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Can I Use Evernote For Android While Offline? Without Paying a Repeating Fee?


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Hi Folks,

 

I've got a very simple question. The discussion of premium mode says that Free Evernote is useless when offline - if I'm in airplane mode, or my cell phone provider has hiccups, or I don't want to pay data roaming fees - no Evernote for me. But the guide for new users of Android in discussing syncing strongly implies Evernote for Android is usable offline.

 

I'm looking for a replacement for Note Everything, which worked fine on my Droid II, but declines to sync my data to my new Nexus V. I'm very nervous about data "in the cloud," and requiring that my network connection be up in order to access my data is sufficient to cross Evernote off my list of adequate replacements.

 

So I'm just looking for a straight answer - would I have to pay an ongoing rent to have access to my data when Evernote's site is down, or my ISP is down, or I'm travelling, etc. etc. ?

 

 

 

Here are the relevant excerpts:

 

---http://evernote.com/premium/---

Offline notebooks

Access your notes fast whenever you need them on your mobile device, even without a network connection. Great for travel.

 

---http://evernote.com/evernote/guide/android/#4---

Automatic Sync

By default, your Evernote account is automatically synced across all of your devices once per hour whenever Evernote is running.

Changing Sync Frequency
To change how often your account automatically syncs, do the following:

  1. Tap the Evernote icon to open the Home Screen
  2. Tap the Profile icon
  3. Tap Settings
  4. Under App Settings, tap Sync Notes
  5. Tap Sync Automatically
  6. Select how often you want to automatically sync your Evernote account. You may also disable automatic syncing

Enable WiFi Only Syncing
Users with limited data usage for their mobile device may want to sync only when their device is connected to a WiFi network. To enable syncing over WiFi only, do the following:

  1. On the Home Screen, tap the Profile icon
  2. Tap Settings
  3. Under App Settings, tap Sync Notes
  4. Tap Wi-Fi sync only
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First, a bit of info about syncing and mobile devices.

1) Your data are stored on Evernote's servers. They are also locally stored on any computer you have running Evernote. These locally stored files are available without a network connection. You can access all of your notes, modify notes, create new notes while offline on your computer. They will then get pushed to the cloud when you have a network connection. 

2a) By default, Evernote only syncs headers on mobile devices which are stored in a local cache. When Evernote says that, on Android, it syncs every hour, it means new header information is sent to the device. The rest of the note is pulled down from the server and cached locally when you open that particular note. The effect is that even when offline you should have limited and temporary access to most of your note headers (largely useless on their own), and a selection of complete notes, typically the last few notes you have accessed and which are stored in their entirety in the cache. 

 

2b) notes created on a mobile device while offline will be stored locally and uploaded to Evernote's servers (and subsequently to any other device you run Evernote on) when a connection is re-established. This is true for both free and premium.

 

3) Premium users can tell their mobile device to download some or all of their notebooks to be stored, in their entirety, locally on the device. This would be subject to the same hourly background sync (or immediate sync when the application is running). This means, for the selected notebooks (or all notebooks, depending on the setting you select), the ENTIRE note, not just the header, is stored on the device and available when offline.

 

The short answer is: if you need offline access on your mobile device, you need to have a premium subscription. 

 

If you are concerned about data integrity, synchronize to a computer and make regular backups of that database.

 

Data synced to your computer is also always available offline, even for free users. 

 

If you only need offline access on your mobile device periodically, buy premium one month at a time. For $5, this isn't such a terrible thing if offline access is that important for you and you only need it for a short period of time. This is how I got started, only buying a month here or there as I travelled. (I am now a full-time premium subscriber going on 2 years).

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  • 2 weeks later...

Does anyone know if the "header information" for a note includes the title? I can't swear to this, but I think that regardless of my connection status, all my notes are listed all the time. And this would mean that Reminders (at least the title) would basically work offline - they would always be visible, and any added or deleted or reordered while offline would get synced to the server when you again connect. Maybe notifications from Reminders wouldn't work while offline though.

 

I'm talking Android, in case that makes a difference.

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Yes, header includes title, an image thumbnail/first line of text, location data, date created/updated, and tags. Yes, reminders - the title at least - should likely "work" offline insofar as you will get notifications, notification are "local" and not from a push server so long as the reminder was previously synced to your device before going offline. 

 

And yes, creating reminders on a mobile device while offline will just let them sync back to the server when you connect again. 

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Wait...

So does that mean all the notes I've been creating on my phone won't appear in full on my Windows desktop because I'm using a free account? Meaning only a Header version will show up in Windows?

I really, really hope that is not the case.....

