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Evernote for Windows 5.8.1.6061 SYNC bug


frankysea

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Hi,

At home I've returned to my default network settings and everything is still working fine.

So the problem with synchronization could be some kind of "lock" on the server for a specific account AND it is related somehow with Network Address Translation in situation when translation is many to one (many private addresses to one public address). I think, that an additional condition for the "lock" bug is a presence of more than one computer with Evernote app running in the network.

In my situation the "lock" happened in my home network (30Mbps Ethernet) and in my office network (>100Mbps Ethernet) as well. In my home network there are three laptops with Evernote app while in my office a tens of laptops with Evernote app may running. When I've "unlocked" my Evernote app by changing the IP address in my home network then in the office I was "unlocked" too.

 

Summarizing: I think that for everyone with a similar situation there are two solutions. I don't know if you are familiar with networking, so I assumed that one solution will be "difficult" to some users, while the second one should be much easier:

 

1. The "difficult" one:  Close the Evernote app and then change your IP address. For example if the DHCP server always gives to your computer address: 192.168.1.12 then try to use any other FREE address in this network, for example: 192.168.1.15. Then test your connection. If you can browse the Internet, then run the Evernote app. It should synchronize fine, and you should be "unlocked".

2. The "easy" way: try to use Internet in any new place - it should be a new place for your laptop, not for you ;) But remember that an open, public WiFi hotspot is not the best solution because:

- using an open, public WiFi is not a secure and recommended way of connecting to the network (unless you exactly know what you do)

- potentially, you have a lot of new notes to synchronize, so the fast and reliable connection should be your choice.

 

I hope it will help you.

Regards,

bmi

 

PS I'm sorry for my bad English - I'm still learning :)

 

Great suggestion and a good observation! I tried this in November and it did not work for me, however my sync failed again today so I switched my IP on my work network. I did ipconfig /release and then I manually set a new IP and also ipconfig /flushdns just for good measure as I have been on and off my VPN. I am able to sync again now! 

 

I just don't understand why in November when I could not sync this did not work. I brought my laptop away from work to a different network and it still failed, however the other network does have many many hosts, with a netmask of /20. 

 

I also see a lot of poor design with the Evernote sync system. When it tries to sync it submits batches of notes to upload or download. Some of these batches may succeed or reach a progress of around 85% but after the sync fails it starts over again. This is a big waste of resources especially for people that have limited connection bandwidth. 

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Evernote team Jack send me an Email this morning (Hong Kong time) and he said Evernote team has finally located the cause of he problem, although the latest version might not be able to solve the problem perfectly, but their team are actively working on it and it will be solved soon.

:D  

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Frank is correct. This issue affected all of Evernote land (and not just Evernote Windows). It was a global issue that our Windows users helped us pinpoint. We hope to see a speedy resolution but please be patient since this will likely require a service-wide set of changes.

 

Thanks to everyone who submitted tickets. Thanks to everyone who posted on the forum. We couldn't have fixed this without you :)

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Well, that's good to hear Jack. However, I do have a few comments to make.
 

Firstly, I think there are a lot of folk out there that have demonstrated that they believe Evernote is a truly unique product that helps them hugely in their daily lives - whether for personal or business reasons. As I have related elsewhere, I have developed a way of using Evernote that not only generates a revenue stream for me (putting bread on the table and paying the rent), but also helps people in a humanitarian way. I could do it without Evernote, but it would cost me a lot of extra effort and time.

 

Secondly, I'm sorry, but I really don't feel that EN support is really doing what it should be doing: I have submitted multiple tickets, but all I have got back is a message saying, "I've pushed this further up the line", but I have never got a definitive reply that "this or that has been fixed".  I finally get an e-mail asking "has the issue been fixed?". Well, yes, the problem does seem to have gone away, but I'm not quite sure why or how. Could we have a bit more feedback, in the form of, "We have done this and that, and that should make the problem go away". Also, Gaz has pointed out that Support does not respond to problems reported on the forums - fair enough - but then they don't respond in any other way either.

