(Archived) Is There a Fundamental Issue with Synchronization?

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

During the last few days I have noticed more posts across many platforms concerning sync issues than ever before.

You can do the search in these forums yourself to see just how many there are.

This begs the question: Are they related?

I myself had my first ever sync issue two days ago when I did a simple test to see how a Note created on the Mac would be handled when it was edited on my iPhone 4S. The result was I was unable to sync any Notes on the iPhone. I filed a support case. I was running the latest versions on both devices, both OS and EN.

I can only hope that the EN support team is looking at all of the sync issue posts in these forums along with support cases to determine if there is a common cause. IMO, this has to be a top priority.

Having an absolutely reliable sync across all my EN devices is the most important EN feature to me.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

I am still able to sync. One of my notes for some reason (just a few lines of text) has stopped syncing, and I have opened a support ticket, but otherwise it is working. From what I have read on the forums, I don't think it is a widespread "sync" issue, but a couple of problems with note formats that are causing syncing problems.

In other words, the syncing service is up and running. Syncing works for most notes. But, there are bugs causing some notes to fail. Does this sound right?

[Owyn 457]

I have been seeing no problems with Web<>Windows sync, or, with Web>iOS syncs.

I have avoided creating or editing notes on Evernote iOS for some time, so, no iOS>Web required.

No problems seen with FastEver(iOS)>Web.

[Cerridwen 1]

I am having the same issue. I edited a note on my iPad and every synchronization attempt returns an error: u11. I have no url or check boxes in the note; it's just text. My husband also cannot sync from his iPhone and gets the same error. I'm getting frustrated.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

Again, this does not mean it is an issue with synchronization. That is the activity you are trying to perform, but the reason for the failure must have something to do with the formatting. Obviously this is a bug of some sort, but if we can figure out the cause (dates and numbers that Evernote tries to hyperlink?) then we can avoid it. For the record, I haven't had any U11 errors, despite having underlined dates and numbers. My sync problems are happnening for some reason on the OSX side.

[Cerridwen 1]

Evernote did try to hyperlink the dates and times in my note. This is a note of my kids' weekly schedule that my husband and I pass back and forth so we know who needs to be where to pick up whom. I have no links, no images, no check boxes. I get the u11 error when I try to sync from a mobile device (iPad or iPhone) and another error when I sync from my MacBook Pro.

I just tried to email the note to my husband so that we both have a current copy, but I can't even email it until it successfully syncs... which it cannot do.

[Cerridwen 1]

So I opened a help ticket and sent my activity log. I was advised to delete the offending note, which I did. Then I tried to sync again and promptly got the same error. I checked the activity log and there's ANOTHER note that EN can't sync. If this continues, I will have nothing left.

What's the point of the program if the fix is to delete information I obviously have there for a reason?

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

There does seem to be a common thread that sync issues occur after edit of a Note on an iOS device.

However, I would request that EN change the sync process so that if one note causes a problem, it is skipped and the sync continues.

This would apply on all platforms, not just iOS.

Then perhaps an email notification should be sent to the user (and Evernote?) about the problem Note.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

There does seem to be a common thread that sync issues occur after edit of a Note on an iOS device.

Not everyone is having a problem after editing a note on iOS. I'm another one who's not encountered this error.

However, I would request that EN change the sync process so that if one note causes a problem, it is skipped and the sync continues.

This would apply on all platforms, not just iOS.

The desktops already do this - they put one of the offending notes into a local (non-synced) notebook labeled "conflicting notes". Since local notebooks do not exist on mobile devices, that's probably why conflicts are handled differently on mobile devices.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

There does seem to be a common thread that sync issues occur after edit of a Note on an iOS device.

Again, this suggests that it is not a problem with the sync, per se, but one with the edit. I am not having a problem with sync on my iPad, and I have lots of notes in various formats. I think the commonality here is that something odd is going on with the note formatting in the background. If we focus our attention on that, then we'll come up with a workaround.

As an analogy, it is like saying that everyone's cars seem broken because the engines have stopped working. Perhaps the problem isn't the engines, but the fact that they ran out of gas. In other words, the sync issue is a symptom of another problem.

[Cerridwen 1]

The desktops already do this - they put one of the offending notes into a local (non-synced) notebook labeled "conflicting notes". Since local notebooks do not exist on mobile devices, that's probably why conflicts are handled differently on mobile devices.

