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(Archived) Evernote for Android won't allow _OFFLINE_ notes!


mjschmidt

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Okay, Evernote devs, I love Evernote, and I have been waiting sooooo long for Evernote for Android, so when I saw the announcement this morning that it was finally out of beta and available in the Market Place, I rushed right in and installed it.

It looks slick, it has lots of great options and functions, BUT.... You can't view notes _offline_!!!

That is a MAJOR fail. Not everyone keeps their phone online all the time, some of us don't even want to go online just to see our notes. It's even possible that there will be times we don't have WiFi, _or_ data carrier access (like on the subway, or in certain areas), in which case we will not be able to see our notes.

It seems so backwards that I can _create_ notes when offline, but I can't _view_ those notes until I go online! LAME!

Until this app allows users to keep notes on their SD card (like 3Banana does) it is useless to me. Such a shame.

Please... PLEASE fix this!? :-)

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This is actually standard amongst all of our Mobile Phone applications - the iPhone being an exception in that notes you mark as Favorites are viewable offline.

We know it's a pain, but we also don't want people to end up with $2000 cellular bills because of data usage, so, it's a fine line we're walking here.

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Then you should allow for the creation of a "mobile" notebook, so users can be sure that the only one notebook is syncing, and not all.

3Banana allows for offline notes, and the only difference is that 3banana doesn't have multiple notebooks (they use tags).

Your comment about $2000 bills assumes that users would sync all their notebooks every time they connect. It doesn't have to be this way. Let me make and view notes on my phone, I can do a master sync with my notebooks via wifi once to get everything I want synced, and then whenever I choose to sync after that point, only _changes_ will be synced. You could also allow us to specify _which_ notebooks to sync.

Until/unless I can see my notes offline, I will be uninstalling and leaving it in the market place with a 1 star rating and my comment about needing offline notes.

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Actually, that is what our Favorites are - it is a way to sync only specific notes.

Many of our iPhone users are actually quite irate that we do not allow them to have their entire database available to them at all times, and *only* allow them a small portion.

And we did have a product available, in the past, which allowed users to have their notes sync to their phones, all of their notes, and it did bring major data charges (of course) to some, especially when traveling abroad.

So, yes, we have to tread carefully. We have many feature requests in this particular regard, and anything we do will not be done lightly.

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Actually, that is what our Favorites are - it is a way to sync only specific notes.

So, yes, we have to tread carefully. We have many feature requests in this particular regard, and anything we do will not be done lightly.

Will Evernote allow for Favourites for Android users? If so, when?

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Just wanted to add that I too would like to at least have the favorite feature to sync those notes to the phone always.

Ideally I would like to always sync everything. An option to sync all, favorites, or none seems like it would work for most people so they can decide how much, if any, they want synced.

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I'd like to triple that idea. Please allow for some way for off-line storage. A "favorites" would be ok, but even better would be the ability to mark certain folders as able to be synced to mobiles.

Two other thoughts:

1) when you make a note on your own phone, why not save it then-and-there? You don't need to use any network to save it. When a user requests that note, you can just pull up that note locally. You would therefore need even less network usage than you currently use. It makes no sense not to allow local saving of notes taken on the phone.

2) When you view a note on your phone, you have to download it via your network anyway. Why not then save that note? You've already used the network, and that note would then be visible there-after off-line. Again, it would reduce network usage and dependency.

Not being able to view notes off-line is a major problem. :)

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I would think the easiest way, from a development point of view, would be to allow the user to set individual notebooks to be stored on the handheld for offline use, just like you currently let the user decide on the desktop client which notebooks are synced. If you are worried about accidental data charges, then by default have one notebook called something like Mobile Notes, and have that be the only notebook that is stored locally on the handheld by default. That way, there is no chance of the user inadvertently ending up with a huge database syncing to their handheld without their consent. Then, if they enable local handheld storage for another notebook, that gives you an opportunity to give them an "are you sure? This could result in additional data charges for some users" sort of pop-up.