 

Thirdly (and lastly), I do hope that we will get a bit more feedback on what the problems were and how they have been fixed. Not just the bland, "Well, we found a few sync problems and we fixed 'em". I for one would like to understand what the problems were: I suspect that this has been a cross-function problem and may have to do with the size of notes, the fact that they contained URL's, and also has something to do with IP addresses. 

After all, when all is said and done - we the users are the people that make or break the product, so please help us to help you understand what we need (and what we don't need).

 

// set rant = off 

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A new version of Evernote for Windows is available.

 

5.8.3 Release notes:

 

New

Presence - See what other people are working on in the note list

Work Chat

Filter Work Chats by contact names, keywords, and attachments

Improved notifications around chat errors

Fixed

Context notification fixes

Miscellaneous Crashes

Sync improvements*

Note title font size issues

Enjoy!

 

* A note to customers experiencing sync errors where "no more data to read" appears in the activity log: We are able to reproduce the error and are working diligently on a resolution. 

 

 

It's that hilarious? Sync improvements* - It's not REALLY fixed yet, but we finally put the engineers to work on it! We didn't believe any of your trouble tickets until it happened to one of our engineers on his own machine...... 

 

That's what I get out of that statement. It's been about 3 months since I first had the issue and I submitted 2 tickets. I know several others with this issue also submitted tickets and most people that resolved the problem did so on their own or with some help of another forum user. Evernote should be ashamed of the way their customers (especially premium) have been treated on this issue.

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* A note to customers experiencing sync errors where "no more data to read" appears in the activity log: We are able to reproduce the error and are working diligently on a resolution. 
 
 
It's that hilarious? Sync improvements* - It's not REALLY fixed yet, but we finally put the engineers to work on it! We didn't believe any of your trouble tickets until it happened to one of our engineers on his own machine...... 
 
That's what I get out of that statement. It's been about 3 months since I first had the issue and I submitted 2 tickets. I know several others with this issue also submitted tickets and most people that resolved the problem did so on their own or with some help of another forum user. Evernote should be ashamed of the way their customers (especially premium) have been treated on this issue.

 

What's far more likely is that they've had people trying to reproduce the issue all along, and couldn't reliably, and engineers scouring the code without finding an obvious cause. I'm pretty sure that Evernote takes sync problems seriously, but it can be very difficult to fix reported problems if you can't reproduce them. 

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Rejoice - my Evernote Account has sync'ed successfully.

 

To achieve this:

  • I used Revo to remove all traces of the earlier downloads
  • downloaded latest windows version from the website
  • connected and waited a fair bit before any results were obvious.

Good luck to everyone else - Graham 

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According to jackolicious, the sync issue seems to be on the backend, and not client related:

 

 

Frank is correct. This issue affected all of Evernote land (and not just Evernote Windows). It was a global issue that our Windows users helped us pinpoint. We hope to see a speedy resolution but please be patient since this will likely require a service-wide set of changes.

 

Thanks to everyone who submitted tickets. Thanks to everyone who posted on the forum. We couldn't have fixed this without you  :)

 

 

 

Specifically, does it fix the sync issue that Jack reported on?

No. That is a service-wide fix that is not linked to client releases.

 

 

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Hello there....

Finally...Finally after almost a month of Ordeal....My Evernote account got over Sync Error...!!! Service Restored !!!  Yeay! (gets up and silently does a happy dance)  ;)

Well as promised, I said I'd let you guys know the step by step of how my problem was solved....but I don't actually have much to say here....
Turns out... I did get an immediate response from the Evernote Support team with regular follow up.... but the problem was at their technical en and mine happened to be one of the few accounts that suffered....sigh!!!

But I'm happy and humbled by the help I got from each end..starting right here...(Hola Gazumped...(Evernerd...I hope you're doing well  :) for helping me from the very beginning and then getting my case escalated in the long queue for Support Service )....The Evernote Support Team.... Evernote Tech Team.... A special thank you to Charboyd for the upgrade....  :)

 

So anyway...getting back to the how's of it.... today... as soon as there was an Evernote software update...voila....problem solved....!!!

 

Yes it did take a lot of time... yes, I had to keep a lot of patience.... but what can you do.... it is what it is ...and ...
As they say... all is well that ends well....So yeah I am happy... and of-course I am still using Evernote...(because I can't bring myself to like any other app...because Evernote has me hooked with the amazingly simplified way of maintaining notes and easy access...)

