"The note is read only it was created in another app"

[Him over there 0]

I switched phones and now it won't allow me to edit ANY of my old notes. And copy and pasting them is not an option because I have waaaay too many notes to want to go through that

 

ANY SUGGESTIONS??

[gazumped 11,652]

Hi.  Uninstall and reinstall the app?  As a matter of interest how did you move your notes to this new device?

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,937]

Hi, @Him over there, and welcome to the forums. The message in your subject line is usually associated with a particular, and particularly aggravating, bug that has been reported for exactly a year now: https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/120419-incomprehensible-note-locks/. Take a look at that thread and see if that is what you're experiencing.

There are workarounds, but they are generally for just one or a small number of notes. This is the first report I've seen in which all of one's notes were getting this flag. If you can access your notes on a non-Android device (Windows or Mac Evernote desktop program, Web client on any computer, etc.), you can try this:

1. Duplicate one note (using the menu, not just copy and paste)
2. Make any edit to it
3. Sync on that device and then on your Android phone, and see if that edit syncs to the phone

At present, this is the best workaround, though it eventually requires deleting notes and emptying the Trash in Android (see this post in the above-referenced forum thread). For a large number of notes, it would be a pain in the neck, and a number of places below the neck as well.

This bug is known to Evernote, and they are investigating it, but it seems to be extraordinarily difficult to track down and fix (see some of the reports from EN support in that thread). With such a large number of notes all refusing to sync, it might be worth subscribing to Premium for just one month (you can drop back to Basic afterward) in order to get access to support. But honestly I'm not sure there's much they can do for you in this situation.

Sorry to be so grim! Any more info you can supply may let some of us here offer suggestions.

 

[SM@EN 4]

On 6/22/2020 at 1:21 PM, Dave-in-Decatur said:

..., it might be worth subscribing to Premium for just one month (you can drop back to Basic afterward) in order to get access to support. But honestly I'm not sure there's much they can do for you in this situation.

Don't bother.  I am a Premium user.  All I got from Tech Support was "we are aware of the issue.  we hope to resolve in next release. sorry for inconvenience. "  The issue has gotten really annoying because it will allow me to edit some previously-not-locked notes but then locks the notes when I try to save the changes.  So I have notes (with changes) on my phone that I can't access/backup in Windows. 

[gazumped 11,652]

1 hour ago, SM@EN said:

So I have notes (with changes) on my phone that I can't access/backup in Windows.

Hi. Can you see these notes as titles in your 'All Notes' listing?  As a pure (and completely untested) suggestion,  is it possible to export the notes to an ENEX file and re-import them into Evernote Windows?  (Use a couple of notes for a test before attacking all of them!)

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,937]

13 hours ago, SM@EN said:

Don't bother.  I am a Premium user.  All I got from Tech Support was "we are aware of the issue.  we hope to resolve in next release. sorry for inconvenience. "  The issue has gotten really annoying because it will allow me to edit some previously-not-locked notes but then locks the notes when I try to save the changes.  So I have notes (with changes) on my phone that I can't access/backup in Windows. 

Please do look at the thread, and the specific post, that I referred to earlier. Assuming you can have access to your Android device and Windows desktop at the same time, you can follow the steps there. They do require manually duplicating the unsynced information in fresh notes in the Windows program, but in the end you can get notes that sync again. I've had to do it with several notes, and while time-consuming, it does get the job done. One way to simplify it is to create a note in Android that contains the unsynced information from the problem notes. IF that note will sync to Windows, it will make it easier to do the manual updating.

[SM@EN 4]

Back again...  All of the notes with the sync issues have dates in the body of the note.  I tried replicating the error with notes that do not have dates in the body but so far have not been able to get the error for those notes--granted I only tested a couple notes.  It may be coincidental but it seems this started happening for me around the time I started getting prompted by EN to allow permission to my calendar and to "Make smart notes wirh my calendar and location."  I deny.  Is this a coincidence?   Anyone else observing these two things:  (1) locked notes have dates in body and (2) issues started when EN started wanting to make 'smart' notes using calendar/location?

[gazumped 11,652]

2 hours ago, SM@EN said:

Anyone else observing these

Have you contacted Support on this?  They may have other reports and your further data may help identify an issue.

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,937]

2 hours ago, SM@EN said:

Back again...  All of the notes with the sync issues have dates in the body of the note.  I tried replicating the error with notes that do not have dates in the body but so far have not been able to get the error for those notes--granted I only tested a couple notes.  It may be coincidental but it seems this started happening for me around the time I started getting prompted by EN to allow permission to my calendar and to "Make smart notes wirh my calendar and location."  I deny.  Is this a coincidence?   Anyone else observing these two things:  (1) locked notes have dates in body and (2) issues started when EN started wanting to make 'smart' notes using calendar/location?

Some of my notes that refused to sync have dates in, some don't. I don't recall getting that request from Evernote, but I probably would have denied it too.

[McVitas 24]

I have the same friking problem! Although I didn't change a phone and it seems it happens to older notes and every now and then I stumble upon new one which I want to edit and then this happens! I have dozens of notes which are now probably on my phone only and there is some different version without last edits in the cloud. What a frikin mess! I have been using Evernote for many years now but this bug really makes me consider going back to OneNote which I didn't like because of slow werb interface! I am happy I didn't pay for this never ending beta version of an app!

I have never had a good experience with EverNote support,  but still I am willing to cooperate if anyone from devs wants some help dealing with this bug. Feel free to contact me

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,937]

@McVitas, the developers generally don't read these forums; some Evernote staff do, and they may pass suggestions along to the devs.

Please see my post above:

In that post I linked to another thread which seems to be about the same problem. Assuming that it is, there are also reports of interaction with Evernote support in that other thread: as of March 4, "the issue reported has been incredibly difficult for us to pinpoint. It's currently our number one issue on Android and continues to be our main ticket driver on my end and I assure you our development team continues to work on pinpointing the cause."

There's also a workaround that is tedious, but functions; I also linked directly to it in that post.

[Piyush Raj 0]

I have the same problem. Just clear-data the app and allow the app to sync well next time you login.

[SM@EN 4]

On 8/23/2020 at 12:17 PM, Piyush Raj said:

I have the same problem. Just clear-data the app and allow the app to sync well next time you login.

If I clear data, what would happen to all the changes that haven't uploaded because of this issue?   Wouldn't I lose all that data.  I'm not talking two notes by the way--it's dozens...

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,937]

17 hours ago, SM@EN said:

If I clear data, what would happen to all the changes that haven't uploaded because of this issue?   Wouldn't I lose all that data.  I'm not talking two notes by the way--it's dozens...

Please see my post above:

In that post I linked to another thread which seems to be about the same problem, and which includes a workaround that is tedious, but functions; I also linked directly to it in that post.

[SM@EN 4]

@Dave-in-Decatur:  Thanks!  Seems I may have violated the rules of engagement by posting about the same issue in multiple threads.  So I will stick to one thread--the other one.

[McVitas 24]

seems like this was finally fixed! Am I right?