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Help Google Keep, latest update broke 1 of 3 accounts

dhbuckley

Well-Known Member
Aug 29, 2010
220
33
Use Keep heavily, since inception; big Keepvangelist. Yesterday's update broke my Keep. I have 3 accounts, 2 are fine, 1, primary, isn't. Notes all gone, labels still visible but nothing is available on my Droid Turbo running latest Lollipop. Also, Keep constantly crashes, whether being used or in the background. Makes phone near unusable due to constant "Unfortunately, Google Keep has stopped" pop-ups. Notes are visible in browser on Mac. Any ideas?
 
I lost all my keep notes once when using it on multiple devices. Not sure exactly how it happened. But now I'm very careful about keep...

If I were going to clear data and uninstall, I'd turn off my network connection first, out of fear that keep in the cloud would see cleared data as a signal to delete everything. That may not be needed, but once you've lost data you get more cautious about these things.
 
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If you were deleting the data from the app, then yes, but clearing the app data under settings? I would think that Keep would sync-up as if you just installed the app fresh.
I agree and it's probably true. But in the other hand, what about the period after you clear data and before you delete the app...maybe it remains still connected to your account somehow and the master cloud version of your keep tries to match the empty list version of your keep located in your phone

Anyone who wishes to do the experiment is welcome (I don't know what results would be and I'm not going to try it myself). People do occasionally lose notes in Keep and the reasons are not always obvious. I've used Keep for probably four years and lost all my notes exactly once. It was at a a time of transitioning phones and my suspicion is that deleting Keep from one phone (and I know Keep data takes up a lot of mb, so I probably cleared data) MIGHT have been the trigger. That's a big might, not a firm statement. There may well be some other explanation for how I lost my data, although it is completely unknown to me. Again all I can say is once you lose data for unexplained reasons, you get more cautious (especially when doing the thing that seems to have triggered the data loss.)
 
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Since I don't use Keep that heavily, I decided to test it. I checked first what I had in keep and then I cleared the data for the app. When I re-opened keep, all the data was there, so I have to assume it sync'ed back to the cloud. .... hang on ...

Okay, Next, i put it into airplane mode and cleared data again. This time, when I opened Keep, it was totally empty. As soon as I turned off airplane mode, it resync'ed and all my stuff came back, so it looks like clearing data doesn't affect the cloud.
 
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I checked first what I had in keep and then I cleared the data for the app. When I re-opened keep, all the data was there, so I have to assume it sync'ed back to the cloud.
Just curious, did it ask you to log back in to connect keep to your account after you cleared data?

Myself I will continue to be cautious doing anything like clearing data and uninstalling/reinstalling keep since there are some oddball "gotcha" situations that somehow lose your data based on my one experience (and no, I never deleted all notes from within the app itself). The time needed to disable my connection before clearing data and uninstalling is miniscule compared to the risk I personally perceive. Sync among cloud and multiple devices is a tricky process to begin with and clearing data only makes it trickier. I don't look to create such challenges for the sync engine ( I also try to only use Keep on only one device at a time, and make sure my changes are syncd before moving to another). I understand well that others would not approach things the same as me and that's why I presented it the way I did in my first post (may not be needed, but...).

Others are free to choose their approach and your experiment is helpful info in that regard.
 
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No, there was no request to reconnect, but Keep uses the Google account for the device, so I don't think I would expect that. Clearing the data, AFAIK is similar to the sync that happens when you add a new device.

As far as deleting data, I might understand it if you only had one device connected to keep using that account and then deleted the app from the device, although, I would think you'd get a warning and an "are you sure?" prompt.
 
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I tried it and same experience; data didn't go away but it still won't work on the phone. Sux bigtime because I use it constantly, already messed up my flow. I think it might have to do with shared notes according to some stuff I've seen so I may delete all shared notes and keep trying.

Gimme any ideas you got!

If it worked before, then I don't know if shared notes would be the problem, but as I said, I don't use keep heavily, so anything's possible.

Can you access keep from a desktop? https://keep.google.com/

Two other things you might try. Clearing the phone cache from recovery and a full factory reset. While the second is a major pain to re-setup everything, it often can clear up problems arising from updates.
 
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Yeah, I wiped the cache from recovery, data IS available from desktop, have deleted the app data and the app and reinstalled twice, no joy.

REALLY don't want to do FDR but I will if I have to.


If it worked before, then I don't know if shared notes would be the problem, but as I said, I don't use keep heavily, so anything's possible.

Can you access keep from a desktop? https://keep.google.com/

Two other things you might try. Clearing the phone cache from recovery and a full factory reset. While the second is a major pain to re-setup everything, it often can clear up problems arising from updates.
 
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Try taking all your other devices off line first.

Then ( optional cautious step: turn off wifi and data), clear keep app cache and data, uninstall keep, maybe clear phone cache in recovery, reboot, update any important Google apps waiting to be updated in play, reinstall keep, see how it works.


By the way, you're not low on free storage space, are you?
 
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this is a Prime Example of why I never allow Updates unless an app stops working.
I hear you. Unfortunatley, updates occasionally do succeed in breaking things.

In this case, search of google product forums and G+ reveals no similar posts recently other than the op. And mine is update to date and works fine as well as 2/3 of op's accounts. So while update may have played some role in bringing a problem to the forefront, I would be looking for something specific to the phone or the account.... especially for ongoing "google keep has stopped" messages.

One longshot related to those messages: do you have a scrollable Keep widget on your homepage. If so I would not immediately reinstall that after reinstalling Keep. I have seen google keep has stopped error messages due to the widget on my last phone.

Edit - spoke to soon. There is one other similar report of recent loss of data, but it related to pc I think and there's no help on that thread yet:
https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/docs/fyKx8CFdOT8;context-place=forum/docs
 
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