(Archived) Selective notebook sync?

[AstroCat 0]

I have several notebooks. Some I don't want on my work computer and some I do. Is there a way to select which notebooks sync with your computer client and which don't?

Thanks!

[thermalspindle 0]

I'd second that .

I'm fortunate enough to have a high performance solid state hard drive in my work computer that consequently has a very small capacity. If I could selectively choose the notebooks to sync that would be great. I can still get access to my other notebooks via the web interface in a pinch so that's no problem. It would be even better if it kept the index and selectively downloaded a note if you needed it ... just like a mobile device would without offline access enabled.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Is there a way to select which notebooks sync with your computer client and which don't?

No.

[AstroCat 0]

That's too bad. I would hope this feature would be added in an upcoming version because I'll have to uninstall the client on systems where I don't want all notes accessible.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

It's also easy enough to have separate accounts, such one account for work & one account for personal. NBD.

[AstroCat 0]

But I would then need 2 premium accounts for offline reading, right?

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

This is posted in the General discussion about Evernote. I can only assume when you say "offline reading", you're talking about the iPhone client. IMO, the iPhone client is not conducive to multiple accounts b/c when you switch back & forth, it must start fresh, downloading headers & any offline notebooks you may have selected. IMO, if you want/need to have personal notes and work notes available on your iPhone & only the work notes available from various desktops, the best way is to have all the notes in your personal/premium/iPhone account & have "work" notes (or whatever your other notes are) in a shared notebook that can be viewed from the web on the desktop computers.

[Metrodon 2,184]

Using the web client when you are at works seems like the simplest solution...

[AstroCat 0]

Yeah, looks like really the best solution is no client on the work lappy. Oh well, would be nice feature addition to the client, but so would password protected notebooks but that seems to be a big deal as well.

[sterlingz 7]

+1 for this feature.

I think as our notebooks grow, and more folks transition to SSDs, the need to download only part of our Evernote data to a laptop is only going to increase.

Personally, I would love to "archive" certain notebooks, and keep them stored in the cloud and on maybe one master computer with a lot of storage, but then not keep them on my laptop, and only sync notebooks that are currently relevant. I have limited space on my SSD, and don't really want to dedicate the several gigabytes needed for storing all of my Evernote content.

If you think about it, this is basically the concept behind the iPhone and iPad clients. Users (with Premium accounts) can download only the notebooks they choose to be stored locally on the device. It would be great to have parity with that for the desktop clients. I really don't need much of the stuff I have in Evernote with me on my laptop all the time. If I found I needed access to something I didn't have in my selectively synced notebooks, I could always get it via the web client.

Sorry to beat on a dead horse by mentioning Dropbox yet again, but they've implemented selective sync through their beta program as it was one of the most hotly demanded features requested by their user base (arguably even more important for people storing up to 50-100GB of data in the cloud). The final release should be delivered to the user base in the very near future.

[Nipper 0]

+1 for this feature.

Hi Serlingz

You have mirrorred a need of mine also I would also love to "archive" certain notebooks, and keep them stored someplace (user choice) as static items unless the need arose to synch individual notebooks which could be individually chosen.

Nipper

[mokward 0]

I too strongly support the idea of being able to locate specified content online rather than on the desktop. I love cumulating info in evernote, but I don't want to gunk up my laptop with all of it. Gunking up my desktop computer is less bothersome. What if I were to delete the desktop client from my laptop?? Would that mess anything up?

[engberg 89]

You can uninstall our application from any of your computers without affecting the data that's already stored within your account on our servers.

[sterlingz 7]

You can uninstall our application from any of your computers without affecting the data that's already stored within your account on our servers.

Hi Dave,

That is a good solution for the poster's question above taking into consideration the current state of the software. But that's an all or nothing proposition that does not resolve the selective sync issue that would bring parity of the desktop apps with the iOS apps. We would like to have the same ability to only download certain notebooks to the desktop clients, just as Premium users can do with the iPad and iPhone apps.

An example: I have notebooks set up for each trip that I take. For last year's trips, I need those records archived, but the chances are I don't need them locally on my laptop that I'm currently traveling with. Having them in Evernote web would be sufficient. But I do want to have notebooks that I'm currently working on stored locally on my machine. For those notebooks, Evernote web would not be good enough; I need offline access.

Space is at a premium in ultraportable laptops. I'm thinking for the future here. In five years time, am I going to want all of my Evernote notebooks locally? Even with all of the advances in storage, the answer is still probably not.

If the rumors are correct, Apple will be announcing a very desirable ultraportable notebook on Wednesday that will feature a non-upgradable SSD for storage. This computer will present precisely the use-case for selective notebook sync. The user will not necessarily want to download their entire Evernote library, but having "current" notebooks available would be useful. This is the approach Dropbox is taking, allowing their users to pick and choose the folders which will be downloaded from their servers. I hope this feature will be considered in future. It's not a new idea - you've already done a good job implementing it in the mobile clients.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Even with all of the advances in storage, the answer is still probably not.

