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Evernote Backup / Restore question


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If you want to back up your entire Evernote Windows data with the hopes of a full restore... don't you have to back up each notebook individually in order to restore back to the correct notebooks? 
 

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5 minutes ago, jbenson2 said:

If you want to back up your entire Evernote Windows data with the hopes of a full restore... don't you have to back up each notebook individually in order to restore back to the correct notebooks? 
 

I would say yes if using ENEX export. 

Unless you add a notebook tag to every note and then you can rebuild notebooks using that tag post import, but I wouldn't recommend that.  Too much opportunity for error.

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28 minutes ago, jbenson2 said:

If you want to back up your entire Evernote Windows data with the hopes of a full restore... don't you have to back up each notebook individually in order to restore back to the correct notebooks? 

That is correct for a .enex export based backup; notebook is not maintained.  Separate exports are recommended for each notebook

Warning: The import creates new notes; it's not a full restore of the original notes

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15 hours ago, DTLow said:

Warning: The import creates new notes; it's not a full restore of the original notes

I assume you mean all the created dates are changed to the actual restore date. This could be a serious problem for users with thousands of notes spanning several years.

Is there a way to create a full backup of the Windows data for a complete restore so the notes appear to be original?

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54 minutes ago, jbenson2 said:

I assume you mean all the created dates are changed to the actual restore date. This could be a serious problem for users with thousands of notes spanning several years.

Is there a way to create a full backup of the Windows data for a complete restore so the notes appear to be original?

I just did a quick test to verify and the created and updated dates of the notes are preserved when you export/import an ENEX backup.  I think Notebook is the only thing you have to be concerned about.  Try for yourself to verify.

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1 hour ago, CalS said:

I just did a quick test to verify and the created and updated dates of the notes are preserved when you export/import an ENEX backup.  I think Notebook is the only thing you have to be concerned about.  Try for yourself to verify.

Thanks for confirming the created date does not change. I should have thought about it a bit longer. I have two Evernote accounts and on a monthly basis, I use ENEX to move some notes to my secondary account. I lose the Notebook name, but the dates are correct.

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Just now, jbenson2 said:

Thanks for confirming the created date does not change. I should have thought about it a bit longer. I have two Evernote accounts and on a monthly basis, I used ENEX to move some notes to my secondary account. I lose the Notebook name, but the dates are correct.

You are welcome.

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9 hours ago, jbenson2 said:

I assume you mean all the created dates are changed to the actual restore date. This could be a serious problem for users with thousands of notes spanning several years.

When importing from a .enex file

  • The dates are restored correctly
  • As you pointed out, Notebook is not restored.  
  • Since new notes are created, the note's id is changed.  Previous note links, internal and public, will not be valid; they do not point to the restored notes
    edited: Note links point to the original note, and will be valid unless the original note is deleted

>>Is there a way to create a full backup of the Windows data for a complete restore so the notes appear to be original?

  1. Notes have been uploaded to the Evernote servers (except for local Notebooks).  The Windows database can be restored from this source
  2. You can do a full backup of the Windows database file.  I'm not sure of the location, but it's a single .exb file
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1 hour ago, DTLow said:

Previous note links, internal and public, will not be valid

Not so sure about that, depends upon the circumstances.  In my experience the note links are preserved when recovering notes.  Fails if the target note has been deleted from the original notebook. 

I use ENEX backups for dumb a$$ attacks accidentally deleting notes and local notebook backups.,not for full restores.  Just in case though, I always leave the note link text the same as the note title.  So if it doesn't work in some condition I can recreate it easily.  FWIW.

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For the past couple years, I gave up on backups using the single .exb file and relied on the risky approach of relying on Evernote's cloud storage integrity. Yes, that is risky. So, with the long winter approaching here in Maine, I am going to spend some time cleaning up my Evernote acct by culling the extra notebooks. I hope to get down to just 3 or 4 notebooks. This will make it easier to maintain ENEX backups.

Here is some helpful information that makes the backup and restoration process as clear as mud. LOL Contacting Evernote support made matters worse. I did pick up some helpful information from JMichaelTX - thank you - that was a lot of work. And It reminded me that the restoration using .ENEX not only kills the notebook name, but also kills any tag hierarchy.   In my case, for example, all tags for the names of individual people are stored under a master tag called People. When I use the .ENEX to restore (move) notes, the tags of people's names end up intermixed with hundreds of my other tags.

 

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13 hours ago, jbenson2 said:

And It reminded me that the restoration using .ENEX not only kills the notebook name, but also kills any tag hierarchy.

I wouldn't say the .enex import "kills", but it certainly doesn't back up the tag hierarchy.
If your tag hierarchy is accidentally deleteted or corrupted, you can't look to restore it from a .enex backup

fwiw   I'm less concerned about losing my tag hierarchy.
Since there is no hierarchy display on the mobile platforms, I prefix my tagnames accordingly

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16 hours ago, jbenson2 said:

When I use the .ENEX to restore (move) notes, the tags of people's names end up intermixed with hundreds of my other tags.

Isn't this only the case if you are doing a full restore?

There is some risk, minor in my view, of using the EN cloud as a backup.  The ENEX files let you restore notes if you don't have history. 

However, if you are fearful of a complete meltdown at EN or a catastrophic dumb a$$ attack, you could take an EXB backup every week and supplement with ENEX backups.  Then you could restore the EXB and add notes from the ENEXs created since the EXB.  More work than I am wiling to do but you would maintain your hierarchies in the event of a meltdown.  Not sure how the first sync would go, but in the event of a meltdown not sure it matters????

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5 hours ago, CalS said:

Isn't this only the case if you are doing a full restore? ... Not sure how the first sync would go

A full database restore will reload the tag hierarchy on the computer.  

The copy on our computers can be messed around with; imports, full restores, ...  
However, the master version of our data is stored on the Evernote servers and is only updated during the sync process.

I'm also not sure if this will sync to the servers.  I'd like to know, but I'm sitting out on the testing for this

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11 minutes ago, DTLow said:

The copy on our computers can be messed around with; imports, full restores, ...  However, the master version of our data is stored on the Evernote servers and is only updated during the sync process.

A full database restore will reload the tag hierarchy on the computer.  I'm not sure if this will sync to the servers.  I'd like to know, but  I'm siting out on the testing for this

Is that kind of a confirmation of my question?  :)

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6 minutes ago, CalS said:

Is that kind of a confirmation of my question?  :)

Yep, I'd also like to know the answer - Will syncing restore the tag hierarchy to the server (master copy)?

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Well, I am back in the same position as I was a couple years ago when I was dealing with Evernote support. In my opinion, the procedures involved with regular personal backups and a possible full restoration are far too vague and complicated. Plus the results too uncertain. I hope that Evernote has a bulletproof server system to ensure all our data is kept 100% safe from hackers all the time.  Thank you for the assistance.

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