesn't get any change on the Google side and there is no message of failing. Kaadressbook just silently uploads new contacts to Google but fails on edits.

Any idead how to fix that?

thx, p.

Unfortunately I removed my Google account, so I have no way to check this. Can you file a bug on bugs.kde.org?

I have the same issue. Contacts are never updated. I have to delete my account and add it again to update contacts.
Have you been able to solve the problem?

Hi!

No, I do not have any solution yet and I haven't got any confirmation on the bug report either.

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=351567

But please check out the bug report and vote for it maybe describe your problem there also.

thx, p.

p.s.: I really do not understand how software versions with these kind of complete show-stopper bugs are released in official releases and then left there for good without even commenting on the bugs and concerns users have...

There are a few reasons:

- Bugzilla is not ideal as a bug reporting platform
- PIM is a huge codebase (even with a couple of applications slashed, it has thousands of lines of code over several repositories and libraries)
- People working on PIM are in incredbily low numbers (recently, I can count only one person committing regularly, and the active PIM developers aren't many either)

In short, it's a combination of maintenance effort vs people doing the maintenance. Also don't forget that not all developers have "obvious" setups: many don't use Google's addressbook, for example.

Hello einar!

I get what you are saying and it doesn't sound like there is a lot of hope.

At least I know that I cannot move my customers to KDE as they need things like PIM working. With only one contributor these things will likely not be fixed before the next Plasma iteration. Which is sad because I am so much more sympathetic with the KDE community than with gnome.

But I also have to admit that Gnome does a better job in providing relevant applications for productive work environments (PIM, Online Account integration, accounting, notetaking and so forth...) - it seems like in KDE everybody is working on plasma (which is imho the best DE out there atm) but the KDE applications get abandoned or never catch up... it's sad to watch...

The fact that developers have different setups than most of the user base calls for thorough closed beta testing before releasing as "stable". Everywhere (reddit, arch forums, bug tracker, here) at the moment I read that the KDE community is shrinking and needs more support.

Maybe these things are connected:
- KDE acting like a huge and powerful community with a strict release cycle, huge bug tracking system and a shiny forum with many, many branches...
- Stable releases that are not stable at all from a users perspective...
- Applications that are not really ready for productive use and haven't adopted the core KDE technologies yet (which program uses akonadi apart from kdepim?)
- missing basic applications in KDE forcing users to use non KDE programs resulting in a subpar experience and multiple subsystems (like a different contact list for every single communication program)
- Faithful users leaving all over the place, cause after years of bearing the rough edges (even data loss in kdepim) they just have to work for once...

I do not want to paint too dark of a picture but the KDE community (especially the developers) has to recognize and acknowledge these conceptional contradictions... cause they won't go away without decisive intervention.

Anyway: I will have to get along with only local address books (no cross device syncing), an email client without working search folders, no modern note taking and so forth until I find the time to finally pull the plug and switch to a more productive DE (this I try to avoid for over two years now...)...

So sad...

thx for reading,
p.

For the record, PIM and Plasma release schedules are completely separate. Also, having a "closed" beta defeats completely the purpose of FOSS: code is out in the open, and people are able to test it "on the go". The real problem is having ways to test without touching existing systems, but distributions are moving to provide such tools.

It must be noted that there are companies offering commercial support for KDE PIM: KDAB, Kolab Systems and a few others. While these might be out of reach for people doing e.g., consulting work, they may be viable for a company.

Lastly, external programs that use Akonadi include the Zanshin TODO manager (which is not part of KDE PIM) and the clients developed by Kolab Systems (Kube Mail).

Thank you very much for your hints - I'll have a look at the Software you mentioned.

And you are right: I definitely misspoke when I sad "closed" beta". But I believe there should be an additional step before announcing "stable" or "updates should be smooth for KDE users".... though I think, this testing "in the wild" should be done by the distributions as you mentioned.... they have much better ressources for that also.

I understand the habits and concepts of FOSS, also the disentanglement of plasma development and the KF5 application side of things. And I know that there are structural downsides that have to be accepted if one decides for community driven software. To be honest for the most part I even like the rough edges in a strange, a little bit a masochistic kind of way (and I know many single users do!). It's like riding an open car - you get the wind and the rain - but it still feels great.

Having said that - I think there is a lot to improve and it should be ok to point out if there are potential traps and inconsistencies. Well, at least I won't stop about it... People abandoning KDE is a fact. So there needs to be improvement. It is my opinion that the main problem with the "KDE Desktop Experience" is that you cannot experience the plasma desktop by itself - it has to have some rock solid core applications which are very well integrated and it has to provide at least enough KDE alternatives for the most common use cases that follow the desktop paradigm to really feel "KDE"...

This is not some random rant - last year there has been a lot of talk about suitable default applications within KDE. And I guess by now most would admit that the "KDE applications" list on the website looks like a museum while there are very few applications yet which truly carry the excellent plasma technology down to the everyday work people do.

Projects like Spectacle, Dolphin, lots of nice Widgets or utilities like Filelight show how it's done - I only wished there would be some more love for the PIM applications. I strongly believe that well designed, well integrated calendars, contacts, notes, messages are key to a productive work flow and the reputation of KDE as a viable working environment. You can switch around your movie player anytime but your PIM data can't be played around with that easily - lots of trust has been lost in this area over the last years, as you are probably very well aware (thank you for all that support btw!)...

That's my view of things. I do not want to offend anyone - I want to hint out that software, FOSS or not, sadly gets judged by it's weakest property, so it's prudent to fix this first...

Cheers and have a good week,
p.