Automating EN backups?

[GiacomoLaw 134]

Hi all,

Anyone know of a tool for Evernote that can automate backups? I have all my school notes on EN, not backed up, so it would be a disaster if I lost them. Evernote seems to have corrupted a few notes from previous years (which I luckily do not need) and I think it would be a good idea to back them up into a less volatile area.

Also, what is the best format to back them up in?

Thanks in advance

[DTLow 5,736]

Evernote has an Note History backup that runs automatically multiple times daily.
Problem: accessed using the note info/detail; so it's not available if the note has been lost.

Automated backups using Evernote's export feature can be run by third party Backupery.  
I use scripting on my Mac.  
- Daily incremental; no deletion
- Weekly full backup; single copy

I store the backup data on a cloud drive (iCloud)

Format (html, enex, database)

- I use the export/.html format, with a separate file for each note.  
  The notes can be read by any web browser app,
  .html is best used for restoring corrupted data of individual notes.

- The export/.enex format is more difficult to work with,
   .enex is more suited for the recovery of mass amounts of notes. 

- A backup of the database folder is also difficult to work with,
  and is also more suited to the recovery of mass amounts of notes.

Warning: Local Notebooks are not backed up on the Evernote servers, and are at risk of being lost.
I have recovery addressed by a backup of the database folder (Mac TimeMachine)

[gazumped 11,658]

I also use Backupery for a daily full backup,  and Macrium Reflect (I'm on Windows 10) for a weekly system backup which includes the Evernote folder.

Notes about Backupery -

1. it can fill up your storage fast.  It will retain backup copies for as long as you'd like,  or forever.  Make sure you have enough disk space! I use 6 generations of daily backup,  because I already have the weekly system backup as cover.
2. related to the above - IMHO it's better to do a full backup each time.  Unless the system has been updated,  to restore incremental backups you'd need to restore the last full backup,  then import the changes from the first incremental backup,  then the second... and so on.  With a full backup you import once.
3. Backupery allows you to choose which notebooks to back up and saves the output in ENEX files,  one per notebook.

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

16 hours ago, GiacomoLaw said:

Anyone know of a tool for Evernote that can automate backups?

In terms of a tool, I'd have to go along with the suggestions by others for Backupery, although I have NOT used it myself.  This is mainly because I'm a Mac user, and don't have the need for a 3rd party tool.

16 hours ago, GiacomoLaw said:

Also, what is the best format to back them up in?

IMO, there is no question that the ENEX format is best for backup, since that is exactly what it is designed for.  HTML is good for use with other apps, but not nearly as good as ENEX for recovering Notes.

Keep this in mind:  Other than Notes in a Local Notebook (NB), all of your Notes are stored in the cloud by Evernote.  So you can download a fresh copy any time you like from the EN Cloud.  So, the only issue is the one you raised: a corrupted Note.

Note Corruption

I suppose a Note could become corrupted, and then upload to Evernote.  But I've never encountered a corrupt Note in my 10+ years of using Evernote, and I now have 20K+ notes.  But it could happen, most likely due to user error, like force-quitting the Evernote app, improper shutdown of your PC/Mac, etc.  And also, from use of Evernote Beta Versions (which I never use).  So it is up to you to decide how risky your  situation is, how much insurance can you afford?

Full vs Incremental Backups

With regards to doing all full backups vs incremental, remember that if you have to do a full restore, then you start with a fresh download from the EN Cloud.  If you have just a few Notes that are lost/corrupt, then you just need to recover the ENEX file that contains the good version of the Note.  You do the recovery to a Local NB, and then move the target Note to its normal sync'd NB.  So I would backup only Notes that have changed since my last backup -- incremental.  For EN Windows, Backupery would seem to be a very good tool for this. 

Use of External Drives

If your Evernote data is very important to you, and you want to keep for many years, then just buy a large, multi-TB external drive -- they are very cheap these days.  Of course, you now have to worry about another problem -- failure of the external drive.  I have addressed this problem by getting an external drive that houses two physical hard drives, and run it in Raid 1 mode -- mirroring.  I am betting that it is very unlikely that both drives will fail at exactly the same time.

More Info

All of this has been discussed many, many times before, ad nauseum.  If you do a forum search on backup, you'll find many hits.  I, and others, addressed this issue extensively a few years ago. See Backing up and restoring Evernote data (Reference article) 

[GiacomoLaw 134]

On 4/7/2019 at 2:54 AM, JMichaelTX said:

In terms of a tool, I'd have to go along with the suggestions by others for Backupery, although I have NOT used it myself.  This is mainly because I'm a Mac user, and don't have the need for a 3rd party tool.

IMO, there is no question that the ENEX format is best for backup, since that is exactly what it is designed for.  HTML is good for use with other apps, but not nearly as good as ENEX for recovering Notes.

Keep this in mind:  Other than Notes in a Local Notebook (NB), all of your Notes are stored in the cloud by Evernote.  So you can download a fresh copy any time you like from the EN Cloud.  So, the only issue is the one you raised: a corrupted Note.

Note Corruption

I suppose a Note could become corrupted, and then upload to Evernote.  But I've never encountered a corrupt Note in my 10+ years of using Evernote, and I now have 20K+ notes.  But it could happen, most likely due to user error, like force-quitting the Evernote app, improper shutdown of your PC/Mac, etc.  And also, from use of Evernote Beta Versions (which I never use).  So it is up to you to decide how risky your  situation is, how much insurance can you afford?

Full vs Incremental Backups

With regards to doing all full backups vs incremental, remember that if you have to do a full restore, then you start with a fresh download from the EN Cloud.  If you have just a few Notes that are lost/corrupt, then you just need to recover the ENEX file that contains the good version of the Note.  You do the recovery to a Local NB, and then move the target Note to its normal sync'd NB.  So I would backup only Notes that have changed since my last backup -- incremental.  For EN Windows, Backupery would seem to be a very good tool for this. 

Use of External Drives

If your Evernote data is very important to you, and you want to keep for many years, then just buy a large, multi-TB external drive -- they are very cheap these days.  Of course, you now have to worry about another problem -- failure of the external drive.  I have addressed this problem by getting an external drive that houses two physical hard drives, and run it in Raid 1 mode -- mirroring.  I am betting that it is very unlikely that both drives will fail at exactly the same time.

More Info

All of this has been discussed many, many times before, ad nauseum.  If you do a forum search on backup, you'll find many hits.  I, and others, addressed this issue extensively a few years ago. See Backing up and restoring Evernote data (Reference article) 

Awesome, thank you very much!