Most unwelcome changes to sharing notes by email

[Eseifani 9]

It used to be that when you shared a note from Evernote (desktop or web), it was sent from the user’s log in address.  Now (this started a couple of days ago, apparently) they’re sent from a different account (no-reply@etc), making sure they’ll get caught up in spam filters.  And even if they don’t, the receiver would probably not realise the mail comes from ME.

 

 

Look, Evernote, your reputation is low already, and if you ever want to be taken seriously as a grown up business service you have to STOP changing things willy-nilly and POINTLESSLY.  There is a reason why businesses rely on Microsoft products: because MS is very conservative about how they change their products and business people LIKE that.

[ScottLougheed 1,316]

1) I can confirm that this no-reply@ thing is indeed the case. That being said it does say from "Scott Lougheed", and the reply-to is my actual email address. 

I agree that this no-reply@... thing is not nearly as nice in a lot of respects. 

However:

2) There may some very valid reason that Evernote has made this change, but which we are not aware. Most of the time things aren't changed for no reason at all. 

 

Just to speculate a bit, since I don't know anything for sure:

Previously in order to make it look like it comes from youraddress@youremail.com it had to spoof your account, it can't actually send from your real email. This is actually a rather janky approach and many email providers can detect this kind of spoofing and count it as spam. At least this new method is legitimate, and your name is still properly displayed even if the email address appears different. 

 

A blog post from Evernote or some kind of announcement may have been nice though....

[gazumped 11,652]

This seems like a pretty major change in direction which I wasn't aware of until you mentioned it - the situation applies in Windows too;  the return address is no-reply@evernote.com

 

I'll flag the topic for an Admin reply since its not clear whether this is a bug or a feature...  you might want to raise a support ticket too,  since that's a direct line to Evernote - this is a user forum,  so we don't have all the answers...

[megsaint 441]

 

 

A blog post from Evernote or some kind of announcement may have been nice though....

 

I'm pretty sure I saw a post about it though I can't seem to locate it. And, as I recall, you're correct, it was so that the mail showed where it actually originated. I think there might be laws in the U.S. about that. I'll keep looking for the post. 

 

Best of luck. 

[ScottLougheed 1,316]

This seems like a pretty major change in direction which I wasn't aware of until you mentioned it - the situation applies in Windows too;  the return address is no-reply@evernote.com

 

I'll flag the topic for an Admin reply since its not clear whether this is a bug or a feature...  you might want to raise a support ticket too,  since that's a direct line to Evernote - this is a user forum,  so we don't have all the answers...

Strange that the reply-to wasn't correct. In my test on my Mac and my Mac's mail app it was properly filled with the address associated with my Evernote account.

[Eseifani 9]

 At least this new method is legitimate, and your name is still properly displayed even if the email address appears different. 

 

 

 

 

Actually it does not display real name, it only displays your Evernote long-in name, which may or may not be your real name.  If my Evernote user name is different from my real name, most correspondents would not guess this email came from ME.  And that’s a problem.  A big problem.

[ScottLougheed 1,316]

At least this new method is legitimate, and your name is still properly displayed even if the email address appears different.

 

 

Actually it does not display real name, it only displays your Evernote long-in name, which may or may not be your real name.  If my Evernote user name is different from my real name, most correspondents would not guess this email came from ME.  And that’s a problem.  A big problem.

Ah, my Evernote name IS my real name so I didn't pick up on this.

Yes, legitimacy aside, these changes intentional or introduced as a bug —especially without well-publicized warning— come with several problems...

[jbenson2 2,147]

My Evernote user name is jbenson2.

I just had Evernote email a note to my GMail account.

 

The email arrived showing my correct full name (first and last) as the sender. The noreply@evernote.com does follow my full name.

[Eseifani 9]

It will use your real name if you fill it in on your profile page.  And I don’t know much about the intricacies of email, but the old system seemed to work fine, and so many other services send emails from my gmail account (the one I use to connect to Evernote) the same way, so why did it suddenly become a problem?  And there were certainly better solutions, like asking authorisation to access the email account, or simply, on the desktop, opening a mail window with the formatted note in it and letting you chose how to send it, or giving us a personalised accounts like myname@evernote.com, etc.  In fact any solution would have been better than the one they opted for, which is sending notes from an anonymous no-reply account that makes them look very much like spam.  But that’s Evernote for you these days: they’ll give you a “marketplace” to sell you socks, but no options on how you send notes.  I have never seen a company so completely lose focus on what its paying clients want and expect...

[jefito 5,589]

Yeah, those developers spending all their time making and selling socks...

Evernote continues to work well for me, not perfectly, and not exactly what I want, but it does more or less what I need it to do. No Evernote socks yet, though I do have a t-shirt (moderator schwag).

An explanation of why the change was required would be welcome, yes.

[Eseifani 9]

The problems is not the developers, it’s the management.  And yes they have lost focus: Evernote worked far better for me a few years ago than it does today, actually.  The search box on the desktop client is USELESS, search is pretty much incapable of highlighting search terms (especially if it is not in latin script) — these things used to work fine a few versions ago.  Not to mention quality issues and various bugs.  Add to that all the unannounced, unwelcome, unnecessary and no-choice changes made: I’m still smarting over changes to the window behaviour from a couple of years ago; and now this.  Meanwhile the developers found the time to create a market place to sell socks and put a button for it in the desktop client.   

