Duplicate Notes Issue (iOS)

[MONIROM 13]

2 hours ago, IzzyG said:

I've been using Evernote for almost 6 years now. I just recently started on a cool workflow where I basically just duplicate a Todo list each day, changing and updating. It leaves me an archive of what I've accomplished as well. I manage these on my Mac and my iPhone.

Yesterday, I had to stop working on an urgent research project and spend 30+ minutes reviewing three copies of that day's to-do list. I had to go to my Mac, open the three notes side by side on the Desktop app and compare each line. I then manually moved all the significant edits over to the most recent copy... These notes are each around three hundred lines long hahaha

 This usually is not super bad, but just coincidentally on that day, I had made several edits over the past three or four hours. It was bad. I left a note to myself "F*** Evernote. Find an alternative."

I calmed down. I'm sticking with Evernote for now because I don't have time to migrate, and it's generally the apex of notes management. Whatever I can do to help the devs or whoever fix this, I am willing to do. I hope the team knows I personally appreciate all their hard work, but this little sync thing almost broke my brain lol

I feel your pain. Just wait until you wrap up editing a major document and Evernote stops syncing and undoes all of your edits by reverting to the last saved copy. Then when you get back into the document and try and redo the edits that Evernote deleted, you get the message that "Evernote has a conflict that it no longer has access to your original document and therefore can't sync nor save your edits." Two days of lost productivity was enough to sour me off of what had been a reliable tool. Evernote has had this problem intermittently since 2014 — they eventually fix it but it eventually comes back when they release a new version. It's as if someone keep peeling off the band-aid instead of truly fixing the problem.

[Angry 45]

19 hours ago, IzzyG said:

 I had to go to my Mac, open the three notes side by side on the Desktop app and compare each line. I then manually moved all the significant edits over to the most recent copy... These notes are each around three hundred lines long hahaha

 

Are you crazy? 

Please try this for the next time, it works for me on Windows: Edit the notes title to eg. Title-01 and Title-02. Use the legacy App on your Mac and export to HTML for every note. Open MS Word (again I use the Win-Version) and use the file compare function. You can spot the differences easier. 

Edit the note in Evernote 
to find text use Cmd+F 

With three notes you compare first 1th to 2th and from this result to 3th.

[IzzyG 0]

24 minutes ago, Angry said:

Are you crazy? 

Please try this for the next time, it works for me on Windows: Edit the notes title to eg. Title-01 and Title-02. Use the legacy App on your Mac and export to HTML for every note. Open MS Word (again I use the Win-Version) and use the file compare function. You can spot the differences easier. 

Edit the note in Evernote 
to find text use Cmd+F 

With three notes you compare first 1th to 2th and from this result to 3th.

Wow. I didn’t even think of that. So like a diff tool or something similar. Thanks so much. I was blinded by frustration in the moment but this is good to keep in mind. I hope it won’t happen again but I’m way more prepared now. Life saver for real!!

[Angry 45]

@IzzyG

I would try it before I need it.

A few years ago it was possible to use a text editor with diff tool. I was able to use Ctrl+A and Ctrl+C in Evernote, open the editor and create a new txt file Ctrl+V. Then again for Note-2. And then run the text diff. But this toolchain broke and I switched to MS Word.

Maybe there is an editor on the mac where you can copy text direkt form Evernote into?  

[AaronM 0]

I would also like help resolving this duplicate note problem. It has just been with this new update (recent months) that this has begun to occur. Almost every time I edit one of my running notes (several that are 'favorites' that I continually add to) on my iPhone, it results in a note conflict with a duplicate copy made. This duplicate note is not the one that is 'favorited' so if I accidentally continue to update that note, it is broken when I follow my note link from the favorites sidebar on my Mac or in browser. I am continually taking time to manually move the changes back to the original note when on my desktop to keep that note as the accurate copy. Is there any resolution or steps I can do to resolve this issue?

[slimey.13 0]

Sadly, I have over 340 notes of the same note in a notebook whilst using the newer version. I'm not really sure how to delete all these notes at once. I wasn't even really sure this was possible either....

[Sasa Z 1]

I'm also experiencing the same problem on Windows desktop Evernote.

Not just that the notes are duplicated, but not all notes have the same content.
This makes the Evernote highly unreliable to track any important information.
I now have dozens of versions of recently used documents and to consolidate all the changes is a huge effort!

I've seen that this has been happening with some previous versions of Evernote as well.
How is the known bug being reintroduced on a regular basis??

Edited May 4, 2021 by Sasa Z
added the Evernote platform I'm using.

[TiffanyS 1]

I started using Evernote for the first time a month or so ago. Still duplicates my note. It seems to only duplicate the one note that I use and edit the most. I think it happens when I edit on my android phone rather than my PC.   

