Duplicate notes - a lot of them

[Rickheffernan 2]

I have been using Evernote for years now.   I am starting (just recently) seeing a lot of duplicate notes.   When I create a note I like to open it in its own window.   When I go back to my main view of notes I see 4 notes with the same title.  I am getting the message that there is another note that is a dup.   

I don't know why this is happening but I think its a big bug.  

 

Rick 

[gazumped 12,072]

Hi.  It's not a bug - just a consequence of being much more network-driven these days.  If you're using v10 everything is now synced back to the server and if your connection drops or stutters at any stage,  the server will save what it received up to that point and then start again.  The new note may -or may not- include most of what you were working on,  but you might want to compare the two before deleting any.  This isn't much of a problem if you're making quick notes,  but if you make longer notes you could consider using a word-processor and saving the document file as an attachment to your note.  Your document file is created locally,  so won't be interrupted by any online issues.

[eric99 1,083]

2 hours ago, gazumped said:

Hi.  It's not a bug - just a consequence of being much more network-driven these days.  If you're using v10 everything is now synced back to the server and if your connection drops or stutters at any stage,  the server will save what it received up to that point and then start again.  The new note may -or may not- include most of what you were working on,  but you might want to compare the two before deleting any.  This isn't much of a problem if you're making quick notes,  but if you make longer notes you could consider using a word-processor and saving the document file as an attachment to your note.  Your document file is created locally,  so won't be interrupted by any online issues.

If this would be the reason, then it is definitely a bug because these things can be implemented much better, but I don't believe this is the explanation. Just try it yourself, disconnect reconnect frequently while continuously typing ... it doesn't create duplicates.

I have seen the described behavior myself, multiple duplicated notes with a rock solid 200Mb network, EN running on a single device.

HOWEVER this was in a previous release. I haven't seen this for weeks now.

Are you using the latest release, on which device and was the note simultaneously opened on another device?

[gazumped 12,072]

2 hours ago, eric99 said:

multiple duplicated notes with a rock solid 200Mb network, EN running on a single device.

The fact that you're shouting loudly at Evernote doesn't mean the information gets through without dropouts or interference.  Your connection is one of a sizeable slice of a  200M crowd - all of whom are syncing intermittently 24/7.

Using a word processor and attaching files will work to avoid any duplications for the moment - best advice is probably to contact Support if the issue continues.

[Alina Z 2]

Seeing the same issue with multiple sequential copies of the same note in the past few days. My internet connection has been excellent, no recent changes. I had this issue some years ago and having it again now. It's a pain checking through all the notes trying to work out which one is the latest version. 

If I wanted to type my notes in a word processor, why would I even pay for an Evernote subscription? Attaching notes is cumbersome and I shouldn't have to do it. Do you know the size of a Word document with dozens of screenshots in it? Evernote freezes in terror when I try to attach something like this to a note. Respectfully, that is not good advice. 

This issue needs to be solved centrally. Thanks Evernote, love your work, please fix this.

[gazumped 12,072]

47 minutes ago, Alina Z said:

This issue needs to be solved centrally. Thanks Evernote, love your work, please fix this.

Hi.  This is a mainly user 2 user forum and we have no way to engineer a fix.  Best advice - contact Support... but while they investigate and try to resolve the issue you have the choice of using a word processing app (there are many free options out there) or continuing to work through duplications as and when they occur.  Agreed that's not ideal,  but which activity takes more effort?

 

[Alina Z 2]

6 minutes ago, gazumped said:

Hi.  This is a mainly user 2 user forum and we have no way to engineer a fix.  Best advice - contact Support... but while they investigate and try to resolve the issue you have the choice of using a word processing app (there are many free options out there) or continuing to work through duplications as and when they occur.  Agreed that's not ideal,  but which activity takes more effort?

 

Fair enough. I have seen admins step in and respond to queries in other threads of this forum, so I posted here. If that is more of an exception, thanks for letting me know! I will contact support

[eric99 1,083]

7 hours ago, Alina Z said:

Fair enough. I have seen admins step in and respond to queries in other threads of this forum, so I posted here. If that is more of an exception, thanks for letting me know! I will contact support

Do you run the latest EN version 10.25.6 ?

[PinkElephant 8,819]

20 hours ago, Alina Z said:

Fair enough. I have seen admins step in and respond to queries in other threads of this forum, so I posted here. If that is more of an exception, thanks for letting me know! I will contact support

Some EN "Staff" members will show up (note the badge), but from my experience only on a few issues that are currently in the focus. It was tasks, currently it seems to be the calendar integration.

This is rather the exception than the rule. If you have an issue, contact support.

