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Sync not working on a new Win 7 computer


skeezaroonie

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I have used EN free on several devices.  My main desktop machine (win 7, home premium 64bit) has died so I installed EN on a new Win 7 (pro 64) box.  I also use EN on a couple of Android tablets and a smart phone, works great.  In the past I have also had EN on a couple of laptops.  Never had any trouble syncing on any of the devices.  On the new machine however, sync is not working.  At first, if would bring in 30 or 40 notes then report an error syncing.  After many tries, there appear to be about 350 notes in the new machine's EN.  Not all my reminders and none of the shortcuts are loaded.   EN tries to sync every once in a while, or on a manual sync command i get the spinning sync icon, then it errors out with a little red x on the sync icon.  Each time it tried to sync the first first times it would pull a half-dozen or so notes in before stopping.  Now it doesn't seem to be getting any new notes, Now, it's stuck on 356 notes and now more notes have appeared in several attempts.  (I currently have something on the order of 2500 total).   

 

I tried uninstalling, downloading again and resinstalling.  When I opened up the new install it still showed the notes from the failed syncs of the original install.

 

Each time the program attempts a sync it works for a little over 2 mins before erroring out.  When I look at the activity log there are over 2600 new log entries in the 2:11 time elapsed.  Geez.  Any help muchly appreciated.,

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  • Level 5*

OK back to basics then.  Try -

 

Evernote > File > Exit / rename database folder / re-download database

 

If that doesn't work,  use Revo Uninstaller to completely nuke your current installation of Evernote and reinstall (again).

 

If that doesn't work,  raise a support ticket here - https://evernote.com/contact/support/  - and choose login/ account access issue from the first dropdown.  Cross fingers...

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  • Level 5*

Sorry - timezone alert.  It's currently stupid o'clock in the UK and I have an irrational need to lie down somewhere and snore loudly.  Good luck with your fix - I'll catch up tomorrow!!

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Dead in the water, nuthin' nuthin' Did the Database rename, Revo uninstall and so on.  Found a discussion about other people having sync problems - tried an earlier verstion (5.2.something) that one user reported as having solved the problem, did nothing for me.  Put in a support ticket,, we'll see what happens.

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Well, the story gets worse.  In all the back and forth, trying to see what was or wasn't happening, I discovered in the web account that some 280-odd notes had been put into TRASH.  I could see no rhyme nor reason to what was there, they seemed to span different notebooks and dates.  There were some that were fairly large, with pictures and attachments, there were others that were simply short text notes.  I could see no common thread holding these trashed notes together.  Some were critical bits of information that I depend on EN to keep for me, others were just little snippets of random information I had saved but I am clueless as to how any of these notes ended up in a trash folder.  I do know it would be a disaster to my record keeping to lose many of those notes that were in the trash folder.  I went through the lot and manually either removed or deleted them one-by-one.

 

I thought for a while that clearing this bunch of trashed notes might have helped clear the sync problem.  As I was clearing out the trashed notes I saw that instead of totally failing to sync any of my notes (in about the fifth uninstall/re-install cycle) that there were some notes being synced to the new computer.  At first there were a couple of hundred notes loading before the dreaded sync failure would happen.  And each time I clicked on the sync icon to initiate a sync, more notes would appear.  So I sat there like a dunce for the next couple of hours (well past stupid o'clock, gazumped) re-running synch and watching a few more of the notes appearing in the desktop ENeach time.  But, of course, after 10 or more of those sync attempts, with a little over 2000 notes now loaded, it reached a point where it quit syncing anymore notes, about 180 notes shy of the total that are in the web EN.

 

And of course, with sync trying and failing like that, no new notes I create on the desktop are showing up in the web.  I created a test message in the web and that did sync down to the desktop but not up from the desktop to the web.   I haven't even had the courage to check my smartphone or tablet to see what is, or isn't, syncing there.

 

At this point I am really discouraged. Without the ability to sync I am pretty much dead in the water.

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  • Level 5*

You're really having a hard time of it - there's no reason why Evernote would move some of your notes to Trash,  and I don't think we've had any reports that this has happened with recent updates.  Plus I've used Evernote on Win 7 - though all my machines have by now been replaced with Win 8.  Ironically I'm having trouble syncing today - probably Finagles Law as applied to websites and holiday periods.  If that continues into tomorrow I'll let you know.  Hopefully your ticket will get some attention soon,  though just before the holidays it was taking 4-5 days to get a human response.  If you're happy that you got most of your database downloaded I'd suggest you get a backup copy of your local database folder just in case.