[PinkElephant 8,095]

Working any time on the same note on 2 devices? Sometimes it is enough to have the same note selected on 2 devices, and change one of it. EN is not build to allow for this, it creates syncing conflicts.

[ronp 1]

I found a thread on this but it had been closed. I use Evernote on Windows and iOS. Whenever I edit notes Evernote creates a duplicate note and I have to figure out which is the newest and delete the other one. This has been going on for some time.

[gazumped 11,661]

Hi.  Do you switch between the two devices when editing? Are both left connected to the network when you use one?  The 'hidden' drawback of Evernote's sync methods may be that both your device are syncing with the main database on the server.  If both accounts are active,  the system sees you editing a note that mysteriously changes content - you change one version,  but then a previous version is synced by the other device.  The server has no way to tell which is the 'real' current version of that note,  so saves both...

[Mblamo 5]

Hi I also have this issue

I leave the Evernote app running on my Mac and then also access  Evernote via my iPhone. As a result I keep getting these conflicts and duplicate notes. It’s very annoying. 

Many other products avoid this and allow simultaneous editing of a single file, eg Microsoft online word, excel etc. 

Is Evernote planning something similar for a future release? If not I won’t be renewing my subscription as it is too frustrating the way it currently is. 
thanks  

 

[gazumped 11,661]

21 hours ago, Mblamo said:

Many other products avoid this and allow simultaneous editing of a single file, eg Microsoft online word, excel etc.

If you're editing a specific file,  a standard system lock can either prevent you changing the file,  or offer you the option of 'taking over' access to it.  When you're logged into the Evernote server database on two (or more) devices,  it can't offer you the same option without closing down all but one connection,  which would be as annoying to users as remembering not to use two devices at the same time when editing.

[21stTechPachyderm 1]

This on-going problem of getting duplicate notes may be enough to drive me to a different platform after years of being a customer.  It never happened before at the frequency it does now.  I never edit a document simultaneously, but a typical example is a checklist that you start on iMac, then check off an item on your iPad, and later in the day use your iPhone to check the list and add another item... I will get multiple versions of this note and have to literally open all three on my iMac and compare them - or worse - cross edit and then delete the other ones.  We need a way of "closing out" the editing of a note on devices so that new edits on another device synch properly.  This problem makes using "Tasks" a non-starter... Even if you hit the "check" button on the iOS devices...or confirm that the Mac OS shows "updated," this happens.  Would appreciate a reply.

 

[Mblamo 5]

Hi Gazumed, agree this is the way things work traditionally. I've just given Microsoft's OneNote a go and it syncs everything EN to ON, allows me to edit the same note simulateneously on my mac and iphone, and it is free (I have less than 5GB total storage reqt). For my use case, I think I have to move to ON,

Thanks,

Paul.

[edenuk 0]

I'm just about to switch to Google Keep because I'm fed up of dealing with duplicated notes. Also, now a lot of notes seem to be "view only" until I synch them (no option to do this from the note itself so I have to go into settings etc). 

User since 2010. 

[PinkElephant 8,095]

Try EN iOS 10.13, was released today. On randomly picked 10 notes, all were editable right away.

To start a sync, pull the note list down a little, and let go. The sync wheel will show.

The advantage of the settings option is you get an explicit message once the sync is through.

[Aris Giannakos 0]

On 7/3/2021 at 1:45 AM, Mblamo said:

Hi Gazumed, agree this is the way things work traditionally. I've just given Microsoft's OneNote a go and it syncs everything EN to ON, allows me to edit the same note simulateneously on my mac and iphone, and it is free (I have less than 5GB total storage reqt). For my use case, I think I have to move to ON,

Thanks,

Paul.

it's a pity, because this app has potential and i use it for a long time now. The lag lately and the duplicate notes make a big problem, it also makes me not want to buy it.

[Wong Song Yeu 1]

My evernote keeps duplicating files, i cant even scroll down to search for other file.it just keeps duplicating. the more i scroll down the more it duplicates. and it has been the same for few months now, i have tried uninstall and downloading. Nothing seems to solve the problem. Thinking the new version will be better, but now i hope to downgrade my version. i have to search for keywords in order to open my file now.

I have been using evernote for at least 8 years now. now i'm thinking of alternative apps.

[gazumped 11,661]

On 7/15/2021 at 12:04 AM, Aris Giannakos said:

i use it for a long time now.

 

On 7/15/2021 at 12:04 AM, Aris Giannakos said:

makes me not want to buy it.

If I had a penny for each Basic user who would buy Evernote "if only"...

[tlathrop 0]

I recently went out of town for a couple of days. Before my trip I made quite a few changes to a note using my Windows laptop. I left the laptop home and took my iPad on the trip. I made a few changes to the same note using the iPad. When I got home I found that I now have two copies of the note. I logged out of Evernote on both machines and logged back in, but the problem is still there.

