Evernote Backups

[chilee 34]

If I want to backup Evernote from the directory location, as opposed to exporting an ENEX, which files do I select? 

[DTLow 5,749]

24 minutes ago, chilee said:

If I want to backup Evernote from the directory location, as opposed to exporting an ENEX, which files do I select? 

Which platform?

On my Mac, I can get the database location by holding down the option key and clicking Evernote > About

Just wondering about your objective

The master copy of your data is on the Evernote servers.  You only have a copy on your device

It could be a bad plan to restore the database from a backup

[chilee 34]

Windows. I had thought about doing a monthly backup as an archive. I am thinking it would be easier to archive/zip the database files, rather than export 11000 records.

[DTLow 5,749]

6 minutes ago, chilee said:

Windows

Someone else will give you the database location.  The database is a single .exb file instead of a folder

>>Windows. I had thought about doing a monthly backup as an archive.  I am thinking it would be easier to archive/zip the database files, rather than export 11000 records.

I back up daily; just the changed notes.  Most of my notes are unchanged and don't need to be backed up multiple times.

As I said, a full database archive has limited use.

[chilee 34]

Thanks. Is there a way to select records based on a specific time frame?

[CalS 5,311]

2 hours ago, chilee said:

If I want to backup Evernote from the directory location, as opposed to exporting an ENEX, which files do I select? 

The .exb file.

17 minutes ago, chilee said:

Thanks. Is there a way to select records based on a specific time frame?

Nope, you get the whole data base.

FYI, my view is recovering a subset of notes is easier with the ENEX format.

[DTLow 5,749]

1 hour ago, chilee said:

Thanks. Is there a way to select records based on a specific time frame?

For export?

For notes updated the previous day, I use         Search     updated:day-1
                created the current day                    Search     created:day

[CalS 5,311]

2 minutes ago, DTLow said:

For export?

I use         Search     update:day-1

Small word of caution, you won't get notes wherein you changed a tag.  Tag changes don't effect update time, for whatever reason,  Windows anyway.

[gazumped 12,213]

For the record the database folder is (or should be) here - C:\Users\<user>\Evernote\Databases

If you take a regular system backup you may already be including that folder. No further work necessary.  If not,  you could simply copy the whole Databases folder elsewhere - it's not an exact backup,  but in the event that your entire database gets hosed,  you will be able to open the file and extract one or all of the notes as required.  Kind of a doomsday prep situation,  but - with work - it will restore any one or all of your notes and notebooks.

[CalS 5,311]

5 hours ago, gazumped said:

For the record the database folder is (or should be) here - C:\Users\<user>\Evernote\Databases

To be sure you can go to Tools - Options - General and look under Evernote local files for the location of your DB.

[DTLow 5,749]

23 hours ago, csihilling said:

Tag changes don't effect update time, for whatever reason,

True; tag changes don't effect update date on all platforms
I'm just ignoring that for now. 

It's important - I use update date as criteria for my backups
When I get ambitious I know I can identify changes from the database. I think it's something about a "dirty flag"

[CalS 5,311]

36 minutes ago, DTLow said:

True; tag changes don't effect update date on all platforms
I'm just ignoring that for now. 

It's important - I use update date as criteria for my backups
When I get ambitious I know I can identify changes from the database. I think it's something about a "dirty flag"

I just export by notebook to ENEX.  The number of times I have had to recover something is less than 5 in 7 years so decided not to spend much time on creating the backups.  Cavalier, but hey, living on the wild side!  YMMV.