Images have disappeared from my notes

[belen.dura 0]

Hello, I have a basic account that I started using to create some notes a couple of weeks ago. The notes I was creating had both text and images. I have been using the Evernote Windows client to create this notes and a couple of days ago it started showing me a message asking me to upgrade my account because I had almost reached my transfer limits. As the application was still working and I was able to create my notes normally I continued to use it without paying attention to the message described.
As I said, everything was working fine until today. The Windows client I was using was outdated and today it prompted me to get updated, I said yes and the newest version got installed. This is when everything started to go south. Once I logged, the notes from two days ago untill this morning where not showing any image,only text, instead a broken image icon is shown.
I have tried to reinstall a previous version of the Windows client, both the new and the old web interface, the mobile app, creating a free trial business account and copy my notes ther, none is working, the images are gone.
Has this happened because I exceeded my monthly upload limit? In that case why did the application allow me to continue creating more notes and pasting new images? I also wonder why the images were being showed until today after updating the Windows app? Is there a cached version of the notes in the HDD? If that's so why are they not showing in the new version? Can I recovery images from there? Would I be able to recover the images if I upgrade my account to premium or are they lost because they did not get sync in the beginning?
I would like to know what has happened here and how can I recover my images back, since they are screen captures that took a lot of work for me to take. I really do not understand how this can happen with an app that is supposed to be used to actually save things...

[gazumped 11,666]

Hi.  You're using a free app that has limitations - only so much data can be saved permanently in any one month.  If you exceed that limit the app will go on working - otherwise you'd be locked out of seeing your existing notes or using the service in any other way - but it does not mean that it can save your work.  If you ignore the warnings,  I'm afraid it means your work was probably lost when the app was replaced by the updated version.

[PinkElephant 8,115]

If you are working on the windows client, there is a local copy of data on your drive. Probably it was there where all the notes were saved that could not sync.

And if you are running a backup of your PC, there is a chance you can recover at least some of the local database from the backup. This should be a backup created on a date before you installed the update, and started the other operations intended to save your data. All data entered after the update will most likely be without picture, I‘m afraid.

If you want to save larger amounts of data in the future without a paid account, you can create local notebooks on your desktop account. They will not save to the EN cloud servers, so no upload limit. But as these notebooks are local, you can not access them from other devices, and you have to make sure yourself to have a backup. I run an automated backup job on my PC every day just saving my EN database. On my Mac TimeMachine takes care of that.

[belen.dura 0]

5 hours ago, PinkElephant said:

If you are working on the windows client, there is a local copy of data on your drive. Probably it was there where all the notes were saved that could not sync.

And if you are running a backup of your PC, there is a chance you can recover at least some of the local database from the backup. This should be a backup created on a date before you installed the update, and started the other operations intended to save your data. All data entered after the update will most likely be without picture, I‘m afraid.

If you want to save larger amounts of data in the future without a paid account, you can create local notebooks on your desktop account. They will not save to the EN cloud servers, so no upload limit. But as these notebooks are local, you can not access them from other devices, and you have to make sure yourself to have a backup. I run an automated backup job on my PC every day just saving my EN database. On my Mac TimeMachine takes care of that.

Hello, thanks for your answer,

I understand from your post that the only way to recover something is if I have a local backup of the database previous the installation of the new client?

I mean, prior to the installation of this new client, the same day, while using the previous version, the notes were showing the images. That this means that the installation wiped out my local database and synced it with what is in the cloud removing the images?  Because if that's so I think this is a terrible mistake by EN software, it makes no sense to overwrite the local files if they are a newer, and what is worst, when they know they have not being synced because of the upload limit...

[PinkElephant 8,115]

I am not sure of this - since I started directly with a Premium Account, I have no experience with a Basic account, and what happens if you update the client. And I do not know how new notes are treated when the upload limit is exceeded.

It is just a fact that the desktop clients for windows and Mac keep a local database on the machine itself. The cloud server will have the lead copy of the data, but many operations are executed on the local client. So if Sync is off, you will see what your local copy holds as long as you are on the desktop client. Mobiles and the Web client will show what is on the cloud server.

So if you say things got bad from the moment you updated, it seems that the update forced a sync, turning copies that were local (with pictures) into synced copies (without pictures) somehow. Since EN is first and dominating a cloud based service, this would make sense, even if you regard it as a mistake. It regards the cloud copy as Master, all the others are slave copies, to be updated from the cloud. But again, I am assuming this - assuming is not knowing.

If you want notes not to be synced, you are free to put them into Notebooks defined as „local“. They will not sync, but this means as well the only copy is the one on your desktop disk drive. Thus if you do not have a backup, this is it if the local disk goes bad.

With synced notebooks, the copy is safely put away on the cloud server. So you have at least one copy somewhere else when your house burns to the ground, with your computer right in there.

Conclusion: You can have your own copies in any amount stored in EN, but not synced, or you can have the comfort and security of the cloud synced notes. If you exceed the upload limit, you can have this only when paying for it.

The guys at EN have to put something into their fridge as well, so I think it is fair they expect a payment when using the service to some extend.

[belen.dura 0]

Of course they deserve to put something in their fridge  I was just trying to determine what happened because it was really weird for me to see almost all the images gone after updating the client.