Is there any easy way to view the differences between the two notes so that I can manually merge them without risking losing something?

Versions:

Laptop: Evernote for Windows 10.17.6-win-winstore-public (132)
Editor: v126.2.16348
Service: v1.37.8

iPad: 10.13.1 (1115424)

Tom

[gazumped 11,661]

On 7/23/2021 at 4:56 PM, tlathrop said:

I recently went out of town for a couple of days. Before my trip I made quite a few changes to a note using my Windows laptop. I left the laptop home and took my iPad on the trip. I made a few changes to the same note using the iPad. When I got home I found that I now have two copies of the note. I logged out of Evernote on both machines and logged back in, but the problem is still there.

Is there any easy way to view the differences between the two notes so that I can manually merge them without risking losing something?

Versions:

Laptop: Evernote for Windows 10.17.6-win-winstore-public (132)
Editor: v126.2.16348
Service: v1.37.8

iPad: 10.13.1 (1115424)

Tom

Hi.  Short answer "not really" - best compromise would be to copy both notes into a separate word processor note and use the content comparison.  My MSWord has a dedicated 'compare' feature that will highlight differences in drafts.  In future,  best to create a note like this in a word-processor and save the DOCX (or whatever) file attached to the note.  Copy and paste the content into the note body as text if you need it for indexing purposes,  but make any detail changes to the file.  And if you're going away from one device for any length of time - sign out of Evernote!

[Marcomr17 0]

I cannot believe that this issue is not yet resolved. I've had this issue pretty much since I started using Evernote (Jan 2021) and it's extremely disheartening to see that this issue has been going on for almost a year with no real efforts to resolve it. The radio silence on this thread from the staff is extremely telling of the kind of support I should expect from a *paid* app like EN. 

This needs to be prioritized above all else. Quit working on new features and start fixing your current features so that they work as intended. 

[RWolfe 3]

If you spend any time on this forum, you'll see that the silence you've noticed is the norm. Issues reported on here don't normally get fixed, that's why the threads are sometimes years old. This one is pretty young, to be honest. Add to that PinkElephant's highly confusing comment from May that EN is not designed to handle syncing conflicts. To me that means it's not designed to sync at all, so who knows?

[PinkElephant 8,095]

EN is not designed to make changes to a note (the same) on 2 or more clients simultaneously. This is not an opinion, this is not a comment, this is a fact.

Try it, and you get sync conflicts, sooner or later. There is nothing confusing about it: Sync one client, ok, sync several at the same time, conflicts.

Whether you like that or not is up to you. I can only help to share experience among us users, which may serve to work around existing issues or design decisions.

If you want to get in contact with EN about it, use the feedback option, or issue a support ticket.

[RWolfe 3]

Yes, that seems like a very obvious result of that specific scenario. However, that's not the scenario where it happens to me, and it does not appear to be the scenario for everyone that is experiencing the duplication. At least not according to this thread.

Thanks for the permission to dislike it, and I know my support options. I am also just sharing my experiences.

[PinkElephant 8,095]

Maybe we would be a step further if everybody would not only know his support options, but use them as well.

My participation in this special issue would be theoretical (and of little use therefore), since my notes refrain from duplication.

One aspect found in other threads (not in this one) is that long notes tend to duplicate easier than shorter ones. From this thread I am not sure whether the problems mentioned here match this pattern.

[MONIROM 13]

58 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

Maybe we would be a step further if everybody would not only know his support options, but use them as well.

My participation in this special issue would be theoretical (and of little use therefore), since my notes refrain from duplication.

One aspect found in other threads (not in this one) is that long notes tend to duplicate easier than shorter ones. From this thread I am not sure whether the problems mentioned here match this pattern.

I've been with Evernote since inception, and I was a paying customer by the end of the first week of use. The problem lies not in our filing or not filing a support ticket but Evernote's inability to respond or just ignoring the ticket entirely. Many of us are power users, have religiously evangelized Evernote, but are fed-up with lackluster performance/response.
...
Contextually, this problem has persisted since 2014. Just because it doesn't happen to your account/your documents doesn't mean it's fluke or user error.
...
For some of us - the duplication happens the minute we try an edit a document, it happens regardless of length, and it happens even on new documents.
...
We've uninstalled, reinstalled, upgraded OSes, and tried running on multiple platforms, and multiple browsers. Therefore all things being equal, it's not user error, it's not hardware/software versions/configurations — it's account specific/a problem with Evernote.
...
This is the same type of indifference Evernote has shown some of it's most loyal users over the years. From cutting off publically shared Notebook options for teachers, to telling everyone there was no workaround to the 200 folder limit (and then recanting when they were losing users), to not understanding why business users would need the ability to generate templates or share master folders — Evernote has been reactionary versus proactive in it's response.
...
You know what product doesn't have issues with people working on it simultaneously on different platforms? Google Docs, Notion, Dropbox paper, etc. to suggest that Evernote was "not designed to make changes to a note (the same) on 2 or more clients simultaneously" completely but's the kibosh on it's claims to be a viable solution for businesses.
...
I'm sorry for the rant but I believe I am speaking for many of us on this thread. Full disclosure, I cancelled my Evernote accounts after 10 years and we as a business stopped using it months ago just because we kept getting excuses. I still maintain a basic FREE account to allow me to transition the 7,000+ documents reserve we have to other platforms.
...
Kudos to you (PinkElephant) for still fighting the good fight and trying to troubleshoot for other people. But for some of us the battle should not be about getting the tools we pay for to do what was originally promised — it should be about running the business.

