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Duplicate Note Issues (Windows)


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After posting, I found an earlier post about the same problem. I added my experience to that long list.  See that post

 

I create a new note and am typing text into it. I start seeing a blue message box with, "We found more than one version of <note title>. You can view the alternate here." I look over to the left pane with the note list and, yep, there are now four versions of my new note each one has a different snapshot of what I was typing. I have to delete the three bogus copies.

This has happened on two different notes out of a couple dozen, or so, new notes. I don't think I'm doing anything differently to cause Evernote to just start making multiple copies as I'm typing.

I saw this months ago in a beta test, reported it, and it seemed to be fixed. It's back.

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  • 1 month later...

This happens to me ALL THE TIME.  Yesterday I had a meeting and was taking notes, and by the end I had three separate copies, each representing a different point in time. Then I needed to go figure out which one was the most updated.  It's maddening.

It's even worse if I don't realize the duplicates were for some reason created. Then I end up editing a duplicate that's itself out of date, creating two different versions of the same note, neither of which are complete.

This seems so basic.  If you can't figure out how to stop making Evernote create duplicates (and it seems you can't, as this has been going on for years) then please explore some intelligent merging capability. 

I will say that creating duplicate notes is better than what it used to do, which is to leave it as one note instance but secretly concatenate multiple versions of the same information into one massive and incorrect note. 

Sorry if I sound angry.  But ... I sort of am!

 

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  • 1 month later...

Over the last few months I have experienced duplicate notes being created. I use Evernote (10.27.5) between Windows 10 , iPad and iPhone.

First post, so please advise how/what I need to post to help resolve.

 

Cheers

Ian

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  • Evernote Expert

Hi @ianmit. Welcome!

Most often duplicate notes are caused when the same note is open on more than one device. My experience is to put the mobile apps into the background whilst working on the desktop. Or if your mobile is your primary device, move away from the current note on the desktop.

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  • 1 month later...

This is a problem that has been occuring for more than a year, with both the old and the new versions.  At this point I'm really considering other options besides Evernote, this makes it very difficult to use.  The problem is that it is creating multiple (25-30) copies of whatever note I've been working on last.  I create a note, and then come back a day later and Evernote has created 30 copies of it.  At first I thought it was a sync issue from keeping multiple devices open.  But it still happens even when I only have Evernote open on Windows.

I'm using Windows 10, and Evernote on Chrome Version 97.0.4692.99 (Official Build) (64-bit)  It has been happening for some time, with both old and new versions of Evernote.

One thing I noticed is that each note is slightly different than the others.  Is Evernote displaying every version of a note, every change that is made becomes a new note?

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  • Level 5*

It's ironic that this point keeps on being duplicated in the forums too.  There are many other threads on this topic,  so please look out for them if you'd like more detail;  the main points are that:

  • Notes are automatically synced back to the server by each connected device. If you have more than one copy of Evernote open,  different versions of the same note can be sent to your account and the server cannot tell which is the correct,  current version,  so it saves both.  There will probably be differences between the notes you see.
  • Slow or erratic network connections may interrupt the connection with the server,  forcing it so save a new version of the same note.
  • Firewalls or VPN connections may interrupt a connection,  as could other apps running on the same device.
  • Long editing sessions may hit timeouts
  • The way to avoid all of the above,  as I just have when typing this,  is to use a local word processor which only saves to the device in use while creating or editing a long text.  Once the text is complete you can attach the output file to a note for future editing,  or just copy and paste the text into a new note.  Duplicates are not impossible,  but will be very rare.

If you still have issues and you're a subscriber,  you could reach out to Evernote Support (which we're not) to see whether they can help.

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Thank you for the response.

Using a "local word processor which only saves to the device" is a non-starter.  I specifically use Evernote so I don't have to crank up Word, wait for it to wake up, and then deal with its quirks and eccentricities.  I like that I can just go to Evernote and start typing a note.  This used to not be a problem.  It is only in the last year or two that this has become a serious problem. What has happened? Is Evernote working on a fix for this?

"more than one copy of Evernote open" - again this is one of the reasons why I (used to) like Evernote - I can use it on multiple devices without issues.  However, if Evernote is only going to work when I only have one device working, what is the point?  


 

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  • Level 5*
9 minutes ago, ntbrierly said:

Is Evernote working on a fix for this?

Not that I'm aware of - you'd have to contact Support to find out exactly what's happening with your connection and get some direct feedback.  As to 'word processors',  I tend to have Workflowy open as a text editor,  which is only one click away.  And 'more than one copy' doesn't mean you can't run several devices - just don't have Evernote open and syncing on all of them at once.  And those are only possibilities alongside local conflicts,  general traffic and possible system limits - hence the referral to Support.

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  • Evernote Expert

I typically have Evernote running four different instances. One on my Android phone, one an Android tablet but using the web browser, two on my desktop - v10 and Legacy. So far I haven't had any note duplication ever. But I never have the same note open on more than one device. I tend to go to the Home screen on the mobile devices when I'm not working on them. v10 on my desktop is my default working environment and Legacy is sitting for one of a couple things which still work better for me in that application.

