App Performance Issues: Slowness/Poor Responsiveness/Lag

OrbWeaver · January 17

14 hours ago, jdmarch said:

Thanks for the info @OrbWeaver. Presumably (and from brief look at its docs) Joplin does not have Evernote's ability to do fuzzy searching in images? For everything else it sounds perfect. And frankly markdown would be a relief after Evernote's stubborn inability, decade after decade, to allow me to reformat text to my needs.

Fuzzy searching? All my stuff is fuzzy. I'm retired remember and my eyesight is getting bad so everything is fuzzy these days. But seriously though, I would have to say their search is not up to Evernote's standards. Searching PDF/Word files is not there, nor is text recognition in images and a search can't be restricted to specific items (eg: search in title only) but Joplin is pretty new. It's still version 1.xx so there's a lot of enhancements possible by the time it gets to version 6.xx. Hopefully they don't follow Evernote and come up with a version 10.xx

BTW For those who like dark themes, Joplin has a few of those that work well even in Windows 7. My old eyes are most grateful for that.

jdmarch · January 17

For the record, my initial impression of 10.6.9 on Mac is that the performance is much improved. No long waits yet (much less freezes).

Time will tell. Still not updating my Windows (primary Evernote) machine.

idoc · January 17

I've invested years in Evernote and intend to keep it so long as it is working and it allows me to use the legacy version that I currently enjoy. In the meanwhile, I am doing frequent downloads of the enex files and have even verified that these work well in the Joplin app. This gives me a Plan B if everything goes south. Overall, I have faith in Evernote even though I'm still a little perplexed at how they could have thought that their new version would replace the legacy one. I've read all of their statements and I understand their thinking and the logic behind it. I also understand that perhaps power users such as myself and many people on this forum are not as important as the potential business from other users. However, it reminds me of the time that I Rock and Roll radio station that I used to listen to (with thousands of others) decided one day to become a Country Western station instead because their data was telling them it was a more popular demographic. Needless to say they lost their entire fan base and were not able to replace it with the prospective new base. Perhaps I'm wrong and that my exacting standards for Evernote are "overkill" but it seems strange to suddenly take away so many features in the name of simplifying across platforms. My hope is that even if it takes them a year to sort all of this out, that we are allowed to keep the legacy version until the new version becomes something that even power users can accept.

OrbWeaver · January 18

9 hours ago, jdmarch said:

For the record, my initial impression of 10.6.9 on Mac is that the performance is much improved. No long waits yet (much less freezes).

Time will tell. Still not updating my Windows (primary Evernote) machine.

It does appear a bit quicker. Thumbnails show up faster and the note gets loaded faster although the latter depends on the connection I imagine. Without an internet connection, loading the note still takes forever (literally.) I can't use it if requires a connection to access my previous notes. It looks very nice and I even tried creating a new entry. I had to quit and go back to v6.25.1 as I couldn't create the new note. I hate having to constantly search for the key combination to do basic tasks. Ctrl-Backspace? Give me a break! And how do I insert the date/time in my system format "2021-01-18 23:45"? Ctrl-Alt-D won't do it.

Pete_I · January 18

I've started using 10.6.9 on Windows 10 and so far, so good. Seems a bit quicker and no error messages. Fingers crossed Evernote have sorted things out.

Rafal108 · January 18

Yes it is bit quicker. Still far from being usable when it comes to lag.

and still the white screen - have to terminate via task manager to run again

celia80302 · January 18

I can't resist the urge to jump in and complain once again. Joined Evernote 2010, I am a Premium member. I am limping along with Legacy on my mostly Mac computers. I say limping along because I am forced to use the new edition of Evernote when I need to drag and drop out of ScanSnap Home software. It won't work with Evernote Legacy and defaults to and opens Evernote 10.

I get the pleasure of waiting FOREVER to move a file from my scanner to Evernote... unless I create a folder, drag and drop from ScanSnap home to it and then drag and drop from that folder to Evernote Legacy. Believe it or not, that is incredibly quicker than waiting on Evernote 10. Oh what sheer Joy. Note that this is not the Evernote Edition Scanner but a Fujitsu scanner nonetheless. I am posting here because it is the lag that is the problem. Moving files remains sooooooo sloooooowwwww.

jdmarch · January 18

Hi @celia80302 For what it's worth, I have scansnap set to dump files into Evernote directly via the cloud (so no drag-drop needed), which has continued to work with legacy. (This scanner was originally Evernote Edition but a year or two ago when EN dropped it, Fujitsu issued a firmware replacement patch, so it now has been converted to a standard Fujitsu ScanSnap.) Now that I think if it, this workflow might depend on the scanner having Wifi capabilities, which mine does.

celia80302 · January 19

You are right but... I like to rename the PDFs' and look for the most efficient way to do it. I also use notebooks and need to distribute the notes to various notebooks. It is super easy in Scansnap Home to rename them and drop them in their respective notebooks-except no more. Scanning directly to Evernote Legacy ScanSnap Manager, cloud dump. if you will, results in that weird glitch in which the renamed PDF reverts back to its former name if the sync isn't "Just so"... Thanks so much for the reply. I guess patience is king in these trying days.