[Explorer301 2]

Monirom, 

Thank you for this response. I’ve been a loyal EN user for seven years now and had recommended the tool to a dozen other users. I’m about done trying to debug and workaround this duplicate file issue. Have you found an alternative to EN that is reliable with a similar feature set? 
 

 

[MONIROM 13]

I’ve been using Notion since October 2020 and love it. When you realize its power (Notion’s) extend beyond taking notes you’ll be blown away. Take the personal pro plan for a spin. Its free and the only limits are size of uploads (5mb) and #of people you can collaborate with (5 max) - though you can share anything to the public. 

…

You can upgrade to Personal Pro at anytime (plans are only $47 annually - if you do everything in the tutorial you get discounts/credits) There are also Team and Enterprise plans. (The kicker is how you can roll pages into tables/lists that can be searched/filtered/sorted - essentially turning your work into a database. And once they are collected you can apply a myriad of views/ways to consume your content as galleries, tables, lists, project boards, calendars and timelines - all without having to manipulate your documents.) 

…

NOTICE how I’m shamelessly evangelizing? This is what I used to do for Evernote. Its that level of excitement that grabbed me after the aha! moment with Notion. And yes theres a web clipper, desktop app, browser app, and mobile apps. 

…

Take a look at this proof of concept I created with notion for articles I clip. (See bit.ly link at end of my comment.) Take a look at the carat next to the Gallery View label - you’ll  see a dropdown allowing you to switch between Gallery and Table Views. And yes this article archive is “pretty” AND comes from a pre-existing template. But you can make your own experiences as threadbare or gilded as you like. (Oh did I mention if you have a work AND personal account you can switch between the two secure spaces without having to log out/back in?)

…

And yes, they do have an import path for evernote. Its not perfect but good enough for my purposes *import path wont cuttently pull in images/rich media. (It used to) ALSO Notion doesn’t have an offline mode. 

…

https://bit.ly/bdg-media-2021

Edited August 5, 2021 by MONIROM
Typo

[Explorer301 2]

Thank you Monirom. Like you, I used to be just as excited about Evernote in the past. It was one of my “go to” apps across desktop, laptop, phone, iPad and browsers. Now I’m so frustrated and feel so let down by the bugs and lack of support. I wish Evernote had its old simple user interface and worked! Now it’s “flashy” (which I don’t care) and does NOT work for me. I’ve been looking for a better tool and will consider Notion! BTW does Notion do ACR from scanned documents, photos and handwritten notes? 

[MONIROM 13]

4 hours ago, Explorer301 said:

Monirom, 

Thank you for this response. I’ve been a loyal EN user for seven years now and had recommended the tool to a dozen other users. I’m about done trying to debug and workaround this duplicate file issue. Have you found an alternative to EN that is reliable with a similar feature set? 
 

 

Explorer301 see my comments below.

 

[John in Brisbane 2]

Hi all, new on the forums but I've been using EN since 2012.  The duplicate note thing is still happening and it's clearly related to mobile devices or PCs being used via hotspots.  The latest iteration for me happens via the android app.  Which keeps gets updates and the issue still happened again yesterday.  This is inexcusable at this point.

EN was a great idea done well from the start and it convinced me to quell some of my concerns about cloud services.  Which still remain BTW.  But a series of famously poor management decisions made me realize the organization had issues.  For weeks EN was on the front page of every tech site with stories about their terrible decisions... followed by stories about "The best Evernote alternatives"  and "How to migrate your Evernote life to X" etc.

For this to still be an issue in 2021, and despite the super regular app updates... it's overdue for regulation to oversee issues and to seize and return app subscription money until such things are fixed.  Once an app becomes a critical part of people's lives, a tremendous sign of it's merits, greater obligations from the app provider then occur.  Like power and water companies have service obligations.

I'm know my first post is a bit of rant but I want EN to see this directly before it goes onto reddit etc.

[PinkElephant 8,095]

Hmmm - interesting observation.

