App refresh

[andrewchoflet 4]

I’ve been using Evernote to take notes between listening to audiobooks, and have gotten to a serious point of frustration.

90% of the time I go back to Evernote to jot down a note it refreshes and I go back up to the top of my note. I then have to scroll down to where I left off (sometimes quite significantly) to continue typing. Sometimes It's so distracting I even forget what I’m typing and have to go back.  Which loops the issue again.

I’ve deactivated background app refresh, and still the same issue persists. I understand Apple is only partly responsible for this, but it’s far more frequent in Evernote then any other app I use.  I’m using an iPhone7+ iOS (12.0.1)

What can be done to stop this refresh issue?
 

[DTLow 5,736]

On my iPad, I can use split screen instead of flipping out/in of Evernote

[gazumped 11,652]

...or you could just make a new note each time you want to comment - they can all have the same title,  or no title at all - and when you finish with the book,  view your notes in created date order and merge them together.  (This merge might only be possible on a desktop though...).  It's a bit of work,  but less than having to scroll down each time you write.

[andrewchoflet 4]

I'm sorry, but these workarounds don't quite do it.

I was previously a premium user, but am now on the free plan. I see the ability to contact email support has been dropped. This bug gets in the way of its core purpose (to take notes) and not only can I not find a solution, but I can't tell the official team about it. I have even been considering looking for a new replacement tool.

20 hours ago, DTLow said:

On my iPad, I use split screen instead of flipping out/in of Evernote

iPhone does not have a split screen function, although this would be very helpful for iPad.

20 hours ago, gazumped said:

...or you could just make a new note each time you want to comment...

 

I currently have 1200+ notes on my account and I read 3-4 books a month with fairly extensive notes. Unfortunately, this would be far too cumbersome for me, particularly when jotting down direct quotes.

[gazumped 11,652]

1 hour ago, andrewchoflet said:

I'm sorry, but these workarounds don't quite do it.

If you're looking for a feature that Evernote doesn't have,  then workarounds are one option; using different software is another.  Evernote doesn't have an 'issue' - it is what it is: you asked for options, and we came up with some.  As an observation,  I edited a book recently using a Kindle app - the 'notes' feature there was good for capturing quotes and typos...

[dean@deancasavechia.com 3]

I'm having the same problem. I open EN on my phone and the whole note freezes then re-loads. I have been a EN user since 2009 and I love it but this new re-load feature/issue is a problem. I keep notes in EN about jobs I'm on, I want to glance at my notes while I'm on the move between locations. If this is a feature it's a deal breaker for me, if it's an issue then I would like to know how to fix it not work around it. It's only been happening for a little while. I want to email EN but I can't seem to login to get access to the help form. .

[gazumped 11,652]

Hi.  Re Support - https://discussion.evernote.com/announcement/72-issues-accessing-evernote-support-channels/

 

[andrewchoflet 4]

Dean - glad to head I’m not the only one with this issue.

Gazumped - I mean no offense, You are being helpful with the best you can. It’s really a performance issue with Evernote on iPhone. 

Ive since deleted and reinstalled the app, restarted device, updated the the newest OS, toggled push notifications, toggled background app refresh, and all with no result. 

 

[CalS 5,280]

Not always, but sometimes the IOS app will freeze when I open the first note.  If I then close the app and reopen it then performs well.  Not the best behavior, but it seems to right itself the second time around.  Would be great if EN would find this gremlin and fix it.

For the record, I have two offline notebooks, Inbox and Quick, both of which together have less than 10 notes.

[tent101010 1]

I experience the same issue as OP running the most current version of the EN desktop app on Windows , Mac OS, and the iOS app. Things were not this way until fairly recently. This issue fits more into the bug category than the works-as-intended-so-deal-with-it category. I really doubt the designers and engineers had a meeting about features where they decided it would be good to interrupt a user inputting data into a note so the note could refresh suddenly and orient back to the top of the note - jarring and irritating != good feature idea. The way things refresh now is objectively worse from a usability standpoint than the way it worked before.

[Charles tauber 5]

I experience the same issue as the OP on an iPhone. It is also a deal breaker for me and might result in my ditching Evernote. With Evernote open and looking at a note, if I switch to a different application then come back to Evernote, Evernote freezes in the note I was reading and reloads the note, reloading the note at the top of the note. This happens regardless of settings and syncing of notes and regardless of whether or not the notes are downloaded onto the iPhone. If I don't find a solution to the issue, I'll discontinue my subscription fees and discontinue using Evernote.

[bounce 74]

The timeout refresh seems to happen faster on iOS than it used to. Before, I could four finger swipe back and forth to and from Evernote, sometimes staying out of EN for five minutes and when I’d swipe back the cursor/carrot would be at the same place in the note. Now, I’m lucky if I’m able  swipe out, copy a line from Safari, then back to Evernote without it refreshing to the top of a note. 

 

[PinkElephant 8,073]

Maybe it falls into the category "collateral damages from debugging" ...

