Restore "save to contacts" for business card scanning

[jeanmiele 32]

BUSINESS CARD SCANNING

I can no longer find a way to export "scanned" business cards from Evernote to my contacts. This used to be possible. Is it still possible? Is there a way to export "scanned" (photographed and ocr'd in Evernote) business cards to my contacts in iOS? If not, this is a huge loss, and makes entering business cards into Evernote all but pointless. Evernote is not, and will never be the primary way I manage contacts.

[Phargraves2 5]

Business Card to Contacts!!  This is a HUGE issue for me.  Is there any news when this will be restored?  EVERNOTE are you listening?     I have been a big user for 6 years and now I considering One Note  

[darioangelo 26]

Agree @jeanmieleand @Phargraves2, I miss this once great EN feature which also had a cool integration with LinkedIn. The only work around that I have found is to use Scannable which recognises business card scans and sends data to contacts and saves the card scan to a EN notebook.

[darioangelo 26]

The simple workaround is to use Scannable to scan the business card to EN and automatically export the details to your Contacts app.

I am trying the new flexibits (makers of Fantastical) Cardhop a contacts data base and which has just rolled out Cardhop 2 with a business  card and letterhead scanning feature.

The previous EN business card scanning feature also integrated it with LinkedIn which made it a very powerful feature; following a meeting to scan a business card once and; 1.  digitise it into Evernote;  2. extract it’s details and export them into contacts, and; 3. invite the person to join your LinkedIn network.

I am of the view that we have lost many invaluable features which made the old EN a powerhouse, I am finding that I am adding other smart apps to my workflow to make up for EN’s deficiencies and lost features. 

[Jintokyo 1]

This is the only reason I have a Premium account.  If it isn’t working I’ll stop paying.  

[jfonger 9]

Agree with everyone above. Evernote is a "Contact Portal' to send contacts to the iPhone which then ports to Google Contacts and other primary managers like Outlook Contacts. We don't want to have or use any other applications for Contacts - we have all the capability we need - just need to get Evernote for iOS back to where it was before where it would "Send to Contacts". Please get this working ASAP - you will start losing us as subscribers if we cannot accomplish this basic function. 

[Sri Nathan 4]

On 11/28/2020 at 7:19 PM, Phargraves2 said:

Business Card to Contacts!!  This is a HUGE issue for me.  Is there any news when this will be restored?  EVERNOTE are you listening?     I have been a big user for 6 years and now I considering One Note  

This was the last straw for me. This is not the first time Evernote removed features as you upgrade to a newer version! And they never respond to your comments/questions - so no point complaining. It took couple of hours to migrate to Apple Notes - I didn't think I could do it as I have 2000+ notes spread over 100+ folders but I did it! And I canceled my subscriptions after 7 years of using it.

Good Luck to all, to successfully move to another platform (I can do everything in Apple Notes that I was doing in Evernote) - zero reason to pay subscription to a company that is poorly run.

[PinkElephant 8,103]

Before the relaunch there were 5 different apps, and they all were different. There was no standard to which you can refer. The EN management decided to start with an empty sheet, and build the new editor first. Then core functions were added. This was the situation when the app launched in autumn 2020. Since then we got roughly 50 releases, adding functions. They quite obviously worked down a long backlog. Nearly all functions were rolled out for all clients (if possible), which means that they did not make use of the abilities of a single OS.

This may explain why there is no interface to a contacts app specific to iOS (or Apple devices).

If I look at the number of upvotes for this feature request, it doesn’t seem to be a pressing issue for the vast majority of users.

[robfol 43]

So disappointed with this update!

[AlecD 1]

Agreed.

What the hell.

This feels like this recent version was rushed to a release with many details omitted. Good find on using Scannable to recover until this mess can be corrected.

[ChuckMintz 0]

I just spent quality time trying to get a new Evernote contact into my iOS or OS X address book. Apparently you no longer can?

[ppk115 0]

EVERNOTE ARE YOU LISTENING! YOU ARE AGITATING MY GARDEN VARIETY OF MANIAS AND OCD!!!!!! W

Please restore the save to contacts function immediately. Or at least provide updates on what is being done to address in the meantime.

Sincerely, 

Concerned iOS user who pays for premium every month like a chump

[patjdixon 0]

I guess I just discovered I am not the only one.  I know this used to work and thought I must have done something wrong, but apparently you are saying this extremely important feature was deliberately removed?  If I am unable to photo business cards and sync with Apple Contacts through iCloud, the value of Evernote significantly diminishes.