What do you mean by „hotspots“ ?

Public WiFi ?

Or personal hotspots you can open on a (mobile) device, routing traffic of other devices via an ad hoc WiFi through the mobile network (tethering) ?

[poweruser17 1]

I'm having this issue with the online version. I had multiple open evernote tabs. I edited a note. The changes to that note were not saved (a huge problem for me) and instead I now have about 10 copies of the note. I did not access evernote via a hotspot. I used a wired connection from my PC. A VPN connection to another network was active, however. Is there any way to restore the changes I made to the page?

[PinkElephant 8,095]

Did you by accident have the same Note open in 2 of your tabs ?

This can cause a sync conflict - the server does not know what is the correct version.

If you are lucky, not history grabbed some of the changes. Here is how to proceed:

https://help.evernote.com/hc/en-us/articles/360001858027

[Ahnastasia Rose 0]

Hi all, 

I am currently having this issue as well. I have Evernote Version 10.22.3 on Macbook Pro, as well as iPhone SE. 

It starts creating duplicates when I open a note to edit it. 

[WrennieP 0]

I JUST downloaded Evernote two days ago. Was enjoying using it until this INSANE duplicate note thing started happening. Mind you today is October 9 of 2021, and PEOPLE HAVE BEEN COMPLAINING ABOUT THIS PROBLEM FOR OVER A YEAR!!! 

Also, the moderator claimed in the original thread that the 10.3 version was going to fix this problem. So WHY was the download version 10.22 and not 10.3?? (UPDATE YOUR DOWNLOADS PLEASE!!)  I can't believe you guys have had this problem for over a year and it's still happening. I most likely will NOT be purchasing this app but will have to look for a different program, because I'm not going to pay good money for software if y'all can't even fix something in over a year.

[BernardH 1]

I'm getting duplicate notes whenever I begin a new note. As soon as I start to type a new note I get a notification that there are other versions of the note... "We found more than one version of" How do I switch this feature off?

[PinkElephant 8,095]

It is no feature, it is a bug …

Ask support:

https://help.evernote.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

[megb 4]

Also STILL getting this problem. Evernote do you plan on fixing it, over  YEAR later??

This new Evernote 10 has become really disappointing and buggy. I've been a regular user for yeeears and there are so many frustrating new "features" that they changed that makes working with Evernote MORE frustrating rather than the easy time-saving tool it's supposed to be.

 

[tonytamengineer 0]

Multiple duplicates in 10.24.3

[Lorraine94588 1]

I am on 10.24.3 and I just got a bunch of just got a bunch of duplicates.  I am just using the app on my macbook right now, was not accessing from other device.

[Lorraine94588 1]

this is just incredibly unusable.  I have been using evernote for probably over 10 years.  But this duplication is just making it completely untrustable.  I have no idea what is being saved or what I am losing.

[PinkElephant 8,095]

Issued a support ticket with activity log yet ?

This is the only way, to keep feeding EN with complaints and data about it.

Would do it myself, but no duplication whatsoever …

[andrewj 4]

36 minutes ago, Lorraine94588 said:

this is just incredibly unusable.  I have been using evernote for probably over 10 years.  But this duplication is just making it completely untrustable.  I have no idea what is being saved or what I am losing.

At the risk of jinxing myself, I haven’t had this problem with duplicate notes in some time.  I mainly though edit notes on my Mac and not so much on the iPad or iPhone.

[PinkElephant 8,095]

I don’t think it is a problem with the number of clients in general: I use any client except the Android client, which includes v10 plus both desktop legacies.

The only duplication happens when I provoke it, by editing the same note in parallel on 2 or more clients.

But what is reported here is duplication of one note multiple times even when opened in a single client only. This looks to me like a syncing problem, not an editing collision.

[Animal_Guy1 1]

I have this issue on my phone

Edited November 7, 2021 by Animal_Guy1
Update

[Len15 12]

Hi guys,

I just sent in a support ticket, as per Pink Elephant's advice.  EN has responded to say it has been received, so I will let you all know what they have to say.  There seems to be a couple of threads on this same issue. I will make sure I put any information I find out on all applicable threads.

[Len15 12]

Just in from support - 

 

I can confirm that this is an issue we are aware of, and our development team is working on improvements to sync to help reduce conflicts. I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this issue is causing you. You've been with us since 2012, and as one of our long time customers, this is not the kind of situation we want you to experience.

Although I don't yet have a time frame for when this issue will be resolved, I can assure you we're working diligently to fix it as quickly as possible.

Looks like Pink Elephant was right about it being sync related. 

I will keep you posted...

