Joplin can't synchronize due to false positive

[jlgarnier]

Dear Community,

I'm using Joplin application in replacement of Evernote. Joplin allows synchronization target selection and I chose Dropbox to host my notes. Unfortunately, Joplin complains about Dropbox errors since weeks and I still cannot solve them as it looks like Dropbox returns false positive: it flags several files, all named as "tp_advid_398941_trcid_30707_val__<32 hex chars>.gif" and no of these files can be found! They just don't exist!

How can either trick Joplin into thinking the sync went through or fix Dropbox so these ghost files are flagged "OK"?

Thanks in advance for any help!

[Walter]

Hi @jlgarnier; welcome to our Community!

I'll be happy to have a look into this for you; I'll just need some additional information first.

Could you share a screenshot or two of the errors you mentioned and elaborate on how they relate to Dropbox so I can get a better understanding of the matter at hand? 

Thanks! 

[jlgarnier]

Thanks Walter! Here's a bit of context:

- Using Joplin (https://joplinapp.org/) to store notes and web pages.

- Selected "Sync to Dropbox" in Joplin: the app created its own folder \Applications\Joplin to store notes as .md files

- Synchronized 2 laptops + 1 smartphone t the folder

- All went well for a time, no issue when creating/updating on one terminal and syncing to another

- Some weeks agon Joplin started to complain about fetchBlob errors with some files.

- Searched for the files (all the files😞 couldn't find any of these!

Here's a screenshot (in French) of the app debug report:

Joplin ghost files error

Hope this helps!

Thanks in advance for any help!

[Walter]

Thanks for the screenshot @jlgarnier!

Have you by any chance contacted the developers of Joplin to ask about this directly?

In the meantime, @Greg-DB; do you have anything to add here perhaps? 

[Greg-DB]

That 'restricted_content' error indicates that the file has been flagged as restricted (e.g., for malware, DMCA, etc.). If you believe that the file has been incorrectly flagged, you can contact support to ask them to review it:

https://www.dropbox.com/support

[jlgarnier]

Hi Walter!

Ye, I've first investigated with Laurent, Joplin's developer: you can read the thread at https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/error-on-dropbox-synchro/6903/6 but the issue doesn't ring any bell to him...

[jlgarnier]

Hi Greg,

Being myself an old dev (ok, offboard since ages ;-)), I fully understand the error message. What strikes me is just that... these files do not seem to live anywhere, to simply exist! No files in my local Dropbox folder, on any terminal, no files in my cloud Dropbox folder, no files anywhere! Why does Dropbox report these errors on ghost files? And more: how can I investigate further into this case?

Thanks in advance for any help!

[Greg-DB]

@jlgarnier The Dropbox API should only list files that are in the connected account. A few possibilities come to mind here:

• You may be looking in the wrong location for these files. For example, the Joplin app uses the "app folder" permission, so it would be operating only in the special app folder made for it, under /Apps/Joplin for accounts using the English locale, or with "Apps" localized for other languages.
• The files may be in a "hidden" folder so your search may not find them.
• If you have multiple accounts, you may be looking in the wrong account. 

If you're having trouble tracking down these files, support may be able to help.

[jlgarnier]

Hi Greg, thanks for the quick answer!

Checked the different points:

1. all terminals are set with Locale=fr, so I hope all Joplin instances are reaching to \Applications\Joplin and don't mix with \Apps\Joplin. Moreover, everything was running fine until some weeks ago, with the same repository...
2. I can't find any hidden folder but I'll try to identify those files from Joplin's key
3. One account only, this clue could be ignored.

Thanks a lot, I'll keep you posted on my further findings!