When a document is deleted, it leaves behind a deletion stub. When the database replicates, IBM® Lotus® Notes® uses the deletion stub to identify and delete the same document in the replica.

To save disk space, Notes purges deletion stubs that remain from document deletions according to the replication setting "Remove documents not modified in the last [ ] days." If Notes purges the deletion stubs before they have a chance to replicate, deleted documents can reappear after the next replication. This option is on the Space Saver panel of the File - Replication - Options for this Application dialog box in the Notes client.

A document edit writes over a document deletion

• When the same document is modified on different servers between replication sessions, the document that was modified most frequently takes precedence, or if both documents are modified only once, the one modified most recently takes precedence.
• If a document is edited multiple times on one server and deleted on another server between replication sessions, the edited document takes precedence because it underwent the greatest number of changes, even if the deletion was the most recent change.
• If somebody deletes a document on one server and then someone else updates the document on another server once between replication sessions, the edit overrides the deletion because both documents were updated once and the edit occurred after the deletion.

Replication -- Problems and error messages

Glossary