Sync direction

mk2004 · 23 February 2023 13:46

Hello, I have a question about synchronisation.
My setup ist Joplin-2.9.17_9924054d3e168d9fc83aee8b8d7a1173.AppImage on LinuxMint 20.3, sync with WebDAV to mailprovider, mobile devices are tablet and smartphone.
Using simple-backup-plugin for jex-export.

I made a test-scenario to investigate the synchronisation:
I startet joplin on laptop from scratch, imported jex-backup and usersettings (all notes/notebooks ok) and synced to my (emptied) destination on WebDAV (ok).

Then I started joplin on the tablet which was not in sync and had an older state. For the synchronisation I disabled the failsafe.
After the sync the tablet was exactly like the desktop-verson, the old notes were deleted.

Now the question:

which way takes the sync
why does ist delete the old notes on the tablet (which means, that the sync-way was from WebDAV to device)
why is a note created on the tablet synced to WebDAV (which means, that the sync way is from device to WebDAV)

Is there a way to configure a one-way or two-way sync?

tomasz86 · 23 February 2023 14:15

The sync is always two-way. No, there is no setting to control that. However, in the desktop application you can either "re-upload local data to sync target" or "delete local data and re-download from sync target" which effectively performs a one-time one-way sync.

mk2004 · 23 February 2023 15:07

Thank you for your answer.
But that doesn't explain, why the "old notes" in the tablet are not uploaded to WebDAV but deleted instead.

dpoulton · 23 February 2023 15:29

I believe that apart from the first sync to a new sync target (when the client data goes to the empty server), the server has the priority when connecting a new client. The server sends its data to the client and anything else on the client is deleted (that's why there is a failsafe option). From then on if a note is created or updated on a client it gets sent to the server and the server is also checked by the client for updates on the server.

wh201906 · 23 February 2023 16:34

Hi. Which WebDAV provider are you using? Some WebDAV providers(pCloud, jianguoyun) don't work well with Joplin.

github.com/laurent22/joplin

Stop synchronisation with an error when pcloud is detected

opened 02:07PM - 23 Jan 23 UTC

closed 01:13PM - 22 Feb 23 UTC

laurent22

bug desktop high v2.10

pcloud is a popular cloud service, however their WebDAV implementation is broken… and have been so for a long time. The only reply we got from them was essentially blaming Joplin, even though the apps sync fine with dozens of other standard WebDAV services. There's two problems with this: - Users incorrectly think that it's a problem with Joplin and come for us for support. It uses our resources and it makes it look like Joplin is unreliable, even though it's not possible on our end to fix the issue - Although their implementation is broken, it stills works well enough that a user might rely on it, not realising that they are losing notes or that some data get corrupted. So we should deal with it on our end: if pcloud is detected, we immediately stop sync and throw an error explaining the situation. For example: > pcloud has a faulty WebDAV implementation and as such Joplin no longer supports it. Please use a different sync method. That way the user is immediately alerted and can switch to a different sync target without committing to pcloud. Edit: We don't know the full story - it's possible that for certain use cases, pCloud work fine, maybe for small notes or not many notes, so some users might already be using it. Because of this, we should add an option in Advanced settings - "Allow sync with pCloud" (with a description). Off by default. If On, we allow sync but at the user's own risks. It means we remain backward compatible for users who are currently synchronising with pCloud. Edit: In fact, we can have a migration step - if during the upgrade we detect the user is using one of the unsupported implementations, we automatically set the Advanced option to "true". # Implementation Based on the discussion in this thread, this is what we need to implement: 1. Create a black list of WebDAV providers - at this point it will only be pcloud and jianguoyun 2. When the user tries to sync with these (including when clicking the button "Check synchronisation configuration"), throw an error message from the synchronizer: "The WebDAV implementation of PROVIDER is incompatible with Joplin, and as such is no longer supported. Please use a different sync method." 3. Add a hidden setting "sync.allowUnsupportedProviders" (defaults to -1) 4. Add a migration step - when the app starts, and sync.allowUnsupportedProviders is -1, check the current sync settings. If it's currently synchronising with one of the unsupported provider, set sync.allowUnsupportedProviders to 1. Otherwise, set it to 0. This is so we don't break sync for people who are already synchronising with pcloud or jianguoyun 5. If sync.allowUnsupportedProviders is 1, we bypass the WebDAV black list

dpoulton · 23 February 2023 17:02

@wh201906

Nothing that the OP wrote suggested that there were any problems with their WebDAV setup. They were just trying to ascertain how sync works.

wh201906 · 24 February 2023 04:42

Oh I didn't read the post of the OP carefully so I didn't realize it. I just noticed "the old notes are deleted", which is pretty common when a user uses jianguoyun with a lot of notes.
Sorry for my carelessness.

mk2004 · 24 February 2023 15:00

I think the answer from dpoulton is satisfying.
Thank you all.

system · 26 March 2023 15:01

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.

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Sync direction

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