Friday, December 12, 2008

Google contact sync problem affecting some users

As noted in the comments on the article below, there is a problem that affects some users that arose when the new contact code was deployed last night. We're still investigating but it appears that users who set up their contact sync some time ago were assigned authentication tokens that do not work with the new Google contacts API. The problem is fixed by logging into our web site and re-requesting access to your Google contacts data. This results in a new token being assigned.
This problem does not affect all users, we suspect only those who signed up several months ago. The real problem here is that our web site does not yet detect and diagnose the problem, and the 'green light' checker says that everything is ok. We will be fixing that later today once we figure out exactly how to detect the problem.
At present, if you had working contact sync yesterday, and now it's not working, and you see 'contact support' in the sync status page, and your account was setup a while ago, then please perform the request access procedure again.

Update: the web site now does detect and display this problem.

37 comments:

Neil Goldsworthy said...

I see that Tasks have finally been added to Google Calendar - have they added support in the API to allow you folks to get Tasks up and running in Nuevasync?
Invaluable service by the way!

Unknown said...

Your contact sync is unusable anyhow. You *dupe* records without an email address. You don't have a reasonable de-duper.

Me and my friend both tried your service and both had to re-create our address books on both ends from backup. This sucks, people! System SEVEN does a much better job syncing contacts (it's not perfect as well though).

David Boreham said...

@Eugene: can you report this to support please ? If you already did then please send another e-mail with the ticket number. We have a quite sophisticated duplicate detector and have not had reports of major duplication like you have descibed, so we'd like to investigate.

Unknown said...

And now multiple calenders

Salko said...

Hi NuevaSync team, I have problem in calendar with iPhone:
1) create event in Google Calendar
2) sync to iPhone
3) delete this event in iPhone
4) next sync process is longer than normal, but on status page i have this mesage: iPhone (ID: Appl86832U0T1R4), sync status is: ERROR

Sync calendar events between GCal and iPhone is not working, until i manually remove this event in Google Calendar.

David Boreham said...

@Salko: we discovered a bug in the new Google client library that was deployed yesterday. Deletes did not work for some users (it depends on where at Google your data is hosted). We've implemented a local fix in that library. It was deployed a few minutes ago and should resolve the problem.

Salko said...

@David Boreham: all is working now, good work guys :)

Salko said...

Hi NueavaSync team, another non-critical bug in contacts. I from Slovakia.

Steps:

1) I create new contact, name : "Test", address: "Elektrarenska, Bratislava"

2) after save, when I click to adress field, started Maps with search field "Elektrarenska Bratislava Slovakia"

3) after sync with Google Contacts, I edit this "Test" contact in GMail Contacts, for example adding phone number and sync to iPhone.

4) after sync to iPhone, when i click in this contact to address field, started Maps with search field "Elektrarenska Bratislava United States" (without search result).

Problem is in country field after sync. Always displayed "Slovakia", but before sync working map search, after sync not.

Thx

PS: sorry of my English

Unknown said...

Hi, just a question about the contact syncing, does it take a while to come down to my iphone? I know with my calendar it is usually pretty instantaneous but noticed with contacts it sometimes takes up to 30 mins. Thanks and great job!

Unknown said...

I should clarify that when I edit contacts from my iphone it is instantaneous but when I add/modify a contact in google it isn't.

The Wuertleys said...

Has anyone had the 2nd Alert option on their calendar disappear after they use NuevaSync with the iphone? If so, is there a fix?

The Wuertleys said...

Can you use NuevaSync with Google's standalone contacts program or do you need a gmail account to sync contacts.

John said...

Anyone having issues logging in to the website?

Greg said...

Yes User, I am also unable to login to the website. And my contacts on the iPhone are all gone (but still in Google contacts). I have sent an email.

Gee100 said...

Lost all contact and calendar events too!

I have just upgraded to firmware 2.2 on my iTouch and I have lost all of my calendar event and contacts. I have delete the account (after turning calendar and contacts off then on again - to re sync as per instruction in troubleshooter), and create a new account still no contacts or calendar. It worked will up until beginning of week.

John said...

Yeah my contacts are all gone and I can only assume this is a wide spread issue. Everyone must be trying to login and it's crashing the site

Greg said...

That's too bad. I assumed it was just me because I had been updating some old Google contacts via the iPhone, and right after making one particular change (which was a bit unorthodox and I was curious to see how the sync would handle it) the service stopped.

Thinking Outlook (ughh) + Google Sync might be a safer choice for now, although this service is so practical when it works.