Yes, header includes title, an image thumbnail/first line of text, location data, date created/updated, and tags. Yes, reminders - the title at least - should likely "work" offline insofar as you will get notifications, notification are "local" and not from a push server so long as the reminder was previously synced to your device before going offline.

And yes, creating reminders on a mobile device while offline will just let them sync back to the server when you connect again.

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No, it doesn't mean that! Don't panic! It means that any syncing from your mobile device to the Evernote servers can only occur with a data connection. Once those notes are synced to the Evernote servers, they are available for any connected version of Evernote. Once your Windows desktop has synced to the EN servers, those notes created on your mobile device will be on your desktop. 

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Oh phew! Thanks Megsaint! Nearly had had a heart attack for a moment there. :0

Thanks again for the clarification! Now I can have that nap I planned without being consumed by worry! :)

No, it doesn't mean that! Don't panic! It means that any syncing from your mobile device to the Evernote servers can only occur with a data connection. Once those notes are synced to the Evernote servers, they are available for any connected version of Evernote. Once your Windows desktop has synced to the EN servers, those notes created on your mobile device will be on your desktop.

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  • 1 year later...

First, a bit of info about syncing and mobile devices.

1) Your data are stored on Evernote's servers. They are also locally stored on any computer you have running Evernote. These locally stored files are available without a network connection. You can access all of your notes, modify notes, create new notes while offline on your computer. They will then get pushed to the cloud when you have a network connection. 

2a) By default, Evernote only syncs headers on mobile devices which are stored in a local cache. When Evernote says that, on Android, it syncs every hour, it means new header information is sent to the device. The rest of the note is pulled down from the server and cached locally when you open that particular note. The effect is that even when offline you should have limited and temporary access to most of your note headers (largely useless on their own), and a selection of complete notes, typically the last few notes you have accessed and which are stored in their entirety in the cache. 

 

2b) notes created on a mobile device while offline will be stored locally and uploaded to Evernote's servers (and subsequently to any other device you run Evernote on) when a connection is re-established. This is true for both free and premium.

 

3) Premium users can tell their mobile device to download some or all of their notebooks to be stored, in their entirety, locally on the device. This would be subject to the same hourly background sync (or immediate sync when the application is running). This means, for the selected notebooks (or all notebooks, depending on the setting you select), the ENTIRE note, not just the header, is stored on the device and available when offline.

 

The short answer is: if you need offline access on your mobile device, you need to have a premium subscription. 

 

If you are concerned about data integrity, synchronize to a computer and make regular backups of that database.

 

Data synced to your computer is also always available offline, even for free users. 

 

If you only need offline access on your mobile device periodically, buy premium one month at a time. For $5, this isn't such a terrible thing if offline access is that important for you and you only need it for a short period of time. This is how I got started, only buying a month here or there as I travelled. (I am now a full-time premium subscriber going on 2 years).

5 bucks in Argentina is a lot of money. I usually keep long notes with photos, and that's why I upgraded to premium. But, what if I can't pay the subscription no more? What would happen to my notes?

Link to comment

 

First, a bit of info about syncing and mobile devices.

1) Your data are stored on Evernote's servers. They are also locally stored on any computer you have running Evernote. These locally stored files are available without a network connection. You can access all of your notes, modify notes, create new notes while offline on your computer. They will then get pushed to the cloud when you have a network connection. 

2a) By default, Evernote only syncs headers on mobile devices which are stored in a local cache. When Evernote says that, on Android, it syncs every hour, it means new header information is sent to the device. The rest of the note is pulled down from the server and cached locally when you open that particular note. The effect is that even when offline you should have limited and temporary access to most of your note headers (largely useless on their own), and a selection of complete notes, typically the last few notes you have accessed and which are stored in their entirety in the cache. 

 

2b) notes created on a mobile device while offline will be stored locally and uploaded to Evernote's servers (and subsequently to any other device you run Evernote on) when a connection is re-established. This is true for both free and premium.

 

3) Premium users can tell their mobile device to download some or all of their notebooks to be stored, in their entirety, locally on the device. This would be subject to the same hourly background sync (or immediate sync when the application is running). This means, for the selected notebooks (or all notebooks, depending on the setting you select), the ENTIRE note, not just the header, is stored on the device and available when offline.

 

The short answer is: if you need offline access on your mobile device, you need to have a premium subscription. 

 

If you are concerned about data integrity, synchronize to a computer and make regular backups of that database.

 

Data synced to your computer is also always available offline, even for free users. 

 

If you only need offline access on your mobile device periodically, buy premium one month at a time. For $5, this isn't such a terrible thing if offline access is that important for you and you only need it for a short period of time. This is how I got started, only buying a month here or there as I travelled. (I am now a full-time premium subscriber going on 2 years).

