What a joke – Evernote confuses Android and iOS

[Cagger 5]

So I updated/configured my Evernote app on my Samsung S9 today and within a very short time I received this email:

Thanks for adding the new Evernote for iOS 🙏

 

[gazumped 11,652]

?  Did the app work  ?  If so,  someone obviously set up the acknowledgement messages and forgot to change one variable.  Not the worst mistake they've made this year!

😄

[Cagger 5]

I knew you would be in pretty quick to defend them.

[PinkElephant 8,071]

Maybe just a hint to get yourself a good, privacy oriented OS with 5+ years of free, working updates that will not snoop on you on every step you make, and helps to fill the data hoard of Google Inc., earning THEM a ton of money from YOUR data.

But I am sure you did not want to hear this ... 🙉

[Cagger 5]

You're quite wrong. I love it

[PinkElephant 8,071]

If I am right or wrong is another question, but love knows no argument.

So if you are happy with it, no problem with me.

[ehrt74 240]

Strange thing is, I trust Google much more with my data than Apple. Apple knows everything iOS and OS-X users do, tracks them constantly, where they go, which apps they use ... but for some reason Apple gets a pass on this.

Google on the other hand has security baked into their model. A couple of years ago Apple was still transmitting passwords over http and allowing thousands of login requests a second. This sort of amateurism just doesn't happen at Google.

[MrIllustrator 165]

You have got to be joking, You trust data hoover Google over Apple, convince yourself cause anyone who know is just laughing. 
https://www.macworld.co.uk/news/tim-cook-facebook-3799911/

https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/en-ww/

Digital rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation called Facebook’s anti-Apple attack ads “a laughable [attempt] … to distract [users] from its poor track record of anticompetitive behavior and privacy issues” in an article published Friday.

https://www.cultofmac.com/730831/electronic-frontier-foundation-springs-to-apples-defense-in-facebook-spat/?utm_campaign=twitter&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitter

Apple is right and Facebook is wrong. Next step: Android should follow with the same protections. Your move, Google.

and

Jason Cipriani @MrCippy As of today, every Google Home/Alexa device in my home has been disconnected and replaced with HomePod Minis. Five in total, with another full sized HomePod.         21 December     Conversation sent from Twitterrific

Jason Cipriani @MrCippy @jareddipane I used to think the same way. But after I started getting push ads in the Amazon app from random questions my kids were asking Alexa, I was done.     21 December     Conversation sent from Twitterrific

 

[PinkElephant 8,071]

Very simple: Google uses your data to sell them as a service to others. Apple uses your data to improve their own products, and does not share or sell them. These are two very different business models.

Proof for that ?

Simple, just look at the bottom line:

Apple has maybe 20% of the worlds smartphone market, but makes 80% of the profits of all smartphone manufacturers. Why ? Because on the Android side, the profits are channeled into the data business of Google, not into the pockets of the hardware manufacturers. Android is tailored to do that. And the way Google makes profits from it is by tailoring the delivery of advertisements to you, and sell this to the companies who order and pay for the ads.

The only company that is worse from a privacy view is probably Facebook (which includes WhatsApp and Instagram).

This means by no way I am not critical about how Apple set things up - but at least the business model is not build on non-privacy.

[gazumped 11,652]

3 hours ago, Cagger said:

I knew you would be in pretty quick to defend them.

🤣 Defend them?  Defend them?  Evernote are responsible for the most ham-fisted, misjudged and unproductive product "update" of the century,  which is still leaking users all over their competitors.  I wouldn't wish to 'defend' their actions to anyone - just pointing out that in the grand scheme of things,  getting the heading on a welcome email wrong seems like small beer!!

[PinkElephant 8,071]

@gazumped Oh, come on ! Let us defend them for a while !

This Forum currently gets a bit boring, too much „mimimi“ for my feeling, not enough „take that, evil bug“. So let us have a little bar fight over defending the v10-update. Like „it was released by a genius, this is why minor minds don’t understand“ or „strategically the right move, even if it means some losses on the way“. And why losses, you‘ve got your notes in double for free !

While we hassle, maybe the folks at EN HQ get their sh.... together and finally release something that works !

I have imported today some 80 notes from the camera roll on my iPad into the iOS client (10.2), and what can I say: It worked, all of them, even 50 in a row, even pretty fast, no duplicates. So there is hope, I would say.

[betnel 26]

Android App forced update. I contacted EN to try to go back to the 'legacy' android app that worked, was intuitive, & didn't take too much time to load, sort, search. Here is their response:

So we are stuck with the android app that is not quite beta quality and EN made no accommodations to allow us to undo this forced update!