[patjdixon 0]

I tried Scannable.  

The good part is that it is free and scans some business cards.  It can sync with Contacts on my iPhone

The downside is that it is very slow, it does a much worse job of recognizing business cards than the prior version of Evernote that supported this feature, and get the sync to work in rather non-intuitive.  I guess it is better than nothing, but it is a downgrade

[PinkElephant 8,103]

Don’t double post !

[Leo Greve 0]

Is this really removed ???  This is one of the most important functions !  Indeed I will cancel premium for this. Has anybody found a way or has Evernote reacted ? 

[PinkElephant 8,103]

No automation, you can try to manually copy information to contacts.

No comment from EN (they rarely comment on anything like this).

Personally I run another app (CamCard)that is better up to the task. However they switched to a subscription model lately, so after the first 500 cards it becomes expensive.

[fallera77 1]

It's done, I have canceled my Evernote subscription.
Saving scanned business cards to the address book was a mandatory feature.

[maddy23 1]

Please restart feature!

[joshuastree 0]

WTF!  They removed business card imports?!  First it was removal of geotagged notes, now this?!?!

[PinkElephant 8,103]

No, they didn’t remove business card import. Before getting emotional you should simply try it yourself - it is better for your blood pressure, you know. 

Business cards can be scanned, saved and (when I tried this last) name, phone and email were extracted and placed in fields.

What is not working is the export from the EN  note with the card to the contacts app. When it will be restored is not clear.

Personally I never liked that automatic export - first it bloats the contacts book, second it moves mistakes as much as content. But for those who want it, you probably need to try other solutions.

[Phargraves2 5]

Pink Elephant, you are WRONG!  He complained that EN is not allowing the export of the business card into my contacts.  You are making excuses for EN This is a function I use constantly.,  It no longer works!  If you don't want to save contacts because of BLOAT that is YOUR opinion.  Others share my concern that this is not working.    Evernote is NOT a contact database.  I hope in due time they correct it.  Have a GREAT Day!!   

[PinkElephant 8,103]

@darioangelo Just to set the timeline: The LinkedIn connection was given up years ago, way before the switch to v10. AFAIK it was canceled by LI, probably after they were taken over by Microsoft.

[darioangelo 26]

@PinkElephant agree - however, it exemplified a time when EN was at the leading edge. I am a big supporter of EN but find that it has now evolved to being just a convenient bulk store and retrieval system. You cannot - as far as I can determine effectively annotate a PDF within the app- the Skitch type features are too simplistic-so I end up exporting a PDF to another app like PDF Expert or GoodNotes 5 and then re-importing it back in? 

[PinkElephant 8,103]

There is still a lot to add to v10 - one reason I use a mix of legacy and v10.

[Barry Graham 64]

This is one of many issues with this feature. I took a break from scanning business cards for reasons beyond my control and I am horrified at what is now available for us compared with what was possible to do:

• Top of the list - the one you mentioned, that there is no way to add to contacts
• There is no way to edit the fields in a contact once scanned (and I can't really see the point of having a separate contacts app in Evernote)
• There is no longer a way to specify a default notebook for business cards
• You cannot easy connect with LinkedIn (I know this was taken away a while ago)

The ability to connect with LinkedIn and the ability to save to contacts were the main reasons that I upgraded to Premium and now, with these features gone, Premium is less and less attractive

Please bring all of these back but especially the one in the title.

[Woody Collins 0]

EVERNOTE when are you going to fix Business Card Scanning problems?

[bsm007 2]

Scanning business cards with auto import into Contacts along with the LinkedIn function is the only reason I was paying for a premium subscription. I never received any message from Evernote that either of these features were deprecated.  I am going to cancel my subscription if this is no longer in place.

[PinkElephant 8,103]

Then go ahead with canceling, but you are late to the party !

The LinkedIn interface was removed years ago, I think from the LI side after Microsoft bought them. If it was a privacy issue, or MS just wanted to close the doors to others I don’t know.

The scanning into contacts was removed (if I am not mistaken) when v10 was released for iOS about 10 months ago.

If it was important for you, put your money elsewhere. I use the app CamCard to grab business cards, and send them to Contacts on the iPhone.

[bsm007 2]

@PinkElephant Haven't been scanning much in the last year+ due to pandemic. I'm probably not the only 'late to the party'. 

[PinkElephant 8,103]

True, we all had a different life.