WeCanLearnAnything · January 28

Can someone tell me if the current version of Evernote is reasonably fast and responsive or if I should stick with the legacy version for a while longer?

PinkElephant · January 28

Depends on how much load you will put on the system, and on what sort of machine you execute it.

For me it works sufficiently well - for a lack of some features in v10 I still stick with legacy.

You can run both clients side by side.

ej8899 · January 28

1 hour ago, WeCanLearnAnything said:

Can someone tell me if the current version of Evernote is reasonably fast and responsive or if I should stick with the legacy version for a while longer?

Keep using Legacy if you need performance and the features of Legacy.
v10 is good to play with, but I find it sluggish on most of my machines. I even dumped out 30,000 notes and brought my database down to just short of 50,000 notes - still sluggish - most of my machines are Windows with i7 processors on 8 to 16gb ram and loads of SSD space.

I keep asking if there is anything I can do to help Evernote test performance gains, but don't hear anything back.

v10 is "usable", but performance is a far cry from the Legacy experience - for me anyway - and a lot of others. If you use v10, keep in mind you need enough drive space free on your machine - your ENTIRE Evernote database will download in addition to the drive space Legacy uses for EN data. Yes - two copies of EN data will be on your machine.

TK0047 · January 28

1 hour ago, WeCanLearnAnything said:

Can someone tell me if the current version of Evernote is reasonably fast and responsive or if I should stick with the legacy version for a while longer?

I am trying to use V10 for work and it really is not working out. Even for personal use, the speed (lack of) is really bothersome but since it is personal notes and I mess with them at night or on the weekend, I can be more flexible. But at work, I need the data, reference materials and the search function to be fast and responsive. So 6.25 it is !

With every update, I hope it is faster and way better but it is not even close to the previous version which is becoming more concerning to me for the future of my use of Evernote.

If you value speed and get frustrated with super slow computers or apps, stick to legacy.

idoc · January 28

Not sure if I understand the logic of putting the "Notebook" selection on the top but the tag selection on the bottom. In Legacy Evernote when I adjudicate a note I usually assign tags to it and then select which notebook I want to put it in. That has all happened on the top of the note where the tag and notebook features lie side by side. In the new version they are separated by an entire page. I literally have to select one thing on the top and then the next thing on the bottom. Seems counterintuitive. Am I the only person bothered by this?

CalS · January 29

3 hours ago, idoc said:

Not sure if I understand the logic of putting the "Notebook" selection on the top but the tag selection on the bottom. In Legacy Evernote when I adjudicate a note I usually assign tags to it and then select which notebook I want to put it in. That has all happened on the top of the note where the tag and notebook features lie side by side. In the new version they are separated by an entire page. I literally have to select one thing on the top and then the next thing on the bottom. Seems counterintuitive. Am I the only person bothered by this?

Nope. Aargh!!!

WeCanLearnAnything · January 29

On 1/28/2021 at 1:01 PM, TK0047 said:

...

With every update, I hope it is faster and way better but it is not even close to the previous version which is becoming more concerning to me for the future of my use of Evernote.

If you value speed and get frustrated with super slow computers or apps, stick to legacy.

That's too bad. I basically just need to be able to type quickly and it's weird and sad that Evernote does not offer that experience.

Maybe when V11 or V12 comes out, Evernote will be fast again.

jdmarch · January 29

17 minutes ago, WeCanLearnAnything said:

I basically just need to be able to type quickly and it's weird and sad that Evernote does not offer that experience.

Yeah, right? When a note-taking app can't take notes, does it really matter that it has an "awesome" "home" screen?

Patrick584966382 · February 2

Simple actions - tagging 10 notes, moving notes between folders now takes many minutes to complete, and consumes huge amount of resources. Even typing out text involves considerable lags.

I am actively considering alternatives.

If my database is simply too large (~4.5 GB), then I need an effective system to determine where the dead weight is.

