On Demand Sync - Must I click on every single note to begin download?

[lisec 284]

I enabled sync-on-demand on my Win10 mini-notebook (didn't have a choice - it was brutal trying to edit a note). I'm now faced with one of the drawbacks to that syncing method: what to do when you know you will not have internet access.  I know how to get around that with my android phone, as I have a dedicated "On Device" notebook which is set to "offline" on my phone, meaning everything in the notebook gets downloaded to the phone. There is no equivalent for a Windows machine. I mean I suppose I could create a local folder, export it, and import it onto the mini-laptop. That should work, and I will do that if I have to, but I consider that work-around. I don't want to have to do that every time I travel with my mini, and I don't want those files not be local at the end of the day.

I've read that searching for stuff auto-downloads the notes in on-demand-sync mode, so I figured clicking on my TIFF notebook might do the same thing, i.e., I expected it would download the 215 notes in that notebook. Not so.  It seems that I have to click on every single note, one at a time, to get it to download.  Thinking I was being clever, I thought I might just do a search for all files in that notebook that have a size of 0 B. Turns out you can't search for size, or should I say that 30 minutes of searching the internet with no results leads me to believe Evernote does not support searching for file size. Not sure I can search for "sync" either, and anyway it isn't clear to me if a synced note as the dot or not because some 0 B files have the dot, others don't.

Plan B:  sort by file size. That works, until I click on one of those 0 B notes then it changes to 112 KB and the cursor moves along with the note in its new placement in the list. I got tired of playing yo-yo with the go back to the top of the list every few seconds. 

I tried quickly selecting a few 0 B notes thinking that might force a sync. No.

The only thing I can think of now is to select the 0 B files in batches and tag it with something that I will then display and not have to sort by 0 B.  It is very difficult to select multiple notes because the second you click on one the list re-sorts.  After multiple tries, I was able to select small groups of 0 B files, tag them, and then select the tag.

BUT... I still have to manually click on each note, one at a time, to get it to download, so it's all for nothing really.

Is there a better way to download all notes in a notebook?

[DTLow 5,736]

My feeling is that Demand Sync and Selective Sync were created for different purposes.

We’re still waiting for Selective Sync on the Win/Mac platforms

To answer your question; Yes, you have to open the notes if you expect them to be available for offline access

[EdH 1,670]

10 minutes ago, lisec said:

Is there a better way to download all notes in a notebook?

Not yet. This is a second phase of the "on demand sync" feature to select a notebook to always be available offline. There are other bugs in the On Demand feature that are supposed to be addressed in 6.8, and I hope this is one of them, but for now, you have to select every note you might want and make sure it is downloaded.

And depending on the days you have it set to purge downloaded notes, they might get removed again before you need them.

[lisec 284]

13 minutes ago, EdH said:

Not yet. This is a second phase of the "on demand sync" feature to select a notebook to always be available offline. There are other bugs in the On Demand feature that are supposed to be addressed in 6.8, and I hope this is one of them, but for now, you have to select every note you might want and make sure it is downloaded.

And depending on the days you have it set to purge downloaded notes, they might get removed again before you need them.

I never updated to any version that includes the option to set the amount of days before purging. (using 6.5.3.4452).  

Any idea what that default was?  I thought it was in the 30 day range...

[gazumped 11,703]

I'd say the 'easy' way to ensure you have a full database download on that computer - subject to the usual caveats about Local Notebooks and unsynced notes (so syncing and exporting may also be required first) - would be to UNtick the 'on demand sync' option,  then File > Exit Evernote,  and rename the databases folder.  Restart Evernote and wait for the folder to be recreated and the full database downloaded.  Last time I did this it was mercifully quick,  even with a lot of notes:  but YMMV!

[EdH 1,670]

50 minutes ago, lisec said:

Any idea what that default was?  I thought it was in the 30 day range...

I think it was 90, but not sure. Before that option, it never purged, so your database would just grow forever, which is why that was added in, so it would maintain a small-ish size and actually be usable on Windows.

I changed mine to 30 though when it first became available.

[EdH 1,670]

38 minutes ago, gazumped said:

I'd say the 'easy' way to ensure you have a full database download on that computer - subject to the usual caveats about Local Notebooks and unsynced notes (so syncing and exporting may also be required first) - would be to UNtick the 'on demand sync' option,  then File > Exit Evernote,  and rename the databases folder.  Restart Evernote and wait for the folder to be recreated and the full database downloaded.  Last time I did this it was mercifully quick,  even with a lot of notes:  but YMMV!