The real advantage of this, is it removes the need to come up with any additional system, like favorites, and keeps the experience more consistent with the desktop, since you are basically doing the same thing as the Local Only option on the desktop, but in reverse.

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Heather says:

This is actually standard amongst all of our Mobile Phone applications - the iPhone being an exception in that notes you mark as Favorites are viewable offline.

Ermm, I seem to have all my notes available off-line on the Evernote in my iPod Touch. And that is what makes the app useful.

Recently I was on an airplane with my iPod Touch version of Evernote and was able to review all of my daily journal notes, edit a few of them, combine some others, add to a couple, and create a new one.

when I fire up the Android version... nothing !

This initial version of Evernote for Android is exposed as being just a web app. Without internet access you have no data and no app.

Your argument about saving users from large cellular bills is malarkey. Most smartphones have WiFi these days, and it's possible to sync even a very large database at zero cost.

One of the reasons many of us are using Android is that WE want to be in control of what we are doing, not have some benevolent (or not-so benevolent) dictator tell us what we can do. Thanks for your interest in my data bill, but I want to decide when and what to sync.

Speaking as a Premium subscriber, here is my suggestion: please add the following options to the Evernote for Android settings:

  • Sync via WiFi only
    Sync via WiFi and Cellular
    Amount to sync: [10, 25, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1000, all] most recent notes

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This is so frustrating. Waiting all this time, and still can't roll out an app as good as the iPhones. This is nothing but a glorified uploader without offline syncing, and a kludgey one at that. PixelPipe does a much better and smoother job of uploading notes to Evernote. The only reason to have an Evernote app is to be able to actually read and access your notes, when you're offline. There isn't even a way to do a single-button voice note upload with the Evernote uploader. Makes it useless while driving, biking, or even walking. I honestly don't know why you tried, PixelPipe has been out there since day 1 on Android, giving all of the upload functionality, and the app does nothing else but upload.

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Thanks for the feedback. The iPhone application has been under development for 1.5 years longer than the Android app, so it has a bit of a head start. Rest assured, we're constantly improving all of our clients, and we're not done with the Android. (I'm now carrying a Droid as my primary phone, so am taking a personal interest. ;-) )

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Hey,

I would just like to balance out the whiners and complainers. I write software for a living and I know how much a simple "atta boy" can mean. I also know that 1.0's can be ugly, but 1.0 is the only way to get to version 3.5.

So let me say Hu-ray!! An Android client!! Sa-weet!

Now to be on topic, I would say that to view my notes - the web interface was fine. My biggest problem was that I use Evernote to track my mileage. I jump in the car, want to jot in the mileage and start driving. But I end up watching a little spinning swirly thing instead while I rev my engine. I would like to see the "_OFFLINE_" ability to add notes, so I can add and go. Let them sync later while I'm getting on with my life.

If I want to read through my notes, that's secondary to me since I can browse for them or check on my PC when I'm at work or home. Here's a compromise - if there could be a local notebook and a sync notebook I could move the notes at a later time. I just need the ability to input my data and not have to wait for my 3G that half the time is 2G or even EDGE :(

Now, being the tech geek that I am, I have a work around. I make a quick phone call to ReQall and tell it my mileage and hang up. ReQall e-mails my gmail account and I have a filter set up there to forward my ReQall e-mails to Evernote. BOOM! However, can you say BLOAT? Just to enter a timestamp and a floating point number (like 245.6) I have a voice file and two e-mails floating around in the cloud. But at least it lets me enter data and GO!

So I'm a happy camper, and I'm real happy that there's Evernote client progress for the Android. You have the heavy lifting of a general architecture out of the way, now all you have to do is tweak and innovate! And that's where the real fun begins. How agile is *YOUR* code?? One of my favorite colleagues from years back always asked me this famous question when I proposed a software solution: "Yeah, that sounds like it will work... but will it scale?" He used to drive me CRAZY!! ya' gotta' love that guy.

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Hey,

I would just like to balance out the whiners and complainers. I write software for a living and I know how much a simple "atta boy" can mean. I also know that 1.0's can be ugly, but 1.0 is the only way to get to version 3.5.