So yeah... to all of you all who have faced similar problems.... just go ahead and update your Evernote Desktop Version for a smooth run!!

Thanks again to everyone  

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What's far more likely is that they've had people trying to reproduce the issue all along, and couldn't reliably, and engineers scouring the code without finding an obvious cause. I'm pretty sure that Evernote takes sync problems seriously, but it can be very difficult to fix reported problems if you can't reproduce them.

That.

 

According to jackolicious, the sync issue seems to be on the backend, and not client related:

Which is one reason why it was so difficult to diagnose/reproduce. For some reason, only the Windows client seemed to have an allergic reaction...

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According to jackolicious, the sync issue seems to be on the backend, and not client related:

Which is one reason why it was so difficult to diagnose/reproduce. For some reason, only the Windows client seemed to have an allergic reaction...

 

 

Great.  Has the backend now been fixed?

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Great.  Has the backend now been fixed?

Yep! We've gotten confirmation from many users that one of our Windows client's largest sync issues has been resolved. There may still be residual issues but we should be able to diagnose those more efficiently now.

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Hate to rain on anyone's parade,  but now you've fixed the headline sync issue (as in no sync at all),  - and thankyou to all the team for fixing that,  because it must have been difficult both to find and resolve - what's the status on tag syncing? 

 

I run an Evernote Windows Desktop with arounf 19K notes on two machines,  mainly on the same wifi network - Win 8.0 and 8.1 respectively.  I copied the database from one to the other a while ago,  and up to now they've stayed in complete sync,  while I've edited and added notes on one or the other,  depending on where I was.

 

I happily spent some time yesterday on the 8.0 machine clearing out one notebook which had 216 files in it.  Along the way I found some old notes that were simply no longer needed,  and cleaned out some of those notes,  tagged others as possible  duplicates,  and moved the rest to my default notebook,  in some cases adding suitable tags.  From time to time I synced,  and occasionally got 'failed' pop-ups,  though when I finished on the active 8.0 machine I successfully synced it and left it to 'sit' for a while.

 

The 8.1 machine has also synced successfully several times since then.  Now here comes the 'But'...

  • The notebook that I emptied on the 8.0 machine and deleted is still showing as alive and well and containing 216 notes on the 8.1
  • A tag that has 171 notes on 8.0 has been created in 8.1,  but has 0 notes attached  [see edit:]
  • My new total notes after changes is 19,138 in 8.0,  but 19,193 in 8.1 - complicated by the fact that the notebook I deleted was a Local Notebook,  which now only exists on 8.1 so the true comparison is 19,138 vs 18,977.  So I'm 161 notes adrift somewhere...
  • and there are various other tag discrepancies that I can see,  but not quantify,  as I have around 1,000 tags. (A hold-over from the days when I liked tagging a lot but didn't realise my absent mindedness was so bad that I'd create lots of similar and separate tags for the same thing - see bank, banks, bankers, banking....)

There are enough tag issues on the forums here to confirm that tag syncing ain't working well enough yet...

 

Not looking for sympathy or workarounds here - worst case I'll copy the database from one to the other again - but it is an area that Evernote still needs to fix please!

 

 

 

Edit:  Just thought to check EN Web - that's an 'empty' tag there too - the tag is there,  but notes attached to it aren't.  Sync still shows as successful - last one completed 30 minutes ago.

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OK now I hope you've all seen the deliberate mistake I made above - because I physically copied the database folder from one machine to the other,  I got an accurate copy of local notebooks as well as the synced ones;  and because the notebook I deleted from one device was a local notebook that doesn't ever get synced that was probably why the deleted files are still on the other machine.  Doh.

 

Temporary insanitaryness notwithstanding however,  I still have a mismatch between 167 (synced) notes tagged on one,  and 0 tagged on the other,  though that's scarily close to the number of notes difference between the two databases...  Hmmn.  Reaches for  Meerschaum pipe and 7% solution (of coffee...).  Let me think on this Watson...

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@Gaz:  I think just one more complete uninstall and reinstall should do it for you.

