Permanently deleting contacts doesn't work

asked 2015-08-18 17:04:42 +0300

hergliaje gravatar image

updated 2015-08-18 17:40:21 +0300

jollailija gravatar image

I just installed WhatsUp (a WhatsApp client for Jolla). Because I knew that it would sync my contacts with WhatsApp's servers, I wanted to clean old contacts out of my address book first. So I used the People app to delete contacts. These contacts were never stored on the SIM card and they were never synced to any cloud service like Google (unless the Jolla account does that without my knowledge?).

Then I started WhatsUp. ALL THE CONTACTS I HAD DELETED WERE STILL THERE AND SYNCED WITH WHATSAPP'S SERVERS, which is exactly the opposite of what I had wanted.

I ended up opening the Contacts database (~/.local/share/system/Contacts/qtcontacts-sqlite/contacts.db) in sqlite3. Sure enough, the "deleted" contacts were still present in the Contacts table. Deleting them manually using the sqlite3 prompt worked, but this is of course a highly unsatisfactory solution: It is tedious, it is error-prone (typos!), and it is not something that the average user should have to do.

Please fix this issue by making sure that the People app has some way to permanently delete contacts from the database.

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Comments

Are you sure it wasn't the other way around, so that you had the extra accounts already in whatsup and it then synced themback to your Jolla?

Not knowing how whatsupp works or never used it, just a thought?

Too bad you did not check the content of the sqlite DB before syncing, that way you could have been sure which way was it...

juiceme ( 2015-08-18 17:18:52 +0300 )edit
2

@juiceme: No, I had never used any WhatsApp client before. Thanks, but no thanks. I am sure which way it was: WhatsApp did not add the contact data to the database. In any case, feel free to reproduce: 1. Make up a name and phone number and add as contact in People app. 2. Delete that contact from the People app. 3. Check that database.

@jollailija: Those threads are indeed related, but they seem to involve syncing back from the cloud. This was definitely not the case here (again, unless the Jolla account does it): I don't have Google, Exchange, etc. accounts.

hergliaje ( 2015-08-18 18:01:29 +0300 )edit
1

if contacts are deleted in People app, but are present in sqlite db, then they probably have "deleted" attribute, and it is clearly a Whatsup bug for not aknowledging that attribute. You should report to app developer (but since app developement is closed... i don't know)

virgi26 ( 2015-08-18 18:10:25 +0300 )edit

If I delete a contact from a Database, it should not leave a trace of ever having been there in the first place. Is this standard behaviour? I am not familiar with how these DBs are used so I am not juding here but it seems a bit awkward. Can someone enlighten me please?

MoritzJT ( 2015-08-18 20:02:59 +0300 )edit