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My first confirmed sync failure. Super irritating and product confidence shaker


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I use Evernote for work, capturing key documentation and drafting proposals, etc.

 

Yesterday I edited numerous textual updates to an important note. Edits were made in the Windows client, and it always syncs on close (as well as every 15 minutes). I'm confident the changes were initially captured.

 

This morning I open Evernote on my iPad to prepare for meetings where the note is highly relevant....and just the old note is present. Very, very disturbed to have lost that information.

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As @gazumped suggested, I'd check to see whether the web client has your changes. 

Have you checked for a conflicting changes note, perhaps, in a conflicting changes notebook? That happens if the same note was open/ in edit mode on at least 2 devices simultaneously. A conflicting changes notebook is automatically created when a conflicting changes note has been generated... but those are not too difficult to spot when you're sorting your notes by last updated/ created.

One could also check, just to be doubly sure, your activity log on Desktop... you could compare sync times against your last "updated" time of the note in question (unless you've subsequently gone ahead and edited the note this morning).

Another telltale sign might have been the blue un-synced indicator in the top right of a note in snippet/ card view. I wouldn't normally bother to do a manual sync if I don't see any, depending on how you're sorting. 

 56cdc5b784720_telltalesign.PNG.3b1b5a74c

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58 minutes ago, gazumped said:

AFAIK your activity log should show when and whether a note syncs successfully

The activity log contains a detailed list of the steps the Evernote application performs, as well as information about my account and my device. Note titles, Notebook names and occasionally Note content is also included.

Occasionally, I will scroll and scroll and scroll through the very lengthy log. A user suggested the most important information is found in the last 12 lines of the log. 

Are you aware of documentation from Evernote that explains the structure and details of this massive document?

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@jbenson2 - no documentation as such..  I had a sync issue some while ago and spent some happy hours (!) poring through the activity log to work out what fell over.  I did find the error message for one particular note and resolving that apparently fixed my problem.  Although Evernote do caveat that note details are shown and can be removed if necessary before sending the logs to them,  I couldn't see anything I felt would have compromised my security.  Maybe I'm just a good person.  ;) (add your own halo...)

 

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14 hours ago, wahoowad said:

This morning I open Evernote on my iPad to prepare for meetings where the note is highly relevant....and just the old note is present. Very, very disturbed to have lost that information.

It is not clear from what you have posted that the information is lost.  It could be:

  1. In the EN Cloud, waiting for you to sync your iPad.
    See EN KB article on Resolving Sync Issues
  2. In EN Win as a "conflicting note"
    1. Can be either a new note in a new notebook named "Conflicting..."
    2. OR, at the bottom of the existing note.
  3. In your Note History.  See How to access and use note history 

Having said all that, Evernote syncing is not as robust as it could be.  Many users have reported problems with syncing, some due to Evernote issues, some due to user issues.  Think of syncing like you do saving a document to your local hard drive.  You always need to save your work before you quit.  You always need to sync your work before you quit.  Both of these are recommended even if the app does autosave or autosync.

So, I never rely solely on Evernote to automatically sync.  I always do manual syncs, and I rarely have a sync issue.

 

I have found the following to be helpful in preventing sync issues:

  1. Use multiple short Notes rather than one long Note that has many/frequent edits
  2. It is best to consistently manually sync, and sync often, especially after:
    1. Entry/Edit of an important note
    2. End of Session BEFORE you close or put your machine to sleep
    3. End of Day
    4. Start using a different device
      1. Even if you notice the Sync icon spinning on EN iOS when you switch to the app, do a manual sync anyway after it finishes spinning
      2. I have noticed that the initial sync does NOT always do a full sync.
      3. I'm not sure about Android devices, but I would do the same just to be safe.

This takes a lot more words to describe than the effort to actually do it.  After a short while of following this, syncing will become second nature, almost automatic, to you.

 

Good luck, and let us know how it goes.

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  • 2 weeks later...

