Note type different on iPhone and iPad (iCloud sync)

I just noticed this afternoon that five notes in one group on my iPad have changed from Formatted Note to HTML. It says they were all modified the moment I opened DTTG on the iPad. This is problematic because I did not convert them and can now no longer edit them. Curiously, they remain classified as Formatted Notes on my iPhone after multiple manual syncs of both devices. I am using iCloud to sync.

I don’t know if this is related or not, but several times I have tried to duplicate some of these formatted notes because I was trying to use one as a template to duplicate and edit, and every time they always duplicate as an HTML note which I can’t edit, so I’ve had to resort to copy/paste to duplicate the notes. I am running the latest and same versions of DTTG and iOS on both devices.

Thanks!
Bryan

Do you use any additional computers/devices or only one iPhone & iPad?

I also use a MacBook and the previous 2.x version of DEVONThink, but it has been turned off completely for several days before this bug manifested so it’s not part of the problem.

Today, all of them have gone back to normal (formatted note) on the iPad but two of them that were previously fine in that folder have been “corrupted” to uneditable HTML format on my iPhone only… so the problem has switched devices and affected notes.

Were these notes modified lately according to the modification date? Or could you send some of the affected notes to cgrunenberg - at - devon-technologies.com? Thank you!

In the instances where they are incorrectly showing up as HTML notes, those notes shows they were modified the exact minute the app was opened and the offending device synced them.

I just realized this problem is much larger than I realized. As you may know, I deleted DTTG from my iPhone and reloaded it to try to troubleshoot the problem where it takes 10 seconds for the app to respond every time I try to select text.

I am still trying to figure out how to get DTTG to download everything from the server without me having to manually click every note or folder and ask it to download individually, since all the sync settings and functionality seem to have been taken out at some point in a recent update…

So I’ll have a folder full of formatted notes. When I swipe over, click More, and then Download to have it download the entire folder, ALL notes download as HTML. This is problematic for several reasons — #1 they are not editable. #2 the font size is so tiny I can’t even read it. It’s like size 6 or something. #3 every single apostrophe appears as three characters (accented a, Euro sign, and trademark sign.) #4 this is corrupting all my notes, making DEVONThink useless to me.

So if I click on an individual note and download, it downloads correctly (as a Formatted Note). If I download two or three individually they work; then I back out and download the entire folder at once — only the two or three previously downloaded notes remain formatted notes, the rest come in as HTML. So it would appear that some kind of multiple note downloading feature is broken, but single note download is okay.

Actually none of the latest releases removed any features, downloading on demand can be configured in the settings of sync locations or even for individual databases/groups. Did you buy/enable the Pro package which is required?

Ok I finally figured out how to access Sync settings — by long tapping and clicking into. Wasn’t the most intuitive way to find it… lol. All databases set to “always” download. All databases have been downloaded. An overwhelming majority of notes have been downloaded as uneditable HTML files. App is quickly becoming useless. Please help :slight_smile:

So when exactly did these formatted notes turn into HTML files exactly? Right after sync or did you edit them e.g. externally? Exploring possible causes.

It started the day I opened this forum topic.
I primarily use DTTG on my iPad and iPhone to edit notes and keep them in sync. I also use DEVONThink on my MacBook sparingly. What started happening was that the notes that had been edited on the iPad were synced to the iPhone as HTML read only. The notes that had been edited on the iPhone were synced to the iPad as HTML read only. Previously downloaded notes were unaffected. Notes retain their correct Formatted Note type on the device they were edited on, and on my MacBook.

I have isolated the problem as follows: if multiple notes are downloaded/synced at one time, all Formatted Notes are incorrectly downloaded as HTML. If only one note is selected and downloaded, it downloads correctly. This bug does not affect the iCloud store. It is not propagating to other devices. DEVONThink on the MacBook is completely unaffected. This is an iOS problem only.

To troubleshoot further, I deleted an entire database from the phone, then reloaded it from iCloud sync. I set it to automatically download the entire database. Every formatted note was downloaded as HTML — none were downloaded correctly.

This should give your programmers exactly what they need to pinpoint and fix the problem. It is limited to iOS sync of multiple notes at once.

Also – this problem is specific to iCloud sync. It doesn’t happen with WebDAV OpenDrive.com

I think that we located the cause of the problem already and will add this fix to the next public release.

That’s great! Any idea when that will happen? I see it’s been around 4 months since the last iOS update. If it’s going to be longer than a few weeks I’m going to have to abandon iCloud sync because the app is unusable for me in its current state.

The next release will be a larger release as there are features that you cannot add in maintenance releases. Sometimes there is a time when the virtue of patience is key we’re afraid.

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