EXB file being backed up every 5 minutes...

[Goes_to_11 0]

I just found that my cloud storage has 29,000 copies of my .exb file. It is being backed up every five minutes. I would appreciate any comments on how to troubleshoot this issue.

Evernote 6.25.2.9198 (309198) - Windows 10

[PinkElephant 5,577]

Ask support - although they will probably tell you to upgrade to v10.

Legacy is end of life however, so maybe they tell you they won’t offer support for that version.

[Goes_to_11 0]

Is it normal that the EXB file is rewritten every five minutes? That did not happen prior to three or four months ago.

[gazumped 9,828]

48 minutes ago, Goes_to_11 said:

Is it normal that the EXB file is rewritten every five minutes? That did not happen prior to three or four months ago.

No,  it's not normal.  But how does your backup get to the cloud storage?  Evernote doesn't have an auto-backup option,  so there's presumably some third party software active there somewhere...

[Goes_to_11 0]

8 minutes ago, gazumped said:

No,  it's not normal.  But how does your backup get to the cloud storage?

The database file is on my NAS and the NAS is synced to the cloud.

[PinkElephant 5,577]

How is your NAS backing up all that ?

Fo you have a Backup program running on the client, or does the NAS pull a copy of the EXB file ?

To me this sounds like a sort of syncing process, that reacts to any change of the file with syncing it again and again. Maybe EN just writes a time stamp every time it updated the local database from the server (even if nothing was transferred).

[Goes_to_11 0]

13 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

Do you have a Backup program running on the client, or does the NAS pull a copy of the EXB file ?

To me this sounds like a sort of syncing process, that reacts to any change of the file with syncing it again and again. Maybe EN just writes a time stamp every time it updated the local database from the server (even if nothing was transferred).

If I'm understanding your question (due to my lack of tech understanding, not any fault of your communication), the NAS syncs to its cloud storage any time a file changes. According to Windows Explorer, the EXB file's time is updated every five minutes (and a few seconds) without any input from me.

I've had this setup for at least one year and haven't had this issue until about three or four months ago. That three or four months estimate is based on 29,000 (file versions on the cloud) X 5 minutes = ~145,000 = 94 days. I do not know exactly when the issue began.

[gazumped 9,828]

Hmmn.  Evernote 6.25 will save changes to the EXB file every time they happen,  but AFAIK the file is locked 'open' as long as Evernote is active on your system; so frequent timestamped updates shouldn't be happening unless you're quitting out of (File > Exiting) the app frequently.  The database will sync back to the Evernote server regularly - you can set the frequency in Tools > Options - but I think the minimum interval is 15 minutes,  not five.  Many cloud storage services keep sequential backups of document files as they are changed,  so that's probably where your multiple files come from,  but I can't see why the file is seen as 'changed'.

Not necessarily related,  but do you also have v10 installed on your system?

 

[PinkElephant 5,577]

@Goes_to_11 My question is how it gets from the Windows computer to the NAS ? From the NAS to the cloud can only happen when it first gets from the PC to the NAS.

Either some program is pushing it from the PC to the NAS, or something on the NAS approaches the PC and pull it. What brand of NAS are you using ?

About your estimate: This means both PC and NAS never sleep. Which is unusual. Normally a PC will shut down through the energy manager, and a NAS will probably try to do the same. Unless it is disabled, which is not a good idea.

[Goes_to_11 0]

1 hour ago, gazumped said:

do you also have v10 installed on your system?

According to Control Panel > Programs and Features only the v6.

[Goes_to_11 0]

1 hour ago, PinkElephant said:

My question is how it gets from the Windows computer to the NAS ? Either some program is pushing it from the PC to the NAS, or something on the NAS approaches the PC and pull it. What brand of NAS are you using ?

The NAS is a Synology. There is a Synology app that allows me to choose which files will be backed up to the NAS. Screenshot attached.

1 hour ago, PinkElephant said:

About your estimate: This means both PC and NAS never sleep. Which is unusual. Normally a PC will shut down through the energy manager, and a NAS will probably try to do the same. Unless it is disabled, which is not a good idea.

The PC is set to sleep never. The NAS's HDDs are set to hibernate at 20 min. I checked the history of the cloud sync and it indeed shows the EXB file being synced every five minutes, 24 hours a day on the three random days I sampled.

[PinkElephant 5,577]

Yes, that is Synology Drive. I use it myself. It had two modes, one is synchronization between clients and NAS, the other is Backup mode. What you show is backup mode.

So whenever there is a change to that file, it will send a fresh copy to the Disk Station. Probably on the DS you run CloudSync which uses a cloud storage as a mirror for the DS.

One side effect of this is your NAS will never sleep, independent from what you have chosen in settings.

You probably have chosen „continuous backup“ in Drive Backup mode settings. This means whenever a bit is flipped, a backup is produced.

Set it to planned backup mode, with an interval of your liking. This will reduce the number of backups it produces.

[Goes_to_11 0]

20 hours ago, PinkElephant said:

Set it to planned backup mode, with an interval of your liking. This will reduce the number of backups it produces.

OK, that makes sense and I appreciate the help.

Regarding the EXB file being rewritten every five minutes - is that something that can be fixed?

[gazumped 9,828]

12 minutes ago, Goes_to_11 said:

Regarding the EXB file being rewritten every five minutes - is that something that can be fixed?

Yup - go to Tools > Options > Synchronisation and pick an interval.  (And I apologise - it is possible to set 5 minutes as an option!)