iTechGuides is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Learn more
A highlight can disappear without a warning when two devices edit the same data while one is offline. In Andy Stanly’s account of a production sync failure, the server compared changes by the order it received them—not when the reader actually made them. A timestamp-based comparison reduced that ordering problem, but it could not resolve every bad device clock or recover every older row.
Why an offline device could lose newer work
Stanly says the highlight feature was built for offline reading and later synchronization across devices. Its original conflict policy treated each highlight as a last-write-wins register: the server assigned a monotonically increasing server_seq, and the larger sequence determined which update prevailed.
That sequence described server processing order, not the reader’s edit order. Consider the account Stanly gives: Device A goes offline for a week while Device B continues syncing. A change made earlier on A waits in a queue. When A reconnects, the server assigns that delayed change a fresh sequence number. The number makes it look newer to the comparison, even though the user made it earlier. A later sync from B can receive an even newer sequence and overwrite A again.
Quick wins for a faster PC:
Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →“The server sequence is a fact about when the server heard about the change, not about when the change happened.” — Andy Stanly
#1 Best Overall
Amazon Kindle 16 GB (2024 model) - Light and compact, with fast page turns, and high contrast ratio - Matcha
- Light and compact - With adjustable brightness, high contrast ratio, and fast page turns.
- Effortless reading in any light - Read comfortably with a 6“ glare-free display, adjustable front light—now 25% brighter at max setting—and dark mode.
- Escape into your books - Tune out messages, emails, and social media with a distraction-free reading experience.
- Read for a while - Get up to 6 weeks of battery life on a single charge.
- Take your library with you – 16 GB storage holds thousands of books.
The defect was in what the ordering signal meant. A server sequence is useful for establishing a consistent order of server events; by itself, it cannot establish the order of edits made independently on disconnected devices.
Why deletes made the failure harder to see
Stanly says deletes could make the conflict especially confusing. A queued delete could mark a row as deleted, while another device briefly resurrected it. After another synchronization cycle, the tombstone—the retained record that marks a row as deleted—could prevail. To a reader, the highlight might seem to vanish and return before disappearing again, with no clear explanation of which device’s action won.
Rank #2
- Our fastest Kindle Paperwhite ever – The next-generation 7“ Paperwhite display has a higher contrast ratio and 25% faster page turns.
- Ready for travel – The ultra-thin design has a larger glare-free screen so pages stay sharp no matter where you are.
- Escape into your books – Your Kindle doesn’t have social media, notifications, or other distracting apps.
- Battery life for your longest novel – A single charge via USB-C lasts up to 12 weeks.
- Read in any light – Adjust the display from white to amber to read in bright sunlight or in the dark.
Stanly reports that a production query found 41,208 rows with deleted_at IS NOT NULL, and that the most affected user had 412 tombstones. These are figures from his account, not independently verified measurements or estimates for other apps. The article does not establish that every such row represented a lost highlight.
Crashes, No Sound, or Screen Glitches?
Random freezes, missing sound and display glitches usually trace back to one bad driver. Find and replace yours safely.Free scan · under a minuteWindows Errors? Fix Them Before They Spread
Repair common Windows errors and clear accumulated junk for a smoother, more stable PC - no reinstall needed.Free scan · no reinstallWhat comparison Stanly changed
In the revised policy, Stanly says the client captured a timestamp when a change was made. For colliding writes, the later client timestamp won; if timestamps tied, server_seq served as a deterministic fallback. He also says incoming timestamps were clamped to a plausible range around server time, with out-of-range writes logged. These describe his implementation, not a universal sync recipe.
Rank #3
- Light and compact - With adjustable brightness, high contrast ratio, and fast page turns.
- Effortless reading in any light - Read comfortably with a 6“ glare-free display, adjustable front light—now 25% brighter at max setting—and dark mode.
- Escape into your books - Tune out messages, emails, and social media with a distraction-free reading experience.
- Read for a while - Get up to 6 weeks of battery life on a single charge.
- Take your library with you - 16 GB storage holds thousands of books.
