Apr 10, 2009

Debugging Google Contacts

Google Contacts still has unfound bugs since it is a complex extension. If you find a problem, check the Error Console message. An error message which includes a word "gmcont" is an error of Google Contacts. Please let me know the messages.

Google Contacts also has a verbose mode. If you cannot find an error message in the Error Console, please try the following:
  1. Open Config Editor
  2. Create a key "browser.dom.window.dump.enabled" as boolean and set it to true
  3. Finish Thunderbird
  4. Start Thunderbird with -console option
  5. Thunderbird will start with console
  6. Reproduce the problem and send me messages in the console (mask your personal infomation such as email address before you send it to me)
Thank you for your contribution.

37 comments:

Unknown said...

I would like to flag you an improvement (not really a bug) for this extension.

It is rather annoying having to reload every time the Google Contacts into TB address book when a change takes place.

Would it be possible to include an automatic reload of the Google contacts into the TB address book?

Thanks

h.ogi said...

I think that periodical reload is not needed in the interactive mode with the "Load contacts at startup" option.
All changes you did at Gmail will synchronized when you start Thunderbird (Load contacts at starup option) and all changes at Thunderbird will be immediately submitted to Gmail (interactive mode).

Unknown said...

Ogi,

thanks for your reply.

My office computer is always on and I never exit from Thunderbird. So, even if I checked the "load contacts at startup" I never get an automated sync.

It would be nice for people who use TB in a similar way having the extension checking periodically Gmail to automatically keep the contacts sync.

h.ogi said...

I understand your request. I'll mull over it as an option in the future release.

Unknown said...

Thanks. BTW great extension!

h.ogi said...

I've added auto reload option to v0.5.52b2. You'll find it in the Advanced tab in the option dialog. Please try it.

Unknown said...

I tried out and it does work! That's exactly what I needed. I put 0.1 hours and every 5 minutes it does update the address book.

You made a man happy!!

Thank you Sir

h.ogi said...

I don't recommend you to set such a small value to the auto reload option. When you reload contacts, it rebuild all cards and mail lists even if there is no update since the last reload. It will lower performance of THunderbird if you reload many contacts.

Unknown said...

I am using Thunderbird on Vista. When I create a contact from gmail with a phone number type like home or work, they synchronize with thunderbird just fine. If I then add a phone number in gmail with a custom name like "cabin". then none of the phone numbers show up for that contact in thunderbird. If I delete the cabin number in gmail, then the other numbers for that contact reappear in thunderbird.

Unknown said...

It turns out the same thing happens with the postal address fields. I created a second address from gmail for an existing contact and named the address "Cabin". After that, neither the home or cabin address showed up in Thunderbird. The information is still there in gmail.

Unknown said...

Do you see this behavior too?

Dani said...

First of all, thanks for sharing your work. This is the most useful add-on.
Now, I found a bug:
All my contacts syncs perfectly, but they are not assigned correctly to groups. I have realized the problem is only with those lacking an email address.
I also sync google contacts with my iPhone, so I have many contacts without email.
Do you think you can fix this?
Besides, under options->advanced->group mapping, only the default groups appear.
Thanks again.
B.R.

SimoneMacc said...

Hello.
Today i opened my thunderbird with google-contacts add on! I saw immediately something wrong: the application was lower, and i saw a lot of message "[Retrieve] 200: Ok". I stopped the add-on, but now i've more than 9000 contacts in my google account, all duplicate hundred times. The version of google-account add on is the last: 0.6.34. And now?

Anonymous said...

Hi, Great AddOn, but now I have to reset it to the initial setting and I follow Faq intructions (open edit config and reset all gmcont string) close and reopen TB, bur there is NO WAY to cancel original gmail account and contatcs. I even prove to unistall ad reinstall AddOn but always NO WAY. Is ther any file to delete or other? Riccardo

h.ogi said...

After uninstalling Google Contacts and restarting Thunderbird, delete address books created by the extension.

Anonymous said...

Great add-on, thanks!

I find that some contacts in Thunderbird will not transfer to the Google Contacts address book.

Dragging one of these from Thunderbird Personal Address Book to Google results in a status bar message "Google contact was not added. The card will be deleted when you reload Google contacts."

This happens on 5 out of 350 contacts. I've isolated a couple of the offenders, and it appears to be related to the birthday field. Changing the birthday, particularly to a day-of-month between 1 and 9, results in failure, though not always.

In the console, successful transfer shows as [Update] 201: Created, while unsuccessful shows as [Update] 400: Bad Request.

RabanePaco said...

Google Contacts only syncs one way: Google Contacts --> TB.

All my Google Mail entries seem o.k.: at least either First or Last Name. [I exported address to a csv file. Checking in a spreadsheet is rather simple.]. Synchronizing with android is o.k.

Changes in Google Contacts seem to give a new entry in TB. Changes in TB don't propagate. Possibly only (partly) sync at TB startup.

