Change sync target -> lost all notebooks

jlgarnier · 2021-10-06T09:51:01.937Z

UPDATE
Ok, so here's what I did this morning:

Explored OneDrive\Applications\Joplin and found out the folder was 138Mb! Too large for a "failed" sync...
Copied all files on my laptop for security sake
Opened Joplin>Settings>Synchronization and set the sync target back to OneDrive
Selected Delete local data and re-download from sync target

and BAM! All notebooks are flowing back into my local Joplin instance!

Lessons to learn:

Always do backup before any change, whether dubbed critical or not
Always clear data first, so you know what's the initial context
Keep trying, IT is not an exact science and something could finally work!
Be humble and warmly thank all you provided help and guidance. So I do.

By the way, I really don't understand what happened yesterday...

Daeraxa · 2021-10-06T11:00:50.418Z

I'm also a bit lost on what happened here but that inital problem you had seems very suspect and I think is worth trying to replicate to see if it is an application problem that needs to be resolved.
I'm glad that it worked though!

jlgarnier · 2021-10-06T12:24:24.441Z

You're right and I'll try to replicate the issue... after the proper backup! I'll document it if I manage to and will put all information on Github. Thanks for all!

jlgarnier · 2021-10-06T15:50:25.836Z

Last findings: mobile app has been configured to sync with OneDrive too but doesn't display all notebooks. Is there any Delete local data and re-download from sync target for the mobile app too?

Other point: in the Settings menu, all titles are truncated! I read Genera, Not, or Markdow... It isn't related to the portrait/landscape orientation: any clue?

Daeraxa · 2021-10-06T16:54:18.202Z

I don't think so, might be worth just uninstalling it and re-installing it.
I don't know about the titles, all appears normal on mine.

jlgarnier · 2021-10-07T09:18:00.567Z

Tried to uninstall/reinstall this morning, but it seems the initial sync will last roughly a month and a half! Don't know if OneDrive secure protocol is really lazy, but I'm now into the sync for 1hour+ and the mobile is still downloading items (and only 1 notebook displays in the list)...

By the way, here a screenshot of the menu, as the re-installation didn't fix the title issue. Hope this helps.

Have a good day!

Joplin title issue1080×2160 170 KB

jlgarnier · 2021-10-07T13:05:13.942Z

The mobile app pretends the sync is done, although it doesn't display any notebook! These notebooks are correctly available through the desktop app, so the issue is on the mobile app only.

Once uninstalled, is there any data or folder I should purge manually on the mobile?

roman_r_m · 2021-10-07T19:47:21.028Z

jlgarnier:

Once uninstalled, is there any data or folder I should purge manually on the mobile?

No. All data is stored in the app folder which should be removed when you uninstall.

jlgarnier · 2021-10-11T14:08:11.532Z

Hi all!

I've uninstalled/installed the mobile app several times but to no avail: any notebook other than TEMP doesn't display on the mobile, although it's accessible from the desktop. I'm lost at finding any reason for that: any clue?

Thanks in advance for any help!

manouchk · 2021-10-11T17:55:43.636Z

I deduced from some old post that for syncing in android app, one may have to click many times on the sync button, till sync is said to be complete. There is quite a bunch of time I did not try syncing on android. I don't know if things improved. In my case it was we webdav on pcloud. It led me to difficult problem like not synched notebook which is a difficult problem to solve if notebook are big!

jlgarnier · 2021-10-12T06:20:17.035Z

You're right, as the app seems to reset somehow and restart syncing many times, sometimes even displaying "deleting" without any reason! Looks a bit unstable...

jlgarnier · 2021-10-14T15:49:31.664Z

Hi all,

Syncing with my Android smartphone still doesn't work, Joplin only retrieves 1 notebook out of ~60...

Any clue would be appreciated!

jlgarnier · 2021-11-03T10:30:24.144Z

Hi all,

Back from a short vacation, I once again tried to sync my Android devices (smartphone + tablet) with the original Joplin files on my OneDrive but to no avail: same error, Joplin only retrieves 1 notebook out of ~60. It seems that the mobile app is wrecked or maybe useless with some sync targets: can you please confirm? It's a pity as I move from Evernote to Joplin as Joplin would support all devices too, which is a requirement for me...

Thanks in advance for any help!

jlgarnier · 2021-11-08T15:58:13.123Z

Hi all,

I can confirm that Android mobile devices and Linux desktop cannot correctly sync to OneDrive. All instances but Windows 10 application can retrieve notes from the sync target, but fail to create notebooks, resulting in all notes being at the root.

