Bug: failure to create Conflicting Change note (Win8/Android)

[NtotheM 1]

What happened:

I create a new note (we'll call FirstPhoneNote) my 4.4.4 phone offline around 8:00 pm yesterday while walking around. I don't keep my phone data-connected unless I have some reason to turn data on.

 

Shortly thereafter, I get home and migrate to my Windows 8 PC. The phone synced upon it getting on WiFi at home, since I wanted to access an audio recording I had made while walking. More importantly, on the PC, I made extensive edits in a note, I'll call ImportantStuff. It appears to have sent to the server at 0:55. Before these changes, the note hadn't been edited for several days. I make changes to other notes until 2:00 am, and I am completely sure the desktop client synced.

 

Fast forward to 3:00 am. I have an idea to jot down on my phone (on WiFi at home). I create a new note (we'll call SecondPhoneNote) and edit, not changing ImportantStuff. I notice, however, that ImportantStuff seems to not have been updated from my 0:55 edits. I did a search for key words associated with the changes I made to ImportantStuff to make sure that the changes that I thought I put in ImportantStuff were not elsewhere. There was nothing. No Conflicting Change note -- nothing. I do not think I made any changes to ImportantStuff on the phone. I'm also very confident the phone synced at this time.

 

I go back to the desktop client in the morning, wondering whether simply opening Evernote will cause it to produce the Conflicting Change note. In the desktop client, I copy ImportantStuff as a safeguard and fire off a sync, desktop-side. The desktop client simply updated to the several days old version of ImportantStuff, the same version perplexingly seen on my phone. I can't understand how that happened. I know the server synced after the major changes to ImportantStuff last night (0:55). I know the phone synced before I got to the desktop client this morning, since the desktop version now has FirstPhoneNote and SecondPhoneNote. How did a Conflicting Change note not appear for ImportantStuff? The old Important Stuff erased the newer ImportantStuff.

 

A few minutes ago:

Thankfully, I had copied the changes to ImportantStuff before it got synced to the days-old version. I pasted the contents back into the note and synced Evernote from the desktop. It updated to the old version again! I could continue making changes to ImportantStuff within the desktop client, but upon syncing (from within desktop client) it would revert to the old state of ImportantStuff. I could do this repetitively and no Conflicting Change note would appear -- one note would simply erase the other.

 

To have the desktop ImportantStuff override the phone ImportantStuff, I updated desktop-ImportantStuff, made changes but did not sync, fired a manual sync from the phone, and then synced the desktop client, and finally fired antoher sync from the phone. I think... it was complicated. This resulted in the both desktop/phone being the same. Right now I'm trying to figure out whether other notes, besides ImportantStuff, have had their changes (made around 0:55) lost.

 

Not the first time?

I've noticed that I've had note changes mysteriously disappear before, but I previous wrote it off as not remembering it right. I am now wondering whether a similar problem has been plaguing my use of Evernote all this time. I do not use the paid version of Evernote, in case that's important. I won't upgrade until I am sure that this type of phantom error isn't about to happen.

[gazumped 11,652]

It doesn't sound like a phantom error,  it sounds like missing syncs.  Your timeline is something like

• Notes on phone > sync to server at home
• xx Notes on PC > sync to server
• xx More notes on phone + searches for "important stuff" only turn up old version > sync to server
• Copy old note on PC > ignored as note changes dated before server copy.

In each case you don't mention a manual sync to make sure the database is up to date when you start using Evernote.  In both cases (xx) above if you had synced first to update everything,  then synced afterward (as you did) to update the server for the next device,  you should have had no problems.

[NtotheM 1]

I think that generally explains the problem, but it is exceedingly annoying. I noticed that a similar outcome happened again, but I'm not sure if it has the same cause.

 

From now on, I do not plan on editing notes on my phone, since this all seems too unreliable. That "Conflicting Change" notes do not appear when this type of thing happens is ridiculous. Now, I make new notes on the phone, and integrate those new notes into my old ones manually. Let us hope this solves my problem, otherwise I don't even...