The Inability of the Mobile Joplin Application to Perform Background Synchronization

Medullitus · 2024-04-14T11:11:07.637Z

Operating system

Android

Joplin version

2.13.10

Desktop version info

Joplin 2.14.20 (prod, win32)

İstemci ID: 1fc847673f9348cc9a99c92d67928c13
Yeni sürüm: 3
Profil sürümü: 46
Keychain Desteği: Evet

Sürüm: cfd98e3

Backup: 1.4.0
ReMoods Theme: 4.6.4

Sync target

File system

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What issue do you have?

The mobile Joplin application cannot perform background synchronization. Why, you may ask? The reason for this is not explained by Laurent. This is because our developer is quite open-minded and believes in free software, known for only responding to questions that suit him and ignoring other questions! You can clearly see this attitude and how he disregards the comments of the user named @alexanderadam in the github issue link I will leave below.

github.com/laurent22/joplin

background sync on mobile devices

opened 01:40PM - 06 Oct 20 UTC

alexanderadam

enhancement backlog

There are various issues ([1](https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/issues/727), […2](https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/issues/1029), [3](https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/issues/1501), [4](https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/issues/1645), [5](https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/issues/3671), …) and threads ([1](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/android-background-sync-interval/1746), [2](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/automatic-sync-on-phone-app/3056), [3](https://www.reddit.com/r/joplinapp/comments/yicyx1/rant_i_really_like_the_app_but_my_goodness_is_the/)) on it but it's still not clear to me what exactly is technically not possible to implement. [This comment from September 2018 says](https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/issues/727#issuecomment-418877957): > Cannot currently be fixed due a limitation of the underlying framework Which might be true but that's what libraries are for, right? Therefore this is a _very_ misleading comment. And [this comment from October 2019](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/automatic-sync-on-phone-app/3056/8) claims: > we rely on existing libs, which for now don’t exist on React Native But it doesn't mention _which_ exact libraries would be needed. The logic for syncing is obviously already there. So in theory only the support for doing exactly this sync in a background task would be needed. And there are libraries for react-native that are doing exactly this since a few years. For example * [`react-native-background-fetch`](https://github.com/transistorsoft/react-native-background-fetch) for Android & iOS (first version from August 2016) * [`react-native-sync-adapter`](https://github.com/ferrannp/react-native-sync-adapter) using the Android SyncAdapter (first version from April 2017) * [`react-native-background-task`](https://github.com/jamesisaac/react-native-background-task) again for Android & iOS (first version from February 2017) * [`react-native-background-job`](https://github.com/vikeri/react-native-background-job) for Android (available since December 2016) As you can see, these libraries are far older than these comments. So again this would be wrong and a false statement in case this comment refers to syncing libraries. Also there's [this comment from June 2019](https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/issues/1645#issuecomment-500384473) > Most likely not possible. Android phones these days have services that kill off apps that aren't used, whether you want to keep them running or not. https://dontkillmyapp.com/ Well, 1. it only affects certain vendors in an extreme way. Not every phone is affected. 2. _The exact same website_ you mentioned shows some workarounds for this very issue. 3. Apps are usually killed after a while — not immediately. So Joplin could probably still sync for a while until it would be killed. 4. Some FOSS apps which are showing notifications while they are running doesn't seem to be affected (or at least doesn't be to seem affected so often). For instance [DNS66](https://github.com/julian-klode/dns66) or [personalDNSfilter](https://github.com/IngoZenz/personaldnsfilter). So also this comment is false / misleading since the already mentioned website also explicitly mentions workarounds. I would obviously understand if the issue would only be the lack of people working on this. In that case this issue could be kept open for tracking, avoiding duplicates and having the possibility to show this issue for possible contributors, so that they know what's still open. But currently the given comment are at least somehow lacking some information (or even not relevant / true). Thus it would be great if someone could clarify what's really missing here. **PS:** Thank you for your work!

Again, an ordinary user, I emphasize, an ordinary user, forks the Joplin application to enable background synchronization. But the application is not working at the moment. So, this solution, which is quite feasible, is ignored by our developer without even bothering to explain, leading to its rejection. Therefore, with 11k notes and slow synchronization, you end up having a phone where you constantly have to keep the screen on. The unbearable lightness of using Joplin...

Background sync in android Features

I have complete my first prototype and push code to GitHub - wao/joplin: Joplin - an open source note taking and to-do application with synchronization capabilities for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS. Forum: https://discourse.joplinapp.org/ branch android_sync. I also upload prebuilt apk to: Release Release for android background sync at 0103 · wao/joplin · GitHub. You can try it at your own risk or you can build from source by yourself. It works great for me. I think it is enough for …

Holzk · 2024-04-17T17:21:28.978Z

Medullitus:

Why, you may ask?

Nobody asks about it; anything except the first sentence The mobile Joplin application cannot perform background synchronization is redundant. Though it is indeed the issue which would need addressing, this thread adds nothing except the insult against the developer since the issue has been logged already.

dpoulton · 2024-04-17T17:35:12.546Z

There's not much point responding to the OP at the moment as they are currently suspended. Probably best just to leave this thread alone, let it close and just generally get on with other things.

system · 2024-05-17T17:35:15.218Z

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