Why does EN keep making new copies of a note?

[salgud 12]

I have a note I make frequent changes to on all my devices. Evernote keeps creating more and more copies of that note instead of just modifying it.  Is something broke in here?

[PinkElephant 8,073]

If the note is open on one device, and you edit it on another, you provoke a duplicate. Simple as that !

[feyyaz_kasli 5]

4 hours ago, PinkElephant said:

If the note is open on one device, and you edit it on another, you provoke a duplicate. Simple as that !

Just want to make sure, what happens if it duplicates on the same device. I am editing a ntoe on my computer, it sometimes duplicates withouth a warning. 

[PinkElephant 8,073]

One factor can be a fracky internet connection. Hard to find out, but some ideas: Instead of WiFi use LAN-Cable. Check the connection from time to time, and watch out for Latency, Jitter and Package loss. 

And beside this there are reports about duplicates that are hard to analyze. In such a case a ticket to support from the very device where it happened may help, with an attached activity log.

[salgud 12]

Thanks for the replies. Since I have no idea what "latency, Jitter and Package loss" are, I'm going with duplicates created by having EN open on multiple devices. I guess I have to print out all versions of the note and correct one version, then delete the others. Is that the best fix?

[PinkElephant 8,073]

These are measures for the quality of an internet connection. If you use a tool like Ookla Speedtest, they will be reported along with the speed measures themselves.

Use a computer connected by LAN cable to the router for the measure - else you may end up measuring your internal WiFi connection. You need to measure multiple times, spread out over the day and the week, because your neighbors internet use can have an influence. You can try different servers on the far end as well - they have an influence, because they answer to the test.

On a good cable internet connection 1.000 download / 50 upload, I measure Ping between 20-30ms and Jitter between 1-3ms. No package losses are reported.

[salgud 12]

Thanks for your replies. Pink Elephant, I appreciate you are trying to help, but either you just don't get that not all of us are network experts or you're trying to impress. Either way, it doesn't really help. Besides, I have better things to do than installing cables (in 2022?) and spending hours testing my equipment. 

What I'm hearing from the rest of you is that EN doesn't really sync across multiple devices. What other app requires you to close it on other devices to make changes to an existing note? My task manager doesn't require this, nor does my Photos app, or any other. This is a HUGE design flaw that is unique in my experience to EN. If everyone else can make this work, why can't they? Does everyone else remember to "close" the app on their various devices every time they open it in another? Really? 

[PinkElephant 8,073]

1 hour ago, salgud said:

My task manager doesn't require this, nor does my Photos app, or any other. 

You are wrong.

Direct device to device sync is the exception, usually only done on demand (like AirDrop between Apple devices). Practically all syncing apps use a cloud server as in between. Some their own (like EN), others use the devices standard cloud, some even offer a choice of cloud services. Most of them just use a different approach to syncing (syncing tiny portions of an object, not as EN still does a whole note) - this is what EN announced for 2022.

But since you don't want to learn, you will have to wait until it shows up in release notes.

[salgud 12]

I appreciate your efforts to educate me Pink, and you're right, "I don't want to learn." After being on the cutting edge with computer tech for most of my life, (wrote my first code while in engineering school in '66, started using an IBM PC at work in '84, first home DOS-based computer in '87, on the net in '89 and so on through the 90s), I've lost interest in how they work, I just want them to work. When I find a notes app that makes me "turn it off", an archaic concept these days (who "turns off" the apps on a mobile device?) just to be able to make a small change in a note on another device is an archaic app. What I'm hearing is that I should remove the app from two of my three devices as to avoid making duplicate notes by changing existing notes on multiple devices, something I only have to do for EN. So now I have to come up with a work-around for this serious glitch which I am loathe to do but have been doing for decades. I'll figure it out. But thanks for trying to educate a stubborn, ignorant old *****!

[PinkElephant 8,073]

You don’t need to follow advise.

Maybe an „education“ about „How to create duplicates the dead sure way“ would have greater chances of success in your case.

EN general concept of syncing has not changed since it’s launch in 2008. I hope they get it moved to a next level in the near future.

At least it is a positive outlook for the coming year.

[salgud 12]

Actually, it wasn't "launched" in 2008, it was purchased. (I've been using it since 2006.) The new owner stripped it of all its amazing, for the day, features and broadened its base to make it multi-platform capable. Since then, they've been far more interested in adding new features to increase sales than fix serious issues and numerous bugs that have plagued EN since. I.e., "Shortcuts" on one platform and "favorites" on another and apparent (thankfully, not real but certainly panic-inducing) complete loss of data (after upgrades) several times.

What you're saying doesn't make sense to me. I've edited many notes over the years and never "closed" it, or any other app, on mobile devices (who does?) and it doesn't make dupes. Only this more frequently edited note does this problem occur. This would also seem to rule out network issues. It's hard for me to fathom that you and others either close EN on your mobile devices every time you use it or go and close it every time you're planning on editing an existing note. Is that really what you and others do? It would mean that I'd have to remember to close EN on my computer every time I open it because every time I edited a note on a mobile device and EN was still open on my computer, it would create a dupe. That doesn't happen. I'm confused. 

 

[PinkElephant 8,073]

I rarely have duplication - if you have (!), it is one option to use.

Take the advise, or forget about it.

[Alxa 478]

The duplication problems @salguddescribes are a design flaw of EN10 in the actual state, creating duplicates while editing on only one device. Seen on mobile as well. We all hope this vanishes with the sync overhaul which was announced by CEO and maybe arrives in 2023. @salgud The only actual solution to prevent this reliably is to roll back to the legacy versions or - sadly - take another note taking app. You are doing nothing wrong, you can expect the software to get better.