 

 

 

[MaggieL 0]

I'm also still getting duplicate notes - there is no easy way to fix this within the note, and sometimes I make multiple changes with the note on my Mac, but I end up with multiple duplicates on my phone - it is soooo frustrating!  Many times I have checked my lists (while out shopping or doing chores I need to do) and found the note has got so many duplicates, but not the information I need!  I know to close the app when I have finished updating on the Mac so I can see the changes on my iPhone, but I'm still not always getting the updated version and therefore my lists are not updated!  This duplication has been happening for a long time, but I also see that you often don't answer the posts sent to you about it.  Surely you must have a fix for it by now!  I used the free EN for quite a while and it was really great so I bought a subscription, but it has seriously gone downhill.  Sometimes I feel like you are to busy finding more things for the app to do and not getting the basics right  And from what I see on your help pages, you really aren't that helpful.  Very disappointed!

MaggieL

[PinkElephant 8,095]

Only users here. If you want to comment to EN, use the feedback function build into the app, or issue a support ticket.

[SSPOZ 1]

I occasionally get 3 notes created (had one this week), even when I make sure that my other 2 clients have been closed on my devices.

This is definitely a sync issue because the first two times it happened, I definitely did have 2 other clients open. So now that I have eliminated that variable, Evernote needs to look at logs to see under what condition these duplicate or triplicate notes are created.

[PinkElephant 8,095]

You can contribute to the hunt by issuing a support ticket from the device used, making sure an activity log is attached or at least saved, to send it to support later by email.

[Mark-S 1]

Two different longish notes duplicated 4 or 5 times this morning.  I was doing data entry and returning to top of not and correcting typos by either manual entry or with spell checker.

 

I have seen this problem periodically with many versions of Evernote, even since 10.03

I use the app version in Windows 10, generally not the Web version.

During these errors, I had the version just before this on :

 10.27.5-win-ddl-public (3122)
Editor: v137.1.17455
Service: v1.44.3
© 2019 - 2021 Evernote Corporation. All rights reserved

I am working on a win 10 Pro laptop, that has just also updated windows this morning 2 hours ago. (Yet EN was doing this over the last week anyway.)

I have an Android app of EN, but it is off line at the moment.

My internet connection is 300MB speed via Comcast.

* I refer to "a version just before " because I have now just done an update to Evernote as well. To see if this helps. (Previous updates did not always help immediately, as the effect seems to be random and unrelated to My-side internet connectivity)

So while I was entering this Comment at this forum, I also paused to make more entries into one of the notes that had duplicates. (This was AFTER i got rid of the previous duplicates.)

In the last 10 minutes,  Evernote did NOT YET create duplicates, FYI.

** SO, the comment I will add is partially in response to some threads about this issue from over the years that I have just read (and I have not read them all). One comment thread justified the duplicates and Evernote's message about it based on "justifying it" due to difficulty synchronizing due to tremendous internet traffic (implied to be AT Evernote's servers), in particular since Evernote has gone "All in the Cloud" for the last year or more.

This is unacceptable. For one, a comfortable method for those who want to keep everything on a local drive, at least until a manual synchronize is approved by the user, ought to be still available, errors or not.

Secondly, having to write outside of Evernote , then attach or copy-paste into a note,  is a WORK-AROUND, not a true solution.

3rd, the message we get, about A duplicate (but having multiple duplicates) , when actually unavoidable due to server-end observed un-synchronization, should be know by Evernote technology, and be more informative, in such a way that an end user can more easily determine if that is the cause (vs a problem on the client side, for example) and have duplicate notes (older by a millisecond?) labeled in some way to assist deleting wasted duplicates wholesale, rather than having to go through each with each having a new "located a duplicate" message" time wasting mess.  I myself have experience the fear of deleting the "wrong" note just in case the duplicates have some new data that another doesn't. We need a way to see which is the most complete "duplicate" or best latest without reviewing each and every one. Granted, so far, the latest, (by seconds), appears strongly to be the best, but the event can raise doubts. (I do keep my main "notes" list sorted by most-recent.)

Thank you for your consideration.  If more duplicates show up, I will return to this or any other suggested forum.

 

 

 

 

 

[PinkElephant 8,095]

„Longish“ notes is one known driver for duplicates. Whyever there is a tendency of EN to choke on many little text changes in a long text note.

To reduce the probability you can split that monsternote into several smaller ones. To glue them together, a TOC table of content note is useful. You can as well add links to quickly jump from one to another.

No, this is not as it should be, but better a workaround now than waiting for a solution that seems to be hard to find.

[Len15 12]

Hi guys,

I am no longer getting duplicate notes. It stopped all on its own.  Not sure why.  I did re-install Windows and my entire 😄 drive on to an SSD.  But the good news that it is gone.  (that smiling face emoji is creating itself when I type Cee colon!)

[xsessive 1]

I still encounter duplicates and the bugs in the patch notes with a stack jumping down when scrolling. This is really weird and should of have been fixed, like it sais in the patch notes..