A client timestamp can better reflect when an offline edit happened, but it depends on the device clock. Stanly explicitly notes that a badly wrong clock can still make ordering uncertain. He reports eleven out-of-range timestamps over two months, attributed in his account to one model of low-cost Android tablet. Neither that attribution nor the count is independently verified, and the publication year is not stated in the source account.
What recovery could—and could not—restore
Because the system used soft deletes, the deleted rows had not necessarily been physically erased. Stanly says a one-off restoration script recovered many highlights from tombstones. He does not claim that every lost highlight was recovered. Older rows without timestamps also limited recovery: without a reliable edit-time value, their intended ordering could remain unknown.
Rank #4
- 𝗕𝗥𝗢𝗪𝗦𝗘 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗗 𝗘𝗕𝗢𝗢𝗞𝗦 𝗜𝗡 𝗙𝗨𝗟𝗟 𝗖𝗢𝗟𝗢𝗨𝗥 - Read in colour with a 6” E Ink Kaleido 3 display to enjoy eBook covers, comics, graphic novels, illustrations, and more.
- 𝗡𝗢 𝗠𝗢𝗥𝗘 𝗛𝗨𝗡𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗛𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗟𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗦 - With multiple colours available at the touch of a finger, you can highlight your eBooks. Add, erase, or change colours as you go, and easily see all your highlights by chapter at a glance
- 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗘𝗬𝗘𝗦 𝗪𝗜𝗟𝗟 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗞 𝗬𝗢𝗨 – ComfortLight PRO automatically reduces blue light throughout the day, and you can personalize your reading settings via font size, line spacing, or even Dark Mode
- 𝗪𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗢𝗙 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗔𝗡𝗬𝗪𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘 – Full waterproof protection and meets requirements of IPX8 rating – waterproof for up to 60 minutes in up to 2 metres of water
- 𝗕𝗘𝗧𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗕𝗬 𝗗𝗘𝗦𝗜𝗚𝗡 - Made with recycled and ocean-bound plastic and repairability to waterproof protection
This distinction matters operationally: a tombstone may preserve a path to recovery, but it is not a backup guarantee. Recovery depends on what metadata remains, whether competing versions still exist, and whether the system can identify which state the user intended.
How to choose a conflict policy for your data
There is no single conflict rule that fits every application. Offline Protocol distinguishes last-writer-wins, retaining versions for user choice, automatic merge, and authority-based decisions as separate approaches. The right choice depends on what a record means and what the application can safely infer.
Best Value
- Our fastest Kindle Paperwhite ever – The next-generation 7“ Paperwhite display has a higher contrast ratio and 25% faster page turns.
- Ready for travel – The ultra-thin design has a larger glare-free screen so pages stay sharp no matter where you are.
- Escape into your books – Your Kindle doesn’t have social media, notifications, or other distracting apps.
- Battery life for your longest novel – A single charge via USB-C lasts up to 12 weeks.
- Read in any light – Adjust the display from white to amber to read in bright sunlight or in the dark.
- Ordering signal: Does the policy use server arrival order, a client-provided edit time, an authority rule, or another signal? What does that signal actually prove when devices are disconnected?
- Offline usability: Can users continue making changes offline, and what happens when those changes later collide?
- Version visibility: Are both versions retained for review, or does one overwrite the other without a user-visible history?
- Merge safety: Can the data type be merged without changing its meaning? A text note, a counter, and a reading highlight may need different rules.
- Delete behavior: How do tombstones interact with updates from devices that have stale copies? Can deletion be reversed, and for how long?
- Errors and recovery: Are failed or rejected sync operations recorded, reviewable, and retryable? Microsoft’s Dataverse documentation provides one official example of sync errors recorded in a table with review and retry workflows.
For a reading highlight, silently choosing a winner may be less trustworthy than keeping conflicting versions available for review. For other data, automatic merge or a designated authority may be safer. The policy should follow the semantics of the data rather than treating every collision as the same problem.
Further reading
For a broader treatment of conflicting writes, replication, unreliable clocks, sync engines, and local-first software, see Designing Data-Intensive Applications, 2nd Edition by Martin Kleppmann and Chris Riccomini. O’Reilly lists the book as published in March 2026; it is background reading, not a requirement for implementing Stanly’s change.
Quick Recap
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
What’s actually slowing this PC down?
Pick the symptom - the matching free tool is one click away.
