Jump to content

Text disappears almost as soon as I type it


Recommended Posts

I've been using Evernote for years. I don't love the new update but I'm getting used to it and I'm hopeful they'll continue to work out the many bugs. But this morning, a serious problem popped up: I created a new note, gave it a title, started to type text in the body ... and the title went blank. All that was there was the grayed-out word "Title." I retyped the title, and a few seconds later it disappeared again. Then the text I had typed in the body of the note disappeared as well. I have tried to retype the title and body text repeatedly, and am left with nothing but a blank, untitled note. I tried quitting the app and restarting, and that didn't help. From looking at the archives, it seems that some people had this problem, or something similar, a year ago. Is there a fix? Evernote is essentially unusable and useless to me now, until I can trust that the notes I create will actually be preserved. 

Link to comment
  • Level 5

@Tina HayThank you for reaching out!

Are you able to actively reproduce this issue? If yes, can you send a screen recording?

Was the note that you created in your default notebook? Was is in a shared notebook?

Let me know as this will better enable me to determine how best to proceed.

Link to comment

No, it ended up happening to only one note that I created. Later that day I was able to create other notes successfully, so Evernote has since returned to normal for me. It was not created in my default notebook, nor was it in a shared notebook. I'll let you all know if it happens again. Thanks.

Link to comment
  • 5 months later...

I've occasionally had note text disappear on me. Sometimes the Title of a note, or the entire note and title will be gone.

SCENARIO #1 — What seems to be happening most commonly is the following: (1) New note is created and modified using the Evernote software. (2) That new note gets pushed to the Evernote cloud server, in real-time, as it is being typed or perhaps in moments when the typing stops. (3) That note gets pushed from the Evernote cloud to other devices that are actively synchronizing with the Evernote cloud. (4) Text continues to be added to the note. (5) The initial partial version of the note that was pushed out to the other synchronized devices gets pushed back to the Evernote cloud and at that moment is considered to be a more current version, so it overwrites any additional text that was added. The previous version replaces the newer version. Before your eyes, the title of a note is reduced to just the first word. Perhaps it's an issue relating to a computer that does not have the correct time, so the update time code is incorrect.

SCENARIO #2 — Yesterday I was typing a note on an iOS device. The local WiFi was having problems. When I fixed the WiFi and Evernote began synchronizing, a very long note that I had typed completely disappeared. It was nowhere to be found. It was not in trash. Something caused it to vanish. It's as if there is no reliable secure safe locally stored version of the note.

SCENARIO #3 — For seemingly no reason at all, there can be two or more copies of a recently created note. This is not the result of switching between devices. This can happen even when one is, at the moment, just working on one device. It seems to be related to a similar synchronization issue where the cloud and device misinterprets which note is most current. Sometimes the duplicates are identified and a notification shows up. Other times, there will just be extra copies of notes at various stages.

SCENARIO #4 — Here's something that has been happening recently that may relate to the above synchronization issues, or offer an insight into factors influencing this issue. The Preview Tiles that show up on the home page and in Notebook listings usually show the initial text of a note. However, for recently created notes, it's common for the preview excerpt not to show and only the note Title shows. This continues even after sync, exit, and starting the software again. I'm currently looking at a note created 10 minutes ago and its excerpt does not show up in the preview tile. This seems to be an issue isolated to the macOS version of the Evernote app. The iOS app shows text in the preview tile, although only one and a half words show.  

SCENARIO #5 — I thought I'd add one more item here that could be related. When I'm on my Windows or Apple computer running the Evernote software, or using the web interface, there is a synchronization that happens when closing the software or leaving the web interface. However, in iOS, when apps like Evernote are swiped up and off the screen, it seems like they are abruptly closed out without shutting down properly. In other words, the synchronization that might normally happen at shutdown doesn't happen in iOS. I try to remember to force a synchronization before closing out, but if I forget to do that, and have been working on a note, it could be lost if the sync hasn't happened yet. Is this correct?

All of these issues make one have less trust in the reliability of the Evernote system for important notes. These problems don't happen frequently, but when they do happen it is disruptive. Something I've tried as a way to reduce these issues is to not have Evernote running on more than one device at a time. I have also tried using only the web version of Evernote, but often get a message stating "you have unsynchronized versions of your notes" even after returning to the Home Screen. So it seems the web version works like an app, but doesn't push as quickly as it should. I've also tried using the software, enabling the option to have downloaded copies of all notes in a particular notebook, thinking this would improve the local copy of notes. Because the problem is intermittent, it is difficult to identify what seems to help reduce these issues. Any help or insights would be greatly appreciated. I would be happy to work with your product engineers and user interface team to assist with these problems. Thanks.

Edited by resourcesforlife
Added Scenario #5 to the list.
Link to comment
  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

Also have been using Evernote for many-many years. Hate new updates, but continue to use EN as a lot of notes/folders are there. 

Today I faced the same issue - created a note, wrote 20-30 lines of text. Then switched to other notes. Returned to the initial one, clicked the note and all lines of text except the first 2 disappeared. Undo does not work, for EN it's as if there were no other lines before. Very disturbing. 

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...