On the contrary, I am also receiving an error on my laptop when I try to sync. The error is across all my devices and on my husband's iPhone (different EN account) with shared notes.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

The desktops already do this - they put one of the offending notes into a local (non-synced) notebook labeled "conflicting notes". Since local notebooks do not exist on mobile devices, that's probably why conflicts are handled differently on mobile devices.

On the contrary, I am also receiving an error on my laptop when I try to sync. The error is across all my devices and on my husband's iPhone (different EN account) with shared notes.

I mistakenly referred to conflicting notes. If you're getting an error with a particular note, then as has been repeatedly stated, that doesn't mean there's a problem with the sync process itself. (Which is the subject line of this thread.) Many of us are syncing just fine. It's not helpful to broad brush a particular issue as "the" problem. I'm also pretty sure if there were a valid/good way to skip the offending note(s) & continue with sync, that EN would have incorporated it. It could well be that proceeding with an update may compound the problem. While an ungraceful exit is irritating, it may be the better option, until the problem note is fixed.

[Cerridwen 1]

I agree, it probably doesn't indicate a problem with the sync process. In my case, the activity logs showed an error with a particular note, I'll call it #1, which I copied then deleted in the hopes of resolving the issue. I did empty the trash. When I tried to sync again, EN returned the error again, and this time the activity logs are showing a problem with note #2. It appears to have a problem with each of my notes, but deleting them one at a time until there's nothing left to return the error kind of makes the app pointless.

I've been using EN for a couple weeks now as a paid customer. I was very excited to use it, since it appeared to be exactly the app I was looking for as far as sharing and editing across devices. Since I still believe it's a great product, I'm letting the dev team know what's going on rather than just deleting the app and moving on, which is what I would normally do if an app stopped functioning.

Fingers crossed this can be fixed!

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

I've been using EN for a couple weeks now as a paid customer. I was very excited to use it, since it appeared to be exactly the app I was looking for as far as sharing and editing across devices. Since I still believe it's a great product, I'm letting the dev team know what's going on rather than just deleting the app and moving on, which is what I would normally do if an app stopped functioning.

Fingers crossed this can be fixed!

I'm glad you're working with the devs on this & sticking with it. I've been using EN for three years now. Had a premium account since August 2009. It's by far my most used app on my desktop (and I have a LOT of them.) I do use it on my iPhone but primarily on my desktops. Once you get this worked out, I think you'll love Evernote.

Good luck!

[Cerridwen 1]

Just a shout-out to the dev team... they got back to me already and have identified the problem (autoformatting of certain types of information) and gave me a workaround:

You shouldn't need to delete the note to fix the sync issue. There is currently a new known issue with Evernote sync that is caused by auto date formatting in iOS. Any notes that have dates that get auto formatted by iOS (such as 10-31-2011) will cause an error with sync. The solution for the time being is to either remove the autoformatted dates or change them to period formatting (10.31.2011) as this format appears to not be causing any issues. Our engineering team is investigating this issue and looking for a fix. I really apologize for the inconvenience.

I've removed the autoformatted text in my notes and will continue to use a modified format until I find out they've fixed it. Also, iOS seems to be autoformatting several other forms of text as well, including times (6:00PM) and days with a number (Monday 24), so be aware. Hopefully they can take care of this soon, but I'm not giving up.

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

There is currently a new known issue with Evernote sync that is caused by auto date formatting in iOS. Any notes that have dates that get auto formatted by iOS (such as 10-31-2011) will cause an error with sync.

Well, how 'bout that. I guess there is an issue with sync afterall.

Interesting given the above comments.

[gbarry 2,658]

There is currently a new known issue with Evernote sync that is caused by auto date formatting in iOS. Any notes that have dates that get auto formatted by iOS (such as 10-31-2011) will cause an error with sync.

Well, how 'bout that. I guess there is an issue with sync afterall. Interesting given the above comments.

It really seems to be semantics at this point, but the above discussion centered around there being something specifically wrong with sync, and intimated that there was something wrong with the architecture, thus causing sync issues across multiple platforms. Which isn't true, nor intimated in support's response.

EDITED TO MAKE ACTUAL SENSE: Grumpy and BNF were saying that the real problem is a formatting issue interrupting a sync, which is entirely different from a fundamental issue with our architecture.