(Archived) Tags beginning with period "." not synching properly and others

[CalS 5,280]

I've been using Evernote for over 3 years, thousands of notes, not a newbie.  Wondering if anyone else is having any issues with tags synching.  In particular:

1. I have been using a metaphor where I precede certain tag types with a character, = for people, ! for timing.  Modified GTD I suppose, helps with sorting tags.
2. Recently I noticed that newly added project tags (preceded with .) do not appear to be synching properly.
3. With only the notebooks in my synched stack in play and using the search tag:.*, the results are 499 on the web, 467 on work PC, 405 on home PC, 499 on iPhone.
4. It only appears to be with the . tag that is an issue.  The other leading character counts match..

Anyone else having such an issue?

 

Side note.  In doing this I have bee using the web client to validate.  Some weirdness there as well. 

1. I noticed the note counts on the web client didn't match the counts on my PCs, the web client has 2000 plus less notes.
2. I tried a tag:* and a -tag:* search to see if it would find more.  It didn't.  But in the process I found notes on the web that are on my PC where the web does not have the tags (not . tags).
3. Further, If I select a synched notebook, the web count next to the notebook displays 6265 for Chrome, Firefox and IE.  Next to View Options in the notelist, Chrome and Firefox diplay 6265, but IE displays 7966, which matches my PC.  Huh?
4. Also, the tag tree on the web does not include all tags.
5. If you search for a tag not shown, it can be found.

Anyone else see this issue?  Only thing that comes to mind for me is the Business update.  Can't remember precisely but there were some squirrelly tag issues then.  Thanks.

[jefito 5,589]

I don't see any problems with using tags that start with '.', based on limited testing with some new tags, and an old tag that I had already (".Net"). A search for tag:.* found all notes that I had tagged with these tags, on the Windows, Android and web clients.

 

Problems with the web clients tag display not showing all tags have been reported recently, so I would discount that as being in any way related.

 

You may need to open a support request.

[DavidPierson 15]

There is an issue with tags becoming out of synch, in some circumstances. My experience is that once this happens, the client will remain a "tag island" and will not regain tag synch. This was my experience with a Windows client, when I created a local notenook and created a tag against it first (I think that was the triggering sequence of events).

 

In hindsight (being a programmer myself) it is possible to see that a tag created against a local notebook is "vulnerable" in this regard.

 

My solution was to erase the PC client database and reload from the server. i had to manage the local notebook through this process, because otherwise you will lose it when erasing. I created the tags again against the synched notebook, and all okay since then.

 

Do you have local notebooks?

[CalS 5,280]

There is an issue with tags becoming out of synch, in some circumstances. My experience is that once this happens, the client will remain a "tag island" and will not regain tag synch. This was my experience with a Windows client, when I created a local notenook and created a tag against it first (I think that was the triggering sequence of events).

 

In hindsight (being a programmer myself) it is possible to see that a tag created against a local notebook is "vulnerable" in this regard.

 

My solution was to erase the PC client database and reload from the server. i had to manage the local notebook through this process, because otherwise you will lose it when erasing. I created the tags again against the synched notebook, and all okay since then.

 

Do you have local notebooks?

 

Yes I do have local notebooks, at work and at home with shared synched notebooks between.  Early on I moved all of the local notes with the tag to a synched notebook to see if that would address the issue.  it didn't.  Thanks for the thought though.  In my case the tag island is the server, the tag I want is on the PC, not on the server.

 

Here's how it works.  I have 3 notes with .Tag on my PC, it does not appear on the Web.  I tag the 3 notes on my PC with Tag.temp.  Now I can find them on the web with Tag.temp.  I add .Tag to the notes on the web, remove Tag.temp and all is in synch.

 

Since the tags and note counts appear to be accurate on my PC, I'm thinking about exporting my synched notes on the PC, deleting those notes on the PC, synch, validate null notebooks all around, and then importing the notes back to the PC.  I don't know that I trust the contents of the server at this point.  That will generate GBs of downloads all around.

 

One tends to wonder how it happened...

[jefito 5,589]

As noted before, the web client is not currently the source of all truth, with respect to tags. My tag tree is cut off after about 8 top-level tags/tag trees. The same issue has been reported by at least two others on these forums, so I'd be wary of web client results for the present. That being said, I was able to find notes beginning with '.' reliably on the web client, both explicitly and using the wild-card. If youcan validate your tags using a different client (Android or iOS, maybe?) it might help to confirm that everything is really OK. But prepping to export/import your notes from your known good source is probably a good idea too. And I'd still open a support request, too.

[jefito 5,589]

Typical EN twisting. All the time, we have been told (other evangelist), the web client is the, the source of all truth, the database on the server is that reference, and now it is not valid anymore, or maybe a little bit valid. Come on EN become reliably at something for good.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but this is not twisting. I'm reporting (in the context of what the original poster is seeing, and what I've seen and reported in the past week) what I think is a bug with the Evernote web client. In general, since the web client speaks directly to your note database on the Evernote servers, and doesn't involve syncing (which removes one variable from the equation), we consider that client to be more 'truthful' (or at least, more capable of truth) than other clients that do sync. But it's still software, and software can have bugs, and that's what I think that this is.

[CalS 5,280]

Typical EN twisting. All the time, we have been told (other evangelist), the web client is the, the source of all truth, the database on the server is that reference, and now it is not valid anymore, or maybe a little bit valid. Come on EN become reliably at something for good.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but this is not twisting. I'm reporting (in the context of what the original poster is seeing, and what I've seen and reported in the past week) what I think is a bug with the Evernote web client. In general, since the web client speaks directly to your note database on the Evernote servers, and doesn't involve syncing (which removes one variable from the equation), we consider that client to be more 'truthful' (or at least, more capable of truth) than other clients that do sync. But it's still software, and software can have bugs, and that's what I think that this is.

 

As the OP, there is a difference between presentation and content.  The web does present spurious results at the moment, but I believe you can find a specific note through a search.  However, it's a content issue when you do find that note on the web and it doesn't have the same tags as it does on the PC. 

 

Supports recommendation was to

1. Don't use the .xxx tag
2. Move your data base and reload from the server

My response

1. Huh?
2. "Overwrite" the good data?

So I shall now, through the power of non period tags, isolate and grind my problem notes inot submission.  And hope the gremlin doesn't reappear.  I'm sure as a use it must be my fault.  Sarcasm intended, even though I still do really like the product.  Go figure.

[CalS 5,280]

Of course as soon as I say something unbecoming, I get this, I mean literally, just got it.  Anyway, sounds like export and import selective notes is the way to go for a bit.  Thanks, Korben.

 

 

Hello Cal,

 

I do apologize for the delay on this one. I've been able to reproduce the tag issue intermittently myself now. I am not sure what exactly the trend is, or why certain tags prefixed with periods work and some don't. I have filed this as a bug with the engineering team. Hopefully they will be able to pinpoint the exact issue and issue a fix for it in an upcoming release. I am really sorry about that.

 

As for your previous suggestion - that would work as a valid method of restoring without losing the tag relationships.

 

Korben D.

Evernote Support

[jefito 5,589]

@csihilling: I think that that sounds like a promising direction. We'll see. My angle on this was only with respect to the web client not displaying the tag tree properly -- I didn't really have the time try to fully to build up a similar test case to yours and try to chase down note counts on different machines or do full-on search tests; I couldn't replicate it in limited testing, but thought that I should try inject some caution against believing that the web client is always (or ever, it's software after all) being the source of all Evernote truth.