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Hi, generally I can even have the same note actively open on two instances of EN10 running side by side. As long as I do not enter edits at the same time (which means allowing around 30 seconds between switching devices) EN handles the syncing without duplicates. What still is missing is live syncing when editing, which has been standard on OneNote, Nimbus Note and so on for a while now. On these apps you can see the edits live on client 2 while typing on client 1... That way duplicates are nearly impossible when running all clients online. This also can boost collaboration dramatically when working on shared notes together. No idea, why EN still has not activated it. I would not believe they did a complete redesign of EN and kept the monolitic one note = one sync only concept. Syncing on the most little granular basis could save a lot of traffic.

@ntbrierlyI would suggest as well raising a ticket for the permanent duplication issue.

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  • Level 5

Other services use a granular data design. Each file is split into many tiny bits. Synced are only elements that have changed.

EN still treats the whole note as entity. This may explain some duplication: If a prior sync has not terminated when the next one starts, a conflict situation occurs.

In the CEOs blog post for 2022 an overhaul of syncing was announced for later this year. It will be interesting how far reaching these changes will be.

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Same here. Windows version 10.31.6 on that latest windows 11 update.

It created thousands of duplicate notes, I had no idea why. I have the android version, but was not using it or the web version. I think my ethernet connection was stable.

installed legacy, cleared out the notes. Started happening again. Now using legacy version until Evernote figures this stuff out. 

It's like every time it loaded, it created a new note. I'm sure some of this was when I tried to edit, but with over 2K notes, I think it was doing this automatically?

 

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I have also been having this problem for months.  Last year support said that the next release would solve the problem, but we are now many releases down the road and it seems worse than ever.  And I work alone, never share files, and never have Evernote open on more than one system at a time.  I just use Evernote for remote access to documents.   I am trying to decide whether to drop Evernote and just use Googledocs.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have same issue.

I'm very disappointed with the new version, and decided to go back to the older version. I installed Evernote Legacy.
In the legacy version i found a note copied 30 times, this note is 1.8M, and it took 95% of the monthly upload allowance.
I'm on the free plan. Аny ideas what to do.

 

 

 

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  • Level 5*
On 3/13/2022 at 3:15 PM, mad_cat_with_hat said:

and decided to go back to the older version.

This thread is all about v10.  Older versions of Evernote seem to be much less prone to random duplications for some reason - it doesn't happen to me at all forinstance.

The issue is usually to do with having multiple connections to your account from several devices / intermittent internet connections / bad networks or just working n one note for too long.  This is a mainly user-supported forum,  so we have no input regarding the upload limits - I can only suggest you contact Support via the feedback link in some apps,  or their Twitter account - https://twitter.com/evernotehelps

As you're using the old version,  you should have access to Local Notebooks which might be a place to hold your notes until the limit gets refreshed - or,  of course,  you could consider subscribing for a month or two to get access to Evernote email support and higher upload limits.

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I have the same problem. I mostly use the browser application across three machines - work laptop, personal laptop (both Windows 10) and a Chromebook. However, I also have the legacy Evernote application installed on my personal laptop, because it is still the only way I can backup my Evernote database. (That's a topic all of its own).

I suspect the problem may be related to using multiple clients across multiple machines - especially as one of those is the old Windows client. These machines are not all active at the same time: typically, in the evening I'll stop using the work laptop and a short time later I'll open the Chromebook lid to resume working on something in Evernote web. Later still I may open the personal laptop to do something else, possibly not even using Evernote on Windows, but it will be running because I want it to sync the database. Often when using the Chromebook I will see one or two duplicate notes created. I manually merge and clean up, but seeing the duplicates appear still makes me uncomfortable.

This behaviour suggests Evernote still doesn't do a particularly good job of handling potentially conflicting updates from multiple clients.  To be fair, this is not an easy problem to solve. To understand the general problem, see: About CRDTs • Conflict-free Replicated Data Types

A quick search in the Evernote forum turned up 5 other topics discussing the same issue - there are probably more. All products in this space need to deal with conflicts and some (notably Google Docs) have effectively solved the problem, so it *can* be done.  Notes are precious, so people are quite justified in being alarmed when they see the system creating duplicates.  

The very least Evernote should do is acknowledge officially that the problem exists and provide a help page for anxious users. But they need to fix this properly.  

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  • 4 weeks later...

I have started experiencing this problem, again, after several months.

10.33.4-mac-ddl-public (3285)
Editor: v144.0.17818
Service: v1.49.2
 

In the most recent case, I created a new note, from a single laptop (an M1 mac, possibly slightly different version of EN) to take notes during a webinar.  By the time the meeting was over, I had more than 3 duplicates, each a little different (as mentioned by others).  Slightly flakey network may have been a contributing factor, but other than that, this seemed like a very simply use case, yet EN created a lot of extra work for me.

 

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  • Level 5

If the network is flakey, you can go deliberately offline while participating in your meeting. All changes will sync when you go back online. Because it avoids to sync while the editing goes on, there will most likely be no duplicates, even on a weak network.

This is my strategy when working on the train. I use an app on my Mac called TripMode that takes individual apps offline while traveling.

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  • Level 5*
On 4/7/2022 at 2:48 AM, LenV said:

take notes during a webinar.

Hmmn.

On 3/14/2022 at 5:43 PM, gazumped said:

working on one note for too long.

I think @PinkElephant has a great suggestion;  otherwise using an app which saves locally to edit a copy/ pasted note,  then either c/p content back,  or just attaching the app output file to a note will update your Evernote.

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  • Shane D. changed the title to Duplicate Note Issues (Windows)

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