Problem with Paper: disappearing papers

[tup61]

I started to use Paper yesterday (on Windows PC and Android phone). I have three papers. After creating paper 3 (on Android phone) I suddenly noticed paper 1 (created in Windows PC) suddenly had disappeared from the list within Paper. I could still see it in Dropbox itself but when I doubleclicked on it the Paper app opened but it didn't open the paper. (Which shocked me because it took me a few hours to create paper 1...!)

I decided to search for paper 1 using the Paper search option and luckily, to my relief, paper 1 was found and I could even open it! But it still didn't show up in the Paper list and clicking on it in Dropbox also still didn't work.

I decided to make a copy of paper 1 in Dropbox itself (in another folder): that succeeded and clicking on that copy also opened it in Paper directly! Victory! So I deleted the original paper 1.

Just a few minutes later, after editing one of the papers, paper 3 had disappeared from the list in Paper. Same story: it still was there in Dropbox but doubleclicking only opened the Paper app and not the document. Also this document could be 'saved' by searching for it. And this time it also showed up in the Paper list. However, I still can't open in from within Dropbox and even more odd... after changing the title of paper 3 into something else (within Paper) the new name showed up in Paper but Dropbox still shows the old name... no matter what I do.

I also notice that within Paper 2 documents show when they were last viewed but 1 document (paper 1) keeps on showing a time from yesterday, as if I didn't open it.

Anyway... the information in these 3 documents is very important but I have to say I don't really trust Paper at this moment... Anyone knows what's going on with these papers suddenly disappearing and apparently not syncing well?

[lukeyo]

Hi tup61

Sorry to hear about these struggles. I will ask my peers about the Android app and sync issues.

In the meantime, I think it may be best to work on Paper on the web as I see the Android app hasn't been updated in over a year.

[tup61]

Hm, okay... unfortunately my Android phone would be the main device I'd use those papers on. I only used the Windows PC to setup the documents more easily (with tables etc.). And btw the problem with papers not opening also happens on the PC.

I will make a copy of all my papers using the web interface on my PC, delete the original ones and then only use my Android phone to read the documents, not to edit them. Perhaps the editing on the phone is causing the problems...

EDIT
Just copied the three pages into a subfolder within Dropbox (all using the web interface), deleted the original ones, moved the copies back to where I want them and now all three papers can be opened in Paper when I click on them in Dropbox. I can also open them directly from the Paper app on my phone: I don't really dare to open them from my Dropbox app because I am afraid that anything I do with those files on my phone will cause problems...

So things look okay for now but I can't say I trust the entire system... I certainly don't dare to edit the files on my phone anymore which is a shame because that's what I was planning to do. Thinking about using something else for this (Google Docs, Evernote, MS OneNote, not sure yet.)

Dropbox never failed me in the past, I have to add, but Paper is another story.

[lukeyo]

Thanks for the update, and sorry that Paper isn't proving reliable enough for your workflow yet.

Cheers

[tup61 · Accepted solution]

Thanks for trying to help anyway! 👍 I moved to another platform for this so this topic might as well be closed as far as I am concerned (although a possible solution might be interesting for other (future) users.

[Sarah S.24]

I hope you didn't move to Evernote! I lost almost all 12 years of notes (most likely through a hack) and their customer service and tech support is appalling. I am finally sorting through some of the retrieved data, but they are painfully slow to respond to my distress. I was looking in to using Dropbox paper as a backup for my secure notes. Not sure based on your experience that this is the safest place either. 

[tup61]

Ouch... I thought about Evernote but I'm glad I didn't after reading your story...! No, I switched to Google Docs. Works like a charm. I have a Google phone so it was the most logical choice. Wish I had heard about Docs earlier. I already used Google's Keep for (short) notes on my Android phone but never really thought about the other Google apps. Dropbox served me well for files but Paper was a bad experience...

I do hope you will be able to solve all your problems...!