Mobile sync never completes

Operating system

iOS

Joplin version

13.2.5

Sync target

Joplin Cloud

What issue do you have?

I'm finding it impossible to sync Joplin on my iPhone with Joplin Cloud. Even after leaving it open for hours and preventing sleep, the process never completes and I am left with thousands of encrypted notes (even though the encryption config shows everything is set up correctly) and, eventually, Joplin stops working altogether (meaning that, after launching, the UI is unresponsive except for scrolling, even if I restart my phone). I've deleted Joplin several times and started from scratch, but this problem recurs.

Is there a solution for this? Thanks.

Screenshots

Can you share a log of sync process on iOS? Also, do you have any other mobile devices, can they complete sync?

After a third reinstallation, the app appears to have completed a sync but there are still several hundred encrypted notes. "Decrypted items" has been stuck on 17/100 for the past 20 minutes. Here's the log: mobile-log.log (5.6 MB)

I do have Joplin on my iPad but I rarely use it, so haven't tried syncing it since last year. I feel like the iOS sync suddenly sprung back to life after I launched the iPad version. Could a stale sync state on the iPad have affected iOS syncing?

Seems like it's a relevant line

03-08T16:44:54: Aborted deletion of old revisions for item "" (latest old rev "1f36bfddb010430f8366ec524a51869a") because one of the revisions is still encrypted

I'm not sure how to correct it though. Maybe someone else can chime in with ideas

I don't know what did it but, suddenly, the decrypted items count started going up quickly and, after a couple of hours, it completed.

I can't offer a solution as such, other than to make sure all your other devices are synced and to have patience.

1 Like

Hi,
I am having sync issues with my Android-based notetaker. It runs Android 12. does the information in this screenshot look normal? If not, how can I fix it? I went through & deleted tons of duplicate & unnecessary notes, then emptied the trash after & that seems to have fixed things on Windows. I'll check my mac later & report back.

In my case, I was syncing 1-Gb Joplin files from Mac to iPhone through Dropbox with encryption.
It took 1 full week to complete. Yes... 1 week, 7 days.
Now it takes just seconds to get in sync all updates.

Yep, no worries, it does look normal. This sync session seems to be doing first synchronization on that android device. It's downloading all the notes, notebooks, tags, etc; decrypting them; and creating local copy.

Yes, it can take a while and since there's no background sync, the app must be in foreground.

Hi,
The number of notes to be decrypted keeps going up, instead of down.
Is that normal? How long should the first sync take?

I just checked & the app had closed itself.
This has been happening a lot during sync.
Is that normal?

Increasing of number of decrypted items is normal. The time it takes to do initial sync depends on several factors such as cloud target (Dropbox, Joplin Cloud, etc), number of items total, version of Joplin. Usually we recommend to leave initial sync running during the night with unlocked screen.

As a concrete number my 11 thousand encrypted items or 800 megabytes of data with Dropbox synchronize for about 2-4 hours but on slower devices it takes about 6 hours.

Closing during sync is unfortunate i.e. not normal but not critical, since the sync is not going to lose the progress. To figure out what caused the crash, it's best to open up new topic and write up your full situation details.

Hello,
My notetaker seems to be stuck again.
How do you recommend I proceed?

(attachments)

Try to keep Joplin foreground and device unlocked. If the app crashes or gets stuck, try launching it again and await for completion. The screenshot seems to show the initial sync is nearly done.

Subsequent syncs should take just a few seconds. It's only initial sync that takes that long.

It keeps trying to decrypt items. That's what's leading me to beliieve that it never completes.
I go by what I see on my Braille display or what my scren-readers tell me.
My notetaker does not seem to have a setting to always keep the screen awake.

It took my iPhone several hours to decrypt everything, once it got going. Before that, it was just stuck and nothing seemed to be happening, for several weeks in which I deleted and reinstalled Joplin three times (probably unnecessarily). Joplin would become unresponsive, but it suddenly sprung back to life. Make sure all of your other devices are fully synced, and be patient.

Both my iphone an notetaker are stuck. All other devices seem fine.
How do you recommend I proceed?
I have also deleted & reinstalled Joplin, to no avail.
Will Android verson 3.3 of the app fix it?
I don't know but I'm very tempted to try it.

By "notetaker" do you mean Joplin itself or do you have a separate app called "notetaker"? And do you have an iPhone as well as an Android, with Joplin stuck on both?

Hi,

when I say, "note taker" I'm referring to my brailleSense which runs Android 12. Yes, Joplin is stuck on both my phone & note taker.

Any ideas as to what's causing this?

Joplin was unresponsive on my iPhone for quite a while, which I why I reinstalled it a couple of times. I'm not sure that was necessary because, eventually (and by this, I mean after a few weeks of being unable to use Joplin on my iPhone), the bottleneck resolved itself and all the sync numbers ("Fetched items" and "Decrypted items") started going up quickly. I think - though I can't be sure - that things improved when I launched Joplin on my iPad, which I rarely use, and made sure it completed a full sync (which took a while and required keeping the iPad awake).

However, given that you're seeing this problem on two devices, I'm afraid I don't have a straightforward solution to suggest to you, other than to keep Joplin open on both devices for as long as possible and prevent them from going to sleep. It's incredibly tedious but that's the only thing that worked for me. Good luck!

I disabled sync locks using my desktop app (see snapshot), since this is not an issue for me (I sync either the phone or the desktop, never both at the same time).

This resolved a similar issue of constant headache of neverending syncs.