CalS · February 2

2 hours ago, Patrick584966382 said:

Simple actions - tagging 10 notes, moving notes between folders now takes many minutes to complete, and consumes huge amount of resources. Even typing out text involves considerable lags.

I am actively considering alternatives.

If my database is simply too large (~4.5 GB), then I need an effective system to determine where the dead weight is.

I don't think you are alone with the speed issue.

Best alternative I've seen to date in the market is the old version. I'm waiting it out on 6.25.1 until this V10 thing gets sorted or not. If not, I'll see how V10 compares to the market at that time.

jdmarch · February 2

I've been using Evernote for roughly 15 years, and while there have been changes that I liked and changes that I didn't, I've never seen anything like this pervasive collapse of functionality.

Does anyone here know whether the Evernote team is even aware of these performance issues? If they are living in an alternate universe with tiny little test demo databases, they may be happily going on in adding cute fluffy kittens to their feature grid while the foundation rots under their feet.

TK0047 · February 3

18 hours ago, Patrick584966382 said:

Even typing out text involves considerable lags.

This is driving me crazy! Although there has been significant speed improvement compared to the initial release but still the lag with the typing is still there and I don't think that is acceptable with a "note taking" app.

If they cannot get the lag and the speed/performance under control, all the nice things being added (such as the home screen, dark mode etc.) will mean nothing. It is like my car has heated leather seats and can make coffee for me on the way to work but only goes 5mph. Give me the fundamental function first, then make my coffee

FrankC · February 3

On 1/28/2021 at 9:31 PM, idoc said:

Not sure if I understand the logic of putting the "Notebook" selection on the top but the tag selection on the bottom. In Legacy Evernote when I adjudicate a note I usually assign tags to it and then select which notebook I want to put it in. That has all happened on the top of the note where the tag and notebook features lie side by side. In the new version they are separated by an entire page. I literally have to select one thing on the top and then the next thing on the bottom. Seems counterintuitive. Am I the only person bothered by this?

Yes - reported even as far back as the beta version.

Robert Blomstrand · February 15

I feel somewhat overwhelmed with the number of posts on this issue of lagging/hanging since my latest upgrade to 10.7.6 (2321) as it is clearly a big issue and I am not the only person frustrated out of my mind.

I have allowed myself to become totally reliant on Evernote for both work and personal use and there is nothing worse than when you are dictating important conversations with a client and the stupid thing decides to hang.

And then you have to quickly open Notepad instead to frantically take note of what was said and missed out half of this important conversation. You can't keep saying to client (esp. same one) to please hold whilst you try to resolve Evernote. At present this system is becoming more of a liability than an asset.

I am a Plus user with a very decent machine (Intel Core i7, 16GB RAM, 2TB SSD) with decent internet (100Mbps) yet, struggle like this.

I really need an urgent fix or work-around and lack of support is terribly frustrating.

Regards

ArjenC · February 15

@Robert Blomstrand The choices Evernote made have consequences.. The foundation the new Evernote is build on will always be slower than the legacy versions. Maybe the stability will be fixed over time, but the application is new so it comes with bugs... and because Evernote needs (wants) to expand the features due to the competition (that's the priority at this moment, see release notes) the stability will suffer... that's guaranteed.

CalS · February 15

3 hours ago, Robert Blomstrand said:

I really need an urgent fix or work-around and lack of support is terribly frustrating.

Reinstall and use the old version until EN gets this sorted. I am using 6.25 on Windows until this gets better or am forced to move.

TK0047 · February 15

6 hours ago, ArjenC said:

The foundation the new Evernote is build on will always be slower than the legacy versions.

I can accept (to a certain degree) the slower app when switching between notes, or notebooks but when the typing has a lag, that is not acceptable to me. It is a note taking app and I need to be able to type away. Same with tagging, I should be able to tag quickly, instead I type the tag, wait for it, hit enter....wait for it to show up then type the next tag.

I am really hoping the typing lag will go away, I don't think I can live with that though.

WeCanLearnAnything · February 15

10 hours ago, ArjenC said:

@Robert Blomstrand The choices Evernote made have consequences.. The foundation the new Evernote is build on will always be slower than the legacy versions.

How do you know that the new Evernote apps will always be slower than the legacy versions?

10 hours ago, ArjenC said:

@Robert Blomstrand Evernote needs (wants) to expand the features due to the competition (that's the priority at this moment, see release notes) the stability will suffer... that's guaranteed.

On the one hand, @IanSmall recently said the opposite of this. On the other hand, every Evernote CEO and many other employees have been promising and failing to fix these issues for well over a decade. Let's hope this time truly is different.

