Since syncing Joplin on my computers and iphone through nextdrive has proven to be very unreliable (sync fails on random wi-fi networks, no solutions have been offered), I am considering attempting sync through a onedrive account. Is this likely to be as problematic as nextcloud? forum search has shown a number of issues (eg: setting up different devices creating multiple joplin folders, etc), though number of onedrive problem posts has decreased since 2022. I don't know if this is because of increased reliability, or users have given up on using onedrive.
It was deprecated, but then they un-deprecated it.
Personally I never had any issues with it, but when it was deprecated originally I switched over to Dropbox, which has also been reliable for me.
There was a major issue that could happen that causes data loss due to a OneDrive bug, though I submitted a code change which will safeguard against that (providing you keep failsafe enabled), which is in the latest stable release of Joplin (see Desktop, Mobile: Harden failsafe logic to check for the presence of info.json, rather than just the item count by mrjo118 · Pull Request #11750 · laurent22/joplin · GitHub). Aside from the data loss issue, there have been a number of users who have had issues with OneDrive where the sync stops working randomly, so the reliability is questionable, and it's up to you if you're happy to give it a shot with the possibility that you might need to switch again if it proves unreliable.
hmmm. this isn't sounding highly encouraging. I am only considering it because syncing to nextcloud hasn't worked so well. had been working fine, until i tried it from a different wi-fi network. Seems it works on some wi-fi networks, not on others. meaning, of course, that it isn't reliable. Today, sync from one laptop failed because it says something is wrong with target (nextcloud) database, so failsafe stopped the sync. otoh, sync from iphone worked ok. sync from iphone worked ok on other wi-fi networks also, when it failed on laptop (with different error message).As i write this Joplin is doing a transfer of laptop data to nextcloud, hopefully to fix what is supposedly a problem in data at nexcloud (which iphone didn't see). ultimately, I don't know what's going on. Maybe the issue is with Joplin's sync code?
If I do decide to try Onedrive, is there a special process to keep it from deleting data on my device? or just start the sync and it will build data on onedrive from existing data on laptop?
And, when i set it up on another device, will it see the now existing joplin folder? one user wrote about the 2nd device creating a 2nd joplin folder at onedrive.
after rebuilding data at nextcloud, from laptop. I tried creating a new note on laptop, synced both laptop and iphone. nothing note on iphone I tried creating a new note on iphone, synced iphone and laptop, not seeing note on laptop. synced both several times. nothing. joplin sync issue? nextcloud issue? who knows? I do see that sync isn't working reliably. and this is on wi-fi that doesn't give error messages.
What nextcloud provider are you using and is it a free or paid plan?
Generally from what I've seen on the forum is that the people that experience issues with WebDAV are normally either self hosted or on free plans. I'm not saying self hosting it is bad, but it's prone to user misconfiguration I guess. And the free hosted plans (Nextcloud) often have poor reliability and are more likely to recieve updates containing bugs.
So paying for a reputable Nextcloud / WebDAV provider (or simply trying another one, if you are doing that already) could be one option, but if you are wanting free, is there any reason for not considering Dropbox? Is it because you need more than 2gb storage? Unfortunately I can't recommend OneDrive if you want to ensure reliability, but on the other hand most people will probably use it without issues, so it's a case of whether you are willing to spend the time it would take to remedy the situation if sync stopped working one day
Some users would suggest just changing the sync target in the configuration to move to another provider, but I would not personally recommend to do this because doing so is more prone to issues than starting a clean slate. The safest way is to make a full jex backup of all your note data, create a new profile in Joplin, import the jex backup, then set up sync to your new (empty) sync target. That way your data on Nexcloud and your data on OneDrive are not linked together in any way.
Regarding Joplin creating a second folder on OneDrive, that is the OneDrive bug that I mentioned (OneDrive tells Joplin the folder that it is allowed to access, and may randomly tell it to use a new folder). In usual circumstances this would not happen when you set up a new device using the same Microsoft account. If it happens then you will get the error "Fail-safe: Sync was interrupted to prevent data loss, because the sync target is empty or damaged. To override this behaviour disable the fail-safe in the sync settings.". That would block anything from being deleted, but you will need to basically back up your data and then delete everything from all clients and OneDrive and set up everything again, if that happens.
ok. Onedrive doesn't seem like a good bet.
I created a sync from joplin desktop to dropbox: backup up joplin, new profile in Joplin, imported backup, set to encrypt sync., set up dropbox sync. all went well.
then I did the same with laptop, except now I have duplicates of all folders. Most folders have same items, except for one. I deleted the duplicate folders, and went through the one mismatched folder and deleted items until they match. both joplins now match.
syncing seems to work, so far.
