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What is the procedure for changing Webdav Sync Servers?

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#1

I've been using a Nextcloud Webdav server running on a DigitalOcean droplet for 2 weeks and I'm unhappy with the performance since my devices(mobile, PC, Macbook) Joplin apps are never in sync. I think the problem might be the sync server being too slow.

I'd like to move to a Webdav server hosted someplace else, but I want to make sure that I migrate my data the right way. Is there a standard procedure support article or Wiki page detailing how to safely move my data from one Webdav server to another?

I didn't find instructions by searching these forums or in a general Web search, but hopefully it's documented somewhere.

I'm expecting something like ( but this is a guess )

  1. Disable sync in Joplin app with the "master copy" of your notes.
  2. Export notes to .jex file in a safe location.
  3. Change Webdav sync URL in settings and click on "check sync configuration" button to verify it works.
  4. Apply settings.
  5. Repeat for all of your devices.

Thanks in advance.

Joplin information for my Macbook:
Joplin 1.5.14 (prod, darwin)

Client ID: c709f2fd7ab34c5db0bc4cbdf398e89a
Sync Version: 2
Profile Version: 34
Keychain Supported: Yes

Revision: 9e076bf (master)

Nextcloud version is 20.0.4.

Update: I tried pointing Joplin mac and iOS apps to the new server. They both want to delete all of their notes instead of populating the server with their locally stored notes. i

Is there a way to change the behavior so that instead of deleting local notes because the sync server is empty, they keep local notes and add them to the sync server?

#2

Hi there, had the same problem, also working on a Mac. I didn't test your procedure, it looks good but make sure you select "fail-safe" under settings-> sync -> advanced -> fail-safe. (anyway with your Jex you should be fine.
Here is what worked for me.

  • copy all folders and files (manually) from the old to the new url
    (not from your profile directory !)
  • change sync settings in Joplin (not the notes, etc.)
  • and sync.

There is currently no way to control which files are getting kept or replaced. My variant avoids that problem.

#3

That was a good idea. It took some time to copy the files from the old Nextcloud to the new one since the are both running in Docker using volumes ( not binds ) for data storage.

After all of the work to copy files, including changing file ownership and permission as per this Nextcloud discussion - Files and directories not displaying [SOLVED] - ℹ️ Support - Nextcloud community , the copied joplin files were not seen by the Nextcloud app.

So, I gave up and I'm letting Joplin Mac app delete all of it's local files. After it's done in a few hours, or days at the rate it's currently going, I'll import the .jex file and let Joplin upload all of that data back into the Nextcloud server.

#4

Actually, wait. I think I figured that the permissions and ownership on the copied files were wrong.

I found this command to tell Nextcloud to re-index the files
runuser -u www-data -- php /var/www/html/occ files:scan --all

Do that after chown www-data:www-data joplin and chmod 644 . for the files.

It used to quit quickly and not see the joplin file. Now it's been running for 5 minutes and still going.

Hopefully when Joplin connects to the server, it doesn't have any problems syncing. The important part is that I don't lose any notes.

While I'm waiting. do you know what happens if you import the .jex file and some of the notes already exist, does it detect duplicate and reject them?

#5

I am really sorry to hear this. I didn't have any of these problems, it worked like a charm.

#6

Using Nextcloud? If so, can you link to the detailed procedure that you used ( ideally step-by step ) ?

I couldn't get Nextcloud to work with file copying to the new server, but transferred them to the Webdav server on my Synology and that is working fine. My phone Joplin app is using it. The sync has been running for 12 hours and still running.

#7

I can only recall it from the top of my head. I take notes when things go wrong, but when everything works like a charm, I don't.

So what did I do ? I did exactly as I said above: logged into my nextcloud with a browser, downloaded the complete Joplin profile, logged into another nextcloud account (same server/cluster so), uploaded the profile here, now changed the settings in Joplin and started a sync on my Joplin desktop client.

#8

Oh cool. I’ll look into how to download profiles from Nextcloud. I discovered that you can go to files, check the checkbox next to a folder, and select “download” from actions.

Unfortunately that times out with 503 error. Probably because it’s about 2.5gb of small files.

I’ll see if downloading a profile goes better once I discover how to do that.