If not, rinse and repeat.

 

:P Just kidding.  

 

Unfortunately that's the advice given to so many users posting problems here.  I'm sure you can see how frustrating it is, and how, with properly designed and debugged software, it shouldn't be necessary.

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Through frequent practice I have the uninstall / restart / reinstall / rebuild routine down flat,  and the first parts of that take me 15 minutes max - I still think it's a sensible start to any teching since it ensures that there's a known baseline from which to start.  And if you use PC (or Mac) software there's a built in guarantee that Things Will Go Wrong.  Usually at 2am when you want to go to bed,  or just before an important deadline with an impatient customer.  Glitches happen like a flat tyre on a Ferrarri - you can either whinge about it and wait for the roadside repair guy,  or take off your coat and fix the wheel.

 

The rebuild routine isn't recommended for anyone with 19,000+ notes,  but again if something is corrupted it's one way to match up the local and server databases.

 

The notes total is different on both machines and from the web,  but so far I'm not sure why.  As I said - still doing housekeeping and tidying notes!  Did think that a good answer to any feature requests for a while should be:  "Evernote will be concentrating on  note and tag sync issues for the rest of 2015".

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@Gaz:  I think maybe you missed my main point.

 

While I agree that an uninstall/reinstall will often fix an Evernote problem, I'm saying that with properly designed and debugged software, it shouldn't be necessary.

 

I've never used another app that so often requires an uninstall/reinstall, on either Windows or Mac.

In fact, I don't think I have ever had to reinstall another app on my Mac, and, while it is possible, I don't remember doing so on Windows, which I have used for over 20 years.

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No,  I got the point,  and it's a fine theory.  I've lost count of the number of different versions of the Office apps I've installed - and reinstalled,  and the browsers and browser extensions...  there's no such thing as software that can take account of all the different situations in which it will be expected to work - not to mention the doubtful teching skills of some of its users,  some of whom will be afraid to press a button until they know what it does,  and others who will click,  and click,  and click,  roaring the magic phrase "Why doesn't this work???".. and then wonder why the machine locked up.  And don't talk to me about BSOD's and memory errors.  Working with Evernote is a walk in the park by comparison.

 

The helpline I used to be involved with catered for Macs too,  and they had their fair share of problems.

 

If software were perfect,  life would be great.  What a nice dream.  Time for bed,  I think...  :)

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@Gaz:  Clearly we have had quite different experience in the software world.  I'm not talking about theory or dreams.  I'm talking about real world experience.  Yes, all software has bugs and issues, but very, very few are such that it requires that the user uninstall and reinstall on a repeated basis.

 

Pretending that the Evernote reinstall cycle is anywhere near close to normal or acceptable behavior is just pure denial.

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Oh for goodness' sake. Evernote does not require users to re-install on a regular basis. Reinstallation is a procedure that you can try if something goes awry, and it can work (and we've discussed the whys of that previously), but it is not required for most users. The only reinstalls I do are updates -- and I follow the beta track, so they're reasonably frequent -- and across three different WIndows machines that get regular use (one's running on the Windows 10 preview). Uninstallation is part of the installation of a new version, for sure, but I can't say that I've ever uninstalled Evernote explicitly to go through a clean install. I have,a couple of times wiped the database to do a fresh sync, but that's a different case, and pretty rare over 6 years of frequent use.

 

Note that Gaz has experience in the real software world; in my experience, people who do support are pretty clued in about what's going on. It's not theory, and it's not dreams; when you have an annoyed user on the line, you need to get them going, which means you need to know what to try and do. That is real world experience.

 

Let me repeat: Evernote does not require users to reinstall repeatedly. Pretending that is does is just pure delusion.

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Let me quote the condescending master:  "Oh for goodness' sake".  Get off your high horse.

 

I NEVER said that "Evernote requires users to reinstall repeatedly"

 

What I did say, and I stand by it, is that very often in these forums the advice is offered to uninstall/reinstall.

This applies to EN Win, EN Mac, and EN iOS.

And I stand by my statement:  "Pretending that the Evernote reinstall cycle is anywhere near close to normal or acceptable behavior is just pure denial."

