Trouble Encrypting Text

[NDimmick 9]

Just in the last few days, it seems I've lost the ability to encrypt text that has a horizontal line, a numbered list, or check boxes (from the tools menu) in it.   I can create a new note, add a line of text, and encrypt without issue.  If I add a horizontal line, numbered list, or check boxes, I can no longer encrypt the text.  This means I have a bunch of important notes that I'm no longer able to re-encrypt without loosing all the helpful and necessary formatting!  Any ideas on how to fix this?

Evernote 6.11 (454876 App Store)

MacOS 10.12.4

[gazumped 11,667]

Hi.  Quick reaction would be to try other means of access - will encryption work for you in the web version?  On a mobile?  In Windows (if you have access)?

If so,  that's the emergency work-around,  if not and urgent encryption is required -  print the note to PDF and then use Adobe's tools to password protect it.  If this is something brought in by the last update,  it's always best to post in the update thread where devs will be watching - you'll get faster attention. 

You can contact Support if you're a paying customer or tweet them if not.. https://help.evernote.com/hc/requests/new or https://twitter.com/evernotehelps

See also

 

[Nick L. 681]

@NDimmick Hi there, 

This is by design. In the most recent version of Evernote for Mac you can only encrypt text. You cannot encrypt text + other objects. The reason behind it is to increase stability to encrypted content across all platforms we support.

Thanks,

[DTLow 5,736]

On 2017-04-22 at 8:33 AM, NDimmick said:

Just in the last few days, it seems I've lost the ability to encrypt text that has a horizontal line, a numbered list, or check boxes (from the tools menu)

 

55 minutes ago, nicolml said:

This is by design. In the most recent version of Evernote for Mac you can only encrypt text. You cannot encrypt text + other objects. The reason behind it is to increase stability to encrypted content across all platforms we support.

Thanks @nicolmi for providing that detail

fwiw   I use other tools to encrypt my data.  Mostly, I use encrypted pdfs for my static data and Office/iWork documents have encryption

• I don't want to be restricted to text-only
• I don't want to be locked into Evernote

[NDimmick 9]

Thanks for the replies.  Too bad this new feature removes a funtion I was depending on. 

[David Cliett 0]

Ditto @ndimmick !!

 

 

[Brett Watson 0]

@nicolml You can't be serious. Data is data, this is all just binary information. I was depending *heavily* on encrypting entire notes and now I'm finding (after being away for several months) that anything with any "non text" data at all won't encrypt. I do tons of bulleted lists, tables, etc. Please explain how NOT providing encryption outside of simple-text improves stability of the product?

[gazumped 11,667]

On 30/08/2017 at 0:23 AM, Brett Watson said:

Please explain how NOT providing encryption outside of simple-text improves stability of the product?

I would guess that one or more OS's amongst the current list of Android / iOS / Mac / Windows / Web (and their various options and variations) doesn't play well with the combination.  Evernote rarely explain their decisions in more detail and don't usually feel any need to justify them.  You could start a general feature request thread to see how much support there is for bringing this back...

[EricKristoff 3]

The most maddening and unprofessional thing about this, is that Evernote made the change without an in situ notification that you'd lost encryption.  What if that was critical business data?  Or important (and safety-critical) personal information?

 

[gazumped 11,667]

4 minutes ago, EricKristoff said:

without an in situ notification that you'd lost encryption

Hi.  It's frustrating I agree;  but this wasn't a breach of security at any level.  The issue was first noticed when a note that had been encrypted was de-crypted for viewing or editing,  and then could not be re-encrypted in Evernote.  I'd say that was more than sufficient notification that something had changed - and there was no additional risk to the data owner if that note were re-encrypted by a different route,  or moved to a local notebook to get it offline.  The text portions of the note could have been re-encrypted individually if required. 

There are plenty of alternative encryption methods available.

[alzee 1]

I'm using version 6.13.1.  I use excel to keep a list of important private data.  Excel is used as it provides me with all kinds of sorting capabilities and ease of update.  Now I find I cannot encrypt the evernote version of a copy and paste of the excel.  As evernote appears on all my devices encryption is critical in case I lose a device or someone some how gets temporary access to my account.  Removing the encryption capability simply because excel has cells/lines clearly was done by people who develop sw, but maybe don't use common applications.  BRING BACK THIS FEATURE 

[DTLow 5,736]

On 2017-12-09 at 11:21 AM, alzee said:

I use excel to keep a list of important private data.  Excel is used as it provides me with all kinds of sorting capabilities and ease of update.  Now I find I cannot encrypt the evernote version of a copy and paste of the excel.