We can help out on some problems, and will do, but this is pretty restricted. Since EN is rolling out a new release every 2-3 weeks (as opposed to 1-2 a year with legacy), chances are good they are able to fix things much faster than before.

[john_S123 0]

Duplicate notes rate has increased dramatically. This is a bug, and is undesirable behavior. 

Before, I very very rarely saw duplicate notes. However, the rate has picked in the last month or 3.
I have a paid subscription and using Evernote 10.25.6 on PC and 10.21 on my Android phone. I've been a customer since Aug 2012.
I do like Evernote, but with the new code base, there are a lot of undesirable behaviors (bugs). I have filled out several bug requests with the new code base and Evernote said, sorry, it's just the way it works now.
Evernote, please listen to the voice of the customer. 
 

[eric99 1,083]

On 11/30/2021 at 8:27 PM, john_S123 said:

I do like Evernote, but with the new code base, there are a lot of undesirable behaviors (bugs). I have filled out several bug requests with the new code base and Evernote said, sorry, it's just the way it works now
 

Can you please specify which undesirable behaviors are considered normal behavior?

[eric99 1,083]

And a more interesting question, are these duplicated notes all the same? If so, why isn't it checked and removed automatically at the server or client side?

 

[gazumped 12,072]

On 11/25/2021 at 1:31 AM, gazumped said:

This is a mainly user 2 user forum and we have no way to engineer a fix.  Best advice - contact Support...

7 minutes ago, eric99 said:

are these duplicated notes all the same? If so, why isn't it checked and removed automatically at the server or client side?

Evernote would (I expect) never take the step of deleting a user's notes.  That's a step for us to take on our own information if and when we feel the need. 

A lot of the duplicate notes issues are related to uses of the Evernote system to which it clearly objects.  Long notes / long sessions / dubious net connections... something is generating this outcome for a limited number of users.  So the more reports that go to Evernote about the issue,  the more likely they are to be able to armour the system against those styles of use - but in the meantime if you wish to avoid duplications,  the options have already been listed here and elsewhere.

[PinkElephant 8,819]

Since I had no duplicates, and still have none, I can’t comment on whether it picked up or not.

That EN won’t decide between duplicates is obvious: If they could decide which is which, there would be no duplicates.

[eric99 1,083]

53 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

If they could decide which is which, there would be no duplicates.

Exactly, if both notes are identical, the software could safely remove one of both, no matter which one, as simple as that. Of course, it would be much better to prevent duplicates by handling these race conditions properly. This seems to be very difficult for Electron developers these days

[PinkElephant 8,819]

AFAIK they do not compare the content of notes when deciding about a duplicate. They probably take a look at some metadata or hash values to decide if a note is plausibly a successor of another note, or a fork. If it is seen as a fork, a duplication takes place.

Since this decision must be taken very fast when deciding whether to sync or to fork, I doubt a real bit by bit comparison of content would viably work.

 

[gazumped 12,072]

I think the point is that as far as the system is concerned these are not duplicate notes - they may well appear to be dups and could well be exact duplicates. But as far as the system is concerned it's been presented with two notes with slightly different content - and that might only be the time-stamp.  The system is not able to decide for the user whether there are differences,  or if so, which bits to keep and which to discard.  That's not up to the system - it's left to the user.

Clearly it's an imperfect system - but not one that will change anytime soon,  unless Evernote secretly had a development in the pipeline 6 months ago.  It really REALLY doesn't matter what causes the problem or what would fix it.  Either we accept it and find a way around it,  or use a different app. 

[Tiesernote 4]

Hi, I'm a long time Evernote user (since 2008) and I have been using Evernote on and off over all these years. I picked up using Evernote more intensively over the past few weeks, but I can't help noticing the amount of duplicate posts in my account. It's awful, as I have to manually figure out which is the most complete note and which one to delete. This is quit cumbersome. I don't understand why this situation occurs. I mainly use Evernote from my laptop (OSX), and occasionally from my iPhone. I was not able to figure out how to replicate the situation. I image each note gets a unique ID on creation, and where-ever or when-ever I open a note, that unique ID remains the same and its note can be updated, so why the need to duplicate the note? I don't get it. I have numerous duplicates each day, and it makes me doubt if Evernote is still reliable enough for keeping my notes, thoughts, articles and preparation of text documents. I'm constantly concerned content is lost or removed with duplicate posts and time and energy is lost by figuring out what content to keep and what to delete. Hopefully Evernote can resolve this problem in due time and make the application much more reliable. Thank you!