Worst part? When I delete duplicates, all of them gets deleted, including the original...

Edited December 18, 2021 by xsessive
Had to

[Hans-in-spain 0]

My team and I have Evernote 7.14 (Macs), but we still have duplicates. Very troublesome since people might update the wrong note then. We get the notice of duplicates (the blue banner alert), but sometimes it can be hard to find the differences if someone updated the wrong note

 

[Hans-in-spain 0]

wow. I just discovered that there is a much never version available, but when I asked Evernote to search for updates it told me everything was updated. The solution getting to version 10.275 was downloading a new app from the evernote webpage.

[PinkElephant 8,095]

7.14 is a version that will not update any more.

Once you are with v10 now, updates should be coming on a regular basis. We even have complains in the forum about too many updates ...

[Annalea 2]

I'm having the same duplicate note issue--but I only ever have Evernote open on one device at a time. Pretty much every time I edit a note on my phone, it creates one or more duplicates for me to sift through the next time I open my laptop.

The wrinkle in this for me is that live content syncing is a solved problem in the software world. And a well-solved one, at that. With something as comparatively simple as Evernote, I'm scratching my head on the lack thereof. If Evernote isn't in offline mode, live updates are what's expected from users, and what other services have been doing for a good while now. Or, lacking that, a popup that asks if you want to update to the latest version before you edit something.

This issue is both a time suck and a source of data loss---both deal killers for any reasonable user. I tried out MS ON a while back, and didn't like it all that much. But, if it manages my data well, and avoids these kinds of antiquated data management issues, I might have to migrate over. Sigh.

 

[melgoza3d 0]

My note just got duplicated about 12 times. It creates a new duplicate every time I make an edit. I'm using the Evernote web version on Google Chrome. What is causing this and can you please fix it. I can't use Evernote under these conditions.

[Gray Magellan 0]

Hello everybody. I am using this Evernote for Windows desktop application version:

10.27.5-win-ddl-public (3122)
Редактор: версия 137.1.17455
Сервис: версия 1.44.3
© 2019-2022 Evernote Corporation. Все права защищены.

 

And I got 6 copies of a note I created two days ago. How to fix this duplicating storm in my Evernote? 

[PinkElephant 8,095]

A solid internet connection helps. Don’t open the same note in several clients helps. Avoid long text based notes, if your text gets longer, split the note into several smaller ones. Don’t ask for the next action while a note is still syncing.

EN is still working on the issue, but following these tips can reduce the problem.

In the CEO blog for 2022 it was mentioned they work on a general overhaul of the syncing process.

[masteage 0]

duplicate note, stack, notebook.......

[milanmlft 1]

I encountered the same issue yesterday, while using Evernote Web. It created over 100 duplicates (not a typo), which I now have to manually sift through and clean up.

It happened to me a few times before but never to this extent... However, I've noticed the problem usually occurs when including Tasks. Most of the duplicate notes will have an "empty" task (the default, unchecked "Untitled task") while the "correct" version will have the correct task that I entered. So that might be something to look into.

And as @Annalea says, what makes this even more frustrating is that this is a solved problem, except apparently for Evernote...

[Tcellguy 71]

I'm getting a lot of duplicates of a single note. I don't have multiple machines using it at the same time. I think I'm seeing more of a scenario where the note is open on a closed machine and when I wake that machine it conflicts it's old version on the server.

 

I'm not sure why they can't just use time stamps for edit state like other sync software to know what the most temporally recent version is. 

[PinkElephant 8,095]

What I think (without deeper knowledge) is that there is a conflict between up syncing and down syncing. When a note comes from one device to the server, and there is another note that is younger than the note that just tries to sync, it gets confused. It does not want to overwrite the younger note, but it can't sync either. So it creates a conflict duplicate.

Why such a process then enters into a loop, that creates a large number of conflicts - no idea.

[Tcellguy 71]

OK makes sense. I really wish they had a force sync option on desktop. I don't really trust that the app has synced when I stop working on it. 

[PinkElephant 8,095]

It tells you on the main window bottom right how the sync status is currently. It usually says „all changes have been synced“. It changes briefly when you made changes. 

There is a hidden problem solving option in the help menu. On a Mac you press alt/opt before clicking on the help menu. The new option will show somewhere in the middle of the menu.

It holds a Reload and a Force Reload option. You can call it as well with Strg/ctrl - R ( on Mac cmd - R ). This is as close to a syncing option as it gets.

[Tcellguy 71]

OK the command R in the note seems to refresh something, I'll try that in the future. I see the "all changes have been synced", I just don't believe it. 

 

 

[PinkElephant 8,095]

The „all changes“ probably means the up sync to the server. It does not cover the down sync to the client.