I have 1 more computer and an iphone to switch to drop box. How should I do this so as to not have the duplicate folder issue?
And, do you think that using encryption is a bad idea, is likely to cause issues?
Only ever do a jex import when you are setting up an empty sync target with your first device. After those notes are uploaded, then you should not import the jex on any other device, otherwise as you mention, your notes will be duplicated.
Using encryption is fine. I've used it since day 1 and never had any issues. On your first device enable encryption, then use the option to re-encrypt all notes, and then sync it until there are no more create / update object messages shown. Then press the sync button one more time just to be sure.
For any new device you just do the following:
-Install Joplin
-Delete the default welcome notebook
-Do not enable encryption, this is done automatically on a later step, if you chose to enable it on your first device
-Set up the sync details and press sync
-You will be prompted for your master password for the encryption. Enter the password, then press sync
-Wait until everything is synced. Then you are done
mrjo118, the remaining 2 devices that haven't been switched to drop box: they already have data, from the nextdrive syncing, and general use. so, rather than the instruction to install joplin, should I establish a new profile, not import jex, but just proceed to set up sync.? existing data at dropbox will be imported to new device? and I will be asked for encryption password.
btw: the second device, already set up, I presume just leave encryption turned on (turned it on after importing jex and before setting up dropbox connection, on that device.) . ??
btw: would be nice to have an option to show encryption password in sync details. currently it shows as x's. if what was typed isn't what was intended, problems ensue.
I have been syncing my Joplin notes (2400+) to OneDrive for at least the last 2 years across 7 devices (Android, iOS, iPad OS, Mac OS, Windows) without any problems.
I used to sync to DropBox but there was a period of time when syncing to DropBox was broken because DropBox made a change to their API that caused problems.
this is not working so well. on iphone: new profile>set up sync to dropbox> get window about 'press to set the decryption password'. Press does nothing. at the same time a message that status is encryption is:enabled. 14/14 items encrypted, master password loaded. there are also two fields on page below 'disable encryption' to enter a master key, and save. i've entered the encryption password in those windows twice. asking to sync gets message about sync completed 1 item.
error:could not encrypt item, some numbers and 'master key is not loaded".
result is seeing nothing synced. just stuck with the 'press to set encryption password' window. I have no clue what to do with this.
I've never experienced that before (but I use Android rather than iphone). The good thing with creating a new profile to set this up is you can just delete that profile and create another profile to try again.
If that still does not work, then you might consider disabling encryption on your first device, decrypting all notes (if there is an option), then make sure that change is fully synced before trying to setup your mobile. It should then not ask for the encryption password
Also if retrying the setup of a new profile with encryption still enabled on iphone still has the same problem, please consider raising a bug report on GitHub and include a log file if possible
On iphone, I tried again setting up new profile, with dropbox sync, and waited to be asked for password. I entered a password in one of the two masterpassword fields offered, and some things were decrypted, but not all items were there. so,
another new profile (the 4th) on iphone: this time I turned on encryption under sync setup, entered pw there, and then proceeded to setup dropbox sync. It worked. All was decrypted, all items present. One issue was the button for creating new note/to-do was missing.. after i happened to close the expanded deleted items folder, the button then appeared . weird.
Last I set up the remaining laptop. new profile>set up dropbox sync> sync proceeded>asked for password>took me to screen (same that I saw on iphone) showing several different 'master password' options. I picked the one that said 'active', entered encryption pw, and all was decrypted. all items present.
tested with new notes, sync seems to be working fine. and hopefully will continue to do so.
mrjo118, thanks for sticking with this, providing guidance. helpful (necessary?) to have instructions.
I've been using Microsoft OneDrive for about a year with Joplin and it has been error free as far as I'm concerned.
Problem for me is I wanted or really needed to expand my storage space and I wanted to go from 100 GB to 200 GB and unfortunately Microsoft has restructured their pricing plans and offerings for OneDrive and they now only have two choices. The first choice is the 100 GB plan that I'm on now and the second one is a full terabyte and includes Microsoft Office 365 regardless of whether you want it or not.
I just signed up for Joplin cloud so my database will be moving there shortly.
Thankfully I won't be going over the 30 GB limit otherwise I would have stuck with Microsoft because I could have and should have been able to get 200 GB from them but they suck now for changing their offerings.
So in short, I don't have any issues with them regarding whether or not they work or not for synchronizing my data. It's just a matter of whether you want to do business with Microsoft and whether you fit their 100 gigabyte option or are you willing to pay $100 a year for a terabyte?
I wanted the ability to publish notes to the web which is one of the reasons that Drew me to the cloud version. Also have the benefit of accessing from just a web browser like I did with Evernote.