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I was sure gobsmacked when I found all those notes (about 280-odd) that had been put into the trash folder, particularly considering the randomness of the placement such that some of the notes had some quite critical and unrepeatable data.  And as for getting the bulk of my notes into the local machine's database - that didn't really help at all as the sync continued to fail without updating any data past the 2060-odd notes it did finally (with many re-sync commands) manage to save.  Not being able to sync means that I basically have a boat anchor for a database.  

 

I also found some discussion about Tags causing a problem (clutching at straws here) but i did have a goodly number of rather un-thought out Tags so I've spent the morning cleaning up the web copy, junking some useless notes, a couple of no longer needed folder topics, and a lot of those more useless tags.  I appear to be at least moving (tap wood) in the right direction as I am, even as I type, re-downloading a new database with the somewhat cleaned up data and am up to 688 notes synced and the little sync thingie is still spinning merrily along.  

 

This has not been a fun couple of days, i can tell you, but I don't know of an alternative to soldiering on trying to get this beast running as I have in the course of the 4 years of so of using it, come to pretty much totally depend on its being there to serve.  (Incidentally, I am a convertee from the old InfoSelect/Tornado PIM and sorely miss some of that program's simplicity but have completely bought into the EN model now.  In fact, I was about to pull the trigger on the paid version but now . . .    Although maybe I should pony up for a month's sub in order to get upgraded support.  Would that help, I wonder?

 

Oh, shoot << political correctness >> the dang sync just glitched at 833 notes.  OMFG, I am sure getting tired of this. <<Banging head on desk repeatedly>>

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  • Level 5*

Do you have another laptop you could try to install Evernote on?  I was having similar issues with my backup laptop - no rogue notes or tags,  but a refusal in Win 8.1 to download a database that was alive and well and syncing happily in Win 8.0 on the same desk.  I eventually cheated the download by copying the up-to-date database folder from the 'old' machine and copying onto the new one.  That immediately jumpstarted the other lappy into syncing happily and it's still working well some weeks later.  Maybe a transplant is what you need?

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Getting a little beady-eyed here but I am off on a try of something very similar to your suggestion.  I was able to restart the near-death machine that this new one is replacing and have made a copy of the database with the thought of a "transplant" almost the same as the one you're suggesting.   Even with the other problems the old machine had EN was quite happily running along with no problems so I reckon that db will be a good one to try to clone.

 

By the by, is there anyway that you know of other than syncing to a local machine to capture the web version of the database?  Just wonderin' really, because I have crossed fingers and sore knuckles from tapping wood that this new ploy will work for me.  Will be back with a report once I try this new maneuver.   Wheeee . . .

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 O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!  By golly, cloning in the new databases folder worked like a charm!!  Thank goodness I was able to wrestle the old system back to life long enough to get a copy of the folder.  I do believe the old system let out its last gasp at just about the time i finished copying the folder.
 
Fascinating that your suggestion and my thought about finding a good copy of the database to salt the install a little came at about the same time.  After watching the sync thingy spinning, spinning, spinning all day it was wild to see the sync complete in a little under a minute, even with all the changes I had made in cleaning up the web side.
 
I really think I can actually exhale now, it seems to be dead stable and good to go.  I'll give an update should it prove otherwise at some point.  Many, many thanks Gazumped, I owe you a good old Texas BBQ if you ever make it over to this side of the pond.  Sure appreciate the handholding and support.

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  • Level 5*

Glad things got sorted out.  Odd that a clone works where a straight download /sync doesn't.  Sadly the only way to get one is to have one - there has to be an more-or-less up to date working machine somewhere handy from which to copy the database.  Or a recent backup.  Another reason for keeping those backups going...

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Well . . .   things are working more or less fine with one big, BIG exception: Once again, I found a lot of notes in my Trash folder, important notes that would be disastrous to lose.  This time there are 204 notes in the trash folder - a few are ones I deleted deliberately - but by far the large majority of these were NOT intended for the trash.  Again, I can see no rhyme nor reason to the nature of these notes, they are from different folders, with different tags,, and different types - some text, some with images, some with PDFs attached and so on.  GOOD GRIEF!  I have a an hour or two going through these to restore them back to their intended locations  And since i am clueless as to how they ended up there I am also just as clueless how to prevent this from happening going forward.

 

I did spring for a paid subscription and I think it's time for me to try and get some support for this one - it's a serious and scary problem to have such important records seemingly choosing to delete themselves or some such. 

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