Where are local Evernote files stored on a Mac?

[mkraft77 7]

I haven't been able to find where my local EN is stored on my hard drive. 

I see some folders ("quick-note" etc.) but no content. 

I've always assumed that with both 'web' and 'local' EN active, what's in one location should duplicate what's in the other.

But if that's the case, where is it located on my hard drive?

Thanks.

[DTLow 5,728]

6 minutes ago, mkraft77 said:

But if that's the case, where is it located on my hard drive?

To locate the database folder
On My Mac, I click on About Evernote, and press the option key
A link to the database appears

The database folder is named as a numer  nnnnnnn

>>I've always assumed that with both 'web' and 'local' EN active, what's in one location should duplicate what's in the other.

Macs have a complete copy of your notes, including Local Notebooks
The Evernote Servers (web) don't include Local Notebooks

[mkraft77 7]

6 hours ago, DTLow said:

To locate the database folder
On My Mac, I click on About Evernote, and press the option key
A link to the database appears

The database folder is named as a numer  nnnnnnn

>>I've always assumed that with both 'web' and 'local' EN active, what's in one location should duplicate what's in the other.

Macs have a complete copy of your notes, including Local Notebooks
The Evernote Servers (web) don't include Local Notebooks

Thanks, I guess the reason why Spotlight didn't find any is that the word 'Evernote' doesn't appear in any of those file/folder names. 

If you needed to use the local EN files on your hard drive because the web was down, are there instructions on how to do that?  Or would they be available automatically just by running Evernote? 

Also, does being able to access your 'notes' outside of Evernote require first converting them using some other app's native conversion methods, or are there other ways -- at least just to get to all of the 'text' in your notes (without first having to have them converted by OneNote, etc.). 

 

[DTLow 5,728]

On 2017-02-27 at 2:14 PM, mkraft77 said:

Thanks, I guess the reason why Spotlight didn't find any is that the word 'Evernote' doesn't appear in any of those file/folder names.

You could try rebuilding the index for spotlight

Hold down the option key, click on on Help > Troubleshooting > Recreate Spotlight Index

 

>>If you needed to use the local EN files on your hard drive because the web was down, are there instructions on how to do that?  Or would they be available automatically just by running Evernote? 

Evernote works fine on Macs without internet; just make sure you don't log out
These are not files the average user would access

>>Also, does being able to access your 'notes' outside of Evernote require first converting them using some other app's native conversion methods, or are there other ways -- at least just to get to all of the 'text' in your notes (without first having to have them converted by OneNote, etc.). 

This is part of my backup process
Evernote has an export feature.  Select the notes, then File > Export Notes   

There are two formats for export

1. XML (.enex): This is used to import back into Evernote
2. HTML: This is the format to be used if you want to view your notes outside of Evernote

 

Give it a try with some sample notes.  

[GonzoDocs 0]

I have a new macbook pro with high sierra. The option click on about Evernote doesn't work anymore. Any suggestions? thanks

[DTLow 5,728]

On 2018-02-11 at 12:11 PM, GonzoDocs said:

The option click on about Evernote doesn't work anymore.

Could you provide more details.  Perhaps post a screenshot.

If you're looking for the database location
it's been moved to Option-Help > Troubleshooting > Open Database Folder

[GonzoDocs 0]

Excellent. Yes that is what I was looking for. Thank you so much DTLow!

[slei 0]

Hi, 

Do you happen to know how to restore local notes from the database? I lost all of my local notes after Evernote crashed while I was trying to import some old notes from my old laptop!

[DTLow 5,728]

On 2018-02-24 at 12:38 AM, slei said:

Do you happen to know how to restore local notes from the database?

By definition, Evernote is not processing your local notes - there is no backup on the server

The user has responsibility for backups - any possibility you have a backup file, or Time Machine running

[Ignacy 16]

On 2/27/2017 at 10:52 AM, mkraft77 said:

I haven't been able to find where my local EN is stored on my hard drive. 

I see some folders ("quick-note" etc.) but no content. 