Unless something has changed, unchecking the box would cause notes to download on the next sync, but then you get the bad database performance if you have a lot of notes, which is the point of this feature. The real fix is to throw out this database format and start over of course...

[lisec 284]

54 minutes ago, gazumped said:

I'd say the 'easy' way to ensure you have a full database download on that computer - subject to the usual caveats about Local Notebooks and unsynced notes (so syncing and exporting may also be required first) - would be to UNtick the 'on demand sync' option,  then File > Exit Evernote,  and rename the databases folder.  Restart Evernote and wait for the folder to be recreated and the full database downloaded.  Last time I did this it was mercifully quick,  even with a lot of notes:  but YMMV!

I went ahead and did this. The thought of not having my notes available to me made me panic a little too much. I'm having a hell of a time getting it to sync though, I have to say. I've got everything checked except "Enable on Demand sync" and hit the sync button does nothing. I guess I'll wait for the "auto sync every 5 minutes" to kick in and see what happens, but so far it is acting like on-demand is still enabled.

Edit: oh, I should say I didn't re-create a new database, though. I just used the one that had sync-on-demand enabled on it, and just disabled that sync method. Maybe that's why sync isn't kicking in? 

[lisec 284]

2 hours ago, EdH said:

Unless something has changed, unchecking the box would cause notes to download on the next sync, but then you get the bad database performance if you have a lot of notes, which is the point of this feature. The real fix is to throw out this database format and start over of course...

Seems that unchecking the box doesn't quite do the trick. I could not get it to download the other files at all - unchecking on-demand made no difference to how sync worked. But then again, I'm using an older version of 6.5 so maybe the behaviour has since been fixed.

[CalS 5,281]

3 hours ago, lisec said:

Seems that unchecking the box doesn't quite do the trick. I could not get it to download the other files at all - unchecking on-demand made no difference to how sync worked. But then again, I'm using an older version of 6.5 so maybe the behaviour has since been fixed.

Maybe try a File - Exit and the restart to see if that triggers the syncing.

[lisec 284]

8 minutes ago, csihilling said:

Maybe try a File - Exit and the restart to see if that triggers the syncing.

Yeah, I tried that. It didn't work. It is almost like there is a memory of sync settings somewhere else in Evernote and there is no getting rid of it short of re-creating the database. I've come across this issue before. It's like it doesn't matter what you do to change the sync settings, they don't change.  I'm sure the updates have fixed this, but I'm still waiting to ensure that most of the bugs are ironed out first.

[gazumped 11,703]

Hmmn.  Nuke it with Revo?

[lisec 284]

5 minutes ago, gazumped said:

Hmmn.  Nuke it with Revo?

easier to just switch out the exb file. I put the original exb file back in and it was updating fine, but 7 hours later it was still just 1/4 of my database so I nixed it. I got my full exb from my laptop, put it on my mini, and I'm good to go.

[gazumped 11,703]

Or that would work too... 

[CalS 5,281]

Can you easily move the notes you want to be sure and have to the On Device notebook, add a tag to them all, sync, and then remove the tag.  I would think that would force the sync on all the notes in the notebook.  And they should be resident for whatever period is set.

EDIT:  Oops, posted after the solution just above.

[lisec 284]

gazumped - And that right there is why you and I maintain at least one system that doesn't have on demand sync ;-)

 

[lisec 284]

31 minutes ago, csihilling said:

Can you easily move the notes you want to be sure and have to the On Device notebook, add a tag to them all, sync, and then remove the tag.  I would think that would force the sync on all the notes in the notebook.  And they should be resident for whatever period is set.

I added a tag to those 0 B notes and it didn't work very well. The problem is in selection; you can't easily select multiple 0 B notes because the first one you select changes its size and as soon as it does your cursor follows it in the list.  So whether selecting to tag or move to a notebook the same issue applies. Of the 0 B files I managed to successfully tag, none of them were synced without selecting them individually. So basically performing on operation on them isn't enough to warrant getting the note down from the server. Seems the only way is to actually click on the note in the list. That doesn't seem all that kosher to me.

