Customer getOrigData not available in customer_save_after

[cykirsch]

This issue was referenced in #4662 but it has been abandoned twice and closed once, and it still does not work in current versions. @slavvka mentioned back in October (#4662 (comment)) that it may be fixed already and should be backported to 2.1 soon. If true, how can I test against that fixed version, and when can I expect to see it in 2.1?

Preconditions

1. Magento 2.1.5

Steps to reproduce

1. Create a test module with the following files (plus Vendor/Module/etc/module.xml and Vendor/Module/registration.php)

Vendor/Module/etc/events.xml

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<config xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="urn:magento:framework:Event/etc/events.xsd">
    <event name="customer_save_after">
        <observer instance="Vendor\Module\Observer\Customer" name="vendor_module_observer_customer"/>
    </event>
</config>

Vendor/Module/Observer/Customer.php

<?php

namespace Vendor\Module\Observer;

class Customer implements \Magento\Framework\Event\ObserverInterface
{
    public function execute(\Magento\Framework\Event\Observer $observer)
    {
        $customer = $observer->getEvent()->getCustomer();
        var_dump($customer->getOrigData());
        exit;
    }
}

2. Edit a customer on either the website or the admin.
3. Click save.

Expected result

1. Output unmodified (origData) customer data to the screen, followed by transaction rollback error.

Actual result

1. Output NULL to the screen, followed by transaction rollback error.

[magento-engcom-team]

@cykirsch, thank you for your report.
We've created internal ticket(s) MAGETWO-80880 to track progress on the issue.