Sync Troubleshooting
Pickn separates three things that can look similar in the Account view:
- Account connection: whether Pickn can authenticate you.
- Pro entitlement: whether account sync can start or resume.
- Sync data: the settings and pending work stored on this device and, when eligible, in the cloud.
“Pro required” or “Subscription expired”
An account can remain connected while account sync is paused because the Pro entitlement is missing or expired. Pickn does not create a new sync namespace or binding while the entitlement is known to be inactive.
Existing local sync data is retained on the device. Restoring Pro resumes the existing account sync path; losing entitlement alone does not delete local settings or previous sync history.
Pickn retains the server copy for 30 days after a confirmed entitlement loss. The Account view distinguishes a paused sync from a server copy that is still retained, a cleanup that is overdue and retrying, and a server copy that has already been deleted. Renewing before the deadline can resume sync. At or after an overdue deadline, Pickn completes the deletion first and then starts a fresh empty cloud namespace.
If the entitlement status cannot be verified, Pickn treats it as unknown rather than as a confirmed lack of entitlement. In that case, the app may retry after the account status is available again.
“Previous local sync data”
This label means that Pickn found data associated with an older inactive sync namespace on this device. It can include local records, queued work, conflict review data, or recovery artifacts.
Pickn does not promise that local-only or pending data can be safely restored from the server. Review or export conflict and recovery data before taking any cleanup action.
Rejoining Pro does not merge different device sessions automatically. This protects settings from being mixed across unrelated namespaces.
“Unused account sync setup”
An unused setup is an inactive bootstrap shell with no records, queued work, conflicts, recovery artifacts, staging data, or successful sync history. It is safe to offer for explicit removal after Pickn rechecks ownership and the confirmation revision.
Removing an unused setup removes that setup and its empty local binding. It does not remove your Pickn account, subscription, or unrelated local settings. If the setup changes or contains protected data when you confirm, Pickn refuses the removal.
A different account’s data is not shown
Inactive account namespaces are filtered by the currently authenticated Pickn user. A namespace owned by another account is not displayed as cleanup or retained history, and the background removal path checks ownership again before changing local data.
Signing out or deleting an account
Signing out disconnects this browser extension and discards its access credentials. It does not erase local settings or cancel a subscription. If the extension shows pending work, conflicts, or recovery data, export or resolve it before removing local data.
Account deletion is different: Pickn disables sync immediately, revokes extension sessions, observes the deletion grace period, and confirms erasure of the server sync copy before finishing account deletion. If that last cleanup needs a retry, the account remains pending rather than being partially deleted.
Contacting support
When reporting a sync issue, include the visible sync status, the approximate time it started, your extension version, browser, and whether Pro was active. Do not send raw namespace IDs, access tokens, settings payloads, or IndexedDB exports.
Background sync cadence
Pickn schedules ordinary background checks as one-shot alarms. Recent activity, queued local changes, and active retries keep checks frequent; after a quiet period, ordinary checks back off gradually to reduce wakeups. Exact retry alarms remain separate, so a failed upload or recovery does not wait for the next ordinary check.
Opening the extension, making a local change, returning online, changing sessions, or choosing Sync now still starts an immediate sync attempt. A successful empty check records that the server was checked without treating the check itself as activity.
If the browser restarts while a future one-shot check exists, Pickn preserves it. Older repeating alarms are replaced after the first completed sync lifecycle. These scheduling details do not change what is stored or synced; sync status and any required action remain visible in the extension.
Pickn’s diagnostic path uses an opaque support reference and metadata-only counts. It is designed to identify whether a namespace is empty, data-bearing, pending, conflicted, or historical without exposing settings values.
Storage, quota, and reset messages
Pickn enforces limits on the number and size of synced records, pending work, snapshot/reset payloads, and local authority storage. The extension reports a retry, recovery, or quota action before accepting a state that would exceed a limit. A reset is paged and validated before activation; if activation is interrupted, reopening the extension resumes the same reset or safely cancels it rather than publishing a partial graph.
Do not include settings values, recipe contents, record names, account IDs, installation IDs, cursors, or access tokens in a support request. The support reference and visible status are sufficient for diagnosis.
Account deletion and expired entitlement
Deletion is complete only after the account workflow displays the final erased state. If the network fails, leave the workflow in place and retry; the server uses an idempotent request and a terminal marker so a repeated delivery cannot recreate deleted sync content.
When Pro expires, sync is paused and the existing local graph remains available during the grace period. Once the purge deadline has passed, reactivation is blocked until the server confirms content erasure. The next eligible setup is a fresh namespace; previous cloud records are not merged back into it.