GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 677768
No (evident) way to revert from Google Contacts Management
Last modified: 2012-06-14 15:23:58 UTC
I had my contacts list setup the way I like. My only chat method is through Google chat (Jabber), and in Empathy I kept a single flat list of all my contacts, so that everyone was a member of Friends. If someone other than a friend were on my IM contacts I would just remove them (I don't talk to "acquaintances" and "business contacts" on IM so why even let them see my away messages?). When I clicked on Information to see a contacts away message, Empathy decided to ignore everything I had previously configured and import all the groups in my Google contacts list, which includes things like "Friends, Family, Coworkers, etc" and many people appear multiple times in different groups. a) This is extremely user hostile. It should ask before doing anything remotely like this. b) Its not clear how I can revert to my previous configuration. c) Its not clear what would happen if I removed a user a group. Would this affect my Google Group as well? d) There are now multiple repeated instances of a single user in the full list, because Joe might appear as a Coworker, but I also consider him a friend. And my cousin Vinny is both family and a friend (ever since he got me off on that murder charge). e) This just doesn't make any sense for an IM application. For an email application it is helpful to have groups "Coworkers, Family, etc" so that you can send out mass emails to quickly find and tell coworkers that you are sick and will miss a meeting, or to tell family about a new birth etc... It doesn't make any sense when dealing with instant messages. Instant messages are not bulk messages. If would be very odd and useless for a speed-dial on a phone to have groups (you don't group dial your family unless something unexpected like a death has taken place), and its equally useless to have this in an instant messenger application. Please for the love of god revert this.
Which exact version and distribution is this about, and what was the previous version that you refer to?
3.4.2 (Ubuntu 12.04 w/ gnome-shell version)
The previous version would have been that which shipped with 11.10 (whatever that was). The 12.04 version was fine until I right clicked on a contact and then clicked on Information at which point it a) showed a dialog asking me if I wanted to keep contact lists locally or on Google b) completely f'ed up my contact list WITHOUT ASKING. Now its completely useless -- my good friends can appear in 5 different lists because they are "Favorite People" "Friends" "Starred in Android" "Personal" "Recognized" (a group I use to deal with Google's auto-add email to address book feature), and a nice short list that fit into one screen is now three screens long. -- I'm afraid to do anything to fix it because I don't know if a change in empathy will be reflected in my google contacts list which I don't want to do.
Does displaying 'Contacts' in gnome-online-accounts's UI help ? Go to 'System Settings' -> 'Online Accounts'? You can turn off groups, see https://live.gnome.org/Empathy/FAQ#How_can_I_disable_contact_groups.3F
It is "ON" but I'm not sure what that means, nor does anything explain that. I do want to use my google account for contacts when I am using email, and I do want to use the set of contacts in google in my chat. I do want the gnome-shell search to show my contacts vcards. The only thing I don't want is for a bunch of groups that only make sense in the context of an email client to appear in my instant messenger, and I don't think empathy should suddenly start ignoring what I told it to do in the past. Its nice to be able to put my password in one place (the gnome-shell "online accounts" system) and use that same authentication tool for all my accounts, but I don't see what possible connection that would have to my empathy groups? If this gnome-shell online accounts dialog is anything more than just a centralized authentication tool then maybe I need to be filing a bug with them as well, because nothing explains what those "on/off" switches actually do. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Also a PS changing anything in empathy does change my google contacts groups as well, so I'm forced to choose between a horribly broken friends list in instant messenger, or an email address book where I cannot tag any contacts. Uggggghhhhh
So, if Empathy was ignoring the Google groups which are not exposed by GTalk, would that solve your problem (bug #660281) ? (In reply to comment #5) > If this gnome-shell online accounts dialog is anything more than just a > centralized authentication tool then maybe I need to be filing a bug with them > as well, because nothing explains what those "on/off" switches actually do. Yeah the UI could be clearer. Feel free to report it to GOA.
Yes. Will close as dup of that bug. (I wish I had seen that gsettings option). *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 660281 ***