[CalS 5,281]

14 hours ago, lisec said:

I added a tag to those 0 B notes and it didn't work very well. The problem is in selection; you can't easily select multiple 0 B notes because the first one you select changes its size and as soon as it does your cursor follows it in the list.  So whether selecting to tag or move to a notebook the same issue applies. Of the 0 B files I managed to successfully tag, none of them were synced without selecting them individually. So basically performing on operation on them isn't enough to warrant getting the note down from the server. Seems the only way is to actually click on the note in the list. That doesn't seem all that kosher to me.

For future reference, see if Search when note is updated is checked in Tools - Options - Search.  If it is checked, uncheck it and try again.  When this option is checked the search results get updated immediately, which is what it sounds like was happening.  You can also sort by size and Shift-LeftMouse to highlight a group of notes and then Ctrl-Alt-T to mass tag the group.  Though it doesn't sound like either would have forced a sync based upon your experience.

[lisec 284]

27 minutes ago, csihilling said:

For future reference, see if Search when note is updated is checked in Tools - Options - Search.  If it is checked, uncheck it and try again.  When this option is checked the search results get updated immediately, which is what it sounds like was happening.  

Right - I think that is exactly what was happening.  But as you point out even if I could select a group it still doesn't instigate a sync. When I get back from the Toronto Film Fest I'll check out the bugs that are left in the latest update and if they aren't drastic I'll update, go back to sync on demand on the miniWin10 machine and see if tagging forces a sync.

[gazumped 11,703]

As a kind've backhanded confirmation that this works...

My On Demand Sync laptop barfed at the last update - I got an 'MSI file not available error' after trying.  I took the opportunity to delete the app and database and reinstall,  as a way of testing out about three different other scenarios.  On this one,  I reinstalled the current GA release from Evernote.com - which duly started to download my full database.  I optioned to Enable Beta Features & Updates.

After a half-hour the Beta build that caused the original problem popped up and I opted to go ahead and update again.  The new version downloaded alongside the database sync and the update succeeded without any apparent issue. 

Downloading the database,  meanwhile,  had stopped.  So I started a manual Sync to revive the process.  It took about 5 hours for my 19GB database to sort itself out - I was using the laptop at the same time,  so it maybe would have been quicker in other situations.

It does show though that a full database can be downloaded to replace the ODS 'mini' database by reinstalling Evernote.

Sadly it also shows that while the ODS machine did not 'hang' on a mini database,  going back to business as usual means the app is again away with the fairies from time to time.  That's not (AFAICS) necessarily related to Sync directly.  It means there's a great deal of Disk actvity - especially (but not necessarily solely) when I search or create a new note.  I have the impression that index files are being edited...

Anyway.  Back on topic:  if you have the time,  a reinstall will get all the notes back onto a local hard drive. (Being aware of sync and Local Notebook issues!).  If time (or patience) is short - go grab a copy of the database off another synced machine and replace this version with a current full version download.

[CalS 5,281]

I'm pretty sure of this, but the ODS setting is by machine not user, correct?  I don't use my second account (Basic) all that often and it is about the same size as my regular account.  Might be nice to free up 15GB on the ol' SSD.

So I did a quick test in Options using Instant Sync as the guinea pig setting and it seems to persist across accounts.  Probably not worth an enhancement request, but if one has multiple accounts a "nice" feature.

 

[jefito 5,589]

56 minutes ago, csihilling said:

So I did a quick test in Options using Instant Sync as the guinea pig setting and it seems to persist across accounts.

If this persists across accounts, then that just sounds like a bug. I can very well see a case for keeping the whole thing on your desktop, but using on demand sync for the same account on a storage-limited (or performance limited) device like a laptop.

[CalS 5,281]

1 hour ago, jefito said:

If this persists across accounts, then that just sounds like a bug. I can very well see a case for keeping the whole thing on your desktop, but using on demand sync for the same account on a storage-limited (or performance limited) device like a laptop.

I meant it persists across accounts on the same machine.  So it is all or nothing by machine.  Can’t have ODS for one account and complete DB for the same account on the same machine. 

[jefito 5,589]

3 minutes ago, csihilling said:

I meant it persists across accounts on the same machine.  So it is all or nothing by machine

Oh, OK, got it (thought that you meant that it persists across an account, no matter what machine it was deployed). Even so, yuck. Not sure if that's an actual bug or not,; I'd put it in the realm of a misfeature. Not that I have any horses in this race, as I don't use on demand sync, at least at this time...

[gazumped 11,703]

2 hours ago, csihilling said:

it persists across accounts on the same machine.

