OneDrive pre-downloaded the Joplin files before install, what now?

Support
1

Operating system

Windows

Joplin version

3.0.14

Desktop version info

Joplin 3.0.14 (prod, win32)

ID do cliente: 8850900bbb084b5082946f9a77651e1e
Versão Sync: 3
Versão do Perfil: 47
Keychain Suportada: Sim

Revisão: 05cf51e

Backup: 1.4.1

Sync target

OneDrive

What issue do you have?

Hi all! I had a hardware failure so, once again, I needed to format my PC (actually, restore a Macrium Reflect image to revert to its fresh state). I run Windows 10 and had OneDrive synchronization active before the incident. Joplin data was not included in this backup; that is, the Reflect image was created before syncronizing my OneDrive files so it would be storable; otherwise, it would be gigantic.

Now, after three days, the download of my OneDrive files is complete; as people here know, OneDrive is not optimized for a load of small files but for fewer, larger files. All OneDrive folders are now stored locally too.

One of those folders is the "Applications" folder. Inspecting it, the only subfolder is "Joplin", with 2.7GB and 26k files. Notably, it is not the default install or local storage location for Joplin. So I guess those files are the synchronized files, which are not meant to be touched directly.

However, this large folder was downloaded to my local computer precisely because OneDrive treated it as a regular folder, like the "My Documents" folder. It clearly contributed to the long time it took for me to finish the OneDrive sync.

Now, I just reinstalled Joplin, removed the five initial notes and I'm ready to set up the sync with OneDrive again.

But what do I do? The files are already here in that Applications folder; will Joplin just make a massive check and resume functioning from its state where it left before the fault? Or will it have to download everything again? In that case, can I set this Applications\Joplin folder to not be stored locally to free up space, given that Joplin already stores files locally in a separate location, outside OneDrive's reach?

2

If there is no data in Joplin's profile directory (what you refer to as "default install or local storage location"): yes - unless you copy the contents of "Applications/Joplin" manually, which could speed things up. I don't know if this is the recommended procedure, but that's how I always install new clients.

That's what I've been doing all along with my OneDrive sync client. I excluded "Applications/Joplin" from syncing in order to avoid possible conflicts or heavy load due to the many tiny files you mentioned.

That's just my two cents, however, as I've never been in the situation of the kind of re-install you had to set up.

3

Hmm but although the two folders,
C:\Users\me\OneDrive\Applications\Joplin
and
C:\Users\me\.config\joplin-desktop
...are very similar, they are not identical. For instance, I cannot find the corresponding .sqlite db file on the first. Where is it?

You said it's how you always install new clients. So just to be clear: you let OneDrive syncronize all your files, Joplin or not, then you go to the Applications\Joplin folder and then copy them over to [User]\.config\joplin-desktop?

I really would like to know if that's the recommended procedure... @laurent , if you have time, please enlighten us!

4

You're absolutely right and I didn't put it correctly: Unlike other note-taking apps Joplin doesn't operate on a transparent Markdown directory which can or should be synced outside the app.

So you can indeed clone the local profile directory to another machine (which could result in identical client IDs I must admit), but transferring the folder on OneDrive to your local harddrive (or even syncing it to your machine within the OneDrive client) doesn't make sense.

So in short: Download again from cloud (Joplin's job via OneDrive API) is the safest option (as you stated) although that could take some time.

5

Thanks, former_evernotist!
Sorry for the long time to mark the solution. :smile:

6

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