Sync issues in Android app and & duplicate notes from desktop v10.

[Carl-L-ND 56]

After finally moving from v8 to v10 a month ago, I've found a number of issues that are annoying but none as disturbing as what I've just realized in the past hour.

Most of my updates to notes are made on a desktop version (both v10 and v8) run from my Win10 laptop.  Last evening I updated a note just before bedtime using the Android app on my phone.  I went to check it today ~18 hours later and, while the additions show on the phone, none of it has sync'd to v10 desktop or v8 desktop and the Evernote for Web via a browser.  I used CTRL R on the desktop apps to force a sync and there was still no update.  It looks like the Android app on the phone had not sync'd.

In the process of checking what had gone wrong I first tried to find an option from the Android v10 Home screen to force a sync without success.  I even tried pulling down my screen in the home page but nothing indicated a fresh sync had occured.  I then elected to update another note via my Android app as a test.  When done and I was back to the main page of the Notebook this newly edited note is in, I pulled down on the page more or less out of desperation to force an update and was pleased to see the swirling updating icon.

Checking my the Web and desktop apps, I saw that the newly refreshed test note was there and NOW the note from the previous evening was showing updated.

After 9 years of using the v8 interface,  I'm not sure if this is a bug or a misunderstanding on my part of how v10 works.  There have been a couple of other instances in the past 3 weeks where other notes did not show up on my desktop but which a CTRL R refreshed successfully.   I have read the other threads on adding a SYNC button option and where I sit today I have to agree it may be needed.

Is there a "fool proof" way to add to notes in the Android app and ensure they get sync'd?

Unfortunately, in the process of sorting this out, I also spotted at least two duplicate notes that were created in the past couple of days and I'm not sure why but it is a desktop issue.

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[agsteele 2,940]

The force sync option in Android is in the settings menu.

My experience is that sync while the Android Evernote app is in the background is inconsistent. I usually wait for a moment to be sure the note has synchronised. For me indicated by the green sync icon disappearing in the note list.

[Alxa 478]

I can confirm the inconsistency. If I rely on a note edited on mobile being synced straight away I always force sync via pull down in the notebook view on Android and wait for the green icon upon the note to vanish. Syncing stops being consistent when you send EN to the background (sometimes it does not even run when in the foreground).  Yes, that is a show stopper in 2022 when you could expect push sync based service. EN8.13.3 does this better, with rock solid polled syncing for remote changes and immediate syncs for mobile changes. EN 10 stays behind yesterday's and today's possibilites.

My REALLY straw is that Evernote is preparing something modern and up-to-date in the background and will at some point unleash a new sync-beast 😉

CEO announced an overhaul of the sync for 2022 at the beginning of the year and by around 06/2022 support told me to expect something "not before end of the year". Well obviously it did not come yet...5 months to go...maybe Ian's x-max present to us customers 🙂

 

[Carl-L-ND 56]

7 hours ago, agsteele said:

The force sync option in Android is in the settings menu.

Thanks.  I see it now.  Such an obvious spot to place it - 4 button taps deep. 🙄

It should be, at the least, in the sidebar menu called from the 3 horizontal lines button at lower left and in that sidebar menu be placed at the bottom either above or below the "Send Feedback" option - where it is "only" two taps deep in the menu structure.  The same sidebar menu where the "Settings" button is found at upper right.

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[dbvirago 497]

4 hours ago, Carl-L-ND said:

Thanks.  I see it now.  Such an obvious spot to place it - 4 button taps deep. 🙄

It should be, at the least, in the sidebar menu called from the 3 horizontal lines button at lower left and in that sidebar menu be placed at the bottom either above or below the "Send Feedback" option - where it is "only" two taps deep in the menu structure.  The same sidebar menu where the "Settings" button is found at upper right.

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Yes, and after you finally dig it out and find it and click Sync, you have to click again, Sync Now. You also need to check your notes after each sync because it may or may not work, then you will be stuck in uninstall-reinstall hell, like I am now. Thankfully after waiting over a year for Android app to be stable, I finally started mirroring all of my "must have while I'm out" folders to Nimbus Notes. It saved my bacon again today when my entire default folder disappeared.

[Alxa 478]

I do the same (Nimbus Notes mirror). It is sad that we pay for offline notes but honestly cannot use this feature on Android since EN10 but have to copy our mobile stuff to Nimbus Notes to make sure, we have access on the go.

(Ended up at train station today and could not open the screen shot of my train connection I made on desktop yesterday in EN. First EN lasted around 1 minute to sync and show the note in inbox - than in addition: image rendering bug, pic not displayed...arrrrggg). Unfortunately had forgotten to mirror. Considering roll back to 8.13.3 What a misery. 🥴

[Carl-L-ND 56]

@dbvirago@Alxa  Tell me more about how to "mirror" your Evernote to Nimbus. 

Is it as simple as selecting your most updated notes and exporting them as an ENEX file that your then import into Nimbus?  

I'm quickly browsing their site and these following are not clear to me.

• When importing an ENEX file, does Nimbus recognize a preexisting  note and overwrite the note in its app or does it create a duplicate?
• Can you drag & drop PDF's into a note that are scanned and the text indexed for searches?

I put off updating to v10 because I was well aware that EN does not seem to be as rock solid in the Android world as the Apple world and with business travel almost non-existent for the past 2 years it was a fortuitous time to do so, as an Android phone user.  But now I have to be ready to once again assume the road warrior role and I want key client info on my phone when offline.  When I started using EN in 2013 it was because of that ability to store local notes and be able to view them in areas without cell coverage.

If, with v10, I can't reliably view notes when offline, or create or add to notes when offline and sync as I  get back into cell/wifi coverage, then what is the point?