TB Console window doesn't seem to give useful information. [I set the browser.dom.window.dump.enabled key.].

Only doing a reload gives msg.
"Retrieving Google contacts. @gmail.com is busy now. Abort all reload processes."

Barry said...

I love your extension. However for some reason it is not downloading all of my addresses into the groups I have. I increased my address book address to 1000 and followed several other recommended troubleshooting but nothing seems to work.

Any suggestions?

Anonymous said...

Very nice addon! Thank you very much.

I'm very happy with it, but i've a problem with photos. If i set a photo for a contact in Thunderbird, it will not be synced with google. Is it an issue or it's my fault?

Thanks again!

Cory said...

This is really a fantastic extension. Thank you for putting it together.

One thing I'd like to point out is that I have intermittent internet access where I live, and I find that if I make an edit in TB to my synced address book at a time when the connection drops out, even only for a few milliseconds, the change never registers in Google even when the connection comes back. There's no way to fix this other than to restart TB (to reload Google contacts) and re-do whatever edit I had done which didn't sync.

Would it be possible to add a button to force TB to modify Google's address book to reflect the current TB address book state, just in case (as often happens to me) the sync operation with Google fails in real time?

Anonymous said...

I have just updated to version 0.7 and it seems to be broken!
When installing this on a new installation of Thunderbird only a small number of my Google contacts are importing.
On a PC that had version 0.6 installed it still works OK (even after the update to version 0.7)

Anonymous said...

Same poblem here. Only few e-mails appear. The others appear only as names, no e-mail there. It is ok after reverting to previous version.

Kenni said...

Regarding the start of this item I am having problems loading contacts. I get 17 out of 100 contacts always the same ones, when I delete and reinstall the address book in TB.
This worked previously and was very good.
I followed you instructions and the results follow.

Thunderbird 16.0.2
Google contacts 0.7

C:\Users\XXX>"C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe" -console

C:\Users\XXX>2013-02-26 18:37:48 oathconsumer DEBUG OAuth based API call to 'google2' at 'https://www.googleapis.com/tasks/v1/users/@me/list
s'
2013-02-26 18:37:48 oathconsumer DEBUG GET REQUEST: https://www.googleapis.com/tasks/v1/users/@me/lists?max-results=50&access_token=ya29.AHES6Z
QuoDYkzp-GnRmPMuzkwvSFhZdyCz2oWjZ3fb7HzQj9X5fYpCL6
[Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x8000ffff (NS_ERROR_UNEXPECTED)
[nsIPrefBranch.getComplexValue]" nsresult: "0x8000ffff (NS_ERROR_UNEXPECTED)"
location: "JS frame :: chrome://gmcont/content/util.js :: :: line 158" data: no]
Log file does not exist. Create it.
2013-02-26 18:37:53 oathconsumer DEBUG call finished, calling callback
2013-02-26 18:37:53 oathconsumer DEBUG OAuth based API call to'google2' at 'https://www.googleapis.com/tasks/v1/lists/MTAxNjY0Mzg0NTk1NzE0ODY5
MjY6MDow/tasks'
2013-02-26 18:37:53 oathconsumer DEBUG GET REQUEST: https://www.googleapis.com/tasks/v1/lists/MTAxNjY0Mzg0NTk1NzE0ODY5MjY6MDow/tasks?showDelete
d=true&showHidden=true&updatedMin=2013-02-26T18%3A29%3A31.702Z&access_token=ya29.AHES6ZQuoDYkzp-GnRmPMuzkwvSFhZdyCz2oWjZ3fb7HzQj9X5fYpCL6
Retrieving Google Contacts ...
New contacts object.
Serial: 0
Yield weight: 100
start listening ...
URI is moz-abmdbdirectory://abook-1.mab
First sync done: false
Sync mode: 0
Add listener
Sync Contacts in SEQ. Rests are 0
[Auth] 200: OK
Dump TB addressbook
2013-02-26 18:37:57 oathconsumer DEBUG call finished, calling c
allback
[Retrieve Groups] 200: OK
[New parser] parse feed
Skip raw XML dump
Next Link: null
Num entries: 7
[Retrieve] 200: OK
[New parser] parse feed
Skip raw XML dump
Next Link: null
Num entries: 97
Submitting offline changes was done.
Refresh
stop listening ...
URI is moz-abmdbdirectory://abook-1.mab
Remove listener
TypeError: noteElem.firstChild is null
Retrieving Google Contacts ...
username@gmail.com is busy now. Abort all reload processes.

Thank you.

Cheese and Crackers said...

Recently some of my contacts have lost some information; like there is an email but no phone numbers. Also, a few contacts are repeated several times with the same information in them. What's happened? And how can I fix it? Will I be able to get the lost information back?? Thanks!

Unknown said...

Also in Google Contacts 0.7.10b4 the URL field is not correctly synchronized.Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

Kenni said...