Before iOS-app ver 8.21 (if I remember it correctly, may have been 8.20 as well) the app tended to freeze when left for another app, and coming back. This happened when there was a text search string in the search box.

To solve this, the app cycles through a reset loop when coming back. Thus, the freezing of the app was stopped (it had a lot of postings here in the forum, and the usual "... will go to leave EN if not this or that happens ...").  I think this will cause the new problems now, because the refresh loop probably makes the app look as if restarted, loosing position data etc.

Of course this is just my free thinking about what the new posts here tell.

Suggestion to those here paying for their services: Send them a support ticket ...

[bounce 74]

It’s good to talk here to see if there is a common pattern where this happens. Please contact support too since that’s the only way it will get prioritized. Evernote already knows about this issue so the more people they hear back from, the sooner the bug will get squashed.

Edited July 2, 2019 by bounce
Spelling

[andrewchoflet 4]

1 hour ago, bounce said:

Please contact support too since that the only way it will get prioritized.

Is there a way for free users to submit this as well?

[gazumped 11,652]

1 hour ago, andrewchoflet said:

Is there a way for free users to submit this as well?

https://twitter.com/evernotehelps

[andrewchoflet 4]

1 minute ago, gazumped said:

https://twitter.com/evernotehelps

What if I don't have Twitter 😆

[gazumped 11,652]

Up to you whether you think it worthwhile to acquire an account briefly to deal with this - otherwise it's the Forums only.  

[bounce 74]

Depending on how much the bug affects you day to day it might be worth it to purchase a monthly subscription here. Then cancel after you after you’ve submitted and are done with the support ticket. Affects me every day so that’d be my route if I wasn’t subscribed here. 

[Charles tauber 5]

Thanks for the responses. As a subscriber, I submitted a support ticket. I'll report anything concrete.

[OMNIZEN 86]

On 4/2/2019 at 3:01 AM, andrewchoflet said:

I’ve been using Evernote to take notes between listening to audiobooks, and have gotten to a serious point of frustration.

90% of the time I go back to Evernote to jot down a note it refreshes and I go back up to the top of my note. I then have to scroll down to where I left off (sometimes quite significantly) to continue typing. Sometimes It's so distracting I even forget what I’m typing and have to go back.  Which loops the issue again.

I’ve deactivated background app refresh, and still the same issue persists. I understand Apple is only partly responsible for this, but it’s far more frequent in Evernote then any other app I use.  I’m using an iPhone7+ iOS (12.0.1)

What can be done to stop this refresh issue?
 

This is been true for sometime and I appreciate you spending time to articulate it. I thought it was just me!

It’s not just frustrating for taking notes but I also noticed the same issue when working with reading PDFs.  When I switch the app or jump around, it’s like the app has to restart every time And you have to start over where you left off which can be honestly be frustrating when you’re trying to be productive and have a sense of flow.

[PinkElephant 8,073]

In fact it seems the app does restart every time it is activated again, even when it was all the time Open in the background. Thus it avoids freezing, but as well sets back all user info.

Currently the best workaround seems to be to keep the EN app active in split screen mode.

Probably with iPadOS, the situation will fundamentally change, because it will allow for more multitasking. I doubt that there will be a fix on this before.

[bounce 74]

15 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

Currently the best workaround seems to be to keep the EN app active in split screen mode.

I use it in split view with various apps which works until I leave the app and come back, so that’s not really a tenable workaround. There needs to be a way to keep a note up like there has been for years.

I have an email launcher in the widget section of iOS that appends to specific notes and quickly bringing up this widget pasting/emailing text and coming back crashes Evernote. 

 

[andrewchoflet 4]

8 hours ago, OMNIZEN said:

This is been true for sometime and I appreciate you spending time to articulate it. I thought it was just me!

We're in this together! Reading these has made me also feel like I'm not crazy and alone lol .

Hopefully the EN team can come up with a fix so I can once again authentically call it a productivity app.

[CalS 5,280]

Could be this has something to do with EN's focus on sync timing, remove conflicts whatever.  Easiest way is to just sync when you return to the app.  Which does not help at all if one just exits the app to grab or look at something so as to return to the same spot.  Need a more refined "note updated?" strategy for that to work.

[Matt Blake 2]

I also have this issue and can confirm that it is infuriating. I've had discussions with support about it and they've basically said… it happens, and might get better (or be resolved) in the future. Not an enormous comfort.

I created a forum account just to post this reply. 

I love Evernote on desktop, but the dream of using it as a fast, reliable note-taker on mobile has not been a reality for me for over two years because it always reloads when I swap in and out of other apps, which is very frequent in some of my heaviest usage of the app… such as when taking notes on an audiobook or podcast, just like the OP. 

My ugly workaround is to use a separate app (Byword) for any such note-taking, and then export to Evernote after completing the book/podcast/whatever. I've tried some third party evernote clients on iPhone with a living connection to the database, but they all suck. This is a pain, and means I can't trust Evernote to have everything in it anymore, which is what I always loved about it in the past. I've slowly gone from being an evangelistic user to being a frustrated user (which I've been for over a year now).