 

Jesh P. (Evernote Help and Learning)

Dec 21, 2020, 2:30 PST

Hello Betnel,

Thank you for contacting Evernote Customer Support.

I apologize for the delay in response. We have been *experiencing a higher-than-normal volume*  of tickets. We are working extended hours and handling tickets in the order they are received. We hope to return to our normal wait period as soon as possible.

I understand that you wanted to * install the previous version of the app* because the new version of the app was slow. I respect your decision.

We actually don't have a way for you to be able to install back the previous version of Evernote for Android. We actually want to be sure that you and other customers are getting the latest features, bug fixes, and security updates.

Let me know if you still have more questions.  

Respectfully,

Jesh P.
Customer Support Representative

 

[betnel 26]

20 hours ago, gazumped said:

🤣 Defend them?  Defend them?  Evernote are responsible for the most ham-fisted, misjudged and unproductive product "update" of the century,  which is still leaking users all over their competitors.  I wouldn't wish to 'defend' their actions to anyone - just pointing out that in the grand scheme of things,  getting the heading on a welcome email wrong seems like small beer!!

Your details say your are working with the 'old' Evernote for Android. Can you tell me where I can get the 'old' android app  to replace the forced update from last week? 

[Cagger 5]

26 minutes ago, betnel said:

Your details say your are working with the 'old' Evernote for Android. Can you tell me where I can get the 'old' android app  to replace the forced update from last week? 

https://help.evernote.com/hc/en-us/articles/360052560314-Install-an-older-version-of-Evernote

[ehrt74 240]

22 hours ago, PinkElephant said:

Very simple: Google uses your data to sell them as a service to others. Apple uses your data to improve their own products, and does not share or sell them. These are two very different business models.

Proof for that ?

Simple, just look at the bottom line:

Apple has maybe 20% of the worlds smartphone market, but makes 80% of the profits of all smartphone manufacturers. Why ? Because on the Android side, the profits are channeled into the data business of Google, not into the pockets of the hardware manufacturers. Android is tailored to do that. And the way Google makes profits from it is by tailoring the delivery of advertisements to you, and sell this to the companies who order and pay for the ads.

The only company that is worse from a privacy view is probably Facebook (which includes WhatsApp and Instagram).

This means by no way I am not critical about how Apple set things up - but at least the business model is not build on non-privacy.

Apple is also in the advertising business. It has a really bad security record. Google does not sell or share any use data. I'm not sure about Apple. 

On the Android side there is this thing called competition, so profits are low. Apple spends billions on advertising every year so that people think they're special.

Google has an immensely good privacy record. It was Apple who had totally broken security so allowing hundreds of celebrity attacks to be hacked, for example.

[ehrt74 240]

22 hours ago, MrIllustrator said:

You have got to be joking, You trust data hoover Google over Apple, convince yourself cause anyone who know is just laughing. 
https://www.macworld.co.uk/news/tim-cook-facebook-3799911/

https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/en-ww/

Apple hoovers more data from iPhone users than Google hoovers from anybody.

[ehrt74 240]

20 hours ago, PinkElephant said:

@gazumped Oh, come on ! Let us defend them for a while !

This Forum currently gets a bit boring, too much „mimimi“ for my feeling, not enough „take that, evil bug“. So let us have a little bar fight over defending the v10-update. Like „it was released by a genius, this is why minor minds don’t understand“ or „strategically the right move, even if it means some losses on the way“. And why losses, you‘ve got your notes in double for free !

While we hassle, maybe the folks at EN HQ get their sh.... together and finally release something that works !

I have imported today some 80 notes from the camera roll on my iPad into the iOS client (10.2), and what can I say: It worked, all of them, even 50 in a row, even pretty fast, no duplicates. So there is hope, I would say.

I'm a big fan of the v10 clients. For me they are feature-rich and quick. Yes, i've found a couple of bugs (the web client has trouble resuming when I open my chromebook and it crashes when I delete a top-level tag). 

The new clients have so many really important features which were lacking before:

1. Tables on Android! This was impossible before
2. tag hierarchy
3. text formatting
4. ability to insert files from google drive
5. support for the entire evernote query language.
6. ability to create templates

etc. etc.

The new clients really are a huge improvement for me. If you use OS X or windows, I don't know, because I don't use either of those OS's.

[gazumped 11,652]

A 'forced' update is more to do with the Play Store than Evernote - you'll need to find the settings in your version of Android to turn off automatic downloads of updates for Evernote.  https://gizmodo.com/keep-specific-android-apps-from-updating-behind-your-ba-1683748216

(Don't just turn off updates for everything!!)

