Sudden error across devices - Got metadata but could not fetch content

Support
1

Operating system

macOS

Joplin version

3.4.12

Desktop version info

Joplin 3.4.12 (prod, darwin)

Device: darwin, Apple M2
Client ID: 40c8211af57b4ab8bf9f28d8bdb29d3b
Sync Version: 3
Profile Version: 48
Keychain Supported: Yes
Alternative instance ID: -

Revision: e9a9f68

Backup: 1.4.3
Extra Markdown editor settings: 1.10.1
Freehand Drawing: 3.1.0
Rich Markdown: 0.15.1

Sync target

Nextcloud

What issue do you have?

Sudden sync error that seems to affect both my laptop and phone - sync error: "Completed: 01/01/2026 20:07 (3s)
Last error: Error: Got metadata for path but could not fetch content: 7874035edc9a4340a051d45479ec15ba.md"

I found a few references to this issue online but they seem to indicate that the issue is with the local cache. However, that seems unlikely to be the case if the same error is now being produced across multiple devices. Is there a way to fix this issue specifically without deleting full local caches?

2

I was able to resolve the issue by manually deleting the noted file from my NextCloud server. In NextCloud, the file was a 0B empty file, so it seems like the issue is some kind of file corruption, as the file did exist properly on multiple devices (so it had synced at some point prior to becoming empty on the server). I’m not sure how exactly this led to Joplin being unable to sync, but after deleting the file from the server, my laptop was able to sync again (which led to two copies of the file on my phone, and then the later sudden move of the phone version to Conflicts)