No Sync between iPad and Mac (PDF)

I have imported a PDF into MarginNote on my Mac, it synchronised to my iPad literally in a few moments. On my iPad I opened it, added a few annotations and then closed it. 2 hours later the updates have not copied across to my Mac.

I’ve read a few threads about sync issues and looked in the MarginNote 3 folder in iCloud but that just has the original PDF, not the marked up version.

The marked up (annotated) version only appears in MN3 on my iPad.

At present I am using a 14 day trial of MN3 on my Mac as I have not upgraded from MN2 until I experience it actually working.

Hello, martinkoss,
Thanks for your post. Please first refer to the user guide. Sync - #5, it may give you a hand.

Yes, you are right. Actually, there are some sync issues between iPad and Mac Unable to update syncs between platorms. But we will solve these problems and introduce some new sync mechanisms in version 3.7.
Please stay in tuned!

Regards,
Bryan

No probs. I looked through Sync - #5 and wondered if I should do all of it while standing on my head and clapping my feet?

Hi,
Yes, and this post will give your more detailed instructions. 【FAQ】Collecting Problems with Sync + Troubleshooting
I have to admit MN3 hasn’t provided users with a stable sync mechanism, but we are trying our best to solve the sync problem.
BTW, you will see the results in version 3.7.
Regards,
Bryan

I am working since some weeks with the same setup, mostly using “Study Mode” generating notes to pdf documents (about 30 docs in my study notebook, adding some when needed on one platform or the other). Mostly working on iPad, then switching to Mac e.g. for bigger Screen. Syncing between iPad and Mac does work … most of the times, BUT

  • sometimes no sync happens and no message is generated about being out of sync (e.g. on Mac)
  • sometimes when MANUAL syncing on both devices something happens but some notes don’t get synced

What I would like to have is a better insight into a specific situation. No problem to sync manually but I would like to be able to see the effects before doing it: which document is newer where? And what would a syncing do? This could be done by showing arrows for each document giving a hint which version would replace which other when syncing.

EDIT: since some days syncing works perfectly but you have to be patient. Just wait until the changes appear. For successful syncing it would be nice to have an indication somewhere.