How to back up all your EN notes on your Mac

[DancesWithCats 2]

Below is how to ensure you have a backup of your EN notes on your Mac. I have Googled and looked for ages on how to do this and there has been nothing really explaining how it works. I was tempted to ask here, but I will put up what I have found instead, and ask the knowledgable community here to correct me if I have erred for each point...

1. Evernote keeps all your stuff on their servers. If you have the desktop version, all your stuff is also placed on your own hard drive.

2. Every time you add a note, it goes to the hard drive and also to the EN servers.

3. If you have a local notebook, your additions only go to your hard drive.

4. Your stuff is kept on your 'Library' folder on your Mac. This is hidden in Finder. To find it open Finder, then click on 'Go' in the information bar at the top. At the same time press and hold down the Option key. Click on the Library folder.

5. Follow the path User/Library/Application Support/Evernote. All your stuff is in there. (To continue go accounts/Evernote/username/content. All your notes are here.)

6. Copy and paste this folder (Evernote) onto a USB external drive to back up.

7. If you have time machine running, it is already being backed up.

If there are any errors in my statements above, could you please be so kind as to point it out. I think this may be helpful to some.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

Below is how to ensure you have a backup of your EN notes on your Mac. I have Googled and looked for ages on how to do this and there has been nothing really explaining how it works. I was tempted to ask here, but I will put up what I have found instead, and ask the knowledgable community here to correct me if I have erred for each point...

1. Evernote keeps all your stuff on their servers. If you have the desktop version, all your stuff is also placed on your own hard drive.

2. Every time you add a note, it goes to the hard drive and also to the EN servers.

3. If you have a local notebook, your additions only go to your hard drive.

4. Your stuff is kept on your 'Library' folder on your Mac. This is hidden in Finder. To find it open Finder, then click on 'Go' in the information bar at the top. At the same time press and hold down the Option key. Click on the Library folder.

5. Follow the path User/Library/Application Support/Evernote. All your stuff is in there. (To continue go accounts/Evernote/username/content. All your notes are here.)

6. Copy and paste this folder (Evernote) onto a USB external drive to back up.

7. If you have time machine running, it is already being backed up.

If there are any errors in my statements above, could you please be so kind as to point it out. I think this may be helpful to some.

Hi. I think it looks good to me. Thanks for taking the time to make this explanation for everyone. You can also find discussions about this at:

Here is the outdated and somewhat misleading Evernote page on the process. It still has some good information, but users with the appstore version and home brew version, for example, might have slightly different Library locations.

https://support.evernote.com/ics/support/KBAnswer.asp?questionID=1281&hitOffset=421+321+312+281+273+238+231+166+98+59&docID=23913

[DancesWithCats 2]

Thanks GM. Good to know.

(p.s. I love your website and adopted your minimalist EN approach (in part) a few months back.)

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

Thanks GM. Good to know.

(p.s. I love your website and adopted your minimalist EN approach (in part) a few months back.)

Glad I could help!

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Below is how to ensure you have a backup of your EN notes on your Mac. I have Googled and looked for ages on how to do this and there has been nothing really explaining how it works. I was tempted to ask here, but I will put up what I have found instead, and ask the knowledgable community here to correct me if I have erred for each point...

1. Evernote keeps all your stuff on their servers. If you have the desktop version, all your stuff is also placed on your own hard drive.

2. Every time you add a note, it goes to the hard drive and also to the EN servers.

3. If you have a local notebook, your additions only go to your hard drive.

4. Your stuff is kept on your 'Library' folder on your Mac. This is hidden in Finder. To find it open Finder, then click on 'Go' in the information bar at the top. At the same time press and hold down the Option key. Click on the Library folder.

5. Follow the path User/Library/Application Support/Evernote. All your stuff is in there. (To continue go accounts/Evernote/username/content. All your notes are here.)

6. Copy and paste this folder (Evernote) onto a USB external drive to back up.

7. If you have time machine running, it is already being backed up.

If there are any errors in my statements above, could you please be so kind as to point it out. I think this may be helpful to some.

I'm not a Mac user, so can't address 4, 5 or 6 personally.

#3 is correct.

Regarding 1, 2 & 7, they are correct except I would qualify that it depends upon how often you sync. IOW, after you make a change to a note in a sync'd notebook on your desktop, it doesn't *immediately* go to the EN servers. It depends upon your sync settings. If someone has auto sync turned off, the changes will never reach the EN servers unless & until the user manually syncs or changes to auto sync & the computer auto syncs. So even if someone has auto sync turned on but they shut the computer down before the auto sync kicks in a sync, the change is still not on the EN servers. At least that's the way it is on the Windows desktop & I believe the Mac desktop functions similarly. Perhaps you can confirm this?