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

The problems is not the developers, it’s the management.  And yes they have lost focus: Evernote worked far better for me a few years ago than it does today, actually.  The search box on the desktop client is USELESS, search is pretty much incapable of highlighting search terms (especially if it is not in latin script) — these things used to work fine a few versions ago.  Not to mention quality issues and various bugs.  Add to that all the unannounced, unwelcome, unnecessary and no-choice changes made: I’m still smarting over changes to the window behaviour from a couple of years ago; and now this.  Meanwhile the developers found the time to create a market place to sell socks and put a button for it in the desktop client.

The search box on the (Windows) desktop continues to work perfectly fine for me.

[gazumped 11,652]

I really don't see the harm in any company that gives away free software and services trying to ensure a little parallel income from niche product sales.  It ensures the continuation of the company,  and of its free products and contributes to the profit line and keeps investors happy.  And if you need presents for those who either love Evernote or don't own a computer,  a pair of socks isn't a bad bet.  You can bet that Management didn't lose focus or staff by getting involved with consumables - they would employ third party expertise to do most of that;  they're developers not a fashion house.

[Eseifani 9]

 

The problems is not the developers, it’s the management.  And yes they have lost focus: Evernote worked far better for me a few years ago than it does today, actually.  The search box on the desktop client is USELESS, search is pretty much incapable of highlighting search terms (especially if it is not in latin script) — these things used to work fine a few versions ago.  Not to mention quality issues and various bugs.  Add to that all the unannounced, unwelcome, unnecessary and no-choice changes made: I’m still smarting over changes to the window behaviour from a couple of years ago; and now this.  Meanwhile the developers found the time to create a market place to sell socks and put a button for it in the desktop client.

The search box on the (Windows) desktop continues to work perfectly fine for me.

 

 

 

Not on the Mac.  It is quite a hassle to add new terms to a search and almost impossible to edit them; often the easiest way is to delete the whole search phrase and start over.   

[gbarry 2,658]

This change was made to fix the problem we had when sending emails on behalf of Yahoo users, though with the expectation that we would begin to see the problem on other providers. See this article for a bit of background info: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2141120/yahoo-email-antispoofing-policy-breaks-mailing-lists.html

An increasing number of email providers require that email sent that includes their domain in the "From" field of the email address includes a signature that can only be produced by their service. This prevents unauthorized email services (spammers) from sending email that appears to be from their users, and means that we are technically unable to use "@yahoo.com" email addresses in the "From" field of emails that we send. Indeed, just that was happening for any user sending from their Yahoo email through Evernote.

When Evernote emailed notes "from" users whose email addresses are with providers configured in this way the emailed notes would be rejected by the recipient. We changed our handling of email headers for emailed notes (and a handful of other notebook sharing related emails) to fix this as follows:

1) The emails are now "From" "no-reply@evernote.com" - we use the user's "full name" or email address (if we have no "full name") in the email as well. If your "full name" is John Smith, the "From" will be "John Smith" <no-reply@evernote.com>; if you have no "full name" configured we will use "john.smith@test.com" <no-reply@evernote.com>

2) The user's email address is put in the "Reply-To" field of the email so that all replies to the email will go directly to them.

This change was completely necessary to ensure that the emails users send via Evernote are received by the people to whom they are sent.
 

[ScottLougheed 1,316]

alright so who do I see about my stuffed elephant prize for speculating correctly about this change...?

 

<SNIP>

2) There may some very valid reason that Evernote has made this change, but which we are not aware. Most of the time things aren't changed for no reason at all. 

 

Just to speculate a bit, since I don't know anything for sure:

Previously in order to make it look like it comes from youraddress@youremail.com it had to spoof your account, it can't actually send from your real email. This is actually a rather janky approach and many email providers can detect this kind of spoofing and count it as spam. At least this new method is legitimate, and your name is still properly displayed even if the email address appears different. 

 

A blog post from Evernote or some kind of announcement may have been nice though....

[Sentinel 195]

Always best to ASK first.  Not COMPLAIN.

[chirmer 567]

It will use your real name if you fill it in on your profile page.  And I don’t know much about the intricacies of email, but the old system seemed to work fine, and so many other services send emails from my gmail account (the one I use to connect to Evernote) the same way, so why did it suddenly become a problem?  And there were certainly better solutions, like asking authorisation to access the email account, or simply, on the desktop, opening a mail window with the formatted note in it and letting you chose how to send it, or giving us a personalised accounts like myname@evernote.com, etc.  In fact any solution would have been better than the one they opted for, which is sending notes from an anonymous no-reply account that makes them look very much like spam.  But that’s Evernote for you these days: they’ll give you a “marketplace” to sell you socks, but no options on how you send notes.  I have never seen a company so completely lose focus on what its paying clients want and expect...

