[Pidgin] #12117: Pidgin unable to recognize online status of contacts originally added via Trillian (was: New MSN account - No buddies appear online and cannot send or receive messages)

[Pidgin]

#12117: Pidgin unable to recognize online status of contacts originally added via
Trillian
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 Reporter:  wallaby  |        Owner:  QuLogic
     Type:  defect   |       Status:  closed 
Milestone:           |    Component:  MSN    
  Version:  2.7.1    |   Resolution:  cantfix
 Keywords:           |  
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Changes (by wallaby):

  * status:  new => closed
  * resolution:  => cantfix


Old description:

> I recently moved all my accounts from Trillian to Pidgin. I moved my MSN
> account to Pidgin during 2.7.1 I have been unable to send or receive
> messages or see anyone online on this account. Pidgin does have my
> account's information, such as who my contacts are and which contacts I
> have blocked and my display name (it apparently didn't update with
> Pidgin's display name and has kept Trillian's display name from what I
> see in the log). It should be just Wallaby without the bit of Hebrew in
> front of it.
>
> I know that these people are online because one of them is me on another
> account on the official client. When I try to send messages to myself via
> the official client to Pidgin (who does not appear online) I keep getting
> them sent back instead of having them sent as offline messages.
>
> Attached is a log of me re-enabling MSN with all personally-identifiable
> information removed.

New description:

 EDIT (wallaby):
 This seems to only affect contacts added through extremely old builds of
 Trillian.

 I recently moved all my accounts from Trillian to Pidgin. I moved my MSN
 account to Pidgin during 2.7.1 I have been unable to send or receive
 messages or see anyone online on this account. Pidgin does have my
 account's information, such as who my contacts are and which contacts I
 have blocked and my display name (it apparently didn't update with
 Pidgin's display name and has kept Trillian's display name from what I see
 in the log). It should be just Wallaby without the bit of Hebrew in front
 of it.

 I know that these people are online because one of them is me on another
 account on the official client. When I try to send messages to myself via
 the official client to Pidgin (who does not appear online) I keep getting
 them sent back instead of having them sent as offline messages.

 Attached is a log of me re-enabling MSN with all personally-identifiable
 information removed.

--

Comment:

 UPDATE:
 I did a few more tests. I asked a friend to port his account from Trillian
 to Pidgin. He did not experience any of the problems that I did and was
 able to see that his MSN contacts were online. He was using build 2.7.2
 However, I believe he created he added his contacts for MSN in Trillian
 within the past year or so. I added my contacts much earlier than that. My
 most recent contact added in Trillian on the account for which I submitted
 the ticket was either late 2007 or early 2008 during the Trillian 3.1
 builds.

 I then created a new msn account (and I'm sorry for the delay, I've been
 busy) and added myself via Trillian on another computer. I then logged
 into that same account on Pidgin. I COULD see myself online, and my
 messages got through. I used the most recent build of Trillian (4.2.0.22)
 and the most recent build of Pidgin (2.7.4)

 I then tried to recreate the same scenario as my first account by adding
 myself using Trillian 3.1.9.0 (which would have been the build that would
 have beeen available about the time I added my most recent contact). I was
 unable to log into MSN via this version of Trillian (and if memory serves,
 this was very normal), so I cannot guarantee that the problem I
 experienced is common to all contacts that were added through old versions
 of Trillian, but considering Trillian's problems with its MSN plugin
 during and before that time, I am apt to believe that is the case.

 I am resolving this ticket as cantfix (unless anyone has any objections)
 because this looks like a problem with old Trillian code, not Pidgin.
 Also, even if this was a problem with Pidgin, fixing it would likely
 require knowledge of the Trillian source code, which we do not have legal
 access to.

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/12117#comment:4>
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