As a follow-up to my previous post I upgraded TB to 17.0.3 and took Google Contacts back to 0.6.41 and it works OK now apart from Lists not synchronizing on Vista. Works OK on Win 7

board tc said...

I would like to have a 2 way sync between my thunderbird contacts and my google contacts. Is this possible with this TB add on? I'm hoping a user who has done this tried this can confirm one way or the other.

Anonymous said...

This is an execellent add-on but since upgrading to version 0.7 (and 0.7.10) it has got a bit flaky. Sometimes all contacts and groups are displayed correctly but most of the time my groups are all empty. It's a shame because it's a great add-on.

davodavo said...

Hi,
I've just installed this for the first time, and something about my config or address book is causing a lot of errors in your code. Only about 20% of the contacts come over from google, and the error console is full of these two messages:
----------------------------------
Timestamp: 7/13/2013 12:18:31 PM
Error: An error occurred updating the cmd_delete command: [Exception... "'[JavaScript Error: "cards[i] is null" {file: "chrome://messenger/content/addressbook/abResultsPane.js" line: 124}]' when calling method: [nsIController::isCommandEnabled]" nsresult: "0x80570021 (NS_ERROR_XPC_JAVASCRIPT_ERROR_WITH_DETAILS)" location: "JS frame :: chrome://global/content/globalOverlay.js :: goUpdateCommand :: line 75" data: yes]
Source File: chrome://global/content/globalOverlay.js
Line: 81
----------------------------------
Timestamp: 7/13/2013 12:18:31 PM
Error: An error occurred updating the cmd_chatWithCard command: [Exception... "'[JavaScript Error: "selectedCard is null" {file: "chrome://messenger/content/addressbook/addressbook.js" line: 771}]' when calling method: [nsIController::isCommandEnabled]" nsresult: "0x80570021 (NS_ERROR_XPC_JAVASCRIPT_ERROR_WITH_DETAILS)" location: "JS frame :: chrome://global/content/globalOverlay.js :: goUpdateCommand :: line 75" data: yes]
Source File: chrome://global/content/globalOverlay.js
Line: 81

davodavo said...

oh yeah: using your latest version with TB 17.0.7 and Win7 pro.

also tried it with TB 17 on WinXP pro.

no luck on either of them. Also, tried it with and without "
"moreFunctionsForAddressBook" v0.6.8.2, but it seemed to make no difference.

davodavo said...

FYI, went back to v0.6.41 and things work MUCH better. Not perfect, but close.

Recommend that windows users stay there for a while until new version fix available.

Matjaž Črnivec said...

I found the following two-fold bug:
1. If I create a new contact in TB which has something in the Work/Organization field and soon after that (a few minutes) exit TB, it will not appear in the Google Contacts and will disappear from TB next time i start it.
2. If I add data to the Work/Organization field (which previously had none) and I exit TB soon, this does not get into the Google Contacts and is lost next time I start TB.
If I wait longer, the problem seems to go away (I am not 100% sure - needs more testing).
I am working on Windows XP (English), Thunderbird 24.2.0.

Unknown said...

Please fix the bug in 0.7 of 25000+ duplicates being added to google... i have this running on multiple systems Xp, Vista and Win 7. this bug seems to only happen on the XP machine!

Anonymous said...

Hi
Yesterday, Google COntacts addon started to prompt for a password.
It does so even though I entered the correct password to my Google account.
Thx
Moish

Here is the log file:
System JS : WARNING resource://gre/components/steelApplication.js:783 - mutating
the [[Prototype]] of an object will cause your code to run very slowly; instead
create the object with the correct initial [[Prototype]] value using Object.cre
ate
[Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x8000ffff (NS_ERROR_UNEXPECTED)
[nsIPrefBranch.getComplexValue]" nsresult: "0x8000ffff (NS_ERROR_UNEXPECTED)"
location: "JS frame :: chrome://gmcont/content/util.js :: gGCLogger.open :: lin
e 158" data: no]
Log file does not exist. Create it.
Retrieving Google Contacts ...
New contacts object.
Serial: 0
Yield weight: 100
start listening ...
URI is moz-abmdbdirectory://abook-1.mab
First sync done: false
Sync mode: 0
Add listener
Sync Contacts in SEQ. Rests are 0
Reload contacts every 1 hours.
[Auth] 404: Not Found
auth again
stop listening ...
URI is null

Anonymous said...

Hello,
Same issue here, ... Google Contacts add-on don't stops prompting for the Gmail password at each lunch of Thunderbird.

Luis P.

osman said...

Same here

[Auth] 404: Not Found
auth again
stop listening ...
URI is null

Wild Stray said...

Project clearly abadoned from years. Author does not reply. Issue tracking system broken (error 500). gContactSync IS NOT a valid replacement because it does NOT work with multiple GMail accounts and author wont fix.
Google Contacts does not work anymore (and never will) because Google API now have mandatory requirements as OAuth 3.0.

How about fork this extension? I've the idea to fork it and hope in the contribution of community on github.

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