Automattic / Automattic/simplenote-electron

"Inactive" notes not exported

Open
#3,196 6 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
[feature] export bug
Dominant language
TypeScript
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Forks
588
Avg merge
9h 45m
Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

I exported my notes via the web app as a backup. When I looked inside the zip file, I found that not all my notes were included. Only about half of them were present.

In the `notes.json` file, I found two keys: `activeNotes`, with about as many members as there were notes in the zip file directory, and `trashedNotes`, listing all deleted notes.

So I'm guessing that when Simplenote exports notes, it exports only what it considers "active" notes (that is, I'm also guessing, notes that have been updated recently). By inspection, the cutoff date seems to be about five years ago.

I would have expected that the 'Export notes' feature would export all notes, but it doesn't. My backup file is missing many important old notes. Interestingly, _trashed_ notes seem to be included no matter how old they are. This doesn't quite make sense from the user's point of view, since notes that have been deleted are less important to retain than notes that haven't.

How can I export _all_ notes, including "inactive" ones?

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start at the web app's "Export notes" entry point and inspect how notes.json is generated inside the export zip. Reproduce the export with old, active, and trashed notes, then verify that the completed backup includes all non-deleted notes regardless of age.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
electron, typescript
Domain
data, web-dev
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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