(Archived) HELP: Mac client suddenly lost all notes and won't sync

[victorup 3]

Hi, all,

I do not know what happened just now, but my Evernote for Mac suddenly kicked me out, and asked me to log back in.

As soon as I logged back in, it said it was initializing for using for the 1st time. Then ALL my notes were GONE!

I tried to sync with the server, it quickly downloaded all the tags, but no notes have been downloaded and yet.

And it kept on saying:

Sync failure: unexpected transfer error

Synchronization failed because of an unexpected data transfer error with the Evernote servers. If the problem persists, please contact Evernote technical support.

I use the latest version Version 3.1.0 (246062).

Just verified the data on the server are still intact...

Help!

Victor

[dlu 628]

VIctor,

I would back everything up, especially if you have local notebooks. It sounds like you had a note migration failure, which is why your notes aren't showing up. Some users have mucked around in ~/Library/Application Support/ and basically done a manual migration. We're working on an update that will fix this.

If you don't have any local notebooks, a removal and clean install & initial downsync will fix this issue as well.

[victorup 3]

10Mbps is by no means modest. . Where I am ( Shanghai, China), my broadband subscription is 4Mbps.

With Evernote, the best sustained download I have seen is 300KB/s, the worst 20KB/s. Mostly I see around 90 KB/s. ( sorry about the change of unit).

While this rate is no problem for day to day Evernote sync, a complete download of the database is very painful for me...

Victor

Even with normal broadband download times, it can take a very long time (over a day I think, the last time I did it) for everything to sync and create the local database for my 6GB.

I see no reason for it to take over a day to download 6GB.

Let's look at the math:

EN DB = 6 GB x (1024 MB/GB) x (8 bits/byte) = 49,152 megabits

D/L Speed = 10 megabits/sec (Mbps)

D/L Time = (EN DB) / (D/L Speed) = 49,152/10 = 4,915.2 sec / (60 sec/min) = 81.92 min

So, assuming a very modest broadband D/L speed of 10Mbps, it would take only 82 minutes to download 6 GB.

(I routinely get > 20 Mbps D/L speed)

This, of course, is ONLY the download time, so we must allow some time for processing on both ends.

I'm not sure how much time this would be, but I can't believe it should take more than the time to download, so add another 82 minutes.

That gives us a total of 164 minutes, or about 2.7 hours, for the download to complete and the EN client to be ready to use.

So, how does 2.7 hours turn into more than 24 hours to download the 6 GB EN DB?

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

Even with normal broadband download times, it can take a very long time (over a day I think, the last time I did it) for everything to sync and create the local database for my 6GB.

I see no reason for it to take over a day to download 6GB.

Let's look at the math:

EN DB = 6 GB x (1024 MB/GB) x (8 bits/byte) = 49,152 megabits

D/L Speed = 10 megabits/sec (Mbps)

D/L Time = (EN DB) / (D/L Speed) = 49,152/10 = 4,915.2 sec / (60 sec/min) = 81.92 min

So, assuming a very modest broadband D/L speed of 10Mbps, it would take only 82 minutes to download 6 GB.

(I routinely get > 20 Mbps D/L speed)

This, of course, is ONLY the download time, so we must allow some time for processing on both ends.

I'm not sure how much time this would be, but I can't believe it should take more than the time to download, so add another 82 minutes.

That gives us a total of 164 minutes, or about 2.7 hours, for the download to complete and the EN client to be ready to use.

So, how does 2.7 hours turn into more than 24 hours to download the 6 GB EN DB?

You have spent too much time thinking about this JM

The answer is that the download speed is too slow. You can watch as the kilobytes tick by slowly but surely over the course of days. Every other site (not an exaggeration -- I mean every other site) downloads huge chunks of data larger than my entire account in the same amount of time it takes for Evernote to get just a few of my thousands of notes synced. The initial sync is made slow on Evernote's end, but I don't understand why they do it. I really hope they reconsider this policy, because I am uploading 1-2GB a month! By this time next year, it will take me about a week for an initial sync.

Solutions? Offline notebooks for the desktop (just like we have on the mobile devices -- I wouldn't even need to download it all in the first place ) or faster speeds. I'd prefer both

[bluesgeek 12]

So, how does 2.7 hours turn into more than 24 hours to download the 6 GB EN DB?

I'm not sure, and I don't do this every day so I don't know all of the processes, but I remember long, long periods of note processing after doing the download. I should mention that this was after a reinstall of the EN software.

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

Even with normal broadband download times, it can take a very long time (over a day I think, the last time I did it) for everything to sync and create the local database for my 6GB.

I see no reason for it to take over a day to download 6GB.

Let's look at the math:

EN DB = 6 GB x (1024 MB/GB) x (8 bits/byte) = 49,152 megabits

D/L Speed = 10 megabits/sec (Mbps)

D/L Time = (EN DB) / (D/L Speed) = 49,152/10 = 4,915.2 sec / (60 sec/min) = 81.92 min

So, assuming a very modest broadband D/L speed of 10Mbps, it would take only 82 minutes to download 6 GB.

(I routinely get > 20 Mbps D/L speed)

This, of course, is ONLY the download time, so we must allow some time for processing on both ends.

I'm not sure how much time this would be, but I can't believe it should take more than the time to download, so add another 82 minutes.

That gives us a total of 164 minutes, or about 2.7 hours, for the download to complete and the EN client to be ready to use.

So, how does 2.7 hours turn into more than 24 hours to download the 6 GB EN DB?

[bluesgeek 12]

last time it took me more than two days to sync my account. it wasn't much fun.

Today a clean "reinstall" is often given as the first remedy to a problem, which requires a full download of all Notes in the account.