So let me say Hu-ray!! An Android client!! Sa-weet!

I agree!!! It's also frustrating when they are constantly upgrading the various clients & then most of the feedback still focuses on what some users feel is still wrong. My husband calls this "What have you done for me lately?"

Now, being the tech geek that I am, I have a work around. I make a quick phone call to ReQall and tell it my mileage and hang up. ReQall e-mails my gmail account and I have a filter set up there to forward my ReQall e-mails to Evernote. BOOM! However, can you say BLOAT? Just to enter a timestamp and a floating point number (like 245.6) I have a voice file and two e-mails floating around in the cloud. But at least it lets me enter data and GO!

So I'm a happy camper, and I'm real happy that there's Evernote client progress for the Android.

I've been using Jott (similar to reQall) for several years & use it to make quick voice memos that I then transfer to Evernote (or act upon) when I'm back at my desktop. I don't think there will ever be an ideal solution for everyone, but like your workaround, this works for me.

BTW, I'm currently trialing reQall's integration into Evernote. My Jott subscription is to be renewed in Feb & since reQall is less expensive, I'm hoping I may be able to switch to reQall.

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I would just like to balance out the whiners and complainers. I write software for a living and I know how much a simple "atta boy" can mean. I also know that 1.0's can be ugly, but 1.0 is the only way to get to version 3.5.

So let me say Hu-ray!! An Android client!! Sa-weet!

I would argue that the majority of smart phone/former Palm users _don't_ want a web/cloud notebook app, we just want a notebook app.

Until batteries are awesome, and cellphone bills are lower, and WiFi is everywhere for free, we won't be online 24/7, so being able to see your notes _offline_ just seems, well, like _basic_ functionality.

To be clear, I'm not some Evernote Newb who came here _because_ of the app, rather, I've been using Evernote for a couple of years now. I use it every day at work to keep track of projects, and I have a portable version on my USB drive of portable apps for lists and notes on the go. But I don't actually sync _any_ of my notes with the online server. I have never used it because my notes are where I need them, on my computer. I don't want to sync them, period.

Now that I have an Android phone, however, it means that I could actually make use of the sync option. Not to have them online, however, but to get them _to_ my desktop version! At the moment, there is no native Android notebook app that sync notes with a desktop app the way we could with the Palm. The closest is NoteEverything, which lets us import/export from/to the SD card (and then manually grab those files while plugged into the PC). If I wanted an app that would let me sync my notes to the cloud as a backup, I'd just use the GDocs app with Google Docs and be done with it.

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I would suggest:


  • [*:2ttb4pie]Allow users to specify a cache size for their notes, and a weight for different kinds of notes (e.g. images), and fill the cache by most-recently-used. Set it to 0 by default, so it doesn't max out anyone's data plan or gobble all the space on their handheld, but let users crank it up if they wish; if you set the image weight to zero, the app cleans out images that you're not currently viewing. (My Android G1 came with an unlimited data plan, so my main problem is speed of access, not cost.)
    [*:2ttb4pie]Have a setting to wait for WiFi availability to sync.

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Only automatically syncing over WiFi (with maybe a manual sync when using cellular data) would be my preferred option.

Defining favourites that you can access on the device would be great for Android. There are only a few Notes I would need all the time, things that contain checklists, etc. and it would be great to have access to them when you are out of network coverage.

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This is actually standard amongst all of our Mobile Phone applications - the iPhone being an exception in that notes you mark as Favorites are viewable offline.

We know it's a pain, but we also don't want people to end up with $2000 cellular bills because of data usage, so, it's a fine line we're walking here.

Hey, Heather, this "reason" for not giving us offline access to notes suddenly doesn't hold any water.

Evernote for iPhone Update Adds Offline Notebooks, Better Search Functions - http://lifehacker.com/5433797/evernote- ... -functions

A new feature available to everyone is the ability to create notes on your iPhone and cache them for later access.

So, when will Android users have this functionality, or are you concerned we will be irresponsible and run up our cell phone bills?

