Joplin Mobile iOS seems unable to sync correctly

Support
1

Operating system

Windows

Joplin version

3.7.10

Desktop version info

Joplin 3.7.10 (prod, win32)

Device: win32, 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-11900K @ 3.50GHz
Client ID: a504afc6d2a6496b99a0931c22649537
Sync Version: 3
Profile Version: 53
Keychain Supported: Yes
Alternative instance ID: -
Sync target: Dropbox
Editor: Rich Text

Revision: 0d5d4c4

Backup: 1.5.1
Combine notes: 1.2.3
Freehand Drawing: 4.3.0
Note list (Preview): 1.1.0

Sync target

Dropbox

Editor

Rich Text Editor

What issue do you have?

I'm coming from a Evernote database (of 27.9 gb) converted into Joplin recently and attempting to get situated.

I had done test imports with smaller selections the Evernote notebooks in previous trail runs and seemed to not have any major trouble getting sync working (however my previous attempt was well over a year ago)

From the desktop side it seems like everything is loading and displaying relatively well. I set up sync to work over Dropbox, which understandably took quite awhile to finish its initial sync. After that completed I then attempted to set up Joplin for iOS and sync via Dropbox, which also took understandable quite a while to download.

However iOS Joplin is reporting "Some items cannot be synchronized". 48 errors and 40,677 attachments not downloaded. Attempting the "Retry All" doesn't seem to accomplish anything, and the sync information feedback in general is confusing as it always seems to be climbing in numbers upon every sync, instead of the expected decline. "Fetching resources" in particular has the numbers on both ends of the / fluctuating pretty wildly. I've left Joplin iOS open (and focused) for well over a day at this point trying to see if the sync will just somehow magically finish, but I'm very doubtful at this point.

Unfortunately when loading any notes, basically no images (or relevant attachments) ever seem to display.

I did attempt making several notes with the mobile application to see if they would at least sync and appear on Joplin desktop, but they never appear. I can however make new notes on Joplin desktop and see them appear on the mobile application.

I started off with Joplin 3.6.15 for Windows, and whatever public release of iOS was available August 1st 2026. I attempted upgrading to Joplin 3.7.10 and joining the Joplin TestFlight to see if that would fix the issues I'm encountering, but I have not seen any improvement unfortunately.

I'm a bit out of ideas, and unfortunately this is the major deal breaker for me attempting to switch to Joplin, as documented in this other thread (My Attempt To Leave Evernote For Joplin - ATTEMPT NO #3). So I'm curious if anyone else has run into this or has any possibly insight.

2

Here's the Errors Only log of the mobile application after being left open for about an hour.

The regular log is 53.1mb, so I won't be sharing that unless requested.

3

Since you have such a large collection of attachments, there are two ways to help mobile to succeed with initial sync. They're independent and compatible - you may try all or any single one.

export/import the profile

  1. On desktop create a .jex export with all your notes
  2. Create new profile, authenticate sync with different Dropbox/onedrive account (the one you haven't used before with Joplin)

Bonus: instead of registering another account at Dropbox - get a free trial of Joplin Cloud and see how it's behaving. Imo free trial is needed exactly for this purpose

  1. Import .jex you created before
  2. Sync clean profile on mobile to that account

don't sync attachments on initial sync

Basically on iOS go to configuration -sync - advanced - attachments download - set Auto

Try syncing again

On success go to a few notes with some important attachments on iOS to verify attachments do in fact get downloaded on note preview.

Give it a break

After hammering Dropbox servers with millions of requests you might be throttled for hours or even a day. So, don't overtroubleshoot and come back tomorrow to try again.

4

Yes I'd definitely change attachment download behaviour for such a large collection as mentioned by Amil. It does mean you must download attachments on demand though.

I can see from the partial log that you sent that some of the errors are HTTP 429 errors. That error code suggests that Joplin was temporarily blocked by Dropbox because more requests were sent to them than they will allow (another form of throttling, other than reducing speed). I'm not sure whether the other errors (409) are knock on effect of that or are something else, but the error is too generic to tell what caused it.

EDIT: One thing I can see though is the 409 errors are for resource downloads and there are some repetitions for the same resource, so it may help if you change the attachment download behaviour, but you would have to try it to find out, and see whether downloading attachments on demand actually works after the sync completes, if it actually does.

5

Oh lordy thank you! Setting this to Auto on iOS made such a HUGE difference. Sync completes very quickly on iOS now, and I have begun to at least see notes made on iOS appear on the desktop (though how long it takes I am still actively debugging atm). Additionally, and crucially, notes with previously missing attachments are now loading correctly.

Ah I hadn't noted there was a free trial, that would certainly be worth a try then at least just to compare performance now that I have at least gotten the bare minimum back and fourth sync functional.

6

I did crank my desktop max concurrent connections to 20, the maximum amount. However on iOS they remained at the default of 5 when I encountered all these errors.

I'm also testing out a theory right now, as I have the Joplin Dropbox folder on my computer but it's set to Dropbox's Online-Only mode, meaning the file generally is not stored locally. It's possible this might be causing problems (if its true though, it means I may need to basically store my Joplin database on my computer twice, in two different locations)

7

I'm afraid to report setting Dropbox to have the folder always be downloaded did not improve anything. And while the iOS Joplin seems to sync fairly quickly now, the Desktop Joplin is not quickly receiving any new notes made from the mobile version. It took me a full day at least for one test note from mobile to finally show up on desktop.

I had hope turning the attachments to Auto on desktop would have improved the sync there as well, however my desktop Joplin sync has been running for at least 6 hours now, with a fetched item # that just rises further and further everytime it gets to # out of # (I must admit it's a bit annoying as well, a progress bar that keeps going past 100%).

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I've no clue what to do about this. If every sync on Joplin Desktop has to go through 69,000+ items everytime, that obviously won't do.
Perhaps in the morning I'll give the Joplin iCloud trial a go.

8

I've no clue what to do about this. If every sync on Joplin Desktop has to go through 69,000+ items everytime, that obviously won't do.
Perhaps in the morning I'll give the Joplin iCloud trial a go.

There is an issue I've noticed that has been mentioned before with the initial sync, that it can sometimes get stuck or it keep or repeating. Someone once pointed out if you close down Joplin completely, then if you open it again the sync will work correctly without any further loops. This did fix it for me when it happened before - it's potentially an issue with the Dropbox sync with Joplin specifically (as I only recall this happening with Dropbox), but I can't be sure about that

9

I had attempted closing and re-opening to no luck. However, it does seem that after it finished the extremely long 6hr+ sync it was doing (I left it running overnight), it has finally 'snapped' into place and future syncs only take about 3-6 seconds. Huzzah. So now, thankfully I can sanely sync notes back and fourth between mobile and desktop.

Not reeeally sure what that was all about, but it seemed to just really want to do an entire 2nd pretend/verify sync or something. There was no activity on the Dropbox folder the entire time, according to the Dropbox app, and all the data seemed to already be in Dropbox since mobile could access it. If I interrupted the sync by cancelling or restarting Joplin it would need to start the lengthy process all over. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