CardDAV vCard "data mangling" during iCloud-to-Fastmail import: explanations?

hydrostarr · 30 Jan 2022, 01:57 PM

I experienced what I'm calling a CardDAV vCard "data mangling" during a recent iCloud-to-Fastmail Contacts import I performed (the first and only one I've tried).

Does anyone have insight or experience into this?

Specifically:

all of my cards were edited to include an additional "Imported [datestamp]" tag. (There's literally a 'tags' field in Contacts/CardDAV/etc databases; said field is often not displayed by Contacts clients.)
approx one-third (but only one-third) of my cards had their modification-timestamp field changed. (why one-third vs all or none? it was a mystery)

I currently have Fastmail tech support chewing on this issue. There's no conclusive response yet; they've not yet admitted a problem nor have they cleared up my confusion.

However, in my opinion: a CardDAV (or whatever it is) server should not change _any_ of the data it imports, be it operating as a "client" or a "server." How they could ever justify doing that is beyond me. Maybe there's something I don't understand. Maybe my CardDav client did it's own mangling of the data (although I doubt that because I've been using said app for over 5 years without these problems).

How would you feel if by importing all your email data that one-third of the imported emails had their datestamps changed to the current time/date? I bet most people would not feel good about that. ;-)

BritTim · 30 Jun 2023, 11:11 AM

On updated modification date/times, is it possible that these were existing contacts that were modified as a result of being merged with the vCards?

30 Jan 2022, 01:57 PM	#1
hydrostarr Member Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 55	CardDAV vCard "data mangling" during iCloud-to-Fastmail import: explanations? I experienced what I'm calling a CardDAV vCard "data mangling" during a recent iCloud-to-Fastmail Contacts import I performed (the first and only one I've tried). Does anyone have insight or experience into this? Specifically: all of my cards were edited to include an additional "Imported [datestamp]" tag. (There's literally a 'tags' field in Contacts/CardDAV/etc databases; said field is often not displayed by Contacts clients.) approx one-third (but only one-third) of my cards had their modification-timestamp field changed. (why one-third vs all or none? it was a mystery) I currently have Fastmail tech support chewing on this issue. There's no conclusive response yet; they've not yet admitted a problem nor have they cleared up my confusion. However, in my opinion: a CardDAV (or whatever it is) server should not change _any_ of the data it imports, be it operating as a "client" or a "server." How they could ever justify doing that is beyond me. Maybe there's something I don't understand. Maybe my CardDav client did it's own mangling of the data (although I doubt that because I've been using said app for over 5 years without these problems). How would you feel if by importing all your email data that one-third of the imported emails had their datestamps changed to the current time/date? I bet most people would not feel good about that. ;-) Last edited by hydrostarr : 30 Jan 2022 at 02:05 PM.

30 Jun 2023, 11:11 AM	#2
BritTim The "e" in e-mail Join Date: May 2003 Location: mostly in Thailand Posts: 3,093	On updated modification date/times, is it possible that these were existing contacts that were modified as a result of being merged with the vCards?