I've always assumed that with both 'web' and 'local' EN active, what's in one location should duplicate what's in the other.

But if that's the case, where is it located on my hard drive?

Thanks.

This does not seem to work anymore

What now?

[DTLow 5,728]

19 minutes ago, Ignacy said:

This does not seem to work anymore

You didn't identify what's not working anymore.

[Ignacy 16]

Thanks for the quick reply.

I'm trying to locate the database folder but when I do the following:  "On My Mac, I click on About Evernote, and press the option key" no link to the database appears. I have installed the latest Evernote update and I'm definitely holding down the option key...

 

[DTLow 5,728]

12 minutes ago, Ignacy said:

I'm trying to locate the database folder but when I do the following:  "On My Mac, I click on About Evernote, and press the option key" no link to the database appears. I have installed the latest Evernote update and I'm definitely holding down the option key...

 

[Ignacy 16]

On 3/11/2018 at 9:54 PM, DTLow said:

 

Thank You DTlow. Should have read the whole thread more thoroughly. Yeah, I'm on mac. It worked!

 

[adonsa 2]

On 3/11/2018 at 8:41 PM, Ignacy said:

...and press the option key" no link to the database appears. .....

Same here.  Any Evernote employee.

Cannot open Evernote because of the infamous 7.2.3 Version too old error.  As I prepare to use itrash to remove everything Evernote and reinstall,

surely my local notes will be in jeapordy.  Yes I have backup drives; but the REAL LOCATION of the local notes is needed.   Yes, I spent about an hour reading through tons of messages describing and speculating on various locations, mostly alluding to the press the option key which does nothing.    If it isn't too much trouble, how about simply revealing the real location of where Evernote puts local notes?

And, by the way,  I can't export or backup the local notes because the "Version too old" error wont let me use Evernote until I spend a lot of time fixing the damn problem.

Can probably boot from backup and export local notes to a safe place or convert them to something else like Apple Notes, but what a damn goat rope this will be.  This becomes man-hours researching the "version too old" error, fixing it, then researching through tons of ambigious speculation on where the local notes might be stored.  Then more time spent booting from backup, and exporting the local notes to a safe place, not to mention figuring out how to do it.

Your enlightenment will be most welcome.

[DTLow 5,728]

2 hours ago, adonsa said:

If it isn't too much trouble, how about simply revealing the real location of where Evernote puts local notes?

There is no special location for Local Notes; all notes are stored together in the database folder.
The "Local" designation is Notebook based, not Note based.

On my installation (direct app dowload), the database folder location is
/Users/<user>/Library/Application Support/com.evernote.Evernote/accounts/www.evernote.com

I located the database folder as per the latest instructions posted at https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/104518-where-are-local-evernote-files-stored-on-a-mac/?do=findComment&amp;comment=494131

>>surely my local notes will be in jeapordy.

Confirmed, Local Notebook/Notes will have to be restored from personal backups.

>>Any Evernote employee.

You're posting in a user discussion forum.
To contact Evernote Support
- All Accounts        Twitter @evernotehelps    
- Paid Accounts     Contact Evernote Support 

 

[WadeRosen 1]

Where I have been getting tripped up is that my HELP heading doesn't look the same as yours. Here's a screenshot of what mine looks like.

As a result, I haven't been able to reach the Troubleshooting heading which would lead to the Open Database Folder. Is anyone else seeing the same HELP options? 

 

 

I should have also provided a little more context. I was hoping to restore Evernote from a external backup that I have, however, I'm not going to be restoring the entire backup, only Evernote. As a result, I need to be able to locate the files, extract them, and then upload them into Evernote, however I haven't had any success at finding their location. 

Thank you for the help

[DTLow 5,728]

On 7/22/2018 at 1:14 PM, WadeRosen said:

Where I have been getting tripped up is that my HELP heading doesn't look the same as yours. Here's a screenshot of what mine looks like.

As a result, I haven't been able to reach the Troubleshooting heading which would lead to the Open Database Folder. Is anyone else seeing the same HELP options? 

