Request: Preventing accidental note deletion

[PeDaSp 0]

It's all too easy to hit delete and delete a note by mistake - and there is no pref for a warning like on deleting tags, notebooks or saved searches.

I know that deleted notes end up in the trash - but often you don't realize you've deleted a note in the first place, and in any case, my trash is filled with notes that are the detritus from merges, and an accidentally deleted note would just get lost.

So please can we have a warning!

Many thanks, and keep up the good work.

[engberg 89]

Thanks for the feedback. The first time you delete a note, it should display a dialog warning/confirming, with a checkbox that says "don't show me this again". You may have chosen that checkbox if you no longer see that dialog when you delete.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

I know that deleted notes end up in the trash - but often you don't realize you've deleted a note in the first place, and in any case, my trash is filled with notes that are the detritus from merges, and an accidentally deleted note would just get lost.

(BNF looks up 'detritus' & adds it to Evernote, tagging it as 'vocabulary'.)

(I like that word, detritus! )

Anyway...FYI, there are a couple of options. IMO, the easiest option would be to create a new, temporary, local/non-synced notebook. (So you don't maxblast your upload limit.) Move all the notes from trash to the new notebook & search for the note there, using search words. That should narrow the playing field a bit & then you can move the note back to the notebook where it belongs, delete the remaining notes & then delete the now empty, temporary notebook. The other option involves pulling from backups but I think this is easier/faster. Another suggestion, from an overly cautious user, I almost never empty the trash. But when I do, I make sure I have a backup of my exb file, should I need to retrieve a note or two.

[PeDaSp 0]

Thanks for the feedback. The first time you delete a note, it should display a dialog warning/confirming, with a checkbox that says "don't show me this again". You may have chosen that checkbox if you no longer see that dialog when you delete.

Thanks. Is there an option to "reset all warnings" like in some programs? I can't see it.

If not, can I delete some pref/plist file? Or even edit it?

[PeDaSp 0]

(I like that word, detritus! )

Yes, I put that in just to test how smart you are :-)

Learning new words is smart!

I appreciate your advice, but the issue is that I don't realize I've deleted the note in the first place. I can scan my Trash, but it's full of "detritus" from numerous merges.

[engberg 89]

I think that these preferences go into this plist file:

/Users/XXXX/Library/Preferences/com.evernote.Evernote.plist

[jefito 5,598]

I already knew 'detritus', it's come in handy in my recent stint of refactoring some old libraries of ours (some of it's at least 14 years old).

New work rule: we pay double for removing code.

~Jeff

[PeDaSp 0]

I think that these preferences go into this plist file:

/Users/XXXX/Library/Preferences/com.evernote.Evernote.plist

Nope. I took a look with PlistEdit Pro, and there is no pref in there for this.

There are these prefs in EN itself:

"Confirm on Tag Deletion"

"Confirm on Saved Search Deletion"

But these do not appear in the plist either! You would think that they would.

Would be nice to get to the bottom of this, as I use EN to store invoices and important documents etc.

Are you sure that there is such a warning for deleting notes? If there was, you would think a reset would be in the prefs like for Tags and Saved Searches.

Thanks again.

[engberg 89]

I checked with the Mac lead engineer, and it turns out I was lying. There's a confirmation before you empty the trash, but not when you put a note in the trash.

Sorry about that.

[PeDaSp 0]

It's OK - you just "mis-spoke" as Bill Clinton would say :-)

Do please be so kind as to add it to the "little things to do that make a big difference" list :-)

P

[iansumuk 0]

Wow, years on and still we have this issue!    We're sharing notes with three people, and one of us is accidentally deleting notes all the time!   Please could it confirm as there's going to come a point when we don't notice a missing note and things won't get done!

 

I can't find anyway to disable delete or make it confirm.

[mehtat 0]

Dear Evernote folks 

 

When i accidentally hit delete, a note disappears.  this has caused serious problems.  

 

you say that there is usually a warning, perhaps i accidentally said 'do not show this message' etc.  

 

how to i make it so that the program will once again give me the warning before deletion.  this is essential for me.

 

thanks! 

Dr. Tushar Mehta  

[LetoAtriedes 0]

+1

[dorothea 4]

Yeah, me too.  It's way too easy to delete a note.  Also, when I'm the only one using a notebook, then I'm the only one to blame, but when it's a shared notebook you're inevitably left asking everyone else what happened to x note.  Would love to be able to put a cover on my notebooks as well for easy identification and maybe choose the main photo for each note too...  If these features exist, I cannot find them.

[jefito 5,598]

11 hours ago, dorothea said:

It's way too easy to delete a note.

And it's easy to recover a note from the Trash.

[dorothea 4]

2 hours ago, jefito said:

And it's easy to recover a note from the Trash.

But that's not really the point. I don't know about you, but I don't really love digging through the trash for stuff. Unless I diligently empty the trash, I could have several notes with the same name that I would be sifting through to find the right one to recover - also, if I dilgently empty the trash, there's no way to go back if I do, down the road, decide to recover a different version of a note I purposefully deleted.

Combined with the fact that there does not seem to be a way to protect an entire note from being accidentally deleted (ie lock a note in place), it only makes sense to at least have a warning that you are about to delete a note.

[CalS 5,309]

4 minutes ago, dorothea said:

ned with the fact that there does not seem to be a way to protect an entire note from being accidentally deleted (ie lock a note in place), it only makes sense to at least have a warning that you are about to delete a note.

You could post this in the feedback forum as a request to add an OPTIONAL "are you sure" message to the note delete process.  Just like the tag delete process, except with the option not to see the message.  Satisfy all parties. 

 

[jefito 5,598]

11 minutes ago, dorothea said:

But that's not really the point. I don't know about you, but I don't really love digging through the trash for stuff.

*What @csihilling said (I think that there used to be such a message, years ago, but they removed it). And: In the Windows client, at least, you can sort the Trash 'notebook' by Deleted date. Makes it easy to find recently deleted notes.