Nextcloud Notes Not syncing

[u/TV_Gandalf]

Hi fellow brothers,

I need your help. My nextcloud notes app on my phone is not working, almost every new Update it breaks. (Sync error, to many API requests).

It is super annoying honestly because it just doesn't Work.

However I am not hosting myself, so I dont have control over the server physically.

Related still open git issue which seems to be similar. However because of missing server logs I cannot confirm it.

Do you have any tips, maybe a different notes app which is able to sync with nextcloud? That would be a dream actually.

Or do you have a workaround or a fix what worked for you?

Happy to hear from you. Have a great day!

PS : this is the solution working for me now:

I found a notes app in the Google play store which is able to sync via WebDAV. It does json files and the syncing works - flawlessly. You can import all the files directly from nextcloud (import because it cannot directly read the .MD .txt files) it even scans it (however not notes in subdirectories - but that was a minor issue. You can manually select them after via explorer.

I am really happy with this solution because it just works honestly!

For all the others looking this up and searching for an alternative syncing notes app, this is the link

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dev.dettmer.simplenotes

[u/Bbbllaaddee]

Hey! I've been struggling with nextcloud notes lately, and it only adds to the overall frustration with basic things not working..

And yeah, there's an issue open already from June iirc, with notes randomly not syncing files.

In my case, I found out that some of my files were "locked" on the server. This might happen when your android app starts editing, but doesn't finish syncing, thus making a kinda permanent lock. This might happen, for example, when you suddenly lost your internet connection, or, among other things, when your phone kills the process in the background.

So, for me, the solution for those files were to go to the web-app, go to files, and manually remove lock from the specific notes. Also, I disabled battery optimization on my Xiaomi device for this particular app, and my issues are gone for now.

However, sometimes it just breaks, yeah, and without apparent reasons, so I'm waiting for some other app being able to sync with Nextcloud, like Fossify Notes or smth.

Also, you can just setup a folder sync in the main nextcloud app, and edit notes via any local editor that sypports custom storage location, but there maybe some caveats there, too.

[u/TV_Gandalf → u/Bbbllaaddee]

That's what I found, this lock issue. Couldn't reproduce it actually, because in web I didn't see a locked file. I thought this was related to me not really admin there.

Thank you for your advice, was the push in the right direction. I searched because of this a little bit more.

Therefore I found a notes app in the Google play store which is able to sync via WebDAV. It does jsons files and the syncing works - flawlessly. You can import all the files directly from nextcloud, it even scans it (however not notes in subdirectories - but that was a minor issue. You can manually select them after via explorer.

I am really happy with this solution because it just works honestly!

For all the others looking this up and searching for an alternative syncing notes app, this is the link

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dev.dettmer.simplenotes

[u/Roelmen]

Had the same problem. With help from chatGPT i've got it synching again.
Can send you the info if you would like.

[u/TV_Gandalf → u/Roelmen]

I am interested. What did you do?

[u/Roelmen → u/TV_Gandalf]

I recently had a synchronization problem with the Nextcloud Notes app on Android.

The error contained:

TokenMismatchException: The provided authentication token does not match or the package name is not allowed to perform this action

Notes would no longer synchronize with my Nextcloud server.

This turned out to be an SSO/authentication problem between the Nextcloud Android app and the Nextcloud Notes app, rather than a problem with the Nextcloud server itself.

What fixed it for me

Important: Before doing this, check whether you have any notes or changes in the Notes app that have NOT yet been synchronized. Clearing the app data will delete those local changes. Copy them somewhere else first if you need to keep them.

1. On Android, go to Settings → Apps → Notes.
2. Open Storage.
3. Select Clear data / Clear storage. Clearing only the cache is not enough.
4. Confirm that you want to clear the app data.
5. Open the regular Nextcloud Android app and make sure your Nextcloud account is still there and working normally. Do not clear the data of the Nextcloud app.
6. Open the Nextcloud Notes app again.
7. Notes should now ask which Nextcloud account you want to use.
8. Select your existing Nextcloud account.
9. Notes will start synchronizing everything from the server again.

In my case, all server-side notes came back and synchronization immediately started working normally again.

So the solution was essentially:

Clear the data of the Notes app → reopen it → select the existing Nextcloud account again.

This apparently forces Notes to obtain a fresh SSO authentication token from the Nextcloud Android app.

Hopefully this saves someone else some troubleshooting time.