(Archived) Conflicting Changes

[alexisrn 0]

I have been using Evernote for several months with no problems and have been quite happy with the service. However, this new "Conflicting Changes" issue has arisen recently and I haven't been able to find an acceptable solution to fixing the conflicting changes issue. Removing the the local database and re-syncing is an incomplete solution because you lose notes that are on the "conflicting" folder; if I delete the database, all of it is lost because the "conflicts" are stored on the local client, not the online version.

Please help!

[engberg 89]

Could you provide detailed information about the conflict errors? Are you on Mac or Windows? Could you provide the information from the synchronization log (or the Console on the Mac)?

Thanks

[alexisrn 0]

I am using both Mac and Windows. The issue first appeared on my Mac last night as the new "Conflict Changes" folder appeared with one note document that I usually update continually. I left the problem alone to see if I had the same issue with my work PC. Sure enough, when I came into work today, the exact same issue was present, so I deleted my database and resynced. Unfortunately, the version that was in my "Conflict Changes" folder was the most current and that disappeared completely. I should have known that it would be deleted because the "Conflict Changes" folder never appeared in the online version when I checked last night and this morning.

The puzzling thing is that the same "Conflict Changes" folder with the same updated note show up in both mac and pc clients, yet, this doesn't show up in the online version? Then how could it have been syned at all if it didn't go through online?

Fortunately, I still have the "Conflict Changes" folder with the updated notes on my mac at home, so I didn't lose my information. However, I would like to know what happened and how to properly resolve before I upgrade to the premium account. I plan on migrating all of my notes to evernote, but concerned about this syncing issue. It might just be a bug, but I almost lost some important notes because of it.

I look forward to your reply.

Thanks!

[engberg 89]

Here's a clarification on what "Conflicting Changes" means with the Evernote service...

At any given time, the "official" version of a note is the one on the servers. If you make a change to a note on the web UI, that happens immediately, but if you make a change on a desktop client, that change may sit on your computer for minutes to days before you get around to synchronizing up to the service. When you do sync, the client basically says "here are the updates to note 1234", and the server modifies the official version in the service DB.

The problem comes when a note is modified on another client (or on the web) before your local desktop gets a chance to sync its update to the service. When this happens, the client notices that the note on the server was modified since the last time you synchronized. The client doesn't know exactly what was changed on the service, but it doesn't want to overwrite whatever change you've already made to that note.

When the client sees that a note has been edited locally and on the service, it puts a copy of the local note into a local "Conflicting Changes" notebook and then pulls down the updated server one. This preserves the local edits, while getting you back in sync with the service.

If you don't need the local changes at all, you can just delete the local version from the "Conflicting Changes" notebook. If you actually made local changes that you need to keep, then you can open the note in the Conflicting notebook, copy the changed content, and then paste it into the official synchronized version of the note in its original notebook. Then you can delete the local copy and sync to get updated.