immortal file?

mr.fixit — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:14:46 +0000

I have a file in the attachments folder inside the my notebook’s bundle. It’s an invisible file called .moddates. It defies any attempt to delete it. If I delete it from the finder, it magically reappears. If I delete it from the command-line, the command succeeds, but the file is still there when I check again.

This file is causing problems when syncing my notebook via Dropbox, which I have been doing successfully for more than a year. Dropbox sees that the files are out of sync, tries to sync them, thinks it has succeeded, but since the file cannot be truly overwritten, they are still out of sync. Dropbox again see the files are out of sync, ... rinse and repeat.

Does anyone have any idea what might be causing this? It’s not directly Dropbox related, since this file still won’t go away even if I quit running Dropbox. The only thing that I can think of that might be relevant is that I just today upgraded to 10.6.2.

Anyone? Jayson?

Jayson commented

Jayson — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:06:55 +0000

Hello,

That file will be regenerated anytime you try to remove it. I’m not sure why Dropbox always thinks it’s dirty but I have an idea. Please contact support about this.

Best,

__jayson

frankd commented

frankd — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 02:34:12 +0000

I’m having the same problem. Also running 10.6.2. The issue just started a little while ago. I’ve also been syncing using Dropbox for a long time.

Frank

Adrian commented

Adrian — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 10:52:34 +0000

Hello

I’m having this same issue which has just started. (I think partly my fault as tried to stop a file uploading when realised it was 500mb)

Did the above question get resolved?

Adrian

raul commented

raul — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 19:27:20 +0000

I’m having this same problem, but running 10.5.8.
I’ve also been syncing using Dropbox for a long time without problem, until something change (I don`t know what).
Somebody could solve the problem??
Thanks in advance for the help.
Raul

AWDriver commented

AWDriver — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 21:05:48 +0000

Bump. I have this too. Problem is Dropbox independent. I created a new notebook that is saved outside dropbox and it exists there as well.

Carsten Schabacker commented

Carsten Schabacker — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 20:41:37 +0000

I have the same problem since some time – i have tried to use a notebook on my iDisk too, but this never worked (iDisk sync failed totaly)...

Martin White commented

Martin White — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 17:02:16 +0000

Ok, bump for this!

I upgraded from 2.1 to 3.x yesterday as I’ve returned to using Notebook after a long absence. I keep my notebooks in drop box. I was doing a lot of work last night on a work notebook from my home PC.

I’ve just fired up my MBPro (work laptop), gone to open a different notebook, realised I hadn’t updated Notebook on this machine so did so and immediately I’m now getting this issue.

It’s particularly irritating for me since I have Growl running so I’m getting a bubble pop up next to the menu bar every few seconds.

So, if there’s a solution I’d love for someone to share it.

Thanks,
Martin.

André Roque Matheus commented

André Roque Matheus — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 16:01:34 +0000

I have this problem too, it started today. Never seen that before.

Thanks,

André

Eric commented

Eric — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 20:41:54 +0000

This problem should be fixed in the next update to NoteBook. If you cannot wait until then, please contact support here.

Mac commented

Mac — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 14:11:46 +0000

I’m having the same problem. Do we know when the next update will be available?

Thanks—
MAC

MartinH commented

MartinH — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 13:57:39 +0000

Well, it’s on the developers radar, so I guess we just have to be patient and let them work on the fix. I’ve just had to switch off Growl notifications for Dropbox for now, as it was driving me nuts!

One thought, if this is a self generating file, is it really necessary to sync it (as each client machine will generate and update it’s own relevant local copy anyway)? If not, then I notice that Dropbox are working on a feature that might be useful; selective sync, so you can omit certain files from the sync process. They say it should be rolled out soon.

https://www.dropbox.com/votebox/10/selective-sync

Eric commented

Eric — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 17:10:23 +0000

See my post above if you need help with the problem now.

btn commented

btn — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:10:16 +0000

Hi Eric,

Can you share when the update for this problem will be generally available? I will soon be forced to use a company-owned MacBook Pro. My plan is to use iDisk to keep important files in sync, including my NoteBook.

Thanks!

P.S. Are there any plans to make Evernote an option for a cloud repository?

Eric commented

Eric — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 05:40:36 +0000

Hi btn,

I’ll try to remember, but if you need the fix for the .moddates issue, write in to support here and we’ll be able to help out.

You can also set up NoteBook to automatically check for updates in Preferences.

For syncing of any kind, it’s safest to use the Finder’s Compress command in the File menu to first archive a NoteBook (because of its file package data structure). We have seen data loss issues in the past that were likely caused by syncing programs that don’t understand file packages very well. And ironically, MobileMe/iDisk is one of those since file packages are an OS X construct.

As for future plans, in general we do not comment on potential future product plans for competitive and other reasons.

Don Truett commented

Don Truett — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:26:28 +0000

This problem just started for me yesterday and is unbelievably annoying. It’s happening with a notebook I’ve had on Dropbox for months with no problems until now.
Eric, with all due respect, I don’t think zipping the notebook, then expanding it at the other computer, rezipping again, etc is anyone’s idea of a good workflow.
All I want is my notebook to work the way it did 2 days ago. I’m baffled as to why it would change.
p.s. In the course of typing this, I’ve had about 15 Growl messages pop up in the periphery of my vision.

Eric commented

Eric — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:05:02 +0000

Hi Don,

Please send a message to support here and we can get you a fix for the .moddates issue you are seeing. The fix will be included in the next update to NoteBook as well.

I agree that’s not a smooth workflow. Syncing is a very complicated activity and it’s made more complex when working with file packages (which is what a Notebook file is). We’ve seen data loss before that has likely resulted from some third party syncing software.

The ability to sync a Notebook is on NoteBook’s possible future features list, by the way.

Don Truett commented

Don Truett — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:10:48 +0000

The fix you sent seems to be working perfectly. Thanks. One of the great things about Dropbox is that, unlike SugarSync, it handles packages, such as Numbers or Pages.

Eric commented

Eric — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:46:47 +0000

Good to hear! From all the syncing applications that we hear about from our customers, DropBox seems to work pretty well with NoteBook, which also uses file packages like Numbers and Pages.

If it didn’t, these forums would be the place you’d hear about it! :-)

erikhusby commented

erikhusby — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 20:01:49 +0000

Just submitted a support request about this problem. Last week they gave me the fix and it seemed to work. However, today I added an image to a NoteBook that lived in the Dropbox folder. And the problem is happening again.

Eric commented

Eric — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 08:03:57 +0000

The original fix we supplied was only for Snow Leopard. Subsequently, we discovered that the .moddates issue also applied to Tiger and Leopard. We have an updated fix for that and that is what we sent Erik (thanks for helping us track that down, Erik!). This is what we’ve subsequently been sending out.