Groovymarlin said...

I can't log in either. Although it eventually will show me my status page where it says green light for both calendars and contacts. However, nothing is syncing and hasn't been syncing for at least two days. Following the advice on the troubleshooting page, I turned off contact and calendar syncing on my iPhone, then reenabled. Naturally, this deleted ALL of my contacts and calendar events (an Apple problem, not a Nuveasync problem). However, now I can't get it to sync at all. It's been over an hour, and this on the other hand IS a Nuevasync problem. Meanwhile the blog hasn't been updated since 12/12 and blithely reports that everything is fine.

I guess you get what you pay for.

Greg said...

My over-air syncing is working again. I received the following explanation as a reply to my e-mail: "The service got into a hung state this evening, please accept our apologies. It has been restarted and should be operating normally now."


Sorry to bother the NuevaSync team on a Friday night! Keep up the good work, this tool is great.

Greg

kitus said...

Hello,

As the existing fields on iPhone and google contacts don't match, I'm experiencing some strange issues similar to those described by Salko...

If I set a certain address on a contact in google, when it gets transferred to the phone it gets messed up and when I tap on the field in the phone, it tries to place the address in the States which is wrong...

Similar issues happen with contacts information when the info is quite detailed. If I set several phone numbers in a certain contact In google, it gets messy when transferred to the phone.

Help would be very much appreciated. Hope I explained myself correctly.

Marc

Greg said...

I have noticed very similar behavior.

For example, Gmail allows you to add as many e-mail addresses as you want, but iPhone will only show the top three (but don't worry, if you edit the contact details on the iPhone and save, the non-visible e-mail addresses are not affected and remain safely in Gmail contacts).

As for the tags (mobile, home, fax, work, etc...) for different phone numbers and email addresses, they are indeed different between Gmail and iPhone, and from what I see they don't mirror each other and sometimes cause more serious confusion between the two. For instance, in my experience, having four phone numbers tagged as Work in one Gmail contact isn't reflected well in iPhone. In my case, I am not sure if it was because of that, but it froze that particular contact from being updated (changes in iPhone were no longer reflected in Gmail and vice versa) no matter how many times I refreshed (while others update normally). The only way I overcame this contact's disconnection / isolation was to delete it in both Gmail and iPhone and recreate it with more orthodox phone number tags (maximum two phone numbers with the same tag). Upon syncing (refreshing) the contact properly appeared in the other device.

It's interesting to see how the contacts behave in Outlook as well. It seems that like the iPhone, Outlook has a limit of three e-mail addresses per contact (but the remaining e-mail addresses get copied into the notes field in Outlook, whereas on the iPhone they're nowhere to be found).

Not sure this helps at all, just sharing a bit of my experience on the topic.

Greg

kitus said...

Hey Greg, thanks for sharing!! That's the behaviour I was talking about!!! It's such a shame that this syncing is not as seamless as I had thought... I mean, come on, it works very good but it from the very moment one has experienced something weird with one contact, you don't what might have happened with rest, can you???

We are in the same boat... My mobileme work more seamlessly? Any chance I can decide with google which groups of contacts are to be synced?

Regards and thanks again,

Marc

Greg said...

I have no experience with Mobile Me, and don't intend to try. I am satisfied with Nuevasync because I think some of the problems described are inherent to any syncing with Exchange (as mentioned, I obtained similar limitations syncing with Outlook) and perhaps out of Nuevasync's control (I might be wrong).

So I will stay with Nuevasync. Can't beat the price, and they seem to be smart people working hard on the tool, so I am satisfied. Plus, all my contacts are already set up well in Gmail, so this service is the best available for me.

And no, I don't think you can decide which contacts get synced, its all or nothing. But this is what most people want, since they are able to distinguish and omit your "suggested contacts".

Greg

Erling said...

Having some trouble syncing contacts on my iPhone:

1) Used to work. Stopped working a couple of weeks ago.
2) Tried re-authorizing google account
3) Removed Exchange settings on iPhone
4) Added new Exchange settings on iPhone

All my contacts are gone on the iPhone (have backup, no worries). When I try to add a new contact on the iPhone syncing starts immediately, but the new contact gets removed.

Any ideas anyone???

Aaron Nakama said...

Having similar trouble syncing contacts on my iPhone:

1) Didn't work, tried the troubleshooting steps... didn't give up.

2) Tried re-authorizing google account and went through troubleshooting steps again it only did a syncronization of 50 contacts.

