Deleting duplicates in onenote

Operating system

Windows

Joplin version

3.4.12

What issue do you have?

Hello guys, wanna hear from you and put this all in one thread.

I am trying to delete some duplicate notes in Joplin. My understanding is that notes are stored in a SQLite file on the computer, but in the shared folder on OneDrive, they are stored as individual message files. If I modify those message files in the OneDrive folder, will those changes sync back into the normal Joplin data on the desktop? If that works, can I insert a unique key into each duplicate text file in the OneDrive folder, let it sync back, and then search for that key inside the Joplin application and delete the duplicates from within Joplin? Would this approach be more practical than doing compression and database work to modify the duplicates directly in SQLite, and then trying to find and delete them in Joplin? Will this method work, and are there any comments or concerns about doing it this way?

Thank you so much.

Please don't change the data in the SQLite file, and don't change it on OneDrive either - this is application data that should not be touched if you don't want to mess up sync and lose data.

Maybe one thing you could try is this though:

  • In View => Note list style, select "Detailed".
  • In the note list, sort them by title. That should show which ones are duplicates, assuming they have the same title, and then you can delete them

Potentially a plugin could be created to more easily handle all this but it doesn't look like it exists yet

Would you mind sharing a bit more regarding the problem you are trying to solve? How many of duplicate notes do you have? Where do the duplicate notes come from? Knowing a bit more may help us giving you better advice.

Personally, I’d most likely use data API for this. It’s well described in Joplin documentation and it allows all kinds of changes or deletions in your notes. But it may require a bit of experience with software development to get it working.

1 Like

Hi there,

I asked if there was a D-day API and nobody ever said anything.
I would like to use the API. Will you please tell me where to find it.
I'm trying to delete hundreds of duplicates from multiple conversions in from OneNote.

Please see here:

You can use this api either from an external app or script or from a plugin.

Honestly consider asking ChatGPT create that for you. It's pretty good at creating that kind of script.

Make sure you backup your data before running any script

Hello,

about 6000 duplicates. i thnik exporting all to MD and then dealing with them and re-importing is best - but how do i keep the folder structure? thanks.