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Our iPhone client has been under development for over 1.5 years ... probably 4x longer than our Android client. We just expanded the iPhone client to include full offline support (with offline search, etc.) this week.

The reason it's not in the first version of the Android client is that this is a huge amount of work to do correctly. Android is a high priority, however, and we plan to add this in the future.

Thanks

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've just found this website and app and my I'm absolutely staggered that there's no off-line sync and storage. Some of the reasons given are laughable. It's not anyone's concern but mine to monitor my data plan. It's like Ford only selling 1000cc engines because they don't want you go get high fuel bills. It's not your problem.

I want all my notes synchronised. Simple as that. I travel a lot and can't access my notes when flying or in signal wastelands. I use notes extensively to draft documents.

If you want to provide some control over it then let people pick tags they want synchronised in their preferences.

Please tell me this feature is imminent or I shall have to find another service.

Please excuse if my frustration is showing but I thought this was the answer to my problems. It's a disappointment.

Thank you.

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From what I've read on this forum, offline notes for the android is on their Dev plan for sure. The iphone version has only just got full offline sync, and that's had a full year+ of extra development. So I'm confident it'll come, just gotta be patient. Am just grateful they're putting obviously some resources into development for android devices at all.

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  • 1 month later...

Just want to add my request for a 'favorites' to be stored off line. My provider will not always be available and WiFi is questionable...so make it like the iPhone iPod Touch app and just do a favorites. I have lots of stuff in Evernote and do not want to keep it all always available - storage is limited.

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  • 2 months later...

Can we get an update from someone at Evernote regarding the request for offline access to our notes on Android phones?

On two occasions recently I was with clients and was unable to access information due to our physical location within their facilities and lack of a telco signal and WiFi.

As an Evernote Premium user I enjoy the application, but this limitation has been a problem since the app was released for Android. Now, I understand the iPad users have Evernote while we're still waiting for a feature that's been available to iPhone users for quite some time. The option of using Note Everything and NE GDocs to sync with Google Docs is looking more attractive with every passing day. It's not as elegant as Evernote, but it does work well and gives me offline access to all of my notes.

Jeff

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As an Evernote Premium user I enjoy the application, but this limitation has been a problem since the app was released for Android. Now, I understand the iPad users have Evernote while we're still waiting for a feature that's been available to iPhone users for quite some time.

There's a segment of every mobile client who feels they are the step child. Spend just a few minutes reading through the Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Palm Pre, etc sections & they all feel neglected. AFAIK, the only mobile OS that has offline notes is the iPhone/iPad. I think it's a matter of time & resources.

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Our iPhone client has been under development for over 1.5 years ... probably 4x longer than our Android client. We just expanded the iPhone client to include full offline support (with offline search, etc.) this week.

The reason it's not in the first version of the Android client is that this is a huge amount of work to do correctly. Android is a high priority, however, and we plan to add this in the future.

Thanks

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Dave,

Thanks for the prompt reply!

Based on your comments that offline notes and search were "just" added to the iPhone client and that it's been under development for four times the amount of time the Android client has been worked on then it seems clear that anyone using an Android phone will be waiting quite a while before seeing this capability in their phones.

Unfortunately for me I need offline notes now. I'll make the switch to NE and Google Docs and check back in a year to compare both options.

Jeff

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  • 2 weeks later...

This is good to hear. I just switched from iPhone to the Nexus One, and I really miss the offline notes. As with the iPhone, I'll gladly give up a few gigs of storage to be able to keep all of the notes offline.

I understand the delay, and appreciate the info you've provided. I look forward to seeing this feature whenever you can get it ready!

Thanks.

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I'm using evernote for a week or two now and I must say, I'm very impressed. I'm looking for an upgrade to the paid version, but before this I would like to know if there is any estimate about when the offline feature will be available?

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Please post approximately dates range. I think this is the most requested feature for android platform. It would be cool if you create a voting for function what you are working for now. Your customers will appreciate this act.

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We greatly appreciate the feedback, but we don't announce our planned dates for future releases because we don't like to look like jerks when things don't go as planned. Like I said, however, Android development is a very high priority for us in 2010, since we're receiving thousands of new Android users every day.