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[dbvirago 497]

Yes, I created folders that I need on the road in Nimbus which matched EN, then export folders from EN, then import. Unfortunately, since 2 years later, they still haven't restored full functionality, I have to do that in Legacy, as in some cases, I grab to notebooks, select all, for my export. I don't recall how Nimbus handles dupes, but it has performed flawlessly for me as a mobile app for the last year while I've struggled with EN. Frankly, I've lost patience with using 3 apps to make things work. I'm in the process as of yesterday copying all 12K notes to Nimbus. If it works as well fully loaded as it has with my partial setup, I'm done. Every time EN issues an update, I jump back in, but it's long since passed the point where I have any hope. 
Also, Nimbus works well offline.

[Carl-L-ND 56]

@dbvirago  Thank you.

I edited my post to clarify a couple of points, likely while you were typing out your response.

PDF's?

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[dbvirago 497]

Handles them fine. They used to not display inline but now they do. I didn't think they were searchable, but just did a test and they are. Nimbus is updating the software weekly and have been for years. 

[Becky M. 48]

On 8/10/2022 at 11:21 AM, Carl-L-ND said:

@dbvirago@Alxa  Tell me more about how to "mirror" your Evernote to Nimbus. 

Is it as simple as selecting your most updated notes and exporting them as an ENEX file that your then import into Nimbus?  

I'm quickly browsing their site and these following are not clear to me.

• When importing an ENEX file, does Nimbus recognize a preexisting  note and overwrite the note in its app or does it create a duplicate?
• Can you drag & drop PDF's into a note that are scanned and the text indexed for searches?

I put off updating to v10 because I was well aware that EN does not seem to be as rock solid in the Android world as the Apple world and with business travel almost non-existent for the past 2 years it was a fortuitous time to do so, as an Android phone user.  But now I have to be ready to once again assume the road warrior role and I want key client info on my phone when offline.  When I started using EN in 2013 it was because of that ability to store local notes and be able to view them in areas without cell coverage.

If, with v10, I can't reliably view notes when offline, or create or add to notes when offline and sync as I  get back into cell/wifi coverage, then what is the point?

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I don't have the answer to your Nimbus question, but I do want to make sure that you know that if you want "offline" access to your notes on Android then you need to select the notebooks to to view in "offline" mode.  Based on the memory on your phone, you may want to only download "selected notebooks." When I'm traveling or someplace that may have sketchy internet, I download the Notebooks and/or notes I will need.  You find this option by clicking on the 3 line menu (bottom left of screen) and then clicking on the gear icon next to your name, which opens the settings menu. Select "notebooks" and then "offline notebooks."  When you click on "download selected notebooks" you will get a list of all of your notebooks which can be toggled on individually. Hopefully this information will be helpful to you.

[Alxa 478]

@Becky M. The mostly unreliable sync on Android comes into account especially when I use offline notebooks to have important information on the go, when being cut off internet. As there is no background syncing of remote changes (changes not done on EN Android) you can never be sure, if your offline notebooks are up to date. Especially as downloading of the offline notebooks does not work in background. I think this is the reason why @Carl-L-NDwrote about the offline functionality not being usable on EN10 for Android. With EN 8.13.3 you could set a polling intervall and be sure, that your offline notebooks would be - rock solidly - updated at least at this interval. I loved this with EN8.13.3 and could rely on this when being abroad. With EN10 I had so many instances where I was lost with missing or outdated offline content, that I gave up using offline notebooks on EN10 for Android at all. I wished Evernote 10 for Android would return to the old offline capabilites we had on 8.13.3. We are heading for 2 years of EN10 now and still the offline issues (automatic reliable syncing / fast offline download) are unsolved...

[Carl-L-ND 56]

Offline Notebook downloading is  v e r y ..... s....l.... o.... w.

After Becky's post I checked my offline notes status to ensure that EN10 had adopted my settings from EN8.  Nope.  Sigh!  enable "Download All".  I'm not a super user and have only just over 5000 notes so this should be quick eh?. 

24+ hours later it looks like maybe 20% of the notes are downloaded judging by where the green bar is versus the overall length of the gray bar.  Of 88 notebooks only 13 appear to have been completely downloaded (no green or gray bar) and most of these are notebooks with <20 notes in them.

If I'm analyzing this correctly, that is underwhelming.  Brings me back to my days of connecting via 9600 baud modems.  I have 350 Mbps download from my ISP and the phone has remained connected by WiFi for 80% of that time including at least 7 hours overnight with little to zero activity.

I don't recall EN8 for Android ever being that slow the couple of times I wiped it off my phone to fix one of the other glitches it was having.

Is this truly representative of EN10 performance or am I doing something wrong here?  I thought after 9 years with this app I had most of it figured out.

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[agsteele 2,940]

The offline notebook download in v10 is, indeed, tediously slow. It isn't Evernote v10's finest feature 😥

[Carl-L-ND 56]

LOL yes.... tedious with prejudice.

Roughly 48 hours later.... most notebooks show between 65% to 80% sync'd.  Only 11 of 88 notebooks fully sync'd.

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[Carl-L-ND 56]

Roughly 72 hours later..... still not complete.  There are 3 notebooks yet to fully sync.

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[PinkElephant 8,066]

If you go „all in“, the high number of download threads that run in parallel will block each other.

It works significantly better if you only select 2-3 notebooks at a time, and roll over to a next one once one is completed.

The initial offline download is a PITA, but you can at least avoid to draw it to epic dimensions.

[Carl-L-ND 56]

Thanks Pink!  Good to know for next time I have to uninstall EN off my phone to fix a glitch.

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[PinkElephant 8,066]

This is just a piece of practical advise - you are free to ignore it, and watch the paint dry on the wall.