Samsung Standard Apps ignore EssentialPIM System Account

[Nurgotora]

I bit the bullet, factory resetted the phone, and installed EPIM Android only.
Set it as system account. Synced.

I'm sorry to say, but Samsung's built in Phone app still ignores Epim's system account. So does built in SMS app. But not completlely. It's quite complicated and incoherent: They somehow see it, but cannot use it correctly.

Galaxy S10e, SM-G970F/DS
One UI: 3.1
Android 11, Kernel 4.14.113-22340597, Security Patch 2021-09-01
Samsung Telephone App 12.7.05.10, Callvesrion 12.1.05.72
Epim Android: Special 5.8.7 from 4th post above (vanilla 5.8.7 behaves the same way)

* K9-Mail, QKSMS (), Google Mail access and use contacts from EPIM system account as expected
* Simple Phone (5.10.1 - from f-droid)
- shows contacts in contact list, but you cannot dial from them, as if they had no number, no additional info (see screenshot_A)
- shows number only when contact calls in
- shows contact name in recent list
- claims "no access to contacts" in favourites
* Samsung built in SMS app (12.2.10.31)
- allows to search contacts by name (and finds them, too)
- shows only number in conversation list
* Samsung built in Contacts app
- shows no contacts, no epim account (same as in post #3)
Samsung Telephone App 12.7.05.10, Callvesrion 12.1.05.72
- shows no contacts
- show only numbers in recent list
- funny: In "Groups" list all companys from my contacts with correct contacts within, see screenshot_B, C, and D - but you cannot dial from them, tap on contact leads to (same as Simple Phone) Screenshot A.

***

As It did work until the most recent OTA update but one, my current conjecture would be that those apps (or Android?) stopped using an old/deprecated interface for contacts and that the EPIM System Account does not correctly serve the new interface the most recent Samsung Apps(?) or Android(?) now use. However, I'm no Android developer so I could be completely wrong.

***

No back to re-install and re-configure the phone to daily use

[Nurgotora]

Additional

* Samsung built in Contacts app
- Also sees something of th Epim System Account's contacts. Same as the Phone App it lists the company names from the contacts as groups

But no contacts ...

[Nurgotora]

I'm sorry, but I need to give this a bump: This situation makes EPIM almost unusable for me. Even so it (still) works with e-mail adresses, and I found a SMS app using EPIM's info, not being able to see who's calling me is a major issue (and no, I'm not going to memorize dozens of phone numbers).

I bought EPIM 8 years ago (lifetime license) explicitely for the feature of synchronizing my data between my PC and my phone only (so sync contacts with google as a workaround is not an option).

I think my tests have shown that

(a) it's not my individual phone or my setup (remember I've even tested it with another 10e)

(b) it's not my data (I've tried with a new database with just one contact, too)

(c) it still does work partially (company names as groups).

I cannot buy or lend you a 10e, but I'm quite prepared to invest all the time needed to test whatever you would need testing. I'm a developer myself - not Android, but I know my way around with the adb - so I'm not altogether clueless.

I really hope we can solve this.

[poet-man]

Didnot try to repro all this, which is written down in this thread.
But what I can say, is, what I wrote down in some thread times ago:
Using AEPIM contacts via system account has not been possible for "ages" now. This always has been the case on Samsung mobiles, no matter what Android version (I remember as far back as to Android 7).
So to create a new contact, there one cannot choose AEPIM (Google, phone, sim-card etc, but not AEPIM). So one is forced to create it manually all the time in AEPIM , after it has been created in system contacts app.
So this problem should be repro-able on any Samsung device.
I do agree, that poeple would appreciate it very much, if finally it would be possible to really use EPIM as a system account, and use it as expected.
Thanks.

[Nurgotora]

I'm sorry, but I need to give this a bump again: This situation makes EPIM almost unusable for me.

Any news on this?

As I said, I'm quite prepared to invest all the time needed to test whatever you would need testing. I'm a developer myself - not Android, but I know my way around with the adb.

[poet-man]

@admin
Is there any chance that all of the 'system account' problems will be solved in near future?
This really is something being unsolved for ages now. Some sort of definitive info would be appreciated very much indeed

[kb5cth]

Admin,

Back in May on a (possibly) related thread, I asked the question:

"Are we correct that the Android contacts cannot actually replace system contacts due to the various aspects we've discussed, or are we missing something? If your contacts module *can* replace the system contacts directly, how do we do this?"

I also run a Samsung phone and have been perplexed by the operation of contacts on my phone; I blamed it on my lack of understanding and gave up trying to use that module. If these two issues are related, then the issue may be very widespread.