I understand that it is a cloud based service but I don't think it is an advisable think to do to overwrite the local copy with the cloud one when the local is newer or tagged unsynced, at least they should alert you if you want to do it before.

This is just my opinion as user and maybe is useful to someone, I am not trying to start a discussion here, if they think that is the best way to do it for them it's ok.

I thank you for the time you have taken to try to throw some light into this.

[PinkElephant 8,115]

I agree that it is not good practice to overwrite local data.

When I read your posting correctly, it was not done as long as the system was running unchanged. Just when updating, things went wrong.

This is why I assume that during update, something happened to the data base, being synced or not. One reason can be that the update did not only include program code, but maybe a change of the data structure as well. Then the database must be updated, because the new program will not run on an old database.

This is just wild guessing, but could explain why the database was set back to the server version during updating.

 

In general and away from this issue: Think about creating regular, frequent backups. There are many things that can go wrong, and data that exists only on one device is easily wiped out by desaster or accident or malfunction. There is inexpensive or even free software to do the job, or you go to a cloud based service that needs an internet connection, but will not need an external drive.

From what I know, currently Backblaze is probably the best service in a price-Performance ratio, because they sell a full, permanent backup of 1 computer (no Storage size limit !) to cloud server for 5$ a month. This includes versioning, so you can even go back in time if the last version created won’t do.

1st rule you learn in any IT-course: No backup, no mercy.

[ExGingi 0]

I have a similar issue. I saved a certain image in a note. When I search on my iPhone for that note in the Evernote app, I see the note in the search results with part of the image, but when I click on that specific note, there is no image in the note. When I use a browser to log into Evernote.com the image doesn't appear at all, not even in the search results.

[Stuhrer 253]

I once had a similar issue. I added a picture to a note on my Mac and did not see it some time later. Then I realized that I actually added a link to a picture and not a copy of it. Could this be somehow the reason for your problem?

[PinkElephant 8,115]

The image you see on the iPhone in the search results is a preview, much smaller in size. If you see it (and not a placeholder), it means the image had reached the EN server and was processed there. This is good, at least good to know.

The picture in the note should show on your clients. On the iPhone there is no local database containing the note. Depending on your internet connection and the pictures size, download may take a short while after you opened the note. Maybe you have to click on the picture symbol in the note, if there is any ...

On the web client, switch to the „classical editor“ if notes or content are not shown. The button is on the bottom right of the web clients screen.

[lisec 283]

It just happened to me (again).  About 20 minutes ago I created a note and pasted 3 screenshots from clipboard (I use another program set to both save my screenshots to a folder and also to clipboard - I paste directly into Evernote).  Less than 5 minutes later the three screenshots were gone. They weren't on the web version of the note either.  The last time this happened to me was about 6 months ago or more, and after much troubleshooting I figured out that it was due to my using the "new" web version. When I changed back to using the 'old' version, I didn't see this issue. Until now.  

 

Edit... I just refreshed my web browser with the open note, and am getting the "refresh circles", so the page *knows* there's something going on.  A sync in Windows version does nothing - still no pictures.  This is the web version where the blue marks are part of the rotating 'refresh' circles:

[gazumped 11,666]

Sad to advise that I just joined the party - added 6 images to a note,  then went back a few minutes later to add another. The note was empty. The Status bar still said '6 images' for a while, then Evernote locked up and when I got access back 20 seconds later it then said 'Characters:4'.  Botheration.  No great harm done - I can re-add the images as this is a new note. 

Maybe this is a sync issue?  I may have interrupted the note trying to upload about 20MB of data by trying to add some more...

[PinkElephant 8,115]

Hope it was just the latest batch of grumpy cat pics clipped from the internet 🥳

Since we can learn from our participation in this forum, I now always try to hit the sync wheel before leaving a note when I feel that this should be saved for sure. Never lost anything, but I had problems to make the renaming of pdf attachments stick. They came out with the old name in too many cases. 

So it is one more click, if I do not forget.

[lisec 283]

9 hours ago, PinkElephant said:

Hope it was just the latest batch of grumpy cat pics clipped from the internet 🥳

Since we can learn from our participation in this forum, I now always try to hit the sync wheel before leaving a note when I feel that this should be saved for sure. Never lost anything, but I had problems to make the renaming of pdf attachments stick. They came out with the old name in too many cases. 

So it is one more click, if I do not forget.

PinkElephant, yeah, you are right. You *have* to sync after posting each image just in case. Images don't disappear all the time, but if you can't trust it, well you basically have to sync every single time.  It's a fairly important bug if you ask me, especially if you come back later to discover your work is gone!  (I use Evernote for bug testing at work, and my notes are filled with pictures - dialog boxes I saw, etc) and oftentimes I can't get them back without reproducing all the how-to steps I was documenting, especially errors and bugs!  

[PinkElephant 8,115]

Yes, it is a workaround, nothing more.

[User Sydney 0]

Hi, my images won't appear when I scan to Evernote.

Intermittent issue, iMac 2017, using the app not the browser

To fix it, I log out of the app on my iMac and log back in.

For me this makes it very slow to keep records this way... I need to tag, label etc in Evernote.

Is this a known bug/issue?