3) Removed Exchange settings on iPhone

4) Added new Exchange settings on iPhone

5) Re-Authorized Google

Only a sync of 50 contacts again.

As others have lost all of their contacts, I too have lost mine on the iPhone (backup too so no worries).

I tried to add a new contact on the iPhone, appears that syncing starts immediately, but the new contact doesn't show up in Google.

Ari Kletzky said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ari Kletzky said...

Great product but I'm having 1 glitch that I am praying you can fix. If I create a new contact on the iphone, syncing no longer works (I get an unknown error message on the nuevasync status page). If I go and delete the contact on the iphone, the syncing works again. I have deleted and recreated the account and the problem is still there.

iPhone (ID: Appl87846MKPY7K)

thanks,
ari

ps: creating a new contact in gmail or Thunderbird doesn't cause a problem.

ppss: i'm not sure if editing a contact in iphone is a problem. i made an edit, no error on the status page but it doesn't seem to sync. i exit contacts and go back to it, the circle on the top left indicates it is syncing but the status page doesn't reflect that. if i go open calendar on the iphone, it then syncs.

Ari Kletzky said...

i just checked, and what i deleted in contacts on the iphone did sync with the gmail.

so, it seems there is a partial two-way syncing that does NOT work if I create a new contact on the iphone but does work with other changes i make on the iphone in contacts.

Calendar is working 2 way without problems.

Unknown said...

Hi guys,

I'm having the same issue as ARI above with the contacts not syncing once an update has been made on the ipod touch. Anyone else experienced this or found a way around it?

Thanks,
Cameron.

Tim said...

Arrrgh!
My (iPhone) contacts disappeared a day or so ago - managed to get them back. then today some were there and some were not. Now: none at all.

Can you say when this will be resolved? I'm dreading bumping in to the other iPhone users I recommended the service to...

Carter said...

Let me start by saying that I love this product!

However, my contacts disappeared on Friday and still aren't showing-up, no matter how many times I re-request access via NuevaSync or stop and start the contact synchronization on the iPhone. NuevaSync reports my status as green...

Anyone else having this problem?

P.s. Yes, I've read today's blog and tried the suggested course of action.

Aaron Nakama said...

Carter,

Indeed - FABULOUS PRODUCT - Some 10 days ago all of my contacts disappeared in my phone as I was accessing my favourites in my iPhone, the names suddenly started to change to numbers. I didn't do anything prior to this... verified in my contacts that there were no names, and all of a sudden, they started reappearing 50 contacts at a time (I maintain approximately 1600 contacts although have noticed some of them disappearing for no apparent reason). This disappearing act of all of my contacts hasn't happened since.

Unknown said...

Having the same disappearing issue with contacts. Started with favorites going from names to numbers only, then all contact gone. Sync status shows OK - have tried re-authorizing google. No luck so far.

Toby

PS: Love the product and can't wait for email sync/push gmail.

Unknown said...

Like The Wuertleys posted Dec 14 11:10 PM, I also lost my 2nd alert option when I switched to nuevasync (many months ago). The 2nd alert option would be nice, but I've been living without it for a long time, because nuevasync is wonderful. Would be nice if there was a fix, though. Is it just The Wuertleys and me, or is it everybody?

My contacts disappeared on my iPhone for about 2 hours Saturday night 1/17, but they came back without any action on my part. (whew!)

dan said...

same issues as everyone :-/

yes, i LOVE this product, thanks you

and I love all of the recent updates.

On Sat, I tried to access "groups" from my iphone contacts and when i went back to the regular contacts they were empty. I then went onto the nuevasync site and the contacts section was indeed red and marked as having an issue. I fixed it hoping it would resync, and have done that several times since (even canceling contacts and then recreating, etc) but to no avail. Right now my nuevasync contact page is all green but no luck on contacts. It's been 3 days with no contacts and starting to be problematic.

Any ideas?

CDHenry said...

Have not performed due diligence on searching this question, so please forgive if addressed elsewhere. Does Nuevasync sync only the 'real' contacts from google contact list or also include the 'temporary' contacts (i.e.: arbitrary contacts that Google adds if an email is received from someone not listed in contact list)?

Thx

pkrobin said...

I have the same issue as 2 or 3 others have pointed out. Essentially if I add an address in gmail contacts where there is no actual 'country' field it syncs over mostly ok but if you try to map it or edit it on the iphone it will append United States as the Country (after Canada which isthe correct Country).

Don't know if that a sync issue or a gmail issue.