I tried EN for the business card scanning years ago. It did not extract a lot of information, and it was not sensitive to different countries. Business cards are pretty country specific, and a good app knows for example how ZIP codes, phone numbers and so on look around the world. So when I had a stack of cards (after a conference or trade fair), I grouped them by country, set the app to the first country, scanned them, the next country, scanning again etc. It gave much better recognition rates than running them all with one setting.

If I look at the time needed to correct that sort of stuff, a small extra expense for the scanning is really worth the money.

[SP2 1]

Hi, has this functionality been restored or not... I too am going to quit paying for Evernote if I cannot sync added business cards to my google contacts via Evernote/iphone.

Would be nice EN technical support explain their position on this.

Thanks, SP

[PinkElephant 8,103]

No interface to contacts, up to 10.20 mobile.

If you want an official support statement, issue a support ticket.

[bsm007 2]

I cancelled in July due to this and the revised interface and can no longer create a support ticket. EN has lost a long-time premium customer and advocate in me.

[PinkElephant 8,103]

If you don't need it, stepping down from the subscription is the logical step.

If it was the only reason for a subscription: There are other apps, specialized in business card management, that do this special job better than EN. Any dedicated tool will work better than your Leatherman or Swiss knife ... but only for this one job.

[Pregonda 0]

Can I ask why you have removed this functionality?  First you have removed the link to LinkedIn now you don't save it to Contacts?  I must have this wrong.  Can you please let us know when or if this will be fixed?  It was a major reason for becoming a premium subscriber. 

[PinkElephant 8,103]

You ask at the wrong place. The forum is user2user. Contact support if you want an answer from EN.

Fact check:

The LinkedIn connection was stopped by LI, after LI was acquired by Microsoft.

[Vittal 2]

Hello,  Is there any update on the Biz Card scan feature to be updated directly to Contacts for Android phone?  This was a very useful feature & i am missing it like so many Evernote users.  Need a solution please!  

[PinkElephant 8,103]

No simple solution.

If you need the full data, a dedicated bc scanner does a better job anyhow. 

EN makes the full card searchable, but will only extract name, email and 1 phone. Not enough to feed any CRM or similar.

To ask for contacts export, use the feedback function or issue a support ticket.

[darioangelo 26]

I did the same about four weeks ago. It was difficult after being a power EN user for over eight years. 

My move to apple notes has been smooth and I have a frictionless workflow. Using Airmail which converts emails to pdf’s or copies email link. No more actobatics to simply annotate a pdf or hand write or sketch. Integrates with Things3. 

Using read it later app “Reeder 5” to control the inevitable boarding that EN facilitated with it's automations. 

With 10k plus notes in EN didn't think the move would be so easy. 

[PinkElephant 8,103]

EN has very good export capabilities. One of the reasons to stick with it - the export of many notes apps sucks, creating a lock in situation for the aspiring users.

[PCDavis 0]

Per EN Chat today:

Thank you for waiting. As of now, the feature to automatically save to contact is not yet available on the new Evernote app. This is one of a handful of  features we are still considering. Thanks for letting us know this feature is important to you. I will share this information with our product team.

[PinkElephant 8,103]

And what do you believe did they tell you in this chat ?

"Still considering" is simply a positive sounding way of saying "Sorry, but currently its not even on the backlog list".

So don't build your business plan for your unicorn startup on that feature ...

[Barry Graham 64]

What's frustrating about this is that the feature was there and was taken out.  It's not like we're suggesting a brand new idea.

[PinkElephant 8,103]

„Was taken out“ sounds like „intentionally removed“. V10 is 100% new code. Nothing was removed, it simply was not coded into the new app. The devs can’t reuse the old code neither, the new app uses a different coding platform.

To get it implemented contact to support is the way - the forum is user2user. If enough users rattle at the support gates, maybe it moves a missing feature on the backlog.

[Barry Graham 64]

When a product is completely rewritten and features disappear, the end result is the same - the features have been removed.  I am not being stupid, I understand what you are saying but that doesn't make it OK to do what they did.  Also there are serious performance issues with Evernote, such as syning taking minutes,notes getting duplicated, and many more, so I'm not really sure what the complete rewrite did for us.

[PinkElephant 8,103]

With your logic the new version initially „removed“ all features, since it started with an empty sheet and no code at all.

For the time being you can use a different app to scan into contacts. Many of them are better in filling in the contact information - EN is quite limited, since it only picks name, phone and email to fill in the contact note.

[Barry Graham 64]

It's funny you say that because that's exactly what I felt your logic was saying.