[gazumped 12,072]

On 12/12/2021 at 9:45 AM, Tiesernote said:

Hopefully Evernote can resolve this problem in due time

Hi.  There are many posts in the forum about this,  and similar numbers of explanations as to the cause and cures. Very briefly Evernote keeps the original of your notes on the server,  and updates that with changes as you make them via browser, PC app or mobile.  If "you" are connecting twice - if you have Evernote open on two devices - the server doesn't know which of any updates it receives is the most recent,  so it saves both.  If the connection from a browser drops out for any reason the server might be confused as to which updates it receives are most recent;  so again it saves both.  A good way to ensure this doesn't happen is to edit offline in a locally-saved file - Word,  or your word-processor of choice - and attach the saved file to a note when you finish editing.  Support may be able to help you troubleshoot your existing usage further if you wish.

These Forums are mainly user 2 user - subscribers can raise support queries here - https://help.evernote.com/hc/requests/new and Free users here - https://twitter.com/evernotehelps (or use the feedback option in the mobile client). 

 

[eric99 1,083]

On 12/12/2021 at 10:45 AM, Tiesernote said:

Hi, I'm a long time Evernote user (since 2008) and I have been using Evernote on and off over all these years. I picked up using Evernote more intensively over the past few weeks, but I can't help noticing the amount of duplicate posts in my account. It's awful, as I have to manually figure out which is the most complete note and which one to delete. This is quit cumbersome. I don't understand why this situation occurs. I mainly use Evernote from my laptop (OSX), and occasionally from my iPhone. I was not able to figure out how to replicate the situation. I image each note gets a unique ID on creation, and where-ever or when-ever I open a note, that unique ID remains the same and its note can be updated, so why the need to duplicate the note? I don't get it. I have numerous duplicates each day, and it makes me doubt if Evernote is still reliable enough for keeping my notes, thoughts, articles and preparation of text documents. I'm constantly concerned content is lost or removed with duplicate posts and time and energy is lost by figuring out what content to keep and what to delete. Hopefully Evernote can resolve this problem in due time and make the application much more reliable. Thank you!

which EN version do you run?

[Tiesernote 4]

On 12/13/2021 at 8:52 PM, eric99 said:

which EN version do you run?

Hi, thanks. I'm using:

10.27.5-mac-ddl-public (3122)
Editor: v137.1.17455
Service: v1.44.3
 

[Tiesernote 4]

On 12/13/2021 at 7:08 PM, gazumped said:

Hi.  There are many posts in the forum about this,  and similar numbers of explanations as to the cause and cures. Very briefly Evernote keeps the original of your notes on the server,  and updates that with changes as you make them via browser, PC app or mobile.  If "you" are connecting twice - if you have Evernote open on two devices - the server doesn't know which of any updates it receives is the most recent,  so it saves both.  If the connection from a browser drops out for any reason the server might be confused as to which updates it receives are most recent;  so again it saves both.  A good way to ensure this doesn't happen is to edit offline in a locally-saved file - Word,  or your word-processor of choice - and attach the saved file to a note when you finish editing.  Support may be able to help you troubleshoot your existing usage further if you wish.

These Forums are mainly user 2 user - subscribers can raise support queries here - https://help.evernote.com/hc/requests/new and Free users here - https://twitter.com/evernotehelps (or use the feedback option in the mobile client). 

 

Thank you very much for responding. Yes, I have seen some other posts, but no solution. I appreciate your response and suggestion, but using Word for using EN is not a solution either, in such case I better start using Office365 or Google Docs. If I need to attach Word documents into EN, why not store these documents in OneDrive instead. Many collaboration services, for much more complicated things than just a note, don't have issues with versioning, race conditions or the things we see with EN. I also don't see these issues in similar services like Apple Notes or Microsoft OneNote. It is more likely an architectural design flaw in EN, which should be fixed to be able to continue using EN. I'm more than happy to take out a subscription (I have been a paid subscriber for many years actually), but only if EN works in a reliable way. Thank for your support links, I will investigate.

[ShawnVW 2]

On 12/19/2021 at 2:55 AM, Tiesernote said:

Hi, thanks. I'm using:

10.27.5-mac-ddl-public (3122)
Editor: v137.1.17455
Service: v1.44.3
 

I've been getting the "lots of duplicates" problems multiple times since around May 2023. Using the Windows version 10.57.10.

 

[gazumped 12,072]

26 minutes ago, ShawnVW said:

I've been getting the "lots of duplicates" problems multiple times since around May 2023. Using the Windows version 10.57.10.

 

Hi.  Do you have the same device?  Have you tried uninstalling / reinstalling?

[ShawnVW 2]

This was happening on my Windows laptop, but right after I posted, it happened on my Android version of Evernote too. I don't see reinstalling would help, since it sounds like a server-side issue.

 

[gazumped 12,072]

Just now, ShawnVW said:

I don't see reinstalling would help, since it sounds like a server-side issue.

I bow to your greater expertise,  and leave you to reboot the server...