Which means, you just really don't want some stuff on your laptop. That's fine. But that's not the EN model. Storage space is pretty much a non issue for everything except phones, even if you're talking netbooks (or ultra portables which are typically beefier than netbooks.)

[JMichaelTest 19]

Which means, you just really don't want some stuff on your laptop. That's fine. But that's not the EN model. . .

Actually that's not correct. It IS the model on all of the mobile devices.

All that is being requested is to provide the same option for the Win and Mac clients as EN has for the mobile clients.

If you think about this it makes a lot of sense. People talk about using EN for their lifetime. Over the decades storage for all of your notes could easily reach 10's of GB, maybe even over a 100 GB for some people. As mentioned earlier, some of us would like to have "Archive" notebooks that we only need on one computer, thus significantly reducing the amount of data to be sync'd on a regular basis to a much smaller number.

[jbenson2 2,147]

sterlingz wrote:

Space is at a premium in ultraportable laptops. I'm thinking for the future here. In five years time, am I going to want all of my Evernote notebooks locally? Even with all of the advances in storage, the answer is still probably not.

Maybe I'm missing something here, but if I wanted to archive stuff that is 5+ years old, I would simply move it to a local non-sync'd notebook.

Drawbacks?

• - Not available on your cell phone Evernote or web Evernote - after all, the data is 5+ years old, how often do you really need it - it can wait a few hours until you get to your client computer to access it. If you realize it is important, then move it to a sync'd notebook.
  - Evernote OCR not available.
  - Local backup is even more important.
  

Benefits?

• - Cell phone Evernote is not bogged down with a lot of extraneous data

[sterlingz 7]

Maybe I'm missing something here, but if I wanted to archive stuff that is 5+ years old, I would simply move it to a local non-sync'd notebook

That's actually a fantastic solution. Great suggestion.

One minor thing to add to the list of drawbacks, results don't show up in Google results using Chrome (I love this feature). No biggie, if they're archived, they probably wouldn't be as relevant anyway.

If you have a synced notebook and then change it to local, the OCR is kept intact, no?

[jbenson2 2,147]

Sterlingz wrote:

If you have a synced notebook and then change it to local, the OCR is kept intact, no?

I assumed it wasn't, but I really don't know the answer for sure.

Perhaps someone from Evernote could comment.

[engberg 89]

There's no UI to change the "type" of a notebook, but if you make a new Local-only notebook, and then move recognized notes from a Synchronized notebook into that new one, then they will preserve all of their existing text recognition.

[sterlingz 7]

So the local notebooks solution is a good workaround, but I still want to put in a plug for selective sync. Those new MacBook Airs looks really sweet, but you can imagine, a 64GB notebook is pretty much like an iPad. You're going to want to be selective about what you put on it.

Incidentally, the news about the Mac App Store is really exciting. How do you think this might affect development at Evernote? Presumably, it may potentially let you use one unified code base for iPhone, iPad and Mac which might be a challenge at first, but could yield some significant benefits for the speed of development down the road.

[bammi 0]

Here is my use case to add my vote for this feature

On most of my machines i want full sync of all notebooks. (several 1000 of notes in about 100 notebooks, i am a long time user)

But on my Macbook Air, that has limited storage, i still want Evernote, but only with selective notebooks sync. local notebooks is not an option.

This is the same usecase as any Mobile device, just that Evernote has to recognize this usecase for their desktop clients as well.

Will someone from Everrnote please give us a more definitive answer about your thoughts in this area?

thanks

[engberg 89]

Notebooks aren't completely separate items, due to inter-relationships between notes and tags and things like that. If all of the data isn't available on the client, the code would need to change pretty significantly to be able to (e.g.) correctly handle the behavior if you click on a tag that crosses multiple notebooks or if you drag a note from a synchronized notebook to one you didn't specify.

I.e. I can see why this is of interest, but this would not be a small change based on the current design of the desktop applications.

[kurt 0]

Notebooks aren't completely separate items, due to inter-relationships between notes and tags and things like that. If all of the data isn't available on the client, the code would need to change pretty significantly to be able to (e.g.) correctly handle the behavior if you click on a tag that crosses multiple notebooks or if you drag a note from a synchronized notebook to one you didn't specify.

I.e. I can see why this is of interest, but this would not be a small change based on the current design of the desktop applications.

I also would like the option to choose which notebooks sync with which computers. If I recall, I can do that with xmarks but not with evernote...

I don't like the current design. IF I have "work notebook" selected, it should only show tags for that notebook in the tag list. I don't want it to show tags in my "personal notebook" at the same time.

Two accounts seems even more cumbersome. With two accounts if I want to use my work notebook at home, i have to sign into web app? If it were easy to switch between accounts on the Windows app and mobile app then it would make sense to have a 2nd account.

[Gunnertel 0]

+1 from me. Just purchased MBA (great) and want to be very selective as to what sits on local SSD.

