CardDAV bug in OS 10.9 Server

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one-to-one Author

Level 1

13 points

CardDAV bug in OS 10.9 Server

OS 10.9 server has a nasty bug in its CardDAV section.

Hardware used: MacMini Server Late 2012, MacBook Pro Mid 2010, iPhone 4S 2012.

Software used: OS 10.9 (MacMini and MacBook), iOS 7.0.4 (iPhone). MacMini has the Server App.

You can replicate it as follows.

0. We assume the server has basic configuration in place (IP, DNS name "server-something.local", and self-signed certificate) and the OSX firewall is down.

1. Server (the App) -> Services -> Contacts: activate the service

2. Server (the App) -> Services -> Web: activate the service then click at the bottom of the window to see the server's web site.

3. Web site -> log on the profile manager -> Groups -> All users -> Settings -> Contacts: It says "port 8843".

4. "" -> Users -> select yourself -> Settings -> Contacts: give yourself an account. It says "port 8443"

Note the port numbers are different.

5. iPhone: Install "Fing" from the App Store.

6. Fing -> scan your LAN.

7. select your server's IP

8. scroll down the page and select "Scan services"

9. Note (in Fing) that the server does not have any port 8843 open, that is, the CardDAV server is not running on that port.

From the client side,

10. iOS (iPhone) -> Settings -> Mail, Contacts and Calendars -> Add Account -> Add CardDAV Account -> enter 'server-somethin.local', unix user-name, and password (as specified at point 4 above). It will add the account. Enter its item, select "Advanced Settings". It reads "port 8443".

11. open Contacts (iOS), close all accounts except the new server account, play with it, and see that it works as expected.

12. OSX (MacBook) -> System Preferences -> "Internet Accounts -> Add Other Account -> Add an OSX server account -> select your server from the list and fill in with the unix user-name and password. It will add the account, and in particular the "Contacts" account. If you click on "details", it is not possible to change port numbers.

13. open Contacts (OSX), close all accounts except the new server account, play with it, and see that IT DOES NOT WORK.

Summing up,

- If you change the port number to 8843 at step 4 above, it will not do any good, because 8843 is down.

- Changing the CardDAV server port to 8443 is not possible from the Server App.

- The CardDAV port is already 8443, because iOS can see it (steps 10--11 above).

- For Contacts under OSX to work, one would have to make sure it is talking to port 8843, but the configuration panel does not allow for it.

Next.

14. OSX (MacBook) -> System Preferences -> "Internet Accounts -> Add Other Account -> Add a CardDAV account -> fill in with the unix user-name, password, and "sever-something.local". It will NOT add a CardDAV account. Instead, it will add an OSX server account, as in step 12 above.

To avoid this post being erased by admin as "feedback only", we ask the following questions:

1. Why Apple did not find and fix this before releasing OS Server 10.9?

2. How do we fix this problem?

Posted on Nov 22, 2013 9:53 AM

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Answer 1

one-to-one Author

Level 1

13 points

Nov 22, 2013 10:20 AM in response to one-to-one

PS. OSX client creates an OSX server account in step 12, reading the configuration details from the server. The server says port 8843 to the client, then the client fails. This is the bug to be fixed.

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Answer 2

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Nov 22, 2013 11:39 AM in response to one-to-one

What happens if you use the (correct) unicast domain name of the server, instead of the (incorrect) Bonjour name?

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Answer 3

akreis

Level 1

10 points

Nov 22, 2013 12:44 PM in response to one-to-one

SRV record for cardav misprint?

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Answer 4

one-to-one Author

Level 1

13 points

Nov 23, 2013 6:45 AM in response to Linc Davis

Nothing new happens. Same old problem.

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Answer 5

one-to-one Author

Level 1

13 points

Nov 23, 2013 6:47 AM in response to akreis

From the thread:

> CardDAV and CalDAV use the same ports

This is indeed the case in iOS, using port 8443.

However, OSX client fails with CardDAV, because OSX server instructs to user port 8843, and there is no way to change it manually.

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Answer 6

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Nov 23, 2013 9:25 AM in response to one-to-one

I don't know about your server, but on mine, CardDAV is listening on port 8843.

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Answer 7

Nov 25, 2013 5:56 AM in response to one-to-one

Confermo il bug.