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

(I know that point is pretty obvious, but a few years ago, someone on the board was peeved b/c when we were helping him, he said all his notes were in sync'd notebooks. However, what he failed to do & mention was that he hadn't SYNC'D in a long time. So he lost a lot of notes & changes. )

[DancesWithCats 2]

Thanks BNF. I hadn't thought of the sync settings. I normally hit Sync every time I do something, and if I don't it will automatically sync in short time. I believe the Mac and PC are the same in this (I use both). Unless there is good reason, I wouldn't turn off auto sync. I am usually very careful to sync the computer I am working on, before opening up Evernote on another device. I have had a little mis-hap doing this with iffy 3G signal (Evernote for iPhone) and as a result, will always sync before changing devices.

[DancesWithCats 2]

Well I would advise anyone to sync frequently. Seems obvious, but that doesn't mean it's obvious to everyone I suppose!

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Thanks BNF. I hadn't thought of the sync settings. I normally hit Sync every time I do something, and if I don't it will automatically sync in short time. I believe the Mac and PC are the same in this (I use both). Unless there is good reason, I wouldn't turn off auto sync. I am usually very careful to sync the computer I am working on, before opening up Evernote on another device.

I agree. I mean, that's the point of having things in a cloud, IMO. Occasionally, if I'm working on a large note that I don't want sync'd until I'm done (so it won't chew up my upload limit), I'll put it in a local (non-sync'd) notebook. When done, I'll move it to a sync'd notebook.

[Metrodon 2,184]

4 is only partially correct:

If you downloaded directly it's in user/library/application support/evernote

If you downloaded from the app store it's here ~/Library/Containers/com.evernote.Evernote

[Clytie 1]

 

 

4 is only partially correct:

If you downloaded directly it's in user/library/application support/evernote
If you downloaded from the app store it's here ~/Library/Containers/com.evernote.Evernote

 

Yes, and it's buried deep within that location. My Evernote data finally revealed itself at:

 

/Users/USERNAME/Library/Containers/com.evernote.Evernote/Data/Library/Application Support/Evernote/accounts/Evernote/EVERNOTE_USER/

 

which makes you wonder if the originating coder had déja vu.

 

Within that directory, all the Notes are listed as pages (p2, p3 etc.). They're all there. You just need a spade and enough energy to go digging for them.

 

(As long as your Evernote data is on your hard drive, and you have Time Machine set to backup regularly (at least once a day), you shouldn't lose anything important. It's best to backup cloud data locally.)

[paperfree! 0]

Just wanted to thank you, this all went perfectly. I had no idea about the need to have the desktop version. Ihope EN makes this more obvious in the future I think many of us are shedding and shredding paper we would need, and relying on EN.

[jordanmicah 0]

 

 

 

4 is only partially correct:

If you downloaded directly it's in user/library/application support/evernote

If you downloaded from the app store it's here ~/Library/Containers/com.evernote.Evernote

 

Yes, and it's buried deep within that location. My Evernote data finally revealed itself at:

 

/Users/USERNAME/Library/Containers/com.evernote.Evernote/Data/Library/Application Support/Evernote/accounts/Evernote/EVERNOTE_USER/

 

which makes you wonder if the originating coder had déja vu.

 

Within that directory, all the Notes are listed as pages (p2, p3 etc.). They're all there. You just need a spade and enough energy to go digging for them.

 

(As long as your Evernote data is on your hard drive, and you have Time Machine set to backup regularly (at least once a day), you shouldn't lose anything important. It's best to backup cloud data locally.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

4 is only partially correct:

If you downloaded directly it's in user/library/application support/evernote

If you downloaded from the app store it's here ~/Library/Containers/com.evernote.Evernote

 

Yes, and it's buried deep within that location. My Evernote data finally revealed itself at:

 

/Users/USERNAME/Library/Containers/com.evernote.Evernote/Data/Library/Application Support/Evernote/accounts/Evernote/EVERNOTE_USER/

 

which makes you wonder if the originating coder had déja vu.

 

Within that directory, all the Notes are listed as pages (p2, p3 etc.). They're all there. You just need a spade and enough energy to go digging for them.

 

(As long as your Evernote data is on your hard drive, and you have Time Machine set to backup regularly (at least once a day), you shouldn't lose anything important. It's best to backup cloud data locally.)

 

Thank you Clytie. Also if someone wanted to access the folder in terminal I added the back slash to the code so you can paste and access the folder quickly /Users/MACUSERNAME/Library/Containers/com.evernote.Evernote/Data/Library/Application\ Support/Evernote/accounts/Evernote/EVERNOTEUSERNAME