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offline notes in 2010 ... YAYYYY!

I have to say that when I first downloaded evernote onto my HTC Legend my excitement was huge - finally I could access notes not only at work and home but on the road as well - needless to say that my disappointment on discovering NO OFFLINE NOTES (!!) was also huge and involved a great deal of cursing.

As a user who went to evernote over onenote as my main notetaking program because of its portability and crossplatform nature I see this as not a 'feature' but as part of the basic functionality that makes it worthwhile to a user.

So I am waiting once again in excitement for that day when I see the message "OFFLINE NOTES ADDED TO EVERNOTE FOR ANDROID" ...

Thanks in anticipation ...

PS I am happy with a minimal sync feature eg only favourites as long as I can have SOMETHING offline!

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  • 2 weeks later...

This is just a copy and past from a thread I started. I thought it warranted being posted here as well, because it goes to heart of why I find myself using Evernote less:

"FYI: I've started using other apps on my Android phone because Evernote is too slow to search for notes or download notes. I use "ColorNote" for simple post-it like function for shoppinglists and small "must" remembers and I use Remember The Milk for tasks and also to remember other stuff because it stores locally and then syncs. Ie. if I want to remember a webpage, I write it down in RTM instead of opening Evernote.

I WISH I could use Evernote for this instead....but not until there is an offline solution..."

One thing I didn't post in the original post was that I'm actually paying for RTM....I'm NOT paying for Evernote.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I had to cancel paid....

even for the last 100..50..20..notes,,have them offline.

I use it for everyday notes...a lot of comparision shopping...in the depths of lowes or homedepot no signal...i cant pull up any notes...ugh

I riding around on the bus writing and fixing my notes....no signal..no notes.

Bizarrely I spend more time on my Droid then my laptop now...

I see you worry about data rates....them have it only on wifi and optin for data...

no barcode scanning...video..

you are gonna lose me for awhile....springpad is amazing,,ill miss ya!

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  • 3 weeks later...

I don't know how many of you read the blog, but check out the quote from this post.

Local storage

We know you’re wondering, so we’ll just come out and say it: offline storage will be coming to Android. Evernote for Android has come a very long way in the few months that it has been around, and we plan on making it better and better. Stay tuned.

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  • 1 month later...
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  • 2 weeks later...

Offline sync for a few selected notes is really important, hope it comes soon. Currently, I use another app for notes that I must get to when I am offline, there are still too many places that I just can't get a connection. I don't want to change to something else but ... For now, I anxiously await the ability to sink selected items to my Droid.

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I've happily been using Evernotes for some time, and now I'm running on an Android phone as well. I was excited to add the Evernotes app, and just assumed that I had off-line notes. I just turned my phone to Airplane Mode, and got a

TTransportException: java.net.SocketException: Network unreachable (oops!)

I too, am seriously disappointed that we don't have off-line notes. I spend a large percentage of my time "off the network", so I do need the ability to access my notes. So much so, that I'll need to move to a different solution to meet my needs.

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I would just like to add, as a note to you guys at Evernote, that I think Evernote is a brilliant service but as I have an Android phone and there's no way of selecting the notes I want to view offline I can't use the service.

It's a massive deal breaker and simply absurd to cripple the mobile app in such a way. What am I supposed to do if I'm on the Underground, in a plane or simply somewhere with no service. So, for that reason, I have to look at another service other than Evernote.

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Implementing full, bi-directional offline synchronization is as much work as the rest of the application put together. So we didn't "cripple" the application, we just haven't finished adding all of the features that we want to add.

We have 3x as many people working on Android as iPhone this week, and this is a very high priority for us.

Thanks

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It's a massive deal breaker and simply absurd to cripple the mobile app in such a way.
Implementing full, bi-directional offline synchronization is as much work as the rest of the application put together. So we didn't "cripple" the application, we just haven't finished adding all of the features that we want to add.

We have 3x as many people working on Android as iPhone this week, and this is a very high priority for us.

