Thanks, Big Problem and Questions

[Pau]

Hello,

First of all, I would like to thank you Julie, for this amazing work. You are AWESOME! I use google tasks daily, and this is really important for me.

I am really disappointed with Google, in relation to how it dealt with Google Tasks, deleting the Google Task HTML Web View, and releasing the new version which is completely useless (you can’t search through your notes, it freezes, etc.).

Unfortunately, I’ve been using this software for so much time, as I use google tasks for notes, things I have to do, important information for me and as a database of things I want to always have an easy access to. I’ve always used an android app called GTasks: Todo List & Task List, but like a year ago it started giving me problems after an update (freezing every time I wanted to create a new task and other minor problems). After looking for different solutions, I found out that the older version of the app was working properly, so I installed it again, removed the automatic updates for the app and it worked properly until 4 days ago.

I was using it as always, and I started to see some strange things. When I was creating new tasks, the order of tasks started changing randomly. I have all tasks without a due date, and I have the things I want to see when I open the app, on top. Some of the tasks were kind of bugged, they went up, and even though I was moving them down the list, they kept coming up (and the new ones, went down as if they were old). I checked it, and all the tasks I created, were there, so I thought it was a temporary thing, and I was like this for 2 days, until the fatality happened. So, something strange happened with the app or with google tasks server, and suddenly it deleted a lot of them, around 100 at least. With some of them, it just deleted all the way, and with others (the ones I modified the last 2 days) it deleted the newer version, and left the old one, not updated.

Thanks to you and GTB, I didn’t lose the tasks forever. I have the backup from the day it happened (05/09/19) and now I’m looking for the best way to restore everything I had.

1. So, how could I do that? I have a little bit of a messy situation here. Is there any quick way to “undo” the deleted ones as you could do with Google Task HTML Web View by just clicking the undo arrow? Because a part from discerning the good ones among all the deleted tasks I already had, the only way I have is to go one by one, copying them and introducing them again manually? (that will take me hours and hours…).                                                             
2. Which task management app do you recommend to work with google tasks in android? If you know GTasks app, I would like something similar to it. I trust you, as you clearly have the most knowledge about it. I want something simple, to keep my tasks/notes, that allows to search among them. I considered google keep, but I cannot import all my tasks there.                                                                                                                                                                         
3. And also, what do you use to work with your tasks/notes from your pc, now that Google Task HTML Web View has been deprecated by google (April 2019)?                                                                                                                              
4. Last one, there is something I don’t understand. As far as I can see, google saves all the data of all the tasks: INCOMPLETED (which is how I have them all), the COMPLETED, the HIDDEN and the DELETED. But it doesn’t seem to be an official way to access them apart from GTB? How could you see them using the official platforms? And, is there a limit of quantity or time, until they disappear from google server? 

Sorry for the long text, but I like to explain things properly. Let’s see if you can help me Julie, or any other person that reads this. Thanks again for your work.

[Julie Smith]

Hello Pau,

I wonder if GTasks may have been affected by the change in the way that the Google Tasks server returns tasks.

In the past, the Google Tasks server returned the tasks in the user's order, with child tasks appearing after their parent. Now, the tasks are returned in apparently random order, with children sometimes appearing in the list before the parent. This change is what caused GTB exports to be missing tasks, prior to my GTB update of 27 Mar. It is now up to the client to order the tasks. 

If GTasks relied on the order returned by the Google Tasks server, then tasks would appear out of order, and (some) child tasks might not be displayed in GTasks.

I use CalenGoo on Android, and I'm very happy with it. However, I have found recently that several tasks that I updated the due date for on Android did not show up on the new date at the top of Google Calendar. 

The Tasks API, and GTB, do show the correct due date, so, it appears that Google is NOT using the same publicly available API to display tasks on the Calendar. Whatever API they are using is not in sync with the publicly available data.

In short, the Google Tasks system has become all but useless to me, because;

1. Google removed multi-level subtasks. I managed my monthly backups through a tasklist that had 3 levels, allowing me to neatly group my different backup tasks. I had other lists with up to 5 levels of subtasks. I have had to switch to a Windows application called ToDoList by AbstractSpoon Software to manage my multi-level tasklists.
2. Tasks are not being synchronized properly with the public API, making the tasks displayed at the top of the calendar unreliable.
3. The new interface is almost unusable. The old 'canvas' view allowed me to view a large number of tasks simultaneously, in a tree view showing hierarchy, in full screen width. The new interface is narrow and clunky. I find myself now using CalenGoo on my phone rather than the Google web interface.
4. Adding an email as a Task used to be fast and easy. Now, when I add an email as a Task (More > Add to tasks), I have to scroll down the entire list of tasks with due dates to find the first task under "No date" so that I can edit it to add a due date.
   

