hi @wansti @frauadmin @helpers

hi @wansti @frauadmin @helpers

after much prevarication, due to the unsolved issue of the instance not fetching most of my followed hashtags [latest post: https://friendica.au/display/f3535bde-5769-d73a-ae22-15e898311506], i decided this arvo to press ahead anyway & import my Masto contacts here, via the corresponding Masto following_accounts.csv file. it did not work; nothing happened, despite a brief popup msg telling me the import had finished.

wondering if the #friendica contacts tool possibly didn't like the other account info after each account name [various combos of true, false], i edited the text file to remove them all, & retried. it still didn't work.

i feel a bit silly, in that there must be some obvious error i'm making, but atm i can't see it.

this is a sample from the edited file i've tried to import:

1earthmedia@universeodon.com
wansti@friendica.au
thisweekinkde@social.opendesktop.org
newd_bot@chinwag.org
lowqualityfacts@mstdn.social

is there something wrong with that format pls?

there are 289 entries in the file, fwiw.
RE: friendica.au/objects/f3535bde-…

@frauadmin @msdropbear I've never actually tried importing contacts so not sure how to go about it. Maybe someone from @helpers can help?

@frauadmin @wansti @msdropbear This import isn't done immediately, but as a background process that can take some time, depending on the performance of the system.

@heluecht thx... but it's been 20+ hours now, & still nothing. is that timescale still within your expectation? @frauadmin @wansti

@msdropbear @wansti @frauadmin
@heluecht

github.com/friendica/friendica…

@feb ah, well then that explains it, unfortunately. thx.

@frauadmin @wansti @heluecht

@msdropbear @heluecht @wansti @frauadmin

There is an alternative available to you. You can use the import button for the CSV file to enter the Mastodon address (without the @ symbol). This will import the contacts from the external account.

@feb

oh, now i think we had misunderstood each other. the way that i have been trying to do the import, was indeed using that button, per this pic:

except the button's name is Save settings [which tbh seems a bit misleading].

so it seems that the Import tool is comprehensively broken atm, if neither way works

@frauadmin @wansti @heluecht

@msdropbear @heluecht @wansti @frauadmin
I didn't make myself clear. If you enter your Mastodon handle in the ‘Your legacy ActivityPub/GNU Social account’ field, your contacts will be imported directly from that account. This means you can skip the CSV import.

@feb thanks, but unfortunately then this happens:

Subscribing to contacts
Couldn't fetch following contacts.

it never asked me for my password, which i expected should be necessary for privacy

@frauadmin @wansti @heluecht

@msdropbear @heluecht @wansti @frauadmin
Have you added your Friendica account as a new address on Mastodon and set up the redirect?

@feb

ah, i really have done a bad job at explaining this -- sorry for wasting your time. i have MANY simultaneously active fediverse accounts / instances... four friendicas [four different instances], two Mastodons, one Sharkey. i am not trying to close one instance now & migrate it to another.

instead, i need to import my most up to date contacts list, which atm happens to be one of my Mastos, into my newest friendica [this one that i am making these posts in] that i created ~5 weeks ago & have been evaluating & testing to see if it is good enough to become my new daily default fedi "home" .

so, yesterday i exported the contacts list from that Masto, & this is the file i have been trying then to import into this new friendica account, as per all the corro in this thread.

does that make sense now?

if the file import tool is broken, then i would have to manually search for every one of the >200 contacts individually in this instance, which would take hours or days.

@frauadmin @wansti @heluecht

@frauadmin @wansti @feb @heluecht fwiw

i did more testing yesterday. the file import fails silently on all four of my #friendica instances. three are

Friendica, version 2026.01 that is running at the web location https://friendica.au. The database version is 1586/1586, the post update version is 1550/1550.

and the fourth is

Friendica, version 2026.04-dev that is running at the web location https://friendica.opensocial.space. The database version is 1592/1592, the post update version is 1550/1550.

given my initial fedi place ~4 years ago was a Masto instance, & all my numerous #fedihops since then have involved exporting the then-current following-list from the then-latest instance [of any software] & importing it into my new/latest fedi instance, that same process occurred when i began including various friendica instances in my fedihopping. so, the fact that my three older friendica instances successfully did accept the import, back when i did them in prior years, together with the fact that this present, new, instance on the latest stable F version, does not, AND that those three older instances since updating to their latest versions also no longer accept the import, leads me to tentatively conclude this latest version's file import code is broken, when it did still work in the previous versions.

so, in absence of the bulk import tool working, yesterday i spent many hours manually following each of my desired accounts one by one, ie, manually building up my Contacts in this my newest friendica account. such a boring inefficient task, & one which few noobs would be willing to perform, i suspect... ie, in the interests of not driving potential new friendica users away, this apparent bug should be fixed asap imo.

thank you.

@feb @frauadmin @wansti @msdropbear Fix is created: github.com/friendica/friendica…

@heluecht @frauadmin that's fab, thx. how does this happen now... does this fix stay "pending" for months til the next scheduled version update, or do instance admins have a way to patch now? [asking as a mere user, not coder nor admin] @wansti @feb

The plan is to have a release in the next weeks.

@heluecht 🥳

@heluecht @wansti @frauadmin @msdropbear
Positive feedback has also been received for the stable version