Are they keeping that promise?

Let's see.

I think we have the answer.

Evernote does not appear to have changed. There are still people there working on embedding YouTube videos instead of making the typing experience tolerable. Employees are still adding features like a home screen instead of ensuring that the program overall isn't a huge resource hog. Evernote is pouring resources into dynamic links with Google Drive files instead of preventing system hang.

The list of new and non-core features is consistently large while core performance issues remain largely unchanged.

From the outside, it still feels like Evernote is focusing on the car's leather interiors and stereo system while the brakes and steering don't work.

Can someone please correct my cynicism if it's out of line? Have there been enormous improvements to the core UX of the new apps that I'm not aware of?

DTLow · February 15

13 minutes ago, WeCanLearnAnything said:

From the outside, it still feels like Evernote is focusing on the car's leather interiors and stereo system while the brakes and steering don't work.

I am seeing serious problems with the Version 10 product
but I know Evernote is rolling out fixes (slowly)

It's a question of priorities
It seems users consider their issues to be higher priority, and Evernote should fix them first; as per your "brakes and steering"
I'm content with letting Evernote set priorities

I'll continue to use the Legacy product until I'm satisfied with Version 10

PinkElephant · February 15

The new clients are build on a framework. This means

User to app interaction is handled by the EN app
App to OS interaction is handled by the framework

In terms of computer performance this will usually ever run slower / consume more resources than native apps. It is like a web site running in a browser window. I think that the excessive use of CPU and RAM reported here is a malfunction, but even when this got fixed, the new client will not be as lean as before.

In terms of company performance this design sets dev resources free to add features and gadgets to the app. Since the changing OSes are handled by the framework, own resources can be spared. If you look at the not even half a year since the first v10 client has been released, you have seen a rollout of a new update every month or so, plus the first really new features added since years.

Compared to this the „old“ native clients had practically reached their end of life, running on too much old code. Even maintenance was stalling, new features were out of reach.

If v10 is the way to the future remains to be seen - the old clients had definitely become a cul de sac.

ArjenC · February 16

9 hours ago, WeCanLearnAnything said:

How do you know that the new Evernote apps will always be slower than the legacy versions?

The new version is build upon the Electron framework, this (an any other framework) will be slower than applications build in native code (for example C++ or C#). But over time (years) devices will be faster, but for now it will be slower (always)...

9 hours ago, WeCanLearnAnything said:

On the one hand, @IanSmall recently said the opposite of this. On the other hand, every Evernote CEO and many other employees have been promising and failing to fix these issues for well over a decade. Let's hope this time truly is different.

I know and as CEO he must believe in his product and team. But in all honesty.... he should be mad as **** that this is the state of the product... I can only guess what went wrong, but product wasn't ready for production and even today it is the current release.

When it was clear that data loss and corruption occurred all red flag signals should pop-up. Stop the migration, analyze what is wrong and try to fix the damage (trust).
Start real customer communication and maybe advice to roll-back...

This was the reason for me to leave after years and years the best note-taking app. Never doubted Evernote with my data, always relied on the professionality and quality of the Evernote decisions. Was I wrong? Apparently I was... don't know what happened, maybe due to competitors like notion that Evernote decide to change they product...we don't know... but v10 in current state isn't the best application out there.

Hope that in the coming months things will turn for the better... 😀

zinoff · February 17

On 2/15/2021 at 10:28 PM, DTLow said:

I'll continue to use the Legacy product until I'm satisfied with Version 10

I wish they had a legacy version for iOS as well, sluggish like v10, crashes continuosly.

Rafal108 · February 17

Oh really? Someone told me that the Mac version works smooth, I though it’s only the windows version problem

celia80302 · February 18

iOS is Apple’s mobile application for iPhone and iPad. Mac computers use the Mac OS software. The wish was for a Legacy for the now sluggish iOS mobile apps on the iPad and iPhone.

The Mac version of Evernote 10 is also a huge problem for anyone desiring speed, efficiency, and reliability.

Sadly, whomever told you Mac software runs smoothly was incorrect.

Kolmir · February 18

On 2/16/2021 at 8:57 AM, ArjenC said:

Hope that in the coming months things will turn for the better... 😀

Unfortunately, this may be a false hope. If you extrapolate what happened during last year, future of EvN doesn't look bright. It's seems that the current team, especially CEO will be unable to deliver something better than this crappy "fast/junk food" version anytime soon.