 

I dunno, the current method seems to work just fine... since when are emails from no-reply@ accounts considered spam? I don't know anyone who thinks this, as most application sign-up emails, password reset emails, newsletters, sales, etc. all come from a no-reply@ email. It's pretty standardly NOT spam, IMHO. I get a lot of spam from my friends' hacked Yahoo accounts (twice this week alone and it's only Tuesday), but I don't think all Yahoo accounts are spam (well... philosophically I've held the opinion that Yahoo's the crappiest email provider, but that's not the point I'm trying to make). Most important business-related email I receive comes from a no-reply@ address. I work at a library, and we send our email overdue notices from a no-reply@. A search for "no-reply" in my inbox right now pulls up iCloud account info, Moderator's spam info for Google Groups, work-related listserves, Asana notifications, sofware purchase receipts, and newsletters I purposefully signed up for... not a single thing showing up is spam, and all of these messages are very important emails.

 

YMMV of course but that's overwhelmingly the case in my work and personal circles. The emails still say they're from you by putting your name on it, replies are directed accordingly, no-reply@ mail are overwhelmingly not spam in email... I dunno, but to me, it works!

[LSS1 5]

I just tripped across this today. There was a comment above from one of the admins: "This change was completely necessary to ensure that the emails users send via Evernote are received by the people to whom they are sent."

 

The problem is that it appears that just the opposite is happening. I sent an email from Evernote last week and I followed up and most of the recipients told me they didn't get it. Eventually some of them looked in their spam folder and it was there. I sent another one today ... and the same thing happened. I looked at one of them and it said something like "Gmail could not verify that the mail came from Evernote".

 

So this eliminates one of my uses of Evernote -- taking meeting notes and them emailing them

[bpsooner 0]

I'm seeing the same problem … that my emailed Evernote notes to friends & colleagues are ending up in their Junk Mail & unread. So, this change, although necessary b/c of the requirements of email providers (GMail? Yahoo?) is troublesome for me & my make emailing EverNotes useless.

 

Also, I'm really missing having the 'email this note' option easily accessable via a button in the menu bar. 

 

So, I would really prefer that EverNote return this feature of emailing notes back to the way it was in both the menu bar button & the "sent from" method.

[Jeff Cole 2]

Wow, must be way behind the curve, as I just discovered this today. Quite frustrating, but there's a simple fix to ensure that people who receive emailed notes recognize who it's coming from. In the Account Settings, simply set your name to display both your name and email. Like this:

 

Jeff Cole <thisismy@email.com>

 

Then the FROM line in email will show up something like this:

 

Jeff Cole <thisismy@email.com> <no-reply@evernote.com>

 

Kind of clunky looking, but it gets the point across and eliminates lots of confusion.

[gazumped 11,652]

It's not just you behind this curve,  I didn't realise this either! 

 

Thanks for the heads-up.  (Though it would be better if there were a less clunky way to solve the problem...) 

[Jeff Cole 2]

Still one issue that I've found that my "fix" doesn't quite fix. The Reply To loaded in the header doesn't work in the Android Gmail app, meaning that if someone receives your email from Evernote in a Gmail app, and hits reply, the TO field is still blank. Don't know if that's the case with other email service apps, but Gmail's INBOX app does indeed recognize the Reply To address.

[Ko107 1]

Hello,

Even though Evernote made changes to the noreply address, whenever I share a note by email, it goes straight into the person's junk folder. this is super embarrassing and I used to love this feature. What can I do to fix this. It's truly a great feature and I find it super unfortunate that it does that. I don't want to use work chat as not everyone I correspond with use Evernote. 

Merci. 

[DTLow 5,736]

7 minutes ago, Ko107 said:

Even though Evernote made changes to the noreply address, whenever I share a note by email, it goes straight into the person's junk folder. this is super embarrassing and I used to love this feature. What can I do to fix this. It's truly a great feature and I find it super unfortunate that it does that. I don't want to use work chat as not everyone I correspond with use Evernote. 

I don't use work chat either.
I'm not aware of the changes EN made to the noreply address.

The method I use most for sharing notes is to generate the public url, and I send this to other's using my own email.

[LSS1 5]

Yes, ever since they made the change to use the NOREPLY address (over a year ago) I have stopped using SHARE by EMAIL. It is pretty useless since it ends up in spam. I have taken to using the technique suggested by DTLow of just sending the public URL for the note. It is not a bad work around. It would be even better if they added another menu item called SHARE URL BY EMAIL which opens a message in my email client with the URL already included

[Ko107 1]

That's really TOO BAD. There must be a fix for this...

[LSS1 5]

Well it is actually a hard problem. There are a number of email security techniques that limit the ability to send third-party email (look up DMARC in Wikipedia). So it is difficult for a third party like Evernote to reliably send an email with YOUR source address. I was sort of upset when they made this change since I used that feature quite a bit -- but since then I have gotten a better understanding of the issue and I now understand why they did it. At this point I think that sending the public URL is the best solution.

[gazumped 11,652]

AFAICS they're still using no-reply@Evernote.com

Like @DTLow I send URLs not emails.  And if you want to share several pages,  list all the note public URLs in one 'index' note,  and send out that single note URL as an index page.