When travelling, want offline access to key notebooks (so web client not appropriate), but I don't want to install EN client onto my MBA because can't afford for my whole data library (GB's) to download onto my limited SSD capacity. If no option is forthcoming, will need to keep carrying iPad with mobile client as well as MBA :-(

[ozaz 1]

I want selective notebook sync too. Limiting data to a local notebook so that it does not appear on another device is not satisfactory workaround. See 4 posts back (by bammi) for the reason.

I am a Microsoft OneNote user who greatly values being able to selectively sync OneNote notebooks to different machines. But I also have a Mac and iPad so I am also a prime candidate to become an Evernote switcher due to lack of OneNote on these platforms. However, I definitely won't be switching until selective sync to desktop clients is available - by which time Microsoft might have released OneNote apps for Mac and iPad and my impulse for switching would have passed. On balance, I prefer putting up with the hassle of running OneNote in a virtual machine on my Mac and foregoing access to my notes on iPad than putting up with lack of selective sync in Evernote.

[PJP 3]

Notebooks aren't completely separate items, due to inter-relationships between notes and tags and things like that. If all of the data isn't available on the client, the code would need to change pretty significantly to be able to (e.g.) correctly handle the behavior if you click on a tag that crosses multiple notebooks or if you drag a note from a synchronized notebook to one you didn't specify.

I.e. I can see why this is of interest, but this would not be a small change based on the current design of the desktop applications.

I see your point, as well. Nevertheless, a year later, can you say whether any work is being done on this front? Or should people who want this feature look elsewhere? I'd say we deserve a plain answer on that, and I apologize if it's been covered elsewhere.

[jefito 5,589]

I see your point, as well. Nevertheless, a year later, can you say whether any work is being done on this front? Or should people who want this feature look elsewhere? I'd say we deserve a plain answer on that, and I apologize if it's been covered elsewhere.

Evernote generally doesn't discuss its development roadmap, so don't be surprised if you don't get a definitive answer. That's not usually a reflection of the worth of an idea; it's just how they do things, and it's not uncommon in the industry.

[gbarry 2,658]

I see your point, as well. Nevertheless, a year later, can you say whether any work is being done on this front? Or should people who want this feature look elsewhere? I'd say we deserve a plain answer on that, and I apologize if it's been covered elsewhere.

Significant work has been put into sharing. I could imagine some sort of arrangement between two Evernote accounts where you could have one business related, one home related, and share between the two. You could selectively share notebooks from the business account, and then only sync with/to those notebooks after they've been synced. Or something like that--I can't really recommend it, I haven't tried it. Just tossing out an idea here.

[NeechBear 2]

+1 for this functionality, still.

I'm hoping it's not simply being ignored in the hope that the use-case for this feature will go away with users simply upgrading to bigger local storage devices.

I also have a MacBook Air (128G SSD). By the time I have the OS installed and what I regard as the absolute essential software and other personal data, I have maybe 15G of available space to play with, which soon disappears with I fire up Evernote. Even when I upgrade to say a newer device with a 500G SSD, I still foresee the same problem happening as my Evernote notebooks gradually fill up over time and applications and operating systems bloat.

Multiple accounts with shared notebooks really isn't a useful solution, not least because it means I'm paying twice in order to work around a problem that's already been solved on the mobile versions of the product.

[ColwellCat 0]

For me while space is a consideration for wanting selective synch, there is also the consideration of security and sensitivity of data.

I am currently accessing EN from ~7 devices on a semi to regular basis. Two I use the web client solely to get around the issue- but I am currently grappling with how to maintain usability without having sensitive data too available on unsecured devices. Selective notebook inclusion would be a wonderful fix.

I am experimenting with a second account combined with shared notebooks -though having recently upgraded to premium it is annoying to not have those features - but the main killer is not being able to use full search functionality on the shared notebooks- without which, EN is a nightmare.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

For me while space is a consideration for wanting selective synch, there is also the consideration of security and sensitivity of data.

I am currently accessing EN from ~7 devices on a semi to regular basis. Two I use the web client solely to get around the issue- but I am currently grappling with how to maintain usability without having sensitive data too available on unsecured devices. Selective notebook inclusion would be a wonderful fix.

I am experimenting with a second account combined with shared notebooks -though having recently upgraded to premium it is annoying to not have those features - but the main killer is not being able to use full search functionality on the shared notebooks- without which, EN is a nightmare.

I am hoping that we will gain the ability to search through multiple shared notebooks at once and also to include the results in regular searches of our accounts. You can do this already if you use Spotlight on the Mac (see a page I wrote on it at http://www.princeton.edu/~cmayo/evernote-spotlight-search.html). It's OK as a workaround (if you are on a Mac), but selective sync for notebooks on the desktop is really the ideal.

The good news is that selective sync is coming -- it is "inevitable" according to Phil Libin (CEO of Evernote) in Evernote Podcast #28 (40:25-43:28). The bad news is that it is also considered to be a long-term project, and in a 100-year company, that could take a little while

[sinman 3]

+1 to this.