And, FWIW, IIRC, iOS is the only mobile OS that currently supports offline notes and that only came in December 2009. Palm Pre, WM, Blackberry, et al do not have the ability to store notes locally.

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I tend to feel that asking questions nicely, rather than throwing your toys out of the pram and demanding features, tends to make developers more inclined to listen to your requests. Acting like a sulky teenager (especially when you've been told the feature is already being worked on, and high priority) won't endear you to them, and only shows up how little you've read / heard about Evernote on mobile devices - on the blog, podcast, etc. (btw, if you haven't listened, the podcast is generally rather entertaining as well as informative).

Yes, I'm looking forward to offline storage too (and shared folders in the Windows desktop client, for that matter), but I know Evernote are working on it, and no amount of abuse will get it released any quicker. I'm waiting patiently.

Julie

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I tend to feel that asking questions nicely, rather than throwing your toys out of the pram and demanding features, tends to make developers more inclined to listen to your requests. Acting like a sulky teenager (especially when you've been told the feature is already being worked on, and high priority) won't endear you to them, and only shows up how little you've read / heard about Evernote on mobile devices - on the blog, podcast, etc. (btw, if you haven't listened, the podcast is generally rather entertaining as well as informative).

Yes, I'm looking forward to offline storage too (and shared folders in the Windows desktop client, for that matter), but I know Evernote are working on it, and no amount of abuse will get it released any quicker. I'm waiting patiently.

Julie

Fair enough. The thing is though, why would I read about Evernote for hours and listen to podcasts about it and stuff, it's just a note taking app after all? I like Evernote but an app with no offline notes is useless IMO. There's nothing sulky about having an opinion you may differ from. Evernote is made for users and I'm a user, telling me I'm wrong for wanting something that's not provided isn't an answer.

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I didn't say you (or anyone) is wrong for wanting features. Just that asking politely is more likely to get you a positive outcome.

In this case, Evernote already appear to be throwing resources at getting this feature working anyway, so ranting about it only distracts Dave Engberg and his team from getting on with the job of getting the code written, tested and released.

You can still take notes offline, and Android has caching of recently viewed notes (although I haven't put that to the test). Fully offline notes are coming "soon".

Julie

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Sorry for the rant. The reason I ranted was because of the first response in this thread to a couple of the complaints/feature requests to having offline notes. We all love Evernote and the initial response to the problem was along the lines of it's our standard practice not to have offline notes, with the exception of iphone, because of data charges ie. your not getting it. No explanation about it coming or anything. It was the "you're get what your given we don't care what you actually want" attitude that caused me to rant, not the fact the feature isn't there.

I still think an Android app without offline notes is pointless though but I'm aware I can get that functionality from a different service and check out Evernote again later should I be unhappy with where I am.

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The reason I ranted was because of the first response in this thread to a couple of the complaints/feature requests to having offline notes.
and only shows up how little you've read / heard about Evernote on mobile devices - on the blog, podcast, etc.

Which is why, as Julie mentioned, it's good to learn about whatever it is you're investigating (not just here but anywhere in any aspect of your life) rather than fire off a knee jerk reaction.

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Oh man, why would I with a simple note taking app though? Of course you're right about everyday life but lets get some perspective here. I download the app, realise I can't view notes offline, come onto the forum to see if I'm doing something wrong or if there's a workaround, find the thread about no offline access and the first response from the dvelopers/staff/whatever suggests that it's not happening. Why would I then go and investigate further when it appeared to have come from Evernote themselves that it's not happening? It's not like I'm researching my thesis or an investment opportunity, it's a free app, it doesn't warrant hours of investigation when the information, correct or incorrect, had already been found. Jeez.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I second the OP's comment, please allow offline access... cache the damn database. I am currently unable to check/append my notes simply because I am indoors.

And while I'm on the subject, please let us edit the notes. I see no reason to justify an "append only" method. Seems like the programmers actually made it more complicated then it had to be.

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Implementing full, bidirectional synchronization to a low-powered mobile device is a large amount of work. We haven't yet finished doing this large amount of work.