What's really surprising is that only one (first-level) notebook is created, named TEMP. I just can't understand why others are totally ignored by the sync process...

Hope someone may help on this issue as it prevents me from using Joplin, the main feature for me being the multi-device sync capability...

jlgarnier · 2021-11-14T11:25:24.343Z

Please, please, any clue for this issue?

jlgarnier · 2021-12-14T07:27:19.796Z

Hi Community!

I finally managed to sync my Linux machine, using onedriver to connect to my MS OneDrive, then importing the whole backup from the original Windows machine. The latter allowed to recreate the notebooks, which wouldn't create despite the correct access to the files on OneDrive -> mystery #1.

However, I still can't sync notebooks to my Android smartphone: uninstall/install Joplin on the mobile to clean all data, configure it to retrieve files from OneDrive and trigger the synchronization. The app starts retrieving files but stops really quickly without any error message, as if the sync was done, but grabbed notes (all notes? don't know...) without any notebook -> mystery #2.

Moreover, when I click again on the Sync button, the process seems to stop if the app in not in the foreground! And exits again very quickly...

I'm open to any test on my smartphone, so please give instructions so I can provide logs, error reports or whatever could help solving this issue! This is one of the main value of the app that is thrown to bin here!

Thanks in advance for any help!

Yann1ck · 2021-12-14T08:46:03.761Z

I cannot answer your mysteries #1 and #2. Especially #1 sounds really weird. Are these machines really in sync now?

Joplin is not able to sync in the background. So sync will stop if the app is in the background. For daily use thats fine, but for the first sync the display has to be active (!) and the app needs to be in the foreground.

Are all your devices connected to the same OneDrive account? You can check by accessing the web interface and check the content of the onedrive folder. What does your sync status show? Does it show the right number of overall notes?

jlgarnier · 2021-12-14T09:38:25.058Z

Hi @Yann1ck !

Joplin is not able to sync in the background

This is indeed a real issue for the first sync, as the current zipped backup file on my source machine weighs around 400MB! I just can't tap on my smartphone's screen to keep it awaken for hours!

As per you questions:

Are all your devices connected to the same OneDrive account? YES, I have only one Premium account.
What does your sync status show? Both source machine and Linux machine are synch'ed, notes edited on any machine appear with modifications on the other.
Does it show the right number of overall notes? YES, both source and Linux machines display the same notebooks / sub-notebooks / notes structure and numbers.

This is clearly a mobile issue and I just can't overpass it as there's no 'import' function in the mobile app. I'd like to:

put the smartphone in flight mode,
push a fresh backup from the source machine to the smartphone,
import it in the background,
restore the sync source to "OneDrive",
and finally reconnect the smartphone to wifi/4G to update the sync status.

@laurent , any chance to get an import function in the mobile app? Does the current behavior handle large databases on the first sync and how?

Thanks for any help!

Daeraxa · 2021-12-14T09:50:54.310Z

jlgarnier:

I just can't tap on my smartphone's screen to keep it awaken for hours!

The development options or some apps will allow you to force the screen to stay on. I've personally used a "gaming overlay" which came with the phone, of which the only only useful feature is an "autoplay mode" which dims the screen but keeps the phone active - perfect for a long import.

Yann1ck · 2021-12-14T10:25:32.517Z

jlgarnier:

This is indeed a real issue for the first sync, as the current zipped backup file on my source machine weighs around 400MB! I just can't tap on my smartphone's screen to keep it awaken for hours!

My way around this was to deactivate the display time-out during sync. That should be possible on most Android phones. Depending on your connection it shouldnt take hours.

jlgarnier:

What does your sync status show? Both source machine and Linux machine are synch'ed, notes edited on any machine appear with modifications on the other.

Does it show the right number of overall notes? YES, both source and Linux machines display the same notebooks / sub-notebooks / notes structure and numbers.

I didnt mean the sync between source machine and the Linux machine. I meant the sync with the mobile device. In the app settings you can view your "sync status", on the desktop as well (in the menu "help"). It should look like this:

Is it the same between the desktop and mobile? From my experience Joplin will download all files and resources first. Your folders will only show up at the very end of the sync, so it looks like nothing is happening.

Moreover the error log of your mobile device would be helpful. Perhaps it shows whats going wrong.

Personally I dont think that 400MB is that much data. My database used to be bigger and I had not problems syncing with OneDrive on multiple devices. And import is one of those things that breaks sync targets quite easily, so it can do more harm than good.