Thank you, @Lanco_Support-Team & @gykpro … Oh man, that is an ugly sync hack. Let me chew on it a bit and get back to you. But thanks for spelling it out for us. Appreciate it.
Can @Relight_Support-Team / @Sushi_Support-Team / @Lanco_Support-Team get back to me about the following two issues that I addressed in an earlier post:
Thanks!
I have the same questions.
Hello, jprint & JournoProf，
1.the disparity between the number of annotations is caused by some unknown bugs, but we promise it doesn’t affect other functions, including syncing performance.
2.for the second question, we need more informations. The developer hope you can tell him how you sync the files step by step and what happens in each step. If it’s possible, we’re willing to receive a detailed video about the issue.
Bryan
Thanks, @Sushi_Support-Team That’s good to know, though I should note that this bug continues – even with the most recent update to MN3, i.e., Version 3.5.9 (3.5.9003)
I’m happy to further help and explain this to you, of course, but I’m not sure you’ll be aided by yet another step-by-step description of my sync process. In short, I’ve switched off the Handoff option, quit the MN3 app that I last used to annotate a particular file, and either select “Download from iCloud” or “Manual Sync” (or both).
I haven’t yet used the hack sync solution you suggested above, because…the problem with that approach is that I simply don’t recall on which MN3 app I last annotated certain files. So, if I follow your Backup hack sync approach, I could be replacing old files with new ones, thereby wiping out my most recent work. That’s why I’m at a bit of a loss as to how to best proceed on that front, and would welcome any additional ideas / suggestions you might have.
As for the folders issues, here’s what I see on my MN3 Folder’s screen…
But when I go into any of the folder IN CAPS (e.g., 1. URGENT ) this is what’s inside (i.e., nothing)…
I used to use MN3’s folder’s to organize my files. But because my files don’t show up inside them (as shown in the pic above), and it appears that files don’t sync in MN3’s Folders.
Let me know what else I can answer and other info I provide.
Thanks!
The first issue is a non-important display bug since everything is fine background. So the developer is not hurry on it. 3.5.9 is focused on data safety which added a tons of Disaster recovery feature. More automatic historical archive trigger. And a little optimization for sync.
Ok, thanks.
@Lanco_Support-Team – I understand that “The first issue is a non-important display bug since everything is fine background.” That’s good to know. But it’s concerning for users since the displayed number of annotations – and the discrepancies that we’re seeing for the same file(s) in Documents and Study (i.e., the “non-important display bug”) – because it helps us to determine which file has the most current number of annotations, and correspondingly if our MN3 syncs are actually working (i.e., properly updating across platforms). Make sense?
Of course, we’d be happy to hear about other ways you and @marginnote would suggest we could better make those kinds of evaluations. Please do let us know.
Thanks!
Also, when will @marginnote be fixing the other issue I mentioned, and spelled out for @Sushi_Support-Team (above), regarding the problems with MN3 folders, and their contents, not properly syncing?
Thanks!
MarginNote 3 is without a doubt the best all-in-one notetaking application, and the fact that it us multi-platform is supposed to be a good thing.
My primary platform to use MN3 is on OSX and syncing down to an iPad and an iPhone is totally unreliable. While I don’t appear to have an issue with syncing individual documents, I’m having trouble getting MindMap Notebooks to sync. I have spent the last 20 minutes or so tinkering with multiple settings, Manual Syncing, activating and deactivating “iCloud” sync on specific notebooks. After all of this, only my iPad seems to be cooperating.
Perhaps I should be grateful for that much. And I am. Because I love MarginNote! There just isn’t another application out there like it that makes PDF Annotation, Notetaking, MindMapping and in-app web research readily available across multiple platforms. MarginNote has boosted my productivity significantly. I appreciate how active the support team seems to be on here. It’s good to know that data security is being emphasized in the next update. But MN3 users desperately need a dedicated Sync-orientated update to address our numerous concerns. Like the gentleman above me has expressed, I too am encountered cross-platform document annotation discrepancies, Folder sync issues and flat out not being able to sync my Mindmap notebooks across my devices.
Hello, I_1_8,
Welcome to the MarginNote Forum and thanks so much for enjoying MarginNote 3.
If everything goes well, we’ll introduce new sync mechanism at version 3.7. (Now we are working hard to improve annotation tools, and this version(3.6) will be launched during the Chinese Spring Festival.)
Best Regards,
Bryan,
MN Support Team
Hello,
I’m wondering if there has been any new progress on fixing MarginNote’s syncing problems. I’m hoping these and other features can been remedied soon, since I’m unable to work in MarginNote until they make fixes to these core features.
Thank you.
Hello, Journoprof,
We have released an update of version 3.6. So next we will work on version 3.7 which you know is meant to improve the sync between different platforms. Actually, we have already set out to reproduce sync issues users encountered since November of the previous year.
If you have some more requests about sync, you might as well tell me. As Developer-min said technical realization is not such difficult as long as we provide him with a simple idea and user background(i.e. why do you want this feature to be realized)
Regards,
Bryan
Thank you, @Sushi_Support-Team – that’s very kind of you.
Well, the most pressing request is just for sync to work! That is, we want to ensure that the work we do on a MarginNote file in one platform is seamlessly and successfully synced with the same file on another platform. Since you asked, here are some additional suggestions:
Bookmarks: Ensure that Bookmarks are synced so that bookmarks created in files on one platform have been successfully synced with the same file on another platform.
