SUMMARY KDE Connect allows to 'sync' mobile phone contacts (Android in my case) with the desktop. However, with my tests it showed that it's not syncing back from the plasma desktop to the mobile phone when there were changes to the contacts. Effectively, the syncing option in KDE Connect is not a sync but just a one-way drop of mobile phone contacts onto a local directory. Checking the kdeconnect-cli options in terminal I do not find a command to trigger any syncing of contacts. Is this as designed or is it about to be enhanced to allow real 2-way syncing of contacts? STEPS TO REPRODUCE 1. Pair a (Android) mobile phone with the plasma desktop feature of KDE Connect. 2. Enable the contacts plugin on KDE Connect and allow permissions to mobile phone contacts. 3. Contacts are automatically pushed to ~/.local/share/kpeoplevcard/ at desktop computer. 4. Create an address book in KAddressbook with vCard directory and point to ~/.local/share/kpeoplevcard/. 5. KAddressbook reads these contacts correctly. 6. Change a contact (name, number, etc) with KAddressbook and save the change. (some error here because Kaddress creates a new vcf. 7. Alternatively change the contact with a text editor in ~/.local/share/kpeoplevcard/ e.g. xyzmymobilephonecontact.vcf and save the change. 8. Check on mobile phone if the change was synced from desktop. 9. No sync happens. OBSERVED RESULT Contacts or contact changes are not synced back from the desktop to the mobile phone EXPECTED RESULT Whenever a change happened on either side, mobile or desktop, the change triggers a sync operation. Additionally, a manual sync button "Sync Now" should be available on KDE Connect. SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS Operating System: Manjaro Linux KDE Plasma Version: 5.25.2 KDE Frameworks Version: 5.95.0 Qt Version: 5.15.5 Graphics Platform: X11 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
It is only mean to be one-way. it was mostly added so that the SMS app knows the contacts. two-way sync would be a lot more complex to implement
(In reply to Nicolas Fella from comment #1) > It is only mean to be one-way. it was mostly added so that the SMS app knows > the contacts. > > two-way sync would be a lot more complex to implement Thanks @Nicholas for the answer. I know about the complexity of a real 2-way sync. However, it would be quite a core functionality of such an application like KDE Connect. Are there plans to to enhance this in the near term to allow optimal integration with KDE PIM? Technically most of the needed is there already, just not the sync.
(In reply to raguse from comment #2) > Thanks @Nicholas for the answer. > I know about the complexity of a real 2-way sync. However, it would be quite > a core functionality of such an application like KDE Connect. > > Are there plans to to enhance this in the near term to allow optimal > integration with KDE PIM? > Technically most of the needed is there already, just not the sync. There is nobody working on adding two-way sync to the contacts plugin. I don't know about KDE PIM, but if other apps wanted to use KDE Connect's vcards, they could use the KPeople library to access them (the same way the SMS app does)
(In reply to Simon Redman from comment #3) > (In reply to raguse from comment #2) > > Thanks @Nicholas for the answer. > > I know about the complexity of a real 2-way sync. However, it would be quite > > a core functionality of such an application like KDE Connect. > > > > Are there plans to to enhance this in the near term to allow optimal > > integration with KDE PIM? > > Technically most of the needed is there already, just not the sync. > > There is nobody working on adding two-way sync to the contacts plugin. > > I don't know about KDE PIM, but if other apps wanted to use KDE Connect's > vcards, they could use the KPeople library to access them (the same way the > SMS app does) Thanks for the explanation. It would be a nice feature, though, the direction goes anyway towards full mobile and cloud, instead of Desktop, which questions the usefulness of such sync option nowadays. I see this bug report is status Resolved, so this topic is closed for me. Many thanks and have a nice week/weekend.