If I hold down the option key, then select the Help menu, I see additional entries.

[ian reeves 2]

The option key hold before clincking help isn't obvious! - it seems to open a lot of hidden menus in Macs...

 

[Pictor 5]

Since the sandboxing it is under the "Library/Containers" and  "Library/Group Containers" folders, instead of the "Library/Application Support".

Logs are in:
  /Users/<username>/Library/Containers/com.evernote.Evernote/Data/Library/Application Support/com.evernote.Evernote

Database is in:
  /Users/<username>/Library/Group Containers/Q79WDW8YH9.com.evernote.Evernote/CoreNote/accounts/www.evernote.com/

The trick of pressing the Option-key works just if pressing the key before clicking the Help menu. That is non-standard respect to the usual behaviour on macOS.

 

Hope it helps.

 

[timRowledge 0]

I suddenly started having total-fail errors when trying to start Evernote, so I can't even try to do any exporting etc. It's not a good look.

If I stash copies of /Users/<username>/Library/Containers/com.evernote.Evernote/Data/Library/Application Support/com.evernote.Evernote and /Users/<username>/Library/Group Containers/Q79WDW8YH9.com.evernote.Evernote/CoreNote/accounts/www.evernote.com/ and then do some level of reinstall (by doing what?) will I be able to reinstate my fairly large number of local notes somehow? Are there other directories with important info squirreled away?

[DTLow 5,728]

14 hours ago, timRowledge said:

will I be able to reinstate my fairly large number of local notes somehow?

Here's a problem; your "total fails" issue is more likely to be a corrupted database
The same database you're planning to stash copies of

My troubleshooting would be restore the database from backups (TimeMachine)

>>do some level of reinstall (by doing what?)

My reinstall process is to delete the app, and database
Reinstall the app, login, the database is rebuilt from the servers.  
I then replace the database from backups

[timRowledge 0]

Yes, you're quite right that it was a corrupted database. Luckily for me, simply knowing which directories stuff is kept in allowed me to restore stuff from a couple of days ago with TimeMacihne and it appears to be happy now. 

That is a seriously scary thing to go wrong.

[DTLow 5,728]

3 minutes ago, timRowledge said:

That is a seriously scary thing to go wrong.

It's "scary" for users with local notebooks    
Using local notebooks has serious consequences, and users must perform their own data backups

For other users, Evernote addresses the backup requirements at the server level

[PinkElephant 6,765]

No backup, no pity ...

[blessedtoes 2]

I have read all of this thoroughly, and a few other threads, though this seems the most promising. I'm not adept with tech so a thorough read doesn't mean I didn't miss the answer - so potential apologies in advance.

In the course of trying to upgrade to Big Sur my machine crashed and I had to do a clean install. Luckily I had Time Machined immediately before my attempt.

When I completed re-setting my system, I logged on to Evernote, which I've been using since around 2010 I believe, and discovered that a large number of "recent" notes were "missing." Most were not, so I assume this means that at some point EN stopped syncing files and storing them on their servers, or I opted out of a paid membership or something, I have no recollection.

I would very much like these recent notes, so attempted to follow the "recent" directions above: however in my Time Machine backup the folders listed above don't exist. I checked thoroughly under Library/Application Support and Library/Containers and Library/GroupContainers, in both the main system library AND user/<username>/Library.

I appreciate I may be missing something simple here, but if anyone can help me find the data for the notes I had on my machine under Catalina last week, backed up on my TM drive, I would be deeply grateful.

Thanks.

[PinkElephant 6,765]

When you go up in the thread, you find this:

If you're looking for the database location
it's been moved to Option-Help > Troubleshooting > Open Database Folder

After reinstalling the client, your data will be in the same general folder as before, just the detailed location (a cryptic folder name) will differ.

You should now be able to locate the old folder in TM - it will be in the same general path, but another (cryptic) file name. The data is below it in a folder structure. You can manually (sort by date) view if there are changes after the date your client last synced with the server.

