Dear Community,

You may saw the topic which I created yesterday here http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=55332

Well I was surprised after I flashed my phone (including the eMMC) because the bug was still there. A brand new system and the contact list crashed instantly with the error "Internal Error. Application 'Contacts' closed"!

So I tested where it is exactly crashing and found out what is causing the issue, its one of the Skype usernames! One of my contacts is using a kind of ASCII frame around her name and this is causing a quite funny bug on Maemo 5.

You can scroll down your contact list just fine once, but when you scroll up it will ALWAYS crash at the contact with the strange ASCII signs. This will crash ANY N900 device easily, so if one of your friends is using very strange signs he/she may crashes your mobile with a high chance

Simple solution for now: Just edit the contact and delete the strange name then add a new one, afterwards your contact list should be fixed. You might need to try it a few times till you can edit the contact because the contact list will crash most of the time. You can try to set your IM status to "offline" then it shouldn't crash and you can edit the contact easier.

Here is a censored screenshot of the "ASCII frame":


(There is normally a name inside but I removed it)

Link to Bugzilla -> https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10590

I tested this issue on two different devices and was able to reproduce the crash always even after a reflash or with a different Skype account! It may affects also other plugins like the MSN one. A video will follow soon.

ahahahah I guess, Bundyo, you were dying to link that picture there and finally found the right occasion!

Nice one Bundyo :P

Well I think nobody would use a "crashy name" on purpose to annoy N900 user's. But after this thread some Apple addicts may do it to annoy us. So just give them a name before they can even think about it and nothing will happen ever.

Contact list is working perfectly and fast since I fixed this "ASCII frame" issue.

Is it possible to get the nick name? It would help in solving the bug (The nick name as a string does not hold any personal information)

No that is sadly not possible or she will cut my head off I could ask her how she created it, so far it worked in any combination so also another name in the frame would do the job.

Wow, that's one tricky bug you found.

I was wondering what the heck was making my contacts go bonkers... my phone even kept restarting over and over again until it just plain ran out of batteries.

Yes and it will affect more and more devices in the near future, most people simply don't understand why their contact list is crashing all the time.

The Nokia developer confirmed that it is a valid bug and that it even affects other devices. He says that the crash is caused by "Pango".

Just don't re-flash your phone, it will be a waste of time and crash afterwards anyway.

Votes would help to get this serious issue fixed