Files and folders: Right now, MarginNote’s files and folders aren’t clearly functioning for reasons that I, @jprint and other users have identified. As such, there’s no way to properly organize files and folders in MarginNote – until this is seriously resolved.
Identifying info showing last work done on a file and when a file has been successfully synced across platforms: I think we would benefit by having MarginNote provide clear info about the time/date of last work done on a file, and assurances that any additional work on the file on one platform has been successfully synced with the same file on another platform. Without such information, we’re just guessing which file has the most current, up-to-date save annotations. I’ve tried to the info from the icon that show the number of annotations (notes) per file, but that’s inadequate and unreliable.
I hope this helps answer your questions. Please let me know if you need additional input.
Thank you.
Hi everyone. My first post here. I’ve readen the hole topic because I had problems with the sync. Thanks to support team for the efforts and everyone helping here.
I work on MN3 with the three platforms, Mac, Ipad and iPhone and the sync was working until I didn’t sync some maps made with the iPad and continued working on Mac. 2 different maps were in iPad and Mac and at this point the sync became imposible. I lost 2 days work and restore via handoff the maps from the iPad on the Mac. ( Thanks @gykpro )
Now that the maps are the same everywhere Sync seems to work again, but I’m really looking forward to the new Update for better sync, and hopefully realtime sync please 
I add to the request of @JournoProf for the time/date and maybe device of last sync so we know fore sure that our work is safe. I expend a lot of hours working with MN3 and I want to feel sure that all my mind maps are exactly how I leave them, a small changue could mean a lot.
Thanks again for best App for studying PDFs. You have really something here. Please fix bugs and be famous
Hello, Carlos,
Thanks for your encouragement and support. The sync issue is the biggest problems now we are dealing with.
Regards,
Bryan
I’m experiencing the same problem with syncs. iPad is not syncing Doc Notebook, MindMap Notebook, and Card Deck. It hangs on “Fetching data from iCloud infinitely”.
Regular documents still sync.
I’ve tried
Interestingly, the bug persists through all these steps and left my iPad unable to sync the items in “Study” section. No resetting, deleting of the app or the iCloud does anything. On Mac side alone, everything syncs fine without hanging at “Fetching data from iCloud”, which is pointless because all iOS devices can’t receive those files.
There’s something completely messed up about MarginNote sync system. I’d say nuke and reimplement the sync codebase…
Hello snowman,
We’re sorry to hear your problems.
In order to improve performance under large amount of notes, notebooks in Marginnote are implemented as a monolithic database, with syncs performed as incremental updates on the database, which is difficult and can occasionally fail. (On the other hand, syncing PDF files is easy and fast.) In case it shows “fetching data from iCloud”, please wait patiently, and it should eventually get all the data and finish.
We suggest you try the following:
(1) Ensure good Wi-Fi connectivity.
(2) Try setting your DNS
(3) Stay in “syncing from iCloud” interface to ensure your device does not go into sleep. Plug in the AC adapter.
(4) If all fails, try rebooting your device and resetting all network settings.
(5) You can also try using Apple Handoff or Airdrop to transfer your data.
We are optimizing the sync system, and we expect to see improvements in MarginNote 3.7. Thank you for your patience.
Regards,
Kevin
When will you release the version 3.7 with the fixation of the sync problem?
Hi,
I don’t know if this could help anyone,
I had syncing problem like most of you ( with ‘fetching data from Icloud’ forever , for Doc, mindmap and card deck). However, I never had issue syncing my documents from Ipad > Laptop.
15 min ago I uploaded some pdfs in Icloud, in marginnote’s folder, just to check if I could download them on my Ipad (laptop > Ipad). Worked wonderfully and it seemed to have unblocked the syncing of other files (from Ipad to Laptop) !
I know I tried to sync manually my documents yesterday, without much success (loading forever). And I don’t think it’s related : I have just created a new mindmap: it got synced immediately ( I then deleted from my device and was able to retrieve it from my lcloud).
Quite happy now !
And big thing is, I don’t understand after so many customers having the same problem,
So Many complaining not just on margin note forum but also on the App Store …for a such a long time of more than 6 months minimum and yet… there is no improvement, why!!!
After every update, they improve many other things but not this…
I mean seriously, I don’t understand what is the developer and technical support team thinking here. Like there are many threads going on in the marginnote forum only about syncing problem…and they are seeing that Problem for a long time but why they are developing other things in the app and not the basic one …the most important one i would say in this era …that is providing “Sync support”…and Also the best of quality “sync support”
Because copying and pasting everything in iCloud is not a solutions to syncing, Because that takes away great chunk of time in anyone’s studies
How one is supposed to work in this digital era without being able to transfer data to other devices?and for that good quality syncing must work perfectly, Especially when this is the educational app where syncing is the utmost of importance for studies.
Seriously, Please do take some steps in this matter now.
Hi guys. I have the same problem, “Fetching data from iCloud” takes forever. I use it in MacOS and iOS. problems are on both platforms, but on iOS it seems that it syncs faster (like tens of mins instead of hours). When it gets stuck in Mac, I don’t see any Internet activity (with Little Snitch) from MN3 or from iCloud syncing services.
Looking forward to getting a solution to this persistent problem.
Stuck on fetching data. Every single day same problem here.
