Bug#943738: Syncing to an external device should not remove files from the device (at least without asking)

[Sven Bartscher]

Package: rhythmbox
Version: 3.4.3-2+b1
Severity: normal

Today I was exploring how Rythmbox can sync files between my local
music collection and my Android phone via USB. Much to my dismay, I
noticed that “sync” in Rhythmbox apparently means to sync the state of
my local music colletion onto the external device and also includes
deleting all music files from the device that aren't in my local
collection.

Now this was quite a shock for me. Usually I would expect a warning,
preferably a big fat one, before files get irrevocably deleted. But
apparently pressing a button labeled “Sync” is all it took to start
deleting files. Because of this I lost several files today, some of
which I will probably never get back.

Instead of just deleting files, I think Rhythmbox should do one of the
following:

* Suggest to import the files, which would have been deleted, into my
  local collection

* Leave the files where they are, without doing anything

* Ask me clearly if I really want these files deleted before deleting
  them. This warning should include a list of the files being deleted.

Regards
Sven

-- System Information:
Debian Release: bullseye/sid
  APT prefers testing-debug
  APT policy: (990, 'testing-debug'), (990, 'testing'), (102, 'unstable-debug'), (102, 'unstable'), (101, 'experimental-debug'), (101, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 5.2.0-3-amd64 (SMP w/12 CPU cores)
Kernel taint flags: TAINT_PROPRIETARY_MODULE, TAINT_OOT_MODULE, TAINT_UNSIGNED_MODULE
Locale: LANG=de_DE.utf8, LC_CTYPE=de_DE.utf8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=de_DE.utf8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled

Versions of packages rhythmbox depends on:
ii  dbus                            1.12.16-2
ii  gstreamer1.0-plugins-base       1.16.1-1
ii  gstreamer1.0-plugins-good       1.16.1-1
ii  gstreamer1.0-x                  1.16.1-1
ii  libc6                           2.29-2
ii  libglib2.0-0                    2.62.2-1
ii  libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-0  1.16.1-1
ii  libgstreamer1.0-0               1.16.1-1
ii  libgtk-3-0                      3.24.12-1
ii  libpeas-1.0-0                   1.22.0-4
ii  librhythmbox-core10             3.4.3-2+b1
ii  libx11-6                        2:1.6.8-1
ii  media-player-info               24-2
ii  rhythmbox-data                  3.4.3-2

Versions of packages rhythmbox recommends:
ii  avahi-daemon                         0.7-4+b1
ii  gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly            1.16.1-1
ii  gstreamer1.0-pulseaudio              1.16.1-1
ii  gvfs-backends                        1.42.1-1
ii  notification-daemon                  3.20.0-4
ii  rhythmbox-plugins                    3.4.3-2+b1
ii  xfce4-notifyd [notification-daemon]  0.4.4-1+b1
ii  yelp                                 3.34.0-1

Versions of packages rhythmbox suggests:
pn  gnome-codec-install          <none>
pn  gnome-control-center         <none>
ii  gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad     1.16.1-1+b1
pn  rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder  <none>

-- no debconf information