New User question about Media attachments

[Journaling]

Operating system

macOS

Joplin version

3.0.13

Desktop version info

Joplin 3.0.13 (prod, darwin)

Client ID: e8761ec354b840d2a71276c1f95c2b81
Sync Version: 3
Profile Version: 47
Keychain Supported: Yes

Revision: 599cf5b

Backup: 1.4.1

Sync target

Dropbox

Editor

Rich Text Editor

What issue do you have?

Hi,

I'm new to Joplin, migrating over from several years using MacJournal. What drew me to Joplin was its interface, robust performance, and security. I am a little concerned about usage, though, as I do not know programming languages, and reading through these forums is a bit intimidating. E.g., a simple lookup like "How to Single-Space Hard Returns in the Rich Text Window" requires pasting code into a stylesheet (that for some reason opens in Firefox) in a way that presupposes familiarity with CSS.

My objectives are basic: Just to have a place to jot down, organize, and preserve thoughts. Syncing to devices other than my desktop Mac isn't crucial; I'm interested in desktop work and I connected Dropbox mainly as a backup failsafe.

My initial question is this: None of the media elements transferred over from MacJournal, and so I'm doing it manually. It turns out that several audio clips are too big for syncing. I get a message saying "These items will remain on the device but will not be uploaded to the sync target. In order to find these items, either search for the title or the ID (which is displayed in brackets above).

(Just a note, there is nothing displayed in brackets on that screen.)

Also, this appeared in the sidebar:
Created remote items: 1.
Completed: 07/06/2024 6:54 PM (236s)
Last error: RangeError [ERR_FS_FILE_TOO_LARGE]: File size (2968528849) is greater than 2 GiB

So my question is this: Can I keep these large audio files in my desktop Joplin app, knowing they won't sync, or will Joplin keep trying to sync and keep announcing that it can't?

If the latter, or if the large files will make the app buggy, is there a simple way, without using plugins or CSS, that I can save the audio files in a folder on my Mac, and link to respective clips within notes? That would work too, I just want to preserve these things without bloating or slowing down the program, if that's the risk, and without confusing the sync process too.

Thank you in advance for your help, and sorry for my basic computer knowledge!

[Imperial_Squid]

Not one of the devs so I don't know about how Joplin handles files that are too big

However, it does seem like you can just store them locally (as in, in your files and folders but not in a note) and create a link that will open the file by holding alt and dragging/dropping the file into the note, that way no matter how big the file is, all the note needs to contain is a link to it in text, hope that helps!

(Do note, while you've mentioned syncing is just for having a backup for you and this will work fine for that, it might break if you do sync a second device and Joplin can't find a file in the same place, just an fyi for possible future concerns)

As for "basic computer knowledge", imo don't feel bad or confused if any of the forum posts go over your head a little bit, lots of people here are technical users so we use a lot of jargon, but I guarantee people are happy to help and explain stuff if you ask them!

[Journaling]

Thank you, that sounds like a great method! For others using a Mac, it's Option + Drag and Drop.

If anybody else knows whether keeping large audio files inside Joplin, without syncing them, is possible and won't make the app buggy, please let me know. Otherwise this method works fine.

One last note though: I deleted the two Notes that contained audio files and emptied the Trash, but I'm still getting the sync issue:
Created remote items: 1.
Completed: 07/06/2024 8:32 PM (239s)
Last error: RangeError [ERR_FS_FILE_TOO_LARGE]: File size (2968528849) is greater than 2 GiB

I closed and restarted the app but it's continuing. Does anybody know how to fix that? Thank you!

[Imperial_Squid]

@Journaling

I closed and restarted the app but it's continuing. Does anybody know how to fix that? Thank you!

While you've deleted any references to those files in your notes, under the hood they're still registered as being resources Joplin needs to care about, though it will automatically do a scan and delete anything out doesn't need to hold on to after a while. So the message will be there for a bit but should disappear on it's own when Joplin next does a clean up afaik

[Journaling]

Okay thank you! I'll leave it for a couple days and see if it cleans out.