As time goes on the size of one's EN account will grow larger and larger, making a reinstall a very impractical solution.

IMO, Evernote will need to provide better tools to repair the database, rather than delete and re-download.

or, faster downloads. it shouldn't take a couple of days to download a few gigabytes of data.

Even with normal broadband download times, it can take a very long time (over a day I think, the last time I did it) for everything to sync and create the local database for my 6GB.

[victorup 3]

Got an email from Evernote technical support with the following instruction.

We believe that reinstalling the latest Mac version may address the issue that you reported. Please perform the following steps:

<img alt="" /><img alt="" />

• 
  
  Quit Evernote from the elephant icon in the Menu Bar
  
  
• 
  
  Drag the Evernote application to the system Trash
  
  
• 
  
  Reboot your Mac
  
  
• 
  
  Download and install the latest version of the Mac client:
  
  
  http://www.evernote.com/about/download/get.php?file=EvernoteMac
  
  
  When you open the download, make sure to drag the Evernote icon into the Applications folder instead of running it from within the installer package.
  
  
  Eject the disk image and delete the installer file before you run Evernote.
  
  

Victor

[Metrodon 2,184]

or just hold down the alt key and select the Go Menu in Finder - it will magically show up.

[Mike C 0]

You won't see it in Finder by default - it is a hidden folder.

Use the Go menu in the Finder and enter the path ~/Library/Application Support/.

[jfinli 0]

I tried locating my ~/Library/Application Support/ folder and it's not there...there's no evernote folder anywhere on my imac except for the evernote.app . Any idea on why ? I tried unistalling and re-installing from the mac app store and still no folder...I realize I have almost all of my folders set to sync with EN, but I would still think there should be somewhere on my mac where evernote data is stored, even for the local folders.

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

IMO, Evernote will need to provide better tools to repair the database, rather than delete and re-download.

or, faster downloads. it shouldn't take a couple of days to download a few gigabytes of data.

I agree the downloads could be faster. But it is still just a matter of time until you have such a large account that even with the best available download speed it will still take a large amount of time.

It is fairly common in the database world to provide tools that repair the database, rather than rely on a backup copy:

• Backup copy may not be 100% current
  
• Restore from backup takes too long
  

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

last time it took me more than two days to sync my account. it wasn't much fun.

Today a clean "reinstall" is often given as the first remedy to a problem, which requires a full download of all Notes in the account.

As time goes on the size of one's EN account will grow larger and larger, making a reinstall a very impractical solution.

IMO, Evernote will need to provide better tools to repair the database, rather than delete and re-download.

or, faster downloads. it shouldn't take a couple of days to download a few gigabytes of data.

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

last time it took me more than two days to sync my account. it wasn't much fun.

Today a clean "reinstall" is often given as the first remedy to a problem, which requires a full download of all Notes in the account.

As time goes on the size of one's EN account will grow larger and larger, making a reinstall a very impractical solution.

IMO, Evernote will need to provide better tools to repair the database, rather than delete and re-download.

[victorup 3]

So true.

Evernote is one of those apps that the PC version is a lot better than the Mac version. I think the saving grace is Mac's built-in PDF functions.

Victor

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

Not sure what version it is as I am still stuck at the "Performing Initial Sync" window with 520+MB to download... Imagine what the pain if I had gig's data to re-sync.

I don't have to imagine. It took 10 hours for me last time.

JMichael's right, and I'm very sorry I didn't mention this: I hope you backed up your notes before starting the re-sync. Of course, if you didn't, I hope everything goes well.

last time it took me more than two days to sync my account. it wasn't much fun. fortunately, i had a windows netbook to tide me over. this turned out to be a problem, though, as it made me realize just how spectacular the windows user interface has become, and i didn't want to come back to the mac!

[peterfmartin 221]

Not sure what version it is as I am still stuck at the "Performing Initial Sync" window with 520+MB to download... Imagine what the pain if I had gig's data to re-sync.

I don't have to imagine. It took 10 hours for me last time.

JMichael's right, and I'm very sorry I didn't mention this: I hope you backed up your notes before starting the re-sync. Of course, if you didn't, I hope everything goes well.

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

. That said, the first thing support will probably tell you is to entirely delete Evernote from your computer, re-download it fresh, and let your notes sync again (since you say they're all still there on the servers). So you might want to do that before filing the support ticket and, if the problem happens after the fresh re-start, tell support that in your ticket.

BEFORE you delete anything I highly recommend that you backup everything in your Evernote folder.

Unless you are desperate to get to your lost notes, I would also wait until you hear from Evernote Support BEFORE you delete anything.

If you have another computer, or a mobile device, you might try installing Evernote there to see if your notes will be downloaded when the initial sync is done.

[victorup 3]

Yes, ugh... I have been using the new Mac client since the day it was launched, I think May 9. I have been in love with Evernote until this happened...

I filed a ticket.

I removed Evernote from my Mac, but none of the associated files (using App Zapper).

I found an old version of Evernote installation file on my Mac, and reinstalled. Not sure what version it is as I am still stuck at the "Performing Initial Sync" window with 520+MB to download... Imagine what the pain if I had gig's data to re-sync. Well, at lease all the data on the server are stil there... fingers crossed...

Victor

[peterfmartin 221]

Ugh. Did you just upgrade to a new version? If so, that might make this a little less weird, but obviously it's a problem either way. You should file a support ticket. That said, the first thing support will probably tell you is to entirely delete Evernote from your computer, re-download it fresh, and let your notes sync again (since you say they're all still there on the servers). So you might want to do that before filing the support ticket and, if the problem happens after the fresh re-start, tell support that in your ticket. Good luck, and keep us posted.