5 bucks in Argentina is a lot of money. I usually keep long notes with photos, and that's why I upgraded to premium. But, what if I can't pay the subscription no more? What would happen to my notes?

 

Nothing. Your notes will always live and be accessible in Evernote even if you switch to Free. The premium upload allowance doesn't have any impact on things you've already added. 

 

If your notes exceed the maximum note size for free tier once you drop down from premium, I'm not sure what will happen though, that's the only hitch. 

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  • 4 months later...

Hi!

So, let me see if I got it:

I have a mobile phone with a lot of informations about my next travel. All these informations are concetrated in 4 or 5 notes. I use these notes a lot on my mobile phone (free account), so, because of it, they are always updated, not only with headers, but also with the content. 

If, before my travel, I open all these notes, make them updated, and want to have access to them later, when I don't have internet access, will I have access to all the things inside of it? I say that because here, at my home, if I turn my internet off and try to have access to these specific notes, they are full avaliable. But, since I'll be in another country, I'd be glad to know what access limitations I'd face.  

An important thing is: only I make changes on this document. So there won't be updates on the notes while I have no access.

Summing up: Do I have access to an entire document offiline, even I have a free account, since this note was fully updated (opened) before in a mobile? Including photos and pdfs?

 

Thanks

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  • Level 5*

When you talk of a mobile device, you have to make sure the notebooks are flagged as offline.
You might be lucky with some cached data, but I would't count on it.
My understanding is that this is a premium feature. It doesn't matter that you updated the data with  mobile device.

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  • Level 5*

Per @DTLow on a free account some data is cached on your mobile device, so if you open all the notes before you leave they may or may not be there later. 

Don't know if it would work for you but you could print the notes to PDF before you leave open them in a PDF reader on your phone before you leave. 

Or you can always access them through a web browser if you can get at one when on the road.

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On 1/10/2016 at 10:36 AM, lsvelasquez said:

Hi!

So, let me see if I got it:

I have a mobile phone with a lot of informations about my next travel. All these informations are concetrated in 4 or 5 notes. I use these notes a lot on my mobile phone (free account), so, because of it, they are always updated, not only with headers, but also with the content. 

If, before my travel, I open all these notes, make them updated, and want to have access to them later, when I don't have internet access, will I have access to all the things inside of it? I say that because here, at my home, if I turn my internet off and try to have access to these specific notes, they are full avaliable. But, since I'll be in another country, I'd be glad to know what access limitations I'd face.  

An important thing is: only I make changes on this document. So there won't be updates on the notes while I have no access.

Summing up: Do I have access to an entire document offiline, even I have a free account, since this note was fully updated (opened) before in a mobile? Including photos and pdfs?

 

Thanks

I don't think this will work as you are thinking. Here's my experience:

They will only be available in full without a data connection if you either upgrade to premium and mark them as available offline and sync them before going offline. OR you do as suggested above and "print" them to a PDF format on your phone. 

If you had a note open and then switched off your data connection that one note would probably still be fully available but I don't think the others will be. 

But I haven't tested any of this, so if you really need something when you are offline, I'd suggest testing this all out in advance of actually needing it. If it turns out I'm wrong about how Evernote will perform, I'd love to hear that back here.

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  • 2 years later...

Since this is an older thread, I found that they've changed the options for membership: there are now three: Free, Plus, and Premium.

on my Android phone I use the Plus level and am able to set all my notes to offline.

But I do know that if I didn't have Plus I would NOT be able to access my notes when away from wifi. PERHAPS Unless I have mobil data turned on and have internet access where I am. This would notch up my data usage a LOT however. I have it set to only sync when wifi is available.

I had to reset all my notes to OFFLINE access, with every new phone I got.

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  • Level 5*
34 minutes ago, billtech66 said:

I had to reset all my notes to OFFLINE access, with every new phone I got.

I'm not sure the purpose of your post

  • The offline notebook feature continues to be a paid account feature.
  • The setting is per device.  
    • You chose which notebooks you want available offline on the specific device. 
    • It doesn't have to be the same setting for each device,  and you could change the setting as required

>>Unless I have mobil data turned on

  • Confirmed, mobile data allows you to be online and access data on the server
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6 minutes ago, DTLow said:

I'm not sure the purpose of your post

The offline notebook setting is per device.  You chose which notebooks you want available offline on the specific device

that is just the end of my post. It is just to clarify that when I get a new phone, it's important to manually set notes to offline that my settings doesn't automatically follow from old to new phone. :)

The purpose of the whole post was to clarify to anyone currently that has the OP's problem or question that there is now a Plus mode.

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