In attesa che Apple ponga rimedio, io sono riuscito ad aggirare il problema aggiungendo un account CardDav da rubrica indirizzi di OS X 10.9: in questo modo rubrica indirizzi server funziona bene su Mac Os X 10.9.

I confirm the bug.

While waiting for Apple to remedy, I am able to work around the problem by adding a CardDAV account from the address book OS X 10.9: in this way the address book server works fine on Mac OS X 10.9.

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Answer 8

Paul Vail

Level 1

144 points

Jan 10, 2014 6:21 AM in response to one-to-one

Folks,

I had the same occurance after a security update applied. A once reliable shared Calendar between several folks in a workgroup went deaf. The console (and Server Admin) showed issues with the Profile Manager. Found this thread, but things just didn't add up that this would go belly up 'just because an update was performed'. Turning services on or off (such as Calendar) would show an issue writing to the profile manager device while the small gear spinner did its thing in the lower right corner.

Ran the disk util to verify the hard drive -- no issues found. Ran disk permissions repair and a bunch of issues resolved. Didn't look over the whole list -- mostly printer driver stuff. Restarted, and all was again well with the Profile Manager -- and no issues turning Calendar (or anything else like Contact, Messages) on.

Connected from a client device, and calendars were once again humming along nicely. Just a data point to help anyone in the future with this thread.

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Answer 9

CNek

Level 1

4 points

Jan 10, 2014 6:35 AM in response to one-to-one

Same prob here,

played with cpassociati solutions but that doesn't work well with certains clients. (accounts will merge and bugs)

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Answer 10

one-to-one Author

Level 1

13 points

Jan 11, 2014 5:39 AM in response to one-to-one

Following my original post:

3. Web site -> log on the profile manager -> Groups -> All users -> Settings -> Contacts: It says "port 8843".

4. "" -> Users -> select yourself -> Settings -> Contacts: give yourself an account. It says "port 8443"

Now (osx 10.9.1, server.app 3.0.1) the above step 4 says "port 8843", which finally resolves the conflict with CalDAV's own port. I deleted the user profile for CalDAV and kept the group profile. When using Contacts from the client (laptop), I can see the laptop connecting to the server on port TCP:8843.

The iPhone still wants to connect to CardDAV on port TCP:8443, however. In the settings, tapping on the port number allows changing its content, so I changed it to 8843 and it liked it.

Does it work?

With the three clients up, I created a new contact in each one; after minutes, they still did not synchronise.

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Answer 11

one-to-one Author

Level 1

13 points

Jan 11, 2014 9:09 AM in response to one-to-one

It works now.

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Answer 12

one-to-one Author

Level 1

13 points

Jan 18, 2014 8:33 AM in response to one-to-one

Now using OSX 10.9.1 with Server.app 3.0.2.

CardDAV works now, but CalDAV stopped working.

Each time I try to save a new item in a remote calendar, it says:

There was an error saving calendar data.

Calendar encountered a critical error while saving to

the database, and recent changes may be lost. More

information may be available in the console.

The log is also confusing. /var/log/caldavd is supposed to contain CalDAV data, however,

/var/log/caldavd/access.log reports CardDAV connections, and

/var/log/caldavd/error.log is not up to date with the above error.

:-(

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Answer 13

GSOY

Level 1

19 points

Jan 8, 2015 8:48 AM in response to one-to-one

Does somebody know if this was fixed with OS X Server 4.0 ( Yosemite)? I'm experiencing the same weird behavior with latest Mavericks Server 3.2.2: 8843 not listed in network scans, but Profile Manager tells clients to use it anyway. When I add a CardDAV account manually (OS X and iOS), it chooses 8443 automatically and works well.

However, accessing the server with hostname:8843 works – after the password prompt, I can see the webDAV folder structure as when accessing over :8443.

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Answer 14

Flexibug

Level 1

13 points

Sep 25, 2015 3:28 PM in response to GSOY

And nowadays (buggy) IOS9 only works against (buggy) OSX Server 10.9, but no more against (otherwise buggy?) OSX Server 10.6.8 or other server platforms (Linux, etc.). Thanks God we're not that much tied into Apple's ecosystem and have chance to move away from their stuff gradually... what else can we do if applications from a software manufacturer won't talk to other (should-be-matching) applications of the same manufacturer (any more)? btw: Apple support denies this being a problem...

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