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(Archived) Feature Request: Conflicting Copies


shwarrior

Idea

I use Evernote on multiple devices (computer, phone, tablet) and though try to be aware of it, at times create conflicting copies of a note when making updates while offline on one device then updates online with a different device before 1st device has a chance to get back online and update. No problem, ***** happens. Problem is when working on multiple things within Evernote, I sometimes don't know exactly what I changed or where the differences are between the two notes. A feature of highlighting where the actual conflicts are between the conflicting copies would be a huge help and time saver.

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13 replies to this idea

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  • Level 5*

Hi - welcome to the forums.

 

I think this was one of my first requests a few years ago,  but nothing has come of it yet..

 

I guess the developers think that if you've only just changed something,  chances are you will remember pretty clearly what you did and can quickly confirm which one is the 'correct' version.

 

Mind you if my memory was that good I wouldn't need Evernote in the first place!

 

Presumably the client just compares date and time stamps and sticks any anomalous notes into the Conflicts notebook - so it's not comparing line for line.  Any subsequent highlighting would need a character-by-character scan - which given the possibility of attachments and different codings might be a touch challenging to arrange.

 

Sounds like good material for an add-in if there are any developers out there interested in the challenge.  At least two of us here would be interested..

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  • Level 5*

Hi - welcome to the forums.

 

I think this was one of my first requests a few years ago,  but nothing has come of it yet..

 

I guess the developers think that if you've only just changed something,  chances are you will remember pretty clearly what you did and can quickly confirm which one is the 'correct' version.

 

Mind you if my memory was that good I wouldn't need Evernote in the first place!

 

Presumably the client just compares date and time stamps and sticks any anomalous notes into the Conflicts notebook - so it's not comparing line for line.  Any subsequent highlighting would need a character-by-character scan - which given the possibility of attachments and different codings might be a touch challenging to arrange.

 

Sounds like good material for an add-in if there are any developers out there interested in the challenge.  At least two of us here would be interested..

You can add me to the list :)

I've got a massive note from last September that got a conflict on iOS, which means they paste the conflicted part at the bottom of the note. I made a bunch of changes over time to the note (the bibliography for my dissertation) before I discovered one day that there was a conflict notice in the middle of the note! I am still working through that mess about half a year later. So, two problems: the iOS conflict notification system (non-existent -- you just have it appended to the bottom of a note without any notification of the error) and the inability to go through and compare changes in any conflicted notes to figure out what happened.

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  • Level 5

We are going to work *very* hard this year on making these less frequent. However, since we are an offline client as well, merge conflicts are inevitable. 

 

Just know this is important to us and we hope to make progress on it soon.

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  • Level 5*

We are going to work *very* hard this year on making these less frequent. However, since we are an offline client as well, merge conflicts are inevitable. 

 

Just know this is important to us and we hope to make progress on it soon.

 

Cool :)

 

I actually get very few now. There were a lot of problems for me back in September and October (maybe an iOS issue more than a Mac one). Nowadays, I might get one every month or so, but it could even be less. It is definitely infrequent. 

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We are going to work *very* hard this year on making these less frequent. However, since we are an offline client as well, merge conflicts are inevitable. 

 

Just know this is important to us and we hope to make progress on it soon.

 

Very cool beans.

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  • Level 5*

We are going to work *very* hard this year on making these less frequent. However, since we are an offline client as well, merge conflicts are inevitable. 

 

Just know this is important to us and we hope to make progress on it soon.

 

Great News!

 

But (pretty please) can we have a comparison option anyway as part of your review?  If conflicts will still occur,  it will make life easier in unravelling them!

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  • Level 5*

But how  do you unscramble it so that all the notes are identical again?

 

...All the notes?  How many conflicts do you have?

 

-And the answer to your question: compare the contents of two notes and build one of them into the 'correct' version.  Delete the other note.  Load the next two...

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But how  do you unscramble it so that all the notes are identical again?

 

...All the notes?  How many conflicts do you have?

 

-And the answer to your question: compare the contents of two notes and build one of them into the 'correct' version.  Delete the other note.  Load the next two...

 

This is a task that would be much simpler if there were a tool that would indicate what those differences were, and ideally let the user select which of the two differences should be carried into the merged note (ideally, with the ability to review/change all choices before committing)

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Developers could definitely help out here, but we need a little support from Evernote. Right now, we can compare the two current conflicting versions, which is a good start. What would be really nice would be to have access to the version of the file which is the most recent common ancestor of both. Then we could put together a nice app where the user sees how each version changed from that ancestor and which changes from each child version should be applied to create a new merged version. There should be enough information to even do it automatically, or at least suggest an automatically merged version to the user. This is easily done with text, but it should work with non-text as well, in the sense of what was added, removed, moved, etc.

 

This sort of thing is standard in revision control systems. Actually, being able to go back to previous versions of documents in general would be a big win.

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  • Level 5*

Developers could definitely help out here, but we need a little support from Evernote. Right now, we can compare the two current conflicting versions, which is a good start. What would be really nice would be to have access to the version of the file which is the most recent common ancestor of both. Then we could put together a nice app where the user sees how each version changed from that ancestor and which changes from each child version should be applied to create a new merged version. There should be enough information to even do it automatically, or at least suggest an automatically merged version to the user. This is easily done with text, but it should work with non-text as well, in the sense of what was added, removed, moved, etc.

 

This sort of thing is standard in revision control systems. Actually, being able to go back to previous versions of documents in general would be a big win.

 

Sounds like what you need is a revision control system.  Evernote,  sadly..

 

However - previous versions of notes? Premium subscription.

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"This is a task that would be much simpler if there were a tool that would indicate what those differences were, and ideally let the user select which of the two differences should be carried into the merged note (ideally, with the ability to review/change all choices before committing"

This x10

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