I can confirm that - I have two laptops running the same version of Evernote and the same main account - one had ODS and ran that account with an amazingly small database,  the other had the full 19GB glory of the same account.  Hadn't thought to look at other accounts (of which I have a couple),  but it makes sense that an option in the managing software on a device would affect all accounts on that device.  It's also logical that if you wanted the ODS option because of limited storage on that device you wouldn't want to have any of the databases taking up more room than was absolutely necessary...

[CalS 5,281]

4 minutes ago, gazumped said:

I can confirm that - I have two laptops running the same version of Evernote and the same main account - one had ODS and ran that account with an amazingly small database,  the other had the full 19GB glory of the same account.  Hadn't thought to look at other accounts (of which I have a couple),  but it makes sense that an option in the managing software on a device would affect all accounts on that device.  It's also logical that if you wanted the ODS option because of limited storage on that device you wouldn't want to have any of the databases taking up more room than was absolutely necessary...

@gazumped  Not so sure on this one.  Let's say you have a 17GB Premium account and a 17GB Basic account containing old projects, no linkage between the two.  What in particular is illogical in wanting to have all of your primary notes at your fingertips at all times and not wanting to consume disk space for the rarely referenced backup account?  Just sayin....   

[gazumped 11,703]

You got me.  Maybe that's an enhancement we can get our friends to work on... 

[Michael Goulding 49]

I'm having this very same issue. New laptop, decided originally I wanted on-demand sync which was working fine. 

However now I need to bulk move some notes into a different notebook. If I do this with some not downloaded, it goes into a sync and then crashes the app.

So I turned off 'on-demand sync' to just let it download everything. But it doesn't work, it just continues as if it were on demand. Tried restarting to no avail. Might have to try the database rename trick, but this 'feature' should be fixed.

Using EN 6.14.5

[EdH 1,670]

47 minutes ago, Michael Goulding said:

I'm having this very same issue. New laptop, decided originally I wanted on-demand sync which was working fine. 

However now I need to bulk move some notes into a different notebook. If I do this with some not downloaded, it goes into a sync and then crashes the app.

So I turned off 'on-demand sync' to just let it download everything. But it doesn't work, it just continues as if it were on demand. Tried restarting to no avail. Might have to try the database rename trick, but this 'feature' should be fixed.

Using EN 6.14.5

Moving notes not downloaded should not cause a crash. I do it all the time. I just moved a dozen or so and worked fine. In fact, and I think this is new, when you move them, it forces the download. It didn't used to do that that I can recall.

If you have a crash, maybe select smaller batches until you find the note(s) that are causing the crash. You may have an unrelated corruption issue.

[gazumped 11,703]

44 minutes ago, Michael Goulding said:

But it doesn't work, it just continues as if it were on demand.

I guess there could be a bug in the process that syncs notes before moving them if on demand is enabled - although crashing when syncing might be a separate problem.  As I understand it turning off on demand means that future notes won't automatically be Purged (i.e. deleted from your local device) if they're not viewed within the period you have set in Options.  Notes in the existing database are already purged,  and will stay that way. 

The way to get your whole database back is indeed to sign out of Evernote,  rename the database folder,  and restart Evernote.  Depending on your notes this may take a while.  Beware that Local (unsynced) Notebooks are ONLY stored on your local hard drive.  If you have one or more local notebooks,  export those to ENEX files before renaming the folder.

(You might try exporting the notes you were trying to move to ENEX files first - Evernote will have to sync the contents down,  which may give you a line on your crashes.  If the export is successful you could try importing those notes into their new notebook home...)

In any case as a premium subscriber you're entitled to email support - raise a ticket to get some comments from that team too.

[CalS 5,281]

46 minutes ago, gazumped said:

(You might try exporting the notes you were trying to move to ENEX files first - Evernote will have to sync the contents down,  which may give you a line on your crashes.  If the export is successful you could try importing those notes into their new notebook home...)

Really BEWARE this.  I have ODS enabled on my backup laptop, running 6.7.6.  I did a test recently by highlighting some not downloaded notes and exporting.  Note contents were NOT included in the ENEX.  Same thing happened when I dragged some not downloaded notes to a local notebook. note content was lost.  Maybe I did it wrong, but I would recommend testing before trying this.  I hope someone proves me wrong, but if not, this is an abysmal design/deployment.  I feel I must be doing something wrong because on what planet would a backup which doesn't include the note content make any sense?  Maybe it works differently in newer versions.