First off let me lead with, I've been in the computer field since 1976. I've developed software, written tech manuals, been on the net since 1990. Not trying to trump my own horn just trying to give some background. I have been using Evernote almost from the get go. Really have not had many issues with the service or software so had no need to use the forums or find out where to get help. Now I've have issues with syncing and loosing control of one of my notebooks. You think I can find readily available help, no not at all. I've spent over 2 hours and I'm no closer to solving the problem. To me there is no help here on Evernote, not when one has to spend an inordinate amount of time searching for it!!

Take this "helpful suggestion": (no disrespect meant)

On 2/25/2016 at 6:10 PM, JMichaelTX said:

It is not clear from what you have posted that the information is lost.  It could be:

  1. In the EN Cloud, waiting for you to sync your iPad.
    See EN KB article on Resolving Sync Issues
  2. In EN Win as a "conflicting note"
    1. Can be either a new note in a new notebook named "Conflicting..."
    2. OR, at the bottom of the existing note.
  3. In your Note History.  See How to access and use note history 

Having said all that, Evernote syncing is not as robust as it could be.  Many users have reported problems with syncing, some due to Evernote issues, some due to user issues.  Think of syncing like you do saving a document to your local hard drive.  You always need to save your work before you quit.  You always need to sync your work before you quit.  Both of these are recommended even if the app does autosave or autosync.

So, I never rely solely on Evernote to automatically sync.  I always do manual syncs, and I rarely have a sync issue.

 

I have found the following to be helpful in preventing sync issues:

  1. Use multiple short Notes rather than one long Note that has many/frequent edits
  2. It is best to consistently manually sync, and sync often, especially after:
    1. Entry/Edit of an important note
    2. End of Session BEFORE you close or put your machine to sleep
    3. End of Day
    4. Start using a different device
      1. Even if you notice the Sync icon spinning on EN iOS when you switch to the app, do a manual sync anyway after it finishes spinning
      2. I have noticed that the initial sync does NOT always do a full sync.
      3. I'm not sure about Android devices, but I would do the same just to be safe.

This takes a lot more words to describe than the effort to actually do it.  After a short while of following this, syncing will become second nature, almost automatic, to you.

 

Good luck, and let us know how it goes.

And, although this may have helped some I found it totally useless! I've been doing manual syncs from the beginning.I have come to rely on Evernote but I am looking for a competing product and when I do find one I will get a refund from Evernote on my Premium Subscription!! Why, because there is no support!! Why the SH can we not speak to a human (preferably one who speaks EGNLISH!!)!!??

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@Thayne, have you tried tweeting @evernotehelps? Have you tried the chat line available to Premium subscribers? 

You can even send a DM (direct message on Twitter, meaning you're not limited to the 140 characters). 

I've found them to be quite responsive there. 

 

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On 3/6/2016 at 5:26 PM, Thayne said:

And, although this may have helped some I found it totally useless! I've been doing manual syncs from the beginning

@Thayne:  Sorry you did not find that helpful.  But please keep in mind the following:

  1. I am NOT an Evernote employee.  I'm just another user, like you, who is trying to help on a volunteer basis
  2. The suggestion I made was NOT made specifically for you.  It was for another user.
  3. I have received feedback from many other users that the info I provided was helpful.
  4. While I have already agreed that Evernote sync is NOT rock solid, I personally have had very, very few sync issues by following the process I outlined above.
  5. If you have been following the process I outlined, and are still having frequent sync issues, then there must be something else going on with your system, installation, workflow.
On 3/6/2016 at 5:26 PM, Thayne said:

Why, because there is no support!! Why the SH can we not speak to a human

You didn't state whether you have a free account, or a premium account.  I don't know of any companies that provide phone support for free products.  And although years ago we had phone support for paid products, most companies provide only chat or email support these days.

If you have a Premium account, then you have access to EN Support Chat, which is live support with a English-speaking rep (at least for users in the US).  In many ways Support chat is better than phone support, because you have a written record of the discussion.

See Evernote Chat Support., available business days 7am-7pm US CST, but only for Premium or Business users. 

(Chat option appears AFTER you click “Continue” on initial “Evernote Support” page.)

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11 hours ago, JMichaelTX said:

You didn't state whether you have a free account, or a premium account. 

 

On 3/6/2016 at 8:26 PM, Thayne said:

... my Premium Subscription

 

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