Therefore this month is my last month as an active/premium EvN user. it's time to say good bye after almost ten years.

jdmarch · February 18

Amazing that we hear nothing from EN here. Maybe they listen on twitter. I just tried:

https://twitter.com/evernote/status/1359585656842948612

celia80302 · February 19

While I remain patient for another 90 days, I too realize that Legacy is not a permanent solution. What would you consider the best replacement for Evernote?

PinkElephant · February 19

There is no "Best".

It all depends on your use cases, which platforms you want covered etc.

With that "best"-question you will get the usual suspects - nothing more than a Google search would deliver as well. Be more specific if you want real advise.

ArjenC · February 19

3 hours ago, celia80302 said:

What would you consider the best replacement for Evernote?

My 2cents:

For note taking: try workflowy. This is a simple (an therefore complex) tool to help you get your notes / ideas ect.. out of your brain. But you must try it for a couple of hours/days to know if it is something you like....

For Webclipping: Notion. Joplin, Onenote

For Data/ File / Document storage: Cloud base storage (onedrive, google drive, dropbox). Look for HIPAA certified if secure cloud storage is important for you.

If you want a Evernote (one stop shop) but then made by some other company: Onenote, Joplin, Obsidian

(or look at Roam.. but I didn't test it my self)

----

Because of the V10 Evernote release I felt the need to rethink my workflow and tools to be productive.
I've switched and after adepting I can say that Evernote V10 was a game changer, but not as I had predicted.

More productivity, less irritation. I use more tools, Yes, but sometimes more is more... I now use tools that best fits me and my workflow. In the past Evernote "dictated" what I could and couldn't do due to missing features, but I didn't need to change... didn't feel the need...

So in the end, for me, V10 was the best update in years 😁.
(but the last period I wasn't happy with the changes made)

Good luck with finding your best fit setup. Try out new stuff, use it for a couple of days because you need to learn and reprogram yourself.... And know that Evernote application is just a tool to help you, and not the other way around....

s2sailor · February 19

23 hours ago, jdmarch said:

Amazing that we hear nothing from EN here.

Not really. This is a user forum. They may occasionally pop in, but it is rarely used for customer dialog.

celia80302 · Sunday at 10:30 PM

Thanks for the suggestions-and sorry I wasn't more clear. I use Evernote for the bulk of my organizational needs and for record keeping for both business and personal use (quite a lot of web clipping too). I have two Premium Accounts. My workflow is mostly filing and renaming scans and organizing them into notebooks for future use/reference.

For my business, I create training tutorials that are shared in Evernote that include audio and video. We organize social media for the business in Evernote, keeping notebooks at hand that contain core information for pasting to the web site, social media, printers, etc. It has been a great thing up until the new version to have Evernote where "the rubber meets the road", so to speak.

I use Dropbox for some overlapping record keeping and also for sharing with people more familiar with its interface. Adobe Creative Cloud has its own little niche, too.

Evernote spoiled me. Having the ability to search all my notes in the granular way that they provide is not available on the other products I use. To do so very quickly, and then to lose that feature, a key component to my complaints. Lag time is a real bother for me. For those who haven't been using Evernote for very long and not knowing what it was like "before" may think it is fine.

Dragging, dropping, filing, creating hash tags all very quickly within prior versions has kept me very organized and given me noticeably more free time.

So, to replace the tasks and storage needs that Evernote has provided me for so long, I guess I am looking for the thing that the other services I listed don't provide. I will have a hard look at Joplin. Others have mentioned it as well. And, I think you are wise in suggesting spending some time with it.

Thanks so much for your thoughts.

CalS · Monday at 12:45 AM

2 hours ago, celia80302 said:

So, to replace the tasks and storage needs that Evernote has provided me for so long, I guess I am looking for the thing that the other services I listed don't provide. I will have a hard look at Joplin. Others have mentioned it as well. And, I think you are wise in suggesting spending some time with it.

Thanks so much for your thoughts.

Nimbus Note has a similar look and feel to EN. It's search and shortcut/saved search capability falls far short of EN though. Search works but is not as easy to use. I think the product is based upon the same tech as V10 and is much faster than V10, though not as fast as Legendary EN. Nimbus also supports local notebooks.

IAC I am still holding out for an improved V11 of EN. Fingers crossed anyway so as to avoid the work of moving all my stuff.

celia80302 · Monday at 10:36 AM

I continue to be hopeful as well. Legacy version is not likely to be supported for an extended length of time.

it is wise to have options in the event one needs then.

App Performance Issues: Slowness/Poor Responsiveness/Lag

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