[gazumped 11,703]

Ouch - you saved me testing this out.  It only occurred to me while writing the answer to that query,  and my comment "Evernote will have to sync the contents down" was the sane and logical interpretation of how things should work.  If you have experience that it doesn't work that way I'd say ODS urgently needs more work!

[CalS 5,281]

15 minutes ago, gazumped said:

Ouch - you saved me testing this out.  It only occurred to me while writing the answer to that query,  and my comment "Evernote will have to sync the contents down" was the sane and logical interpretation of how things should work.  If you have experience that it doesn't work that way I'd say ODS urgently needs more work!

@lisec had a question recently and I was able to use my test machine.  Wouldn’t hurt to have a validation test to be sure I didn’t go brain dead with mine.  

ODS needs an Achtung! message advising users to protect themselves from data loss.   ?

[EdH 1,670]

16 hours ago, CalS said:

Really BEWARE this.  I have ODS enabled on my backup laptop, running 6.7.6.  I did a test recently by highlighting some not downloaded notes and exporting.  Note contents were NOT included in the ENEX.  Same thing happened when I dragged some not downloaded notes to a local notebook. note content was lost.  Maybe I did it wrong, but I would recommend testing before trying this.  I hope someone proves me wrong, but if not, this is an abysmal design/deployment.  I feel I must be doing something wrong because on what planet would a backup which doesn't include the note content make any sense?  Maybe it works differently in newer versions.

Same thing happens in a merge. Grab 10 notes, none of which are sync'd. The first and last will be downloaded if you click on the first, then shift click on the last. The middle 8 will not. When you merge, you get note 1, headers for notes 2-9, and note 10. All 10 are in the trash. If you don't catch it, you'll lose note contents for 2-9 forever. You have to undelete them, download manually, and re-merge.

This is a known bug and on their list, but there are more important things to be done right now. Emoticons, rebranding, a new notebook view, and bold fonts for note subjects take precedent over losing note content.

What is the emoticon for "I can't even" or "I can't right now?"

[CalS 5,281]

[DTLow 5,736]

19 hours ago, CalS said:

Really BEWARE this.  I have ODS enabled on my backup laptop, running 6.7.6.  I did a test recently by highlighting some not downloaded notes and exporting.  Note contents were NOT included in the ENEX.

 

3 hours ago, EdH said:

Same thing happens in a merge.

Is there a point where you say I'm not going to use this "feature" because of the lost data issue.
I was looking forward to this becoming a Mac feature but this issue is intolerable for my use.

I was concerned the full export (my weekly backups) might trigger a full download, but I never expected missing data.

[EdH 1,670]

3 minutes ago, DTLow said:

Is there a point where you say I'm not going to use this "feature" anymore.
That issue is intolerably for my use.

Yes, but that isn't the point for me. I don't merge so often it is an issue, but I merge often enough to watch out for it. But I feel bad for the average user that doesn't know this and sometime in Feb 2019 when they are working on their taxes, they will realize a bunch of notes they merged didn't have the bodies downloaded first and the trash has long since been emptied.

They will be able to take solace that they can use the ?, ?, and ? emoji though.

[CalS 5,281]

7 minutes ago, DTLow said:

Is there a point where you say I'm not going to use this "feature" because of the lost data issue.
I was looking forward to this becomming a Mac feature but this issue is intolerable for my use.

I was concerned the full export (my weekly backups) might trigger a full download, but I never expected missing data.

I would not and do not use the feature in "production".  I have ODS enabled on an old backup laptop which I only use for testing. 

Not sure based upon the lost data risk as to why EN keeps it as an active feature.  It seems to violate all do no harm thinking, per @EdH note above.

[EdH 1,670]

10 minutes ago, CalS said:

I would not and do not use the feature in "production".

The problem is this solves two issues:

1. People with huge databases that don't necessarily want all of their note content downloaded on a machine, either because it isn't their main machine, or they are tight on hard drive space. Devices like the Surface Go start with 64GB of space. Downloading 8-10GB of notes for that kind of machine makes no sense, but it equally makes no sense you shouldn't have access to your notes on that machine beyond a browser.
2. Performance is way better if you have lots of notes, because the SQLLite database they are using is horrible when you get over 10K notes with a lot of data - file attachments, pics, etc.

Sadly it has been a half-baked feature for nearly 2 years now. I still love it and use it, and personally think the shortcomings are less than the performance shortcoming of downloading my entire database, which makes EN largely unusable on my Windows PC. (Mac has no issue as it has a much better db structure apparently). But I do know the issues to look out for.

