Are notes on Evernote safe?

[flowa90 1]

Just want to make sure. My Evernote account is filled with lots of important notes. Should I make a backup somewhere? Or are my notes completely safe?
How likely is it that some technical issue on Evernotes' side accidentally deletes notes from my account?

[s2sailor 2,181]

17 minutes ago, flowa90 said:

Should I make a backup somewhere?

Yes, you should always make a backup of your data regardless of which application you use.

[flowa90 1]

How do I backup notes that are stored on Evenote's servers? Without copy pasting everything one by one?

[DTLow 5,736]

1 hour ago, flowa90 said:

Just want to make sure. My Evernote account is filled with lots of important notes. Should I make a backup somewhere? Or are my notes completely safe?
How likely is it that some technical issue on Evernotes' side accidentally deletes notes from my account?

imho  My notes are safe from "technical issues on Evernotes' site"; but never say never
           My notes are more in danger from me accidentally deleting content or notes

I can recover lost data from backups

• Evernote has Note History backups
• I have  personal backups

I also use a third party Filterize feature to lock my notes from changes or delete

>>How do I backup notes that are stored on Evenote's servers? Without copy pasting everything one by one?

On Windows/Mac, we select some/all notes; right click, Export

I have weekly full backups and daily incremental backups

[jefito 5,589]

In addition, some folks use the 3rd-party Backuppery application. See 

 

[PinkElephant 8,071]

Some general observations on backup, and then some specific on backing up Evernote:

You have to separate between  synchronization and backup. Synchronisation means the moment you change something on copy A, it will mirror itself to copy B. This means if the modification to A was a mistake, B will not save you. The technology called RAID is such a sync - it will only be effective against physically failing disk drives. When one of the drives in a RAID fails, the data structure will allow to survive this without a loss of data.

Backup means to create a copy of the data at a given moment, and to save this separately. When done repetitively, a string of copies allows to go back in time. So if the modification to A was a mistake, on a backup you can go to the backup, and undo it. If you have a string of backups, often there is an option called versioning which allows to pick which former version should be restated.

Now Evernote: When you use a desktop client (Windows or Mac), you will have a full copy of your Evernote data on your local machine. This is automatically synced to the server copy lying on Evernote’s servers somewhere in the „cloud“ (in fact the servers belong to Google, so they are super-save and professionally managed). This is a sync !

This is not a backup, but it is pretty solid because of one feature called „note history“. When holding a paying account, you can call the history of every note, and go back in time. Even better, this history is done even for BASIC accounts. As long as being BASIC, you can only not access it. So on general, you can live on BASIC, and if one day something’s happens you have to go back to, you can buy a month of PREMIUM, and get access to all the history note data written all the time. So even if it not a backup, it comes close because of note history.

Now to make a backup beside this is simple: You pick a backup software of your choice (be it from Windows or MacOS, or third party) and make a backup. You do not have to make an explicit backup of Evernote data, simply make a full backup of your local disk or disks. Evernote data will be there, among all the other data. Or you are more selective. then you have to localize the Evernote data base on your disk, and backup this. Take the drive away with the backup data, and store it in a safe place. And repeat this often enough to have a still fresh copy of all your data if something goes wrong.

Because there will always be the Evernote copy on the server, this data will already be much safer than all your other data. But because you can back it up with all the rest easily, there is no reason not to do it. For all of your other data, backup is crucial for data security, and should be done on a regular basis. If you do not know how, search for it on the web (3-2-1-rule of Backup), or get local advise.

[flowa90 1]

Are ALL notes automatically, without specific settings, also stored locally on my computer? I was under the impression that they only live online unless I download them (I never looked into this further).

 

[DTLow 5,736]

19 minutes ago, flowa90 said:

Are ALL notes automatically, without specific settings, also stored locally on my computer? I was under the impression that they only live online unless I download them (I never looked into this further).

The master copy of our data is stored on the Evernote servers (except for  Local Notebooks)

By default, Evernote Windows/Mac  maintains a full copy of our data locally

Offline notebooks are an option for Evernote IOS/Android.  I have a full copy on my iPad

[PinkElephant 8,071]

If you are on a Windows desktop / notebook or on a Mac, you have automatically a full copy of your notes locally on your machine. Data structure will differ between windows and Mac, but the copy will be there, including attachments.

If you have declared any notebook to be „Local“, this will even not be synced to the server. This is local-ONLY, which means all local notebooks depend on you for backups.

All others are synced to the server database, so they exist on your machine and on the server. When you change something using the app / program on your computer, the change will first effect your local data, and then be synced to the server database.

With the mobile versions, this is different: Here the data rests on the server, Locally there is only a core data structure with key information and previews. The full note will only load from the server when you ask the app to open it. Exception to this: You can declare notebooks as „offline“, then they will load to your mobile device as well. But still, there has to be a server copy as „parent“.

Finally, the webclient will only work on the server data. So even if you go to Evernote on your windows or Mac computer, if you use the webclient you manipulate your notes directly on the server, leaving the local data untouched. These changes will be synced back to your computer database when you open the app next time.

[cdean70@cox.net 1]

No your data is NOT safe. It appears that Evernote deleted all my data after downgrading to a free plan! I have lost everything and some is not replaceable. DO NOT trust Evernote with your data

 

[PinkElephant 8,071]

It appears that you should make sure what you blur out before you decide to do so.

When downgrading, your data is still where you’ve put it, and it is still accessible. You will only lack some functions like the search, and have a narrow upload limit, because these are functions among others linked to a paying account. Even if you have a large database, EN will keep it on its servers.

More likely is you have created by accident a second account, and are now viewing into the black hole of an account that never contained any data. Maybe you should check your sign on credentials.

[DTLow 5,736]

On 6/17/2019 at 2:50 PM, cdean70@cox.net said:

It appears that Evernote deleted all my data after downgrading to a free plan!

If you're interested in following up, we can work on locating your notes.
Evernote does not delete notes when downgrading your account subscription

[flowa90 1]

I have one more question in this regard:

I used Evernote Web for months before downloading the desktop version. When I installed the desktop version, did it automatically download all the notes that I created online so they're stored on my PC?

[PinkElephant 8,071]

Yes, it should have synced everything. Download is not limited. If you have a lot of stuff and/or a slow web connection, it may take a while.

Just make a check by going offline (turn WiFi off, and/or pull the LAN cable) and pick for some content you know it should be there.

This new sync is as well a method if your desktop data base goes bad somehow: Go offline, uninstall the client, delete all data (or copy to a USB stick), go online, reinstall the client, and it will draw your data from the server again.

Be aware that not synced (not up, not down) will be all notebooks you declare as "local", for example for privacy reasons. For these, you have to find your own backup solution. Easiest way is to backup your whole computer, because this will backup all EN files as well.

Just be aware that whenever you touch a not on the desktop client (even when just changing 1 letter), it will sync the note upwards, counting the complete note size as uploaded data volume. This can nibble away your BASIC upload limit pretty soon. This is different when on the web client, there is no upload limit.

[DTLow 5,736]

4 hours ago, flowa90 said:

I have one more question in this regard:

I used Evernote Web for months before downloading the desktop version. When I installed the desktop version, did it automatically download all the notes that I created online so they're stored on my PC?

Yes, when you login the sync process begins to download your notes

And if you install on a new machine, the same sync download happens