From my observation on the web client up sync happens very fast - but the down sync sometimes takes several minutes.

ctrl -R should take care of this.

[negativest 0]

Hi. I had the same duplicate issue. I doubt that it might depend on heavy traffic editing. I often use adding some images and calendar schedule components. And then this issue occurs sometimes.

[PinkElephant 8,095]

Independent from where it happens, it usually points to a collision between changes and syncing.

Not much we users can do, needs to be solved by EN.

The only advise I have is to keep notes rather small, and preferably create another instead of keep adding to the already large first one.

For example if keeping a journal, do it monthly instead of yearly, or even by the week.

[yonirusnak 2]

I am having an issue where every time I duplicate a note that has' tasks' in it, the new note creates multiple copies of the tasks in the new note. So a list of 5 tasks will multiple itself into 20 tasks or 25 tasks. It doesn't appear to be consistent how many duplicates it creates. 

Is anyone else have this issue?

Running on a Mac Pro 2013 - Mojave 10.14.6

 

 

 

 

[_annapatata 1]

15 hours ago, yonirusnak said:

I am having an issue where every time I duplicate a note that has' tasks' in it, the new note creates multiple copies of the tasks in the new note. So a list of 5 tasks will multiple itself into 20 tasks or 25 tasks. It doesn't appear to be consistent how many duplicates it creates. 

Is anyone else have this issue?

Running on a Mac Pro 2013 - Mojave 10.14.6

 

 

 

 

Hi, 

Are you running Evernote for Mac v10.31.6? You can locate the running version of your app via the app's Help tab from the toolbar > About Evernote. If not yet, please do the necessary to update either via MAS (if you have installed it there) or via direct download at www.evernote.com (recommended). This is usually the first basic troubleshooting advised by Support. 

[Davida91 0]

I literally just got 1330 copies of the same note that I've been using to study for an exam..

I use EN mainly on my Windows desktop and today was the first time I went to open it on my mac because I was trying to access it while out of office.
Both are running the latest versions and what's worse is that I can only erase 50 copies at a time;;

What's the point of paying for their premium subscription when issues like this aren't resolved for over a year?

[gazumped 11,661]

On 3/20/2022 at 11:14 AM, Davida91 said:

What's the point of paying for their premium subscription when issues like this aren't resolved for over a year?

Hi.  Since a lot of duplication issues are down to individual software or connection issues,  I'd say the point of paying is so that you can raise this sort of thing with Support (which is not us) and let them look into it.  The clock starts running when you speak to Support,  and while it's a matter of days or weeks sometimes to properly investigate and (maybe) fix an issue,  it is action.  And maybe support can fix it for you to select more than 50 notes for a while so you can clean up...

 

[PinkElephant 8,095]

It is possible to go above 50 notes by a small intervention. I posted it several times already, just search for config.json in the forum.

[Stephen Hajjar 0]

The whole point of multiple devices is to be able to edit notes cross-platform, but when editing on my windows desktop then later editing the same note on my IOS device, I am told "We found more than one version of 'example_note'. You can view the alternate here" This happens EVERY TIME I try to edit on my phone (ios) vs windows desktop.

[aslemps 0]

I'm still having the note-duplication problem, for easily a year or so now... 

Never mind editing from multiple devices; just as I edit a note on my laptop, Evernote randomly generates duplicate notes (maybe 2 or 3 over the course of an hour-long meeting, as I write notes). 

Running Evernote v10.33.4 on macOS-Catalina [macOS v10.15.7]

What's the latest workaround, assuming the issue root-cause is syncing-based?

[gazumped 11,661]

Hi.  Did you ever think that maybe you could be doing something wrong?  Each device connects directly with Evernote's server to download a copy of the 'current' note,  and to upload any changes when you finish working on it.  If you don't allow enough time for changes to be sent to the server on one device,  or for those changes to be downloaded by another,  then you get duplicate notes.  Either stick to one device or make sure your notes are downloaded / uploaded and you'll be fine...

[PinkElephant 8,095]

You could try to rebuild your local database from the server. No idea if it helps, but it won’t do harm either:

1. Go to the Evernote menu, Preferences, and uncheck „Keep data when leaving“
2. Log out of EN (File menu), quit EN (cmd-q). When asked confirm "Remove Data from This Device".
3. If you want to be very sure, restart the Mac
4. Open EN, log back in, wait for it to run an initial sync. 

Beside this, the more stable your internet connection is, the better sync will work. Better use a LAN cable instead of WiFi, better use 5GHz WiFi instead of 2.4 GHz etc.

Prefer shorter notes over long ones, especially when edited often.

If you want to perform major housekeeping (like merging notes, tagging a selection etc.) it can speed up things to do them offline. After you are through, go back online and let the syncing run.

All this is just guessing - I am on a Mac and several iOS devices as well, and have no issues.