[blessedtoes 2]

1 hour ago, PinkElephant said:

When you go up in the thread, you find this:

If you're looking for the database location
it's been moved to Option-Help > Troubleshooting > Open Database Folder

Thanks for this. I was skeptical this might work since every other adaptation to Big Sur I've run across involved major changes in directories, but I tried anyway.

For me, there is no change to the choice sets when clicking on Help whether I use Option or not (tried Command and Control as well), and in neither case does the choice "Open Database Folder" appear.

Unless I'm an utter moron (which may well be the case) this is not available in Big Sur.

[PinkElephant 6,765]

My Mac is currently away for repair, so I can’t check. Just to have asked: You tried this on legacy, EN 7.14 ?

[blessedtoes 2]

4 hours ago, PinkElephant said:

You tried this on legacy, EN 7.14 ?

I'm not sure i understand the terminology. If you're asking if I've tried this on an older version (7.14) of Evernote, no I haven't. I am on 10.15.6. Honestly it never would have occurred to me to try an older version, I wouldn't have known which version to try (I certainly never would have thought to go back that far), and wouldn't have assumed I could have installed two 'competing' instances on my machine. On rare occasions I've done this, like with QuickTime, but I thought in general this wasn't possible.

Is this something you recommend? If I can find an installer and if it works on BS I'm happy to try it.

Thanks again for your thoughts and time.

[PinkElephant 6,765]

Well, this whole thread is in the subforum for Mac ver. 7.14., not v10.

Up to my knowledge v10 has no local database that could be used for a recovery action. At least there is no case I am aware of when this had been done.

About installing 2 clients side by side: Legacy and v10 can be installed side by side. In your case as a Basic user this would consume the 2 installations allowed under the plan. And it would not help recover content lost in the past.

If you still have a „free“ client, I would rather use it to log into the web client (log in at Evernote.com) and check content there. This is what is on the server, your master copy. If content you search is there, I would uninstall the Mac client completely (use AppCleaner etc.), and install fresh.

[blessedtoes 2]

thanks!

[ebtihal 3]

I came to this thread b/c my MacPro inadvertently updated to 10 from Legacy, and now I'm dealing with the fallout, which is quite vast.  One of the worst things that update did was corrupt a rather large note, let's call in Note A. I sent a trouble ticket to EN, they said they'd "escalated" it to a senior tech--- that was over a month ago, have heard nothing. Can't wait any longer and I need to use Note A.  Booted up my older MacBookPro who is still on the comfortable Legacy version, turned off WiFi, attached my backup drive which should have the uncorrupted version of my Note A,. I searched in the directories listed above ( /Users/<username>/Library/Group Containers/Q79WDW8YH9.com.evernote.Evernote/CoreNote/accounts/www.evernote.com/) but all I see are tons of folders with encrypted names, within which the only readable content is a webclipping here or there. 

I own EN Plus, not Premium, or whatever the upgrade version is called now that allows you to search Note History.  If I were to purchase that, would it be able to find a version of Note A from six weeks ago?  Or would it only start the "note history" feature from date of purchase of upgraded EN version?

[PinkElephant 6,765]

The note history is running for all accounts, ways, even on Free. The versions AFAIK are only stored on the server - the local database only holds the latest version.

Subscribing unlocks the access, to all stored versions.

Just as a reminder: Once you changed your subscription level, you can’t ever go back to your grandfathered plan.

[ebtihal 3]

Thanks Pink Elephant, but whenever I try to access Note History by clicking on the pulldown menu from the three dots on the upper right of my Note A (or any of the 180+ notes I use), the window "Access your Notes History-- Upgrade your Plan" pops up-- see attached file.  Click on this and it brings me to the evernote.com listing of the three plans: my plan ("Plus") and "Personal" and "Professional"   

Wouldn't this behavior suggest that the user cannot currently access their Note History without upgrading?

FWIW, "Note History" is not listed among the features in this side-by-side comparison of plans.

[PinkElephant 6,765]

Access to note history is available starting from the old Premium plan, and up.

No luck with Plus.

https://help.evernote.com/hc/en-us/articles/209005157