In answer to your specific questions;

1. Unfortunately, there is no "quick way to “undo” the deleted ones". See below for a possible solution, but please note the limitations.
2. Task management is a very personal choice. I am very happy with CalenGoo. It is VERY configurable, but that turns some people off as it can take quite some time to configure it just how you want.
3. Since I cannot rely on the Google Calendar to display tasks on the correct date, I now rely solely on CalenGoo on my phone. For my multi-level tasklists, I use ToDoList by AbstractSpoon Software on my Windows PC.
4. Google use the Hidden and Deleted flags to determine what was displayed in the old "canvas" view. Tasks marked 'deleted' would be actually deleted after some undefined period, ranging from days top months. I have not found any official documentation stating how long that period is. Unfortunately, I have no idea how the deleted and hidden flags are used on the new platform.

Possible solution for issue 1. 

I have not tested this, which is why I recommend importing into test tasklists in step 10.

NOTE: If most of the tasks that have been incorrectly delete are in your "default" tasklist, this solution may not help.

• The default tasklist will be renamed as "Undeletable default nnnnnnnnnn" (where nnnnnnnnnn is a unique number)
• it will still contain the un-edited tasks
  
• it will remain the default tasklist. This is a limitation imposed by Google, as it does not allow the default tasklist to be deleted
• This may be an issue for any apps which do not allow you to specify the default tasklist
• For example, the Google web interface will, by default, add new tasks to the original default tasklist (now named "Undeletable default nnnnnnnnnn")
• The tasks that were in the default tasklist will be in a new tasklist with the same name as the original default tasklist, but it will not be the default tasklist.
• You will almost certainly need to re-synchronise the list of tasklists in any third party apps that access Google Tasks (such as GTasks), because the IDs of the tasklists will have changed (although the displayed names will be the same).
  

Note that the default tasklist is the first tasklist that was created when you initially created your Google Account,

and may be named "Default tasks", "My tasks", "Pau's tasks" or something similar, unless the default tasklist name was changed by the user.

You will need an "Import/Export CSV" file from GTB that includes hidden and deleted tasks

1. Go to GTB and authorise if requested
2. Under "Advanced setting", ensure that all 3 check-boxes are checked:
   - Include completed tasks?
   - Include deleted tasks?
   - Include hidden tasks? 
3. Click [Retrieve tasks]
4. Once all the tasks have been retrieved, in the "Export all tasks" section;
   - Ensure that "Adjust for local timezone" is NOT checked
   - Select "Import/Export CSV"
   - Click on [Export tasks data]
5. Edit the .csv file in a spreadsheet that allows you to filter by column value (I know Excel 2007 does)
   
6. Filter by the "deleted" column to only show rows where "deleted" is "TRUE"
7. For any tasks that you wish to un-delete, delete the word TRUE
8. Save the file (as CSV)
9. Go to GTI and authorise if requested
10. Choose "Append own suffix" and choose something so that the imported tasklists will be easily distinguishable from your "real" tasklists
11. Select the .csv file that was saved in step 8
12. When the import has completed, use your software (or web interface) of choice to confirm that the new tasklists contain that tasks that you want
13. If you are happy with results, proceed with the next steps
14. Go to GTI and authorise if requested
15. Choose "Delete all tasklists before import"
16. Select the .csv file that was saved in step 8
17. When the import is complete, you should have all the tasks in all the tasklists, but note that the default tasklist will be renamed as "Undeletable default nnnnnnnnnn" (where nnnnnnnnnn is a unique number), and will still contain the un-edited tasks
18. The tasks that were in the default tasklist will be in a new tasklist with the same name as the original default tasklist, but it will no longer be the default tasklist.
1. This may be an issue for app which do not allow you to specify the default tasklist
2. The Google web interface will, by default, add new tasks to the original default tasklist (now named "Undeletable default nnnnnnnnnn")
19. You will almost certainly need to re-synchronise the list of tasklists in any third party apps that access Google Tasks (such as GTasks), because the IDs of the tasklists will have changed (although the displayed names will be the same(

The default tasklist will be renamed as "Undeletable default nnnnnnnnnn" (where nnnnnnnnnn is a unique number)

I hope this helps,

Julie Smith

GTB/GTI developer