Implementing full rich text editing that can handle any of the HTML supported within Evernote on the Android platform is also a gigantic amount of work. We haven't finished doing that work, either. (Applications that support a little bit of boldface/font/italics formatting are doing about 5% of what we'd need in Evernote to edit an arbitrary web clip with images, tabls, etc.)

Thanks

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So what has become of this? Not having offline notes is a major fail! Some of my remote offices are in basements where signal is not present!

What's the point of having huge SD storage and we can't store data? Heather's concern for our cellular bill is unfound. I'll sync my notes when and where I want and pay the bills if I choose to do so. Let US decide.

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Implementing full, bidirectional synchronization to a low-powered mobile device is a large amount of work. We haven't yet finished doing this large amount of work.

Implementing full rich text editing that can handle any of the HTML supported within Evernote on the Android platform is also a gigantic amount of work. We haven't finished doing that work, either. (Applications that support a little bit of boldface/font/italics formatting are doing about 5% of what we'd need in Evernote to edit an arbitrary web clip with images, tabls, etc.)

Thanks

With all due respect, although HTML editing would be nice, I think many people would agree that better offline functionality is a more pressing feature.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Okay I downloaded and tried Evernote on my Android phone and I like the app. But besides the excessive CPU usage (which I suspect could be because I don't have an always on connection to the internet), I cannot use Evernote without offline access.

Implementing full, bidirectional synchronization to a low-powered mobile device is a large amount of work. We haven't yet finished doing this large amount of work.

Implementing full rich text editing that can handle any of the HTML supported within Evernote on the Android platform is also a gigantic amount of work. We haven't finished doing that work, either. (Applications that support a little bit of boldface/font/italics formatting are doing about 5% of what we'd need in Evernote to edit an arbitrary web clip with images, tabls, etc.)

Thanks

My main question to Dave is when could we expect offline access? The original post about off-line access was Dec 16, 2009, and the response just says it's a lot of work.

Correct me if I'm wrong (I am also a web developer), but isn't the biggest issue with FULL bi-directional synchronization the issues that occur when needing to merge a document edited on multiple platforms? If you remove the capability to merge documents, bi-directional synchronization simply becomes a time-stamp check on the document; if the time-stamps are different, the newest version is copied over the older one.

K.

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We have engineers working on this right now (well, not RIGHT now, since it's Sunday, but you know what I mean). We'll release it as soon as it's stable and reliable.

Correct synchronization requires that changes are applied and communicated to the server in the correct order, even if you have two different clients that are offline for a period of time. Then, on the local device, you need to store them in a way that can be rapidly searched and navigated, even if someone has a 5GB account with 20,000 notes.

So the simple case would be simple, but getting it right 99.99% of the time is hard. If you're interested in more details:

http://www.evernote.com/about/developer ... m-sync.pdf

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 year later...

I'm not a premium member, but I can open my EN app on Kindle while offline and open any and all of my notes. I can also edit notes while offline and they sync once I'm back online. I can create a note offline and it'll be uploaded when I'm back online.

It seems to me that off-line notes is working just fine.

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  • 1 month later...

Off-line notes seems are obviously different to Offline Notebooks, which is a Premium feature.

However, even the off-line note sync does not work reliably, even Premium users bother with sync problems.

Please Evernote - make the off-line note sync working perfectly.

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  • Level 5*

There are no offline notes in the Android client, so far as I know, only notes that reside in an offline notebook. bacizone, if you're having difficulties with offline notebook syncing, have you filesd a support inquiry?

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I'm not a premium member, but I can open my EN app on Kindle while offline and open any and all of my notes. I can also edit notes while offline and they sync once I'm back online. I can create a note offline and it'll be uploaded when I'm back online.

It seems to me that off-line notes is working just fine.

This is because your notes are cached. The cache will get cleared as EN needs to use it. Once you get & use very many notes, you'll realize this.

Off-line notes seems are obviously different to Offline Notebooks, which is a Premium feature.

If you're referring to "local" notebooks (which are only stored locally & not sync'd to the cloud), AFAIK, those are only available on the Windows & Mac clients.

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