Random loss of the latest input in a note #11124
Comments
personalizedrefrigerator
added
mobile
I definitely noticed this happening a few times when I was briefly on 3.0.8. I didn't do experiments with multiple devices so can't say for sure if the differing result across 2 devices is the same issue as the first part of your report, but the quoted section describes exactly what I experienced when working with a single device. At the time I thought it might have been because I had an outdated version of Gboard, which caused issues in the past. I have since upgraded Gboard and upgraded Joplin to the pre-release versions 3.1.2 and then 3.1.3 and I don't think I have experienced this anymore. I do sometimes notice an additional line break in the last area I edited when I review a previously edited note, but honestly by the time I notice it I can't reliably remember if anything is actually missing (though I'm more convinced that their hasn't been any lost content since using the pre-releases) or if I just left the line break there by mistake. But there potentially may be some remnant of the issue still present in the latest code, as this has happened a few times within a few weeks and I'm generally quite disciplined about keeping my note formatting clean. |
Regarding this point. When that happens, did you try manually pressing the sync button on D1 and seeing if it syncs the latest change? What I noticed on the Android app since I started using Joplin is that the auto sync which happens immediately after changing a note often does not sync all the latest objects, and in the past this has resulted in note conflicts for me when editing the same note in sequence on 2 devices. Due to this, my workflow with Joplin is that after I am done writing notes on the app, I wait for the sync to complete upon exiting the last note I edited. Then when it has completed I manually press the sync button and wait for that to complete before exiting the app. It's a bit annoying having to do that, but the process only takes about 10 seconds each time and I haven't had any issues with missing items or conflicts when syncing to another device since doing that. |
Yes I manually trigger sync all the time during these tests, over and over. When I say "D1 will only sync the AA change and not the AAA change" I mean that it stays the case even after manually syncing. The app simply incorrectly believes it has synced all changes when it hasn't. This is the disturbing part.
This is a different issue from the one I am describing here. You are talking about the need of, as I call it, "babysit the sync". You need to constantly worry about sync and end up oversyncing manually all the time. Because the sync should just work but doesn't. For this direction I have submitted this other issue: #11081 please upvote it if you think this makes sense. |
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Some questions: I had a go doing the reproduction steps for about 15 minutes and could not reproduce the issue. It was possible for me to reproduce an incomplete sync by making a second subsequent edit while a sync triggered by an initial edit was still running, but this was resolved by simply doing a manual sync after the auto sync completed. There are some differences though for what I was doing: A couple of thoughts. If you are willing to sideload a pre-release of the Android app, maybe you could try the latest version at least on the most used of your Android devices and see if you still get the issues over a period of time? My other thought is maybe that updating the note on the sync target does work, but it might be that the secondary Android device is not correctly updating or rendering the note locally after updating from the sync source. Next time the problem happens, you could try syncing your profile with the desktop app and see if the notes are up to date. I see on your other issue #11122 that @personalizedrefrigerator mentioned a few issues with regards to the note list not updating properly |
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The day I wrote this bug report I was able to reproduce the bug in 5-10 minutes maybe, editing only the note title for simplicity. Sync target is my own Joplin Server. No E2EE. I only started using Joplin intensely since v3 thanks to android plugins so I cannot say for v2. My clients are 2 MacOS and 5 android. I was playing with 3 android tablets when the bug happened. AAA on D1 but AA on D2 and D3. AA was on at least 2 android devices thus not the issue of a single device. Unfortunately I did not think of checking on desktop at the time. I am interested in side loading a pre release on my android devices, there are a lot of bug fixes I am interested in. Let me know. The fact you could not reproduce it in 15 minutes on 3.1.3 is actually a good sign, maybe the issue is already fixed. |
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It does seem more likely from what you said that it is a sync issue then. But yeah if you're happy to side load a pre-release in the meantime to trial if the issue has been fixed, you can get the apks here https://github.com/laurent22/joplin-android/tags |
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Yeah this is an old issue: #5129, and possibly #2373. But I like the level of detail you provide here. Quoting Laurent in #7435 (comment):
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@dejafait Have you experienced this issue so far since using the pre-release? I guess it's still early days, but I still have not had the issue even once since upgrading to 3.1.2 and above, despite it happening a few times on 3.0.8. If it is actually fixed, maybe it might be due to this PR which makes changes regarding note state #10750 |
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@mrjo118 Been using 3.1.4 for weeks, I keep randomly losing the very latest input of some notes however I never met again the present issue (device believing incorrecly it has synced all local changes to the target). |
I did a thorough investigation of the related code for editing and saving notes in the mobile app and have raised #11317 which I believe is what is the cause of the lost input issues which you are still experiencing. The reproduction steps involve pasting a link, and then typing something brief straight after and not typing anything else before saving the note. Or the other way to reproduce it is to type as little or as much as you like, then paste some text quickly after the last thing you type and don't type anything else before saving. It would be good if you could see if you can reproduce the issue on one of the notes you had issues with (as small notes don't seem to exhibit the issue) by trying both of these methods, to confirm whether this is the same issue. I even found a way to fix the issue as well and have created a PR for the fix, which is linked on the issue |
Operating system
Android
Joplin version
3.0.8
Desktop version info
No response
Current behaviour
I've struggled with random input loss for weeks. Typically when I come back to a note I worked on earlier or the day before, I realize the last word of a sentence I wrote is missing, or its last letters, or an important link I pasted. The input lost is always the latest input in the note.
This is a serious bug that can break the user trust.
I've not been able to figure out a way to deterministically reproduce it but I've been able to narrow it down enough for this bug report, so here are my findings.
Let's say you start with a note titled A (the issue happens both in titles and bodies btw). On your device D1 you rename it to AA then AAA. Sometimes D1 will only sync the AA change and not the AAA change.
The note is AAA on D1 but AA on all your other devices. Syncing manually on D1 doesn't fix anything, D1 incorrectly believes it has synced everything, this is very disturbing when you see it with your own eyes like I did. D1 and D2 both claim sync is up to date but D1 shows AAA and D2 shows AA.
Two possible endings:
a) The next time I work on this note is on D1 again. The issue is fixed with my next change because the note was still AAA on D1. This is why I guess the issue fixes itself 90% of the time and is not so apparent. The issue happened but I never realized it did.
b) The next time I work on this note is on D2. I see note AA, realize the input loss, my trust in Joplin is hurt. Joplin loses my data in my back. I manually fix the missing input (pretty difficult if it was a hard to find pasted link). Let's say I rename AA to AAB. The AAB change is propagated to D1 and overwrites AAA.
Expected behaviour
The app should never ever believe it has synced all changes when it hasn't.
Logs
No response
Notes
I have a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that the app believes it has synced all changes of a note when it hasn't. This should be solvable with hashing functions. Keep a SHA256 of every item and compare it between local and sync target to determine whether the content is identical or not.
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