 

And in case you don't understand that, it doesn't mean that Evernote requires user to reinstall repeatedly.  But it does mean that the reinstall cycle appears to be needed far more frequently with Evernote than any other app I've seen.

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I NEVER said that "Evernote requires users to reinstall repeatedly"

Really?

 

 

I've never used another app that so often requires an uninstall/reinstall, on either Windows or Mac.

 

@Gaz:  Clearly we have had quite different experience in the software world.  I'm not talking about theory or dreams.  I'm talking about real world experience.  Yes, all software has bugs and issues, but very, very few are such that it requires that the user uninstall and reinstall on a repeated basis.

 

Uh, Ok...

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I NEVER said that "Evernote requires users to reinstall repeatedly"

Really?

 

 

OK, there is some confusion about what is meant by "Evernote" in your statement and my reply.

I thought you meant Evernote the company.  AFAIK, Evernote the company has never published anything that says users of its apps must reinstall repeatedly.

 

But it is clear from the many posts in these forums that advice is often offered by others to uninstall/reinstall very early on in the process.  And, it does appear that many times a reinstall cures the issue.  That is actually my point.  It seems that the Evernote update process far too often causes problems that require a reinstall.

 

Below is an example of a knowledgable user having to reinstall Evernote many times.

There are many other posts of users stating that they have had to reinstall Evernote a number of times.

 

 

. . .

Uninstalled with Revo three times yesterday.

 

When will Evernote get this problem resolved?

 

Regards

 

 

Chris

 
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OK.  This is not so much wandering off topic as annexing another continent.  (We Brits used to be good at that.) 

 

On the subject at hand,  Sync is working pretty well for me ATM - 19,000 notes on x2 WIndows laptops and an Android phone;  IMHO there are some seriously shaky areas in the Tag system still,  and upgrades there are a definite priority,  since it's not an issue that only affects the owner of an account;  it's important that shared-in users have access to an effective system to find and edit notes.

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Everything is syncing well at the moment.

 

But!

 

I have noticed that if I make too many changes the sync fails.

 

For example, I have moved about a thousand Notes in two Notebooks into an archive Notebook. That went smoothly, but every time I sync it fails, after moving maybe 20 - 30 Notes to the cloud. The worst part of this, is it doesn't then get over the problem. When it should sync 5 minutes later, it doesn't because it is in fail mode. You have to click on sync to move the Notes over. I had hoped that if I left the computer running overnight it would sort itself out, but alas no!

 

Shame really as this is a necessary part of the way I use my Notebooks. It will take me a long time to sync nearly 2,000 Notes after moving them. Will try the next two Notebooks, either online or on the Mac as that always seemed to do the job easier than Windows. But it is a long time since I have used either.

 

Regards

 

Chris

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I'm not sure I would call that "syncing well", more like "syncing poorly"   ;)

 

 

Everything is syncing well at the moment.

 

But!

 

I have noticed that if I make too many changes the sync fails.

 

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Hi Michael, 

 

I take it that is a joke? 

 

The good news is that the Mac is working superbly and as it should - and I hasten to ad as it has always done. I moved 600 Notes from one Notebook to another and the sync process to the online version and Windows took a few minutes!

 

This means as I have suggested that this is a separate problem related to Windows.

 

Regards

 

 

Chris

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  • 3 months later...

I have the same problem. I relied on The software to sync my entries but I lost a lot of data in the meanwhile. What is this. I need my data for log in or log out. This terrible. What should I do.Tell me for the sake of........  

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I have the same problem. I relied on The software to sync my entries but I lost a lot of data in the meanwhile. What is this. I need my data for log in or log out. This terrible. What should I do.Tell me for the sake of........  

 

Hi.  If you'd like some help from this user forum I think it'd be helpful if you could give us a full background of what exactly happened to your data...?

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So. 

If that doesn't help:

  • Long-time user or recent installation?
  • What version of Windows are you using?
  • Installed desktop or web/ browser version?
  • Have you checked your

- EN Web account by logging in here in a desktop browser? - https://www.evernote.com/Login.action

- Activity Log for any hints as to what's going wrong?

- security settings per this forum post? - https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/76311-cant-login-to-server/?p=323421

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