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[GH-ISSUE #6223] [Bug]: Can't Open Budget on Mobile, Resetting Sync ID seems to have gotten budget into a bad state? #80079
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Originally created by @tuxgirl on GitHub (Nov 21, 2025).
Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/actualbudget/actual/issues/6223
Verified issue does not already exist?
What happened?
Hi, this is a continuation of bug https://github.com/actualbudget/actual/issues/6139 because that bug report was closed without conclusion, and I can't figure out how to re-open it.
ORIGINAL INFORMATION:
I have a self-hosted instance of Actual Budget running inside podman. I imported my ynab data into it, which goes back to 2012. I am able to load and work with this budget without issue on computers, but when I try to load it on my phone, it gets stuck on the "Loading" screen. One time, I let it continue to load as long as it wanted, and it eventually made it to the budget screen after about 8-10 minutes, but it had a sync error, and was missing data.
I have tried multiple mobile browsers (Chrome and Vivaldi). I have also tried using both desktop and mobile modes in the mobile browsers.
I did create a completely empty budget from my computer, and that budget was able to open on the mobile browser.
This has been happening for a couple months since I first switched to using Actual, so across multiple versions of Actual. Currently, I'm using 25.10.0.
When I try to load the budget, podman logs shows:
2025-11-13T20:13:17.421Z info: GET 304 /sync/list-user-files
2025-11-13T20:13:17.425Z info: GET 304 /account/needs-bootstrap
2025-11-13T20:13:17.454Z info: GET 304 /account/validate
I wasn't able to find any other logs, even after exec-ing into the container, but if there is one that I was missing, please let me know!
I did do an export of my current budget. The zipped version was 6.43 MB, and the extracted sqlite db was 34.3 MB. My theory is that for some reason the mobile browser is not able to download and work with a database of that size?
Is there a way to have the client not need the full history? Or, is there a way to "archive" the history, but not have it in regular use? Or, if there's no way to hold onto that history, can I truncate the history a few months back without messing up the current data?
NEW INFORMATION:
It was recommended to me that I try to reset the sync id. I tried this, but it doesn't seem to work. Now, no matter which computer I try to use actual from, it tells me I need to upload the file, and when I try to upload the file it throws an internal error.
I tried to create a new budget from my most recent backup, but when I load that, it just says that the file is not a cloud file and needs to be registered. When I click the register button, it spins for a couple seconds, then reloads with the same error saying it's not a cloud file.
My server is online, and in my local network. I can see the list of budgets, but can't seem to use any of them. When I tried to connect to my old budget with a new browser, it threw an internal error.
I don't know how to recover from this. Is it possible for me to do something manually with the budget directly on the host machine?
Thankfully, I have a backup, but I don't know what to do if I can't import the backup. Should I completely remove my podman container and start over?
How can we reproduce the issue?
I guess using a really large/old budget file, and then trying to resync the id?
Where are you hosting Actual?
Other
What browsers are you seeing the problem on?
Chrome
Operating System
Linux
@yurgh commented on GitHub (Nov 22, 2025):
I ran into the same issue. It's been working flawlessly on Chrome on Android. I've "installed" the app thru Chromes add-to-start-menu option. Recently I get Sync Error on my phone, but it works fine on Desktop. I notice there were some missing transactions on my desktop PC so I figured there might be something in the file that prevented the sync. The only thing I remember going wrong lately is that I added a transaction on mobile without an amount by accident, but I fixed it right after.
I cleared cache and data for the "app" and deleted the data for my Actual server domain in Chrome. Then I logged in again, and the budget worked normally. The two last transactions was missing; the oldest one was the one I didn't make a correct entry for. Also a few cleared-flags was missing; I believe I did tick those after I added my two transactions. Didn't reset sync ID as it seemed to cause issues for OP, so maybe my reply is not really relevant :)
No idea if the bad entry is just random or relevant.
My sqlite file is roughly 8MB unpacked.
I noticed that in the app, when I pulled down to sync, there were no sync entry in the log. So I first investigated connectivity, which was ok. Changing from my regular to my kids budget worked, and their tiny budget was fine. Changing back to my regular budget worked: but it would throw Sync errors and the log said:
2025-11-22T09:29:56.740Z info: GET 200 /sync/get-user-file-info
2025-11-22T09:29:56.785Z info: GET 200 /sync/download-user-file
2025-11-22T09:29:56.878Z info: GET 304 /account/validate
and nothing more. Pulling down to sync made no more log entries.
I'll poke around a bit and see if I can make it happen again.
@matt-fidd commented on GitHub (Nov 24, 2025):
Hey! Thanks for reporting this. Is there any way that I can reproduce this? I've tried resetting sync on a few different devices but can't get my file to fail in this way.
If it's an isolated case, I'd recommend reaching out on the Discord where someone should be able to give you a hand recovering your file
@matt-fidd commented on GitHub (Nov 24, 2025):
Taking a look at the browser console is a good first step here
@tuxgirl commented on GitHub (Nov 24, 2025):
Hi! I posted this question both on reddit and on discord. I didn't get any responses on discord, and on reddit, it got a lot of views, but the responses primarily just suggested posting a bug report here.
I'm looking at the browser console (F12), but I'm not quite certain if I'm looking everywhere that I should.
When I first open up my budget, in the console, I see:
It gives me the error saying to upload, so I click the upload button, and then in the console, I see:
If I try to create a new budget by importing my backup, I get:
And then I have the message saying that the file is not a cloud file and I need to register. When I click the Register button, I get:
What I'm trying to determine now is how to move forward. Is there a way that I can push the budget backup file to my server manually via scp, and put it in the system that way? If I create a new fresh copy of the actual budget server, would I be likely to be able to recover my budget backup to that?
It feels like this may be a significant weak point of the budget software if it can't handle a budget with significant historical data. I never had this problem with ynab. I'm guessing this is related to the offline capabilities of Actual, but I honestly don't care about using Actual while offline. I'd rather have it do everything directly on the server, instead of it trying to sync everything out to the client.
Is it possible for me to truncate past data from my budget without it causing problems for the current months? If so, I guess that could be a possible solution, although not ideal. I do like having the ability to access past data for reports, or even to just compare how my budget has changed over the years. But, that is lower priority than just being able to use my budget. Currently, I'm unable to use my budget because I can't get it to work.
@matt-fidd commented on GitHub (Nov 24, 2025):
Ah, payload size too large is the key here.
Try the relevant instructions here, sorry I can't get a direct link to the specific part on my phone.
https://actualbudget.org/docs/faq
@yurgh commented on GitHub (Nov 25, 2025):
I've run into issues with uploading files on a reverse proxy, on a
different project. If a reverse proxy is in use, remember to also check the
config on allowed upload sizes there.
man. 24. nov. 2025, 23:33 skrev Matt Fiddaman @.***>:
@github-actions[bot] commented on GitHub (Dec 17, 2025):
This issue has been automatically closed because there have been no comments for 7 days after the "needs info" label was added. If you still need help, please feel free to reopen the issue with the requested information.