Birthdays not synced from Nextcloud 27 to Android 12/13

[fwiep]

Hello,

Using DAVx5 v4.3.5.2 from F-Droid on several devices, both Android 12.1 (2x custom built LineageOS) and Android 13 (1x stock Samsung UI).

Since about one week, all contacts no longer have their birthdays set on the Android device. In the Nextcloud, all is well and all the dates are present and shown on screen.

I have tried to clear the Contacts-app cache, even installed an extra (official Google) Contacts app to compare the result. On all three devices, not a single birthday is shown. The Contact app allows me to add a birthday to the contact, but via DAVx5, no birthday gets synchronized.

When I edit, say the 'Notes' field of a contact in the Nextcloud, then sync through DAVx5, this modification shows up instantly.

How can I get the birthdays back into my Android contacts?

How should I debug this issue? I have collected a sync's verbose logfile, but no error is shown.

Thanks for your help,
FWieP

[rfc2822]

Works fine here… can you please provide exact steps to reproduce? Verbose logs of syncing a contact with birthday (must include the vCard; send to https://www.davx5.com/support) would also be helpful.

[fwiep]

Found the issue in the VCard format of the BDAY property.

It seems the Nextcloud Contacts app accepts the VCard-format that's coming from my source application (using mstilkerich/carddavclient):

BDAY:19510311T000000+0100

However, when I edit and save the birthday in Nextcloud's Contacts app, it becomes

BDAY;VALUE=DATE:19510311

Then DAVx5 syncs and the birthday shows up on Android as expected.

Apparently, since some recent DAVx5 or Nextcloud update, the old style BDAY property is no longer recognized or processed. I guess that means case solved. I will contact the carddavclient library's authors and ask them for help.

Thanks and kind regards,
FWieP

[fwiep]

Hello again,

After consulting the author of the carddavclient library, (see this issue on Github), I return to DAVx5 for help in solving this issue.

The library provides a valid VCard4 for every contact, including the BDAY property in a 'Ymd\\THisO' format. This is all compliant with the ISO specs of VCard, see the library author's explanation in the linked issue above.

Why does DAVx5 no longer recognize or process this format of the BDAY property?

Kind regards,
FWieP

[fwiep]

Hello again,

I've sent in a debug log and corresponding vCard file of a single contact addition. The issue seems to surface in the log around line 426:

2023-09-02 14:57:51 45 [contactrow.EventBuilder] Ignoring date/time without supported (partial) date

This is the (dummy) contact I'm trying to sync from Nextcloud to Android:

BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:4.0
PRODID:-//Sabre//Sabre VObject 4.5.3//EN
UID:LcjQnxjYhKYC9CZtYSgAnkDwrg6QDk-1335-0-0
N:Doe 2;John;;;
FN:John Doe 2
BDAY:20000615T000000+0200
ITEM1.ADR:;; ;;;;Nederland
ITEM1.X-ABLABEL:Home
CATEGORIES:_personen
GENDER:M
END:VCARD

So, my question remains: why does DAVx5 no longer support the BDAY property in a 'Ymd\\THisO' format?

Thanks,
FWieP

[rfc2822]

Please follow up at bitfireAT/vcard4android#24