Empty email field bug

[Bakica]

Hy there!

I recently edited google contacts

after synchronizing data with thunderbird
(e.g. pressing sync button in adress book),
contacts that didn't have e-mail field
received value
nobody3e586....a97@nowhere.invalid
(where ... describes different letter/number value)

not very annoying but it would be nice
that gcontacsync leaves this field empty as it is

[Josh Geenen]

Hey,

gContactSync adds those e-mail addresses, in Thunderbird only, to prevent some serious problems.  If a contact without an e-mail address is added to a mailing list in Thunderbird then the address book breaks and it cannot be synchronized.  You can read more about the problem here.

I tried to hide that e-mail address wherever I could, so you will not be able to remove it by editing the contact, and it will not appear when you select the contact.

Are you synchronizing groups with mailing lists, or just the My Contacts group with one address book?  If you only synchronize My Contacts (not Groups or Mailing Lists), then there is a way to disable the nobody...@nowhere.invalid e-mail addresses.

[Bakica]

Thnx for the reply

I'm synchronizing groups with mailing lists
(I use groups in Google Contacts for sorting
and I can see these groups in Thunderbird after syncing)

never mind the problem, I thought it was
an unknown bug, since I haven't found anything
about this issue in forum

The most important is that it doesn't mess up with
online contacts on Google server

so far I'm very happy with gContactSync :-)
thnx for the great extension

[Josh Geenen]

Thank you for your feedback

gContactSync will never add the 'dummy' e-mail address to Google unless there are some serious problems.

[ejlmd]

     If you only synchronize My Contacts (not Groups or Mailing Lists), then there is a way to disable the nobody...@nowhere.invalid e-mail addresses.

Your extension seems quite promising.  I will only synchronize My Contacts.  How to disable the nobody...@nowhere.invalid e-mail addresses?

Thank you!

[Josh Geenen]

You can go to Tools -> Options in the main Thunderbird window, then click on Advanced.  You should see a button labeled Config Editor... on the General tab.  Click the button and type dummyEmail.  Double-click the row that appears to make the value change to false.  This won't completely disable it (it tries to add it always before doing something that would always break the address book), and you may have to reset your address book to remove existing dummy e-mail addresses, or update the contacts in Gmail.

To reset the address book go to the gContactSync menu in the Address Book window and click Preferences.  Then go to the Accounts tab and click Reset All Synced ABs.  Restart Thunderbird and synchronize again.

Please be careful when disabling this preference because this can cause problems in Thunderbird.  If it doesn't work as expected please let me know because I haven't tested it.

[ejlmd]

This modification works beautifully.  I'll let you know if there are any secondary issues with Thunderbird.  Thanks for your prompt reply.

[KelleyChambers]

Josh,

This is still happening in the .3 version. I've followed your directions or the Config Editor however, the value is already defaulted to false yet the "dummy addresses" are still visable and not truly being hidden.  Additionally, I have reset my address books and the same thing continues to happen. 

Have you by chance run into this in Thunderbird 3 yourself?  I'm running Mac OSX, 10.6.2 and using Thunderbird 3.01.

You can go to Tools -> Options in the main Thunderbird window, then click on Advanced.  You should see a button labeled Config Editor... on the General tab.  Click the button and type dummyEmail.  Double-click the row that appears to make the value change to false.  This won't completely disable it (it tries to add it always before doing something that would always break the address book), and you may have to reset your address book to remove existing dummy e-mail addresses, or update the contacts in Gmail.

To reset the address book go to the gContactSync menu in the Address Book window and click Preferences.  Then go to the Accounts tab and click Reset All Synced ABs.  Restart Thunderbird and synchronize again.

Please be careful when disabling this preference because this can cause problems in Thunderbird.  If it doesn't work as expected please let me know because I haven't tested it.

[Josh Geenen]

As of gContactSync 0.3a1 and 0.2.11, dummy addresses are still visible and necessary for contacts if they meet two conditions:
1) The contact does not have a primary e-mail address
2) The contact belongs to at least one mailing list

If you don't think a contact needs a dummy address edit it.  You won't see the e-mail address.  Click OK.  In 0.3 if it requires a dummy e-mail address it will add one and let you know why it is necessary.

I have not found a way to completely hide these addresses so you will still see them under the E-mail column, during searches, and in auto-complete while composing a message.

[bblackmoor]

I tried to hide that e-mail address wherever I could, so you will not be able to remove it by editing the contact, and it will not appear when you select the contact.

Are you synchronizing groups with mailing lists, or just the My Contacts group with one address book?  If you only synchronize My Contacts (not Groups or Mailing Lists), then there is a way to disable the nobody...@nowhere.invalid e-mail addresses.

Is there a way to disable hiding the nobody...@nowhere.invalid e-mail addresses? I recently updated Thunderbird to version 3, and because the nobody...@nowhere.invalid e-mail addresses were hidden, completely broke my address book, and the next time I synchronized, GContactSync deleted everything, costing me several hours of work as I tried to restore it.

So if there is some way to just show the nobody...@nowhere.invalid e-mail addresses, that would be great.

[bblackmoor]

Also, when I edit any contact with a nobody...@nowhere.invalid email address, that email address then disappears, breaking that contact. To fix it, I have to edit that contact again, and manually add a nobody...@nowhere.invalid address.

Hiding the nobody...@nowhere.invalid is just a bad idea. Please stop hiding it.

[Josh Geenen]

I believe you have been affected by a recent change that Google made to their API, you can find more details here (including how to recover deleted contacts):
http://www.pirules.org/blog/?p=326

The problems you noticed are almost definitely caused by that change and not dummy e-mail addresses.

Is there a way to disable hiding the nobody...@nowhere.invalid e-mail addresses?

These e-mail addresses are no longer hidden.  If you edit a contact with a dummy e-mail address that e-mail address is actually removed from the contact.  Once you click OK to save the contact gContactSync will determine if the contact needs a dummy e-mail address (if it is in at least one mailing list) and add a dummy e-mail address if necessary.

Also, when I edit any contact with a nobody...@nowhere.invalid email address, that email address then disappears, breaking that contact. To fix it, I have to edit that contact again, and manually add a nobody...@nowhere.invalid address.

Are you sure that the contact needs a dummy e-mail address?  gContactSync should add one if necessary.

[bblackmoor]

These e-mail addresses are no longer hidden.  If you edit a contact with a dummy e-mail address that e-mail address is actually removed from the contact.

Stop doing that, please. Adding them is fine. Don't hide them, and don't delete them.