I shouldn't have to, but I do.

[CalS 5,281]

2 minutes ago, EdH said:

The problem is this solves two issues:

1. People with huge databases that don't necessarily want all of their note content downloaded on a machine, either because it isn't their main machine, or they are tight on hard drive space. Devices like the Surface Go start with 64GB of space. Downloading 8-10GB of notes for that kind of machine makes no sense, but it equally makes no sense you shouldn't have access to your notes on that machine beyond a browser.
2. Performance is way better if you have lots of notes, because the SQLLite database they are using is horrible when you get over 10K notes with a lot of data - file attachments, pics, etc.

Sadly it has been a half-baked feature for nearly 2 years now. I still love it and use it, and personally think the shortcomings are less than the performance shortcoming of downloading my entire database, which makes EN largely unusable on my Windows PC. (Mac has no issue as it has a much better db structure apparently). But I do know the issues to look out for.

I shouldn't have to, but I do.

Yeah, I get it and I get your pain.  For whatever reason(s), I have not been encumbered by either issue.  My EN data base uses 19 GB of the 240 GB SSD, so plenty of room.  I don''t have, nor have ever had, any performance issues with EN, the most recent release actually being a bit snappier, subjective viewpoint.  Same laptop I've been using for the last five years.

The one thing that has slowed down a wee bit across time is PDF display, but that I think is due to the "new" PDF viewer more than anything else.  On my backup laptop using 6.7.6, PDF display is instantaneous using the original viewer.  I do use ODS on the backup since no reason to download everything, and as I said before, it is an old machine.

 

 

[Michael Goulding 49]

Thanks everyone for your replies. I've never used ODS before because I preferred to keep my database entire on all my machines. But now my database has grown over time to be 25GB I thought I'd use ODS on my new work laptop just to save the download really (performance is no issue that I've seen).

The crashes appear when I select drag the notes to a new notebook. If there are any not downloaded (could just be 1 in 5 notes), as soon as I drag them to a new place, it tries to sync showing a sync popup window, and then just hangs. After some time, or hitting cancel (knowing that it shouldn't take long, some test notes are just text) EN just closes. On reopening I get the 'fatal error' reporting box which I've completed a few times to report it.

I couldn't find any way to download a bunch of notes, like a whole notebook. The only way is to select them one by one which is just crazy. So I gave up and turned off ODS thinking the whole thing would just download, which it won't due to a different bug. I'll have to do the database rename trick, as I have no local notebooks anywhere, this should be fine. Thanks for the heads up.

Clearly this 'feature' needs a lot of work as outline in the above posts. I really want (Need!) Evernote to be great, I'm so invested in it and can't yet make another system fit my workflow as well as Evernote does, but this sort of rubbish is killing it for me

[gazumped 11,703]

3 hours ago, Michael Goulding said:

Clearly this 'feature' needs a lot of work as outline in the above posts

From our collective experience as users,  there do seem to be a lot of issues - which (since the folks at Evernote seem to be reasonably smart) I can't believe haven't been noted and possibly worked on already.  I'd strongly advise using your subscription status to get an answer from Evernote Support - even if only to make sure this is on Evernote's radar for some time in the future.  I'm going to try the situation out when I can - but that means converting one of my accounts to ODS and purging some notes,  so it won't be especially quick.  When I've done that I'll have some real experience to share and I'll report it myself.

Meantime this is part of life's rich full tapestry in making software work the way you need it to - if your main database is too large to keep on one machine,  you could share one or more (smaller) notebooks with a new Basic account and use that as a 'scratchpad'.  Review and edit notes in the basic account,  and save or move them back to the main account as necessary.

Beware that there are some - eccentricities - in sharing that you'll probably have to work around too...

[CalS 5,281]

3 hours ago, gazumped said:

there do seem to be a lot of issues - which (since the folks at Evernote seem to be reasonably smart) I can't believe haven't been noted and possibly worked on already

I think you are too kind here.  To release a function wherein inherent data loss is SO easy to have is just wrong.  Particularly when there are no messages or warnings anywhere near the option.  No buyer beware notification at all. 

It's an incomplete (half baked if one wants to be rude) capability not ready for prime time.  Imagine a conversation that lists four uncomplicated typical SOP ways users can lose data with ODS followed by, well that's okay, let's roll it out anyway.  Very disappointing.  ☹️