Is it time to finally *solve* this problem?

Bill L

[admin]

Please do not mix the threads. I have no idea which various aspects that were discussed earlier you mean.

[poet-man]

Honestly speaking, the problems with "system account" are on the agenda for years now. I do understand users' impatience.
Of course you're right ... threads should not be mixed. But people finally just donot know, what really to do, to get that topic off.

[kb5cth]

Please do not mix the threads. I have no idea which various aspects that were discussed earlier you mean.

We were discussing that the EPIM app in no way can be used like the system app. You cannot directly make contacts from calls, contacts in EPIM will not display on incoming calls, the 2 contact lists (system and EPIM) do not sync properly.

The symptoms mentioned in both threads sound very similar.

In the previous thread no one mentioned Samsung phones, but now that it's been mentioned here, that may be another clue to solving this problem.

Bill L

[Nurgotora]

This are in fact two different problems.
@poet-man, kb5cth: Yes, adding contacts outside EPIM does not add them to EPIM via its System Account, but to any (per choice) other available account. That (and other) is in fact an EPIM and pure Android problem, but another, so please ...

My problem here is different: It shows only on Samsung modified Android.

To prove that, I've installed Android Studio, created a Android Virtual Device (pure Android fresh from google), got myself an open source dialler for debugging (Simple-Dialler) installed EPIM with System Account, and ran Simple-Dialler:
Everything works perfect.

Using that same Simple-Dialler on the Samsung Phone it does not work, but shows the symptoms described in this thread.

This is where it fails (Simple-Dialer Code fragment):

* Pure Android returns, as expected, cursor.getStringValue(PhoneLookup.DISPLAY_NAME)
* Samsung's Android does not go into "cursor.use {" and returns number.

Code: Select all

    fun getNameFromPhoneNumber(number: String): String {
        if (!context.hasPermission(PERMISSION_READ_CONTACTS)) {
            return number
        }

        val uri = Uri.withAppendedPath(PhoneLookup.CONTENT_FILTER_URI, Uri.encode(number))
        val projection = arrayOf(
            PhoneLookup.DISPLAY_NAME
        )

        try {
            val cursor = context.contentResolver.query(uri, projection, null, null, null)
            cursor.use {
                if (cursor?.moveToFirst() == true) {
                    return cursor.getStringValue(PhoneLookup.DISPLAY_NAME)
                }
            }
        } catch (ignored: Exception) {
        }

        return number
    }

context.contentResolver.query is already inside Android. Not sure how (and if at all) to debug into that.

Summary: Until that Samsung update in Summer'21, Samsung's android behaved correctly: context.contentResolver.query used EPIM contacts and returned usable data. Since then it does not. I'm quite sure Samsung is not going to do anything about this, my (and EPIM's) problem being an edge case to them. Question is: Can Astonsoft do something about it?

[poet-man]

@Nurgotora
@admin
Thanks for separating problens. Didnot want to mix it. However people are frustrated, about what you described first, which is something existing for years now. Does it occur on Samsung only or on any mobile? I cannot say.
People are longing that something is done about it.
Nevertheless the problem you discovered surely needs to be solved with same priority

[johncesta]

I use DW contacts. In there they display epim contacts and they can be accessed thru DW.

[Nurgotora]

I use DW contacts. In there they display epim contacts and they can be accessed thru DW.

Thanks! What phone and Android version do you use? Because on my Samsung Galaxy S 10e this app shows similiar problems: not showing names of incomimg and outgoing calls when these are in EPIM's system account only. It does howver list a EPIM group in the contacts tab and lists the contacts (but only on demand, not by default). I checked the gratis version (not very thorougly, admittedly). ...

... because I recently took another (desperate) approach: I recoded the aforementioned (Simple-Dialler's) methods to find (in EPIM contacts) and display the names of incoming and outgoing calls, so now I've a more-or-less working work-around for the dialler, too (QKSMS works fine with EPIM for sms).

[cybolon]

Hi all,
since last Android update (a month ago) I experience exactly all the same as described in this thread.
I installed the Simple Dialer which imported the contacts from epim correctly.
Then I exported them to a vcf file.
In the system contact app I imported that file.
Fine now I had all them contacts back and caller names were shown, too.
Only thing: After a pcsync I have to go through it all again cuz contacts in system app are gone again.
In the end I deactivated the sync for contacts, hopefully only until this issue is finally solved.
(Syncing all other modules works fine).
I dearly hope that there will be a solution asap!