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Upgrades causing sync problems


nminter

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Posting this in an effort to help others that might be experiencing the same problems. My day to day use of EN is like this: use EN mainly from my Windows PC, then rely on sync via the EN cloud to automatically propagate those updates to other devices, in my case Galaxy S4. I rarely visit EN online, and only when I've got problems like these! I understand that the EN cloud is the mother ship and should hold the definitive, most up-to-date copy of everything. Recently however, after submitting to another system upgrade, updates stopped working from my Windows PC, even though there were no error messages from sync. I didn't realise immediately, only after a few days when I'm standing in front of a client trying to retrieve some important information on my S4, only to find old data! So now I have multiple updates on my Windows PC, with the EN cloud and my S4 both out-of-date!

 

They are some very frustrating threads on this topic from last year, so it's a problem that EN obviously have yet to resolve. As a non-Premium member it's difficult to get access to proper help and the help route overall seems largely inadequate. I have a call in at the moment (ticket #452973) with a stock reply, but I have no idea where to go to see the status.

 

My current status is that I now have sync working properly again but with lost data. I did this (from helpful threads) by:

 

  • Exported all notes on Windows PC (make sure you have all notes selected, otherwise EN just exports the current selection)
  • Stopped EN on Windows PC
  • Renamed EN database file on Windows PC
  • Started EN on Windows PC (this should trigger the immediate rebuild of everything from the mother ship)

 

I tried to import the exported notes on my Windows PC (I turned off sync completely first), but all it did was stuff them all in to a single Notebook, so not much help there. 

 

 

Bottom line is now I have a fundamental distrust of any upgrades not causing syncing problems.

 

 

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  • Level 5*

Hi.  Sorry to hear about your problems,  but you may have overreacted on the sync issue.  I've periodically had sync problems - whether that's been related to my notes / local setup / local internet connection or problems on the way to,  or at Evernote's end has never been clear.  The issues have always been resolved without any data loss of which I'm aware.  

 

Your process above however is basically flawed - all you need to do to preserve unsynced notes is to sort them by the 'sync' column so the notes with dots are at the top of the list.  Select only those notes to export.

 

If that list includes more than one notebook,  click on one notebook and re-sort your list to include only those notes.  Then export to an ENEX file.  Choose the next notebook..  that way you have an export file for each notebook. Rebuild your database by renaming it as you describe;  then re-import your notes one notebook at a time.

 

(There's also the option to temporarily tag each note with its notebook name and export to one file,  then sort them out again after re-importing)

 

There are various threads in the forums that describe the process - if the content is misleading please let us know which one(s) you referred to so we can flag that up.

 

There's no need to be concerned about updates however - just make sure you backup your database before updating.  Copying the EXB file to another location (in Windows) is enough.  If you have problems syncing,  check out the usual suspects in the forums here,  and if all else fails,  raise a support ticket (see below) or post here for some help.

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Thanks for the reply and advice. I restored the database from before the rebuild and did what you suggested. All well and good, and yes, there were around 50 dots in the Sync column which I've subsequently exported. The fact remains that when I try to Sync with the database in this state, I get no errors, just a message saying it's complete. And this co-incides directly with when I upgraded to the latest version. Expecting the average user to backup their databases is unrealistic and really shouldn't be necessary. 

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Thanks for the reply and advice. I restored the database from before the rebuild and did what you suggested. All well and good, and yes, there were around 50 dots in the Sync column which I've subsequently exported. The fact remains that when I try to Sync with the database in this state, I get no errors, just a message saying it's complete. And this co-incides directly with when I upgraded to the latest version. Expecting the average user to backup their databases is unrealistic and really shouldn't be necessary. 

 

I was recommending a backup for two reasons - 

  1. You're using a computer to store your data,  which in my experience means you'll suffer an unexpected mechanical,  electrical or application-related glitch about once a week,  and a catastrophic failure on average about once a year.  You need to keep backups,  whether you use Evernote or not.
  2. You seemed unhappy with updates,  so a specific backup should ensure you don't need to worry....
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I already take backups and anyway, that's not the issue. The ability to restore the EN Cloud is the issue. The EN knowledge base article http://evernote.com/contact/support/kb/#!/article/23186097 is complicated and messy. All I wanted to do was restore my PC database file (easy, just a couple of renames) and then have that overwrite the EN Cloud. The EN Cloud was out of sync, NOT my PC. As the majority of my inserts/amendments/deletions are actioned on the PC (which I should imagine is common amongst PC users), then that's where I'm going to lose my work. In an ideal world, an option to force sync the dots under the sync column would have been best. 

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I already take backups and anyway, that's not the issue. The ability to restore the EN Cloud is the issue. The EN knowledge base article http://evernote.com/contact/support/kb/#!/article/23186097 is complicated and messy. All I wanted to do was restore my PC database file (easy, just a couple of renames) and then have that overwrite the EN Cloud. The EN Cloud was out of sync, NOT my PC. As the majority of my inserts/amendments/deletions are actioned on the PC (which I should imagine is common amongst PC users), then that's where I'm going to lose my work. In an ideal world, an option to force sync the dots under the sync column would have been best.

In this case, what you'd need to do after restoring from your backup is to generate new Globally Unique Identifiers (GUIDs) for each note. Easy way to do this is move all notes to a local/non-synced notebook, then sync with the EN cloud. This should cause all notes to be removed from the cloud & can be verified by logging into the web client & confirming there are no notes. Then, on your PC, move all the notes back to synced notebooks & sync. Of course, this will go against your monthly upload limit.

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Expecting the average user to backup their databases is unrealistic and really shouldn't be necessary.

Sorry but I disagree...computers are such an integral part of most peoples' lives now. Knowing how to backup your data is as essential as getting the oil changed in your car. And just like changing the oil in your car, it really is necessary...unless you don't mind risking losing your data.

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