It's incredible to me that an app which exists for taking notes fails at such a simple task on mobile as successfully keeping the user's note location in memory, so the user can switch into another app and then switch back without losing their position. (To clarify, if the cursor is active when you switch out, it will USUALLY recover thanks to a recent update, but still must reload and "find" that position again, which is slow and seems odd for even a simple text-only note to do this… and if you're reviewing a long existing evernote and don't have an active cursor, tough luck. You'll lose your position in the document every time.)

This one incredibly annoying problem holds Evernote back from being my ultimate tool.

PLEASE, Evernote. Pay attention to this problem.

[andrewchoflet 4]

On 10/24/2019 at 6:50 PM, Matt Blake said:

I created a forum account just to post this reply...

My ugly workaround is to use a separate app (Byword) for...

Thank you Matt, I did as well... Every iOS update this gets worse for me

I have a similar workaround. I started a Notion account, but have such an archive in EverNote I haven't fully committed to the transition.

[bounce 74]

I’ve bagged on Evernote and complained about it many times as this is getting worse. But to be fair, a big part of it is iOS RAM management. There’s tons of complaints about that being worse in all apps, especially IOS 13 onward. 

Notion is great for some things. Their iOS app is terrible and it needs off-line data and ability to scale well with lots of notes. Now, it gets super slow with many notes. 

Evernote just built out their new beta editor so they can add new features. I give it eight months before I fully choose between the two.
 

 

 

[kjghdslgjdsf 0]

I'm having the same problem , and the support page tells me to submit a ticket but doesn't say how.

[gazumped 11,652]

Hi.  As a Basic user your access is via https://twitter.com/evernotehelps

[Korporal 0]

I have the same problem. Since ages. This makes the app so annoying to use that I am about to cancel my Pro subscription and move to an App called Bear. Might be worth a try for those of you working with Apple devices. Lightweight, fast, support is listening, and has most of what I need. Maybe it helps

[gazumped 11,652]

2 hours ago, Korporal said:

I have the same problem. Since ages. This makes the app so annoying to use that I am about to cancel my Pro subscription and move to an App called Bear. Might be worth a try for those of you working with Apple devices. Lightweight, fast, support is listening, and has most of what I need. Maybe it helps

Hmmn.  Thought I saw the OP saying this is at least partly an Apple issue anyway...  however - good luck! 

It does occur to me a way around this is to save multiple short notes rather than extending a single long one..  new thought = new note.  As long as they are tied together by a common thread,  like the book title as a heading,  the notes can always be merged later into one long note,  sorted by the creation date+time for each note.  Meantime refresh is not an issue.

[PinkElephant 8,073]

Current work around: Leave the note editing status, go back to the basic EN menu. This forces a saving of the note to the apps memory, if syncing directly or not. It may help to put notebooks to "offline" status, although I doubt that it changes the behavior of saving. EN is always saving locally when there is no server connection.

Second work around: Use another editor, store the content as an attachment, or by "select all-copy-paste" plus again closing the edited note in EN.

This is by no means to say that this is perfect, in fact it is far from that. But as mentioned above, part of the problem is OS-sided, part is app-sided, and both worlds (especially the OS-side) has been changed recently by going to iOS 13.x. My hope is that this will be fixed as well when EN takes opportunity from the new OS properties like having 2 windows of the same app open.

[Andrew Mac 2]

Yes i would like to echo my frustration about this issue and I don’t see much practicality in the work arounds. EN this is a major useability issue.

[Tshaka 2]

One of my uses of Evernote is for capturing recipes I find online. Using Evernote as my cookbook is very frustrating because of this issue. Every time my screen locks or en times out I have to search for the recipe again and find my place. VERY FRUSTRATING!

[bounce 74]

Agree, still frustrating and with yesterday’s iOS update (which addresses RAM management) still happening. As a workaround, putting EN split screen I’m now getting freezes if I copy text in any app it’s split screened with.  No other apps I’ve tried freeze when paired and split screened. Please make sure you put in a support ticket so it gets prioritized. 

[J D 9]

On 10/26/2019 at 1:56 PM, bounce said:

I’ve bagged on Evernote and complained about it many times as this is getting worse. But to be fair, a big part of it is iOS RAM management. There’s tons of complaints about that being worse in all apps, especially IOS 13 onward. 
 

 

 

iOS RAM management doesn't cause this. There is plenty of technical information available on how to maintain UX state across task switches. Yes, some coding has to be done. Presumably our subscription fees fund such maintenance.

[J D 9]

On 12/11/2019 at 11:51 AM, Tshaka said:

One of my uses of Evernote is for capturing recipes I find online. Using Evernote as my cookbook is very frustrating because of this issue. Every time my screen locks or en times out I have to search for the recipe again and find my place. VERY FRUSTRATING!

In another thread, someone suggested screen-shotting your recipe before you start cooking, so you don't have to refer to Evernote. I think I'll be using that workaround as well!