Redmi 1S V45: Although Google contacts sync, sync shows error

[cosmik]

I have always installed xiaomi.eu firmwares, without ever flashing gapps. Afterwards, I have just installed whatever apps needed, like gmail, calendar, Google+...


Is flashing gapps really needed? I am asking this since I have run into a strange issue on a Redmi 1S, running xiaomi.eu V45.0.0: I am receiving an error trying to sync google contacts.

On other, non MIUI phones, I would stop the contacts storage app, delete its storage and restart it. I can't figure if I am in the same boat here. Plus, which app I should do the same thing to resync...

In any case: is it needed to flash gapps on xiaomi.eu firmwares or not?

 

[cosmik]

And some more info: I stumbled into this which is a tutorial to add Google functionality to the official MIUI roms (which don't have it). However, in the tutorial it was mentioned that even running a special google service installer, there was something missing with respect to contacts:

One problem I had after the install was the inability to sync my Google Contacts. While it should be in the Google account settings for sync (accessed from Settings > Accounts > Google), the 'Contacts' line was simply not there for me.

Sync settings for Google accounts in Android. At first "Contacts" was not available for me.
The solution was to go back to the Google Installer, and manually install the app looking like a contacts card (The third app in the screenshot below, marked 'installed').

Is it possible that we are missing this functionality on the xiaomi.eu firmware?

 

[cosmik]

An update: it seems to be a bug of some sort. I've stumbled upon this post: http://androidforums.com/threads/unable-to-sync-google-contacts.88176/#post-1082974

Indeed, I deleted a contact from the web and it synced allright to the phone, even though the sync shows it as failed.

Can an admin move this thread to the bugs section? Which logcat log will be needed?

 

[cosmik]

Attaching logcat and device_info.txt. The issue seems to be an invalid characted on a contact name, check line 390 of the log:

11-30 13:42:34.366 D/ContactsSyncAdapter(25065):  -> data_version=1 data11=0 data10=1 mimetype=vnd.android.cursor.item/name _id=856 data1=Ρεντ Χερ Πρινσες�� is_super_primary=0 data5=Χερ data2=Ρεντ data3=Πρινσες�� is_primary=0 data_sync4=10

It is a heart symbol appended to the user name. It was rejected by the Google (or XIaomi? ) code as an invalid character, correct? Removing this character allows contacts to sync correctly!

The question is: why didn't the Xiaomi contacts app disallow it in the first place as an illegal character! The contacts app should filter out whatever is not allowed by the google app...