Evernote has a text encryption feature, but only for text; no tables

Since you're using Excel, why not use the native encryption and add the file as an attachment to the note

[EricKristoff 3]

@DTLow - Yeah, that's a workaround, but it sucks.  What follows isn't a bash on you, btw, but on the product team.....   If I have to go through hoops to use a product, I'm going to stop using that product.  It's just that simple.  Evernote wasn't the first product in this category, and they aren't the best.  I don't know what Evernote's problem is, but these are basic Product Development 101 and Customer Service 101 tenets that they should have learned long long ago. 

1. there's no fundamental reason Evernote can't encrypt tables and other formatting.  Free and open source code has been available for, literally, decades.  If I can use those algorithms to encrypt a Word or Excel file, why can't Evernote include them?  What poor Software Engineering 101 decisions have they made that necessitate this exclusion?  Is there some technical reason that using these common and commoditized technologies won't work inside Evernote?  If so, that is not very encouraging about the product.  Or is it some philosophical reason, that only people who do plain text should benefit from encryption?  That's equally stupid. 
2. The worst thing of all, however, is  that encryption just silently stopped working.  Notes that had been encrypted suddenly weren't, and Evernote didn't think it important to prominently warn the user before decryption and propogation through all sync'd copies.  That betrays an epic lack of awareness about and concern for their users.  What if a user was a journalist, protecting their sources?  What if the user was the victim of abuse, and was keeping a diary of incidents?  

 

[EricKristoff 3]

On 12/9/2017 at 1:21 PM, alzee said:

I'm using version 6.13.1.  I use excel to keep a list of important private data.  Excel is used as it provides me with all kinds of sorting capabilities and ease of update.  Now I find I cannot encrypt the evernote version of a copy and paste of the excel.  As evernote appears on all my devices encryption is critical in case I lose a device or someone some how gets temporary access to my account.  Removing the encryption capability simply because excel has cells/lines clearly was done by people who develop sw, but maybe don't use common applications.  BRING BACK THIS FEATURE 

@alzee ...  switch to OneNote.  Microsoft does it right.  Evernote doesn't. 

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Password-protect-your-notes-e5ffd8fd-e811-441a-aa02-e13f0f445933

 

[DTLow 5,736]

43 minutes ago, EricKristoff said:

What poor Software Engineering 101 decisions have they made that necessitate this exclusion?  ... Or is it some philosophical reason, that only people who do plain text should benefit from encryption?

KISS

 

[EricKristoff 3]

15 minutes ago, DTLow said:

KISS

 

yeah, i hear you, but that's lame.  this is a solved problem.  As in a VERY solved problem.  If Evernote were really trying to keep things simple there's plenty of useless bloat elsewhere they could focus on.

[ian.pvd 1]

Data is data. Plain text or rich text its all just data. What did you break about the way text formatting is stored that you can no longer rebuild it from unencrypted text? It worked before. This is an absurd regression. 

[DTLow 5,736]

1 hour ago, ian.pvd said:

Data is data. Plain text or rich text its all just data. What did you break about the way text formatting is stored that you can no longer rebuild it from unencrypted text? It worked before. This is an absurd regression. 

As you found out, Evernote only offers a text encryption feature.
As reported below, they kept this simple to ensure compatibility with all platforms

 

[ian.pvd 1]

Yes, I read the thread and I'm replying to it.

Rich text de-encryption worked on Mac, iOS and web before. Encryption is still not available on the web or iOS versions, and now has reduced functionality for Mac desktop. This is a regression.

What stability? There were no issues de-encrypting text on my devices before.

What "all platforms"? I still can't encrypt any text on 2 out of the 3 places I access my notes.

[EricKristoff 3]

@ian.pvd give up.  i've been round and round on this issue in this forum.  same response.  Evernote and their fans apparently decided it's impossible, like unicorns.

 

[DTLow 5,736]

1 hour ago, EricKristoff said:

Evernote and their fans apparently decided it's impossible, like unicorns.

I'm an Evernote fan, but I'm not going to declare a feature impossible just because Evernote doesn't offer it

I require encryption for my sensitive data

My solution is the native encryption of attachments; PDFs, Office/iWork documents, ... An added benefit is I'm not locked into Evernote

 

[Roger Worden 11]

Keeping this alive... this is a huge negative for Evernote. I used to use it for everything, but now if I need to encrypt screen shots from a sensitive meeting I need to use another product.

[DTLow 5,736]

3 minutes ago, Roger Worden said:

if I need to encrypt screen shots from a sensitive meeting I need to use another product.

I would store the screenshots in a pdf; pdfs have native encryption