Secondary profile not showing on second PC after OneDrive sync

Support
1

Operating system

Windows

Joplin version

3.4.12

Desktop version info

Joplin 3.4.12, both on Windows and on Linux Mint

Sync target

OneDrive

Editor

Markdown Editor

What issue do you have?

Hey all,
I have a sizable collection of notes and have OneDrive set as my sync target. But the bulk of the heavy ones, an archival set comprised of several images I called "Timeline", was on one of the notebooks.

Given that Joplin was experiencing a bit of a lag on my ancient PC, I decided to move that heavy Timeline notebook to a different profile.

What I did was: I exported that notebook to .jex, created a new profile, switched to it and imported there. After that I switched back to the main and deleted the heavy notebook. So I let the sync work.

ChatGPT instructed me not to have the new profile with the same "OneDrive" sync target, lest they would end up mixing in the end and chaos would ensue, so he told me to select "File System" instead of "OneDrive". Did it. But was inside OneDrive anyway:

C:\Users\me\OneDrive\Apps\Joplin-timeline

while the regular profile sits alongside it in

C:\Users\me\OneDrive\Apps\Joplin

Now, to test retrievability after a potential disaster, I installed Joplin on my Linux Mint virtual machine and pointed it to my OneDrive account. Without asking me, it began fetching data from my main profile from the cloud, which took so long I went to sleep. Actually I wanted to open just the Timeline profile on the virtual machine, not the main, but anyway. Back there after sync, I checked the syncronised content: everything from the main profile there, and no Timeline notebook, as expected.

Curiously, when I checked the report, I saw the number of notes syncronised was greater than the number of notes on my main profile on host PC. So when I scrolled down, there they were the notes belonging to the Timeline profile. But they were not shown on the sidebar, as told.

I can tell the secondary profile's notes (the Timeline profile) is present on the VM's database, although now they can't be accessed by the app.

What do I do now? I want to access the Timeline profile on the virtual machine.

2

If you’re going to use file system sync with OneDrive, I’d recommend not to put the directory under the Apps dir, as this may have caused some erratic behaviour by the OneDrive api, particularly because the sub directory you created starts with ‘Joplin’. Anything synced under the Apps directory is meant to be used with the OneDrive api, and if you’re using file system sync then you’re not using the api

3

I decided to rollback the initiative to sever the two profiles. It’s too hasslesome. Too many things that have to be taken care beforehand, like stepping on eggshells. It’s not ideal, but I’m sticking with a single, monolithic, fat database. :frowning:

4

Another option could have been to not sync your archived notes at all. If you never intend to modify them, you can just keep a jex backup which you can import into another profile on any device. It would likely be much quicker than downloading the profile from OneDrive for new device setup as well

5

Ah but there is the safety factor too. Not only for the means of opening them, but to backing them up.

But they were already tied to my main profile and etched on the database; dissociating was not easy to begin with.

I believe we could have clearer instructions on the docs regarding secondary profiles and syncronization… this page is quite scant. @laurent, please consider elaborating the docs on that :slight_smile:

1 Like
6

Could you elaborate on what information specifically do you think needs to be added to the documentation about profiles?

Also there is a grammatical error there:

This is done so that you don't have reconfigure every details when switching profiles.