I’ve lost most of a very long note. Possible syncing error? Please help!
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I’ve used Simplenote for more than a dozen years, and this is the first occasion I can remember for which I’ve needed help.
Typically, I create a note to contain a lot of random records for an entire calendar year. The note will contain to-do lists, records of phone conversations and other items. It’s rare that a week goes by in which I don’t add new material to this note. I rarely or never delete any text that I add to this note.
Today (May 26), I was looking at my 2023 note and discovered that it only went back a month. I checked the version history, but that only went back to yesterday (May 25) evening. Is there any way to recover the older material?
I will add that I lost a small part of this note about a month ago. This is by far the largest data loss I’ve experienced in my years of using Simplenote.
In my very cursory review of the support forum to see if anyone else had experienced a similar problem, I got the sense that syncing issues might be in play. Recently, while traveling, I did briefly open my mobile version of Simplenote. I wonder if that truncated access might have introduced an error.
That said, if Simplenote sees that a newer version is significantly smaller than an earlier version, why would it overwrite older versions without checking with users? This seems like it could be an important safeguard to introduce to the system.
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Just to clarify: The history for this note only went back less than one day, and none of the available versions contained any text from earlier than late April.
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I know how frustrating it can be to lose an important note, especially after putting in so much effort to create it.
If you can’t find the missing information in the version history, it might be impossible to recover. However, have you tried checking the Trash? Since you mentioned not seeing any earlier versions, it’s possible that the note has been duplicated, and you’re looking at a different one while the original is in the Trash or in a different note.
Also, have you noticed whether this specific note always syncs to the server? In other words, have you been able to confirm that you can see the entire note on other devices or the web app https://app.simplenote.com/ in the past? If the note never synced to the server, recovering it or viewing its history might not be possible.
It’s worth restoring notes from the Trash (if you find any there) to view their history. Pay close attention to any blank notes or titles you don’t recognize. Additionally, use the search field to look for content that may have been in the note. We suggest not only searching for the title, as people often struggle to find notes when they accidentally delete or change the title text.
That said, if Simplenote sees that a newer version is significantly smaller than an earlier version, why would it overwrite older versions without checking with users? This seems like it could be an important safeguard to introduce to the system.
That’s a good suggestion. I’m going to note this so the team can consider it for future updates. Thank you.
Simplenote Support Forums 