First of all apologies if this has been asked before, but I couldn't find a clear answer.
I am fairly new to Joplin, but I am glad I found it as it ticks most of my boxes. My Joplin (Version 2.6.10) set up is currently an iMac (macOS 10.15.7), 2 MacBook Pros (macOS 11.6.2 and 12.1) and 2 iPhones (iOS 15.2.1); all with OneDrive sync enabled. I also use OneDrive extensively for a lot of file storage and sync that is unrelated to the notes I am keeping in Joplin.
Notes generally seem to sync well, but my issue is with attachments.
I use MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) extensively and I need to attach Office files to notes, open and edit them from those notes AND sync them across my devices. Because of the way I work, some of these files are edited several times a day and this is a workflow I have used in Evernote, where of course the sync is via their servers.
Everything seems to work welll except the syncing of attachments. When I alter a file the changes are saved and show up on re-opening on the device that edited the file. However the attached file doesn't update and is frozen on all the other devices even when the text of the note containing the attachment updates on sync as expected.
So my question is: Is this a feature limitation, or is there a problem in my setup e.g OneDrive? If the former and I have to keep saving 'as' and re-attaching edited files (and presumably deleting the originals via Tools > Note attachments ... then the workflow will be rather long-winded.
The former is your local profile and the latter is your sync target - you shouldn't mess with the files in the sync target as they are maintained by Joplin for the sync functionality.
Typically for attachments to sync Joplin needs to be "watching" them. i.e. you need to open the note with the attachment, open the attachment from Joplin and edit it whilst the orange "watching" banner is showing.
I assumed that was the case and haven't 'messed with the files there', I have simply noted that they exist, I haven't even opened any from the sync directory.
For some reason, the sync remains one-off when I edit the attachments.
I am now considering saving the files I regularly work on separately on OneDrive.
I can merely add password protected (share) links to them from Joplin Notes (rather than keeping the files attached within Joplin). This seems to work and could actually be a better strategy for files I work on regularly, but I would obviously prefer that all files sync as expected.
Don't worry, it wasn't aimed directly at you but a lot of people go editing the data there and come to the forums with a broken system.
I can't say I've had a problem with the changes to files syncing before but I rarely edit the attachments once I've made them.
As a quick test, if I add two copies of the same file (in this case a basic text document) to a note and sync I can see both being added to the sync target.
If sync again nothing happens.
I then edit one of the files, save it and sync again I get a single "updated remote items" with its related log entry.
2022-01-25 10:17:17: Synchronizer: "Sync: updateRemote: local has changes: Resource: (Local c59505bc89274b9dbbd6d5e530220d7f): (Remote c59505bc89274b9dbbd6d5e530220d7f.md)"
Thanks for looking at this. I have replicated your test with a simple text file with console logging enabled and can see errors from the Synchronizer. The second file appears correctly edited when viewed from the Mac it was edited on, but as before the change is not syncing to any other device.
Again, as before, the failure was not a complete one as the note text altered and the initial uploads of the two attached files worked - it was just updating the attachments that didn't happen.
Of course the error messages don't mean a lot to me. Is there any process to get support on this (GitHub perhaps). I had already started contributing in a small way via Patreon and would be very happy to pay more for support as I like Joplin, but I also need to be able to count on it as some of these files are used in my business e.g some of the records are time logging that I use for charging.
This forum support category is the correct place, GitHub is only for reproducible bugs. There are normally enough people in the community hanging around to help but it seems your initial post fell through the cracks.
May thanks. As I said I have a workaround for now and if need be I could even investigate alternative sync mechanisms if it's a OneDrive issue that can't be fixed.