I blocked Evernote updates as soon as v10 came out on desktop,  so I still have my original set-up.  You'd need to re-download the APK and install it without using the play store,  so you need these links... http://cdn1.evernote.com/win6/public/Evernote_6.25.1.9091.exe and https://www.androidauthority.com/how-to-install-apks-31494/

(The install an older version link above is just for desktops)

Darnit - I did this last time I posted the link - that's the Windows version,  not Android.  Bear with me for a minute...!!

As you were:  try this one!! https://evernote.en.uptodown.com/android/download/2259282

[betnel 26]

1 minute ago, ehrt74 said:

I'm a big fan of the v10 clients. For me they are feature-rich and quick. Yes, i've found a couple of bugs (the web client has trouble resuming when I open my chromebook and it crashes when I delete a top-level tag). 

The new clients have so many really important features which were lacking before:

1. Tables on Android! This was impossible before
2. tag hierarchy
3. text formatting
4. ability to insert files from google drive
5. support for the entire evernote query language.
6. ability to create templates

 

What EN client have you been using? Android/Windows has had templates, tables, tags, & formatting in the previous version. It also was fast to load and quick to search... Two things that can't be said about the new Android app.

 

[ehrt74 240]

Just now, betnel said:

What EN client have you been using? Android/Windows has had templates, tables, tags, & formatting in the previous version. It also was fast to load and quick to search... Two things that can't be said about the new Android app.

 

Nope, the android client didn't support tables and had very limited formatting. It also only recently added nested tags, but they were clunky. It was also *for me* slower than the new app, which *for me* is lightening fast.

[gazumped 11,652]

On a general note - I'm aware that all the apps are getting better by the day,  and quite a few people seem to find the new versions an improvement.  It's just that for me,  getting used to new menu positions and changed - and still occasionally missing - features would mess with my workflow.  I'll change to the new versions when I absolutely have to,  or when there are so many positive messages I get really jealous!!

 

[ehrt74 240]

10 minutes ago, gazumped said:

On a general note - I'm aware that all the apps are getting better by the day,  and quite a few people seem to find the new versions an improvement.  It's just that for me,  getting used to new menu positions and changed - and still occasionally missing - features would mess with my workflow.  I'll change to the new versions when I absolutely have to,  or when there are so many positive messages I get really jealous!!

 

Yepp. I find it a bit confusing. Obviously for a lot of people the new apps are really bad. I don't doubt that people in these forums are being honest when they say that they're encountering huge amounts of lag or that notes are being duplicated. It's just that I haven't yet had that happen to me. Possibly I'm just in some way lucky. Maybe there's a bug which is only triggered in a set of quite common circumstances which just doesn't apply to me or to any of the QA testers at Evernote. 

What I find non-productive is the tendency to say that Evernote *knew* the apps had these problems when they were released. There are enough users who don't have problems with the new apps to allow us to be much more charitable. 

Also, the carrot always works better than the stick. When I encounter a bug i'd much rather start my bug report with "Thanks for the new Evernote. In general i'm a big fan. However ..." than "What the **** were you thinking? You deliberately broke stuff for me!!!!1!"

[gazumped 11,652]

1 minute ago, ehrt74 said:

i'd much rather start my bug report

Quite a few folks seem to want to vent rather than explain what device and OS they're using and give a coherent explanation of what went wrong.  Also venting is their first choice rather than spending time with Google (or their search engine of choice) to see who else already found this...

 

[ehrt74 240]

1 minute ago, gazumped said:

Quite a few folks seem to want to vent rather than explain what device and OS they're using and give a coherent explanation of what went wrong.  Also venting is their first choice rather than spending time with Google (or their search engine of choice) to see who else already found this...

 

Yeah, to true.

I can understand it though. I'm in the fortunate position of working for a software company, so I get to work from home and I don't have any children. On a personal level the current pandemic is not particularly bad. Negative: I don't get to see my friends much, positive: I don't need to commute to the office. 

But for parents of young children, or elderly people, or immune compromised or lots more groups the current time seems to be an absolute nightmare. Just as this is the case for a number of people who use Evernote, I'm sure it's the case for a number of people who work at Evernote too. 2 years ago Evernote started on the most ambitious project they'd ever tried. Then a pandemic happened. And racial tension. And political tension. Now a large number of customers are venting loudly. 

It's all totally understandable, and I don't think there's an easy way to lower the temperature. It would however help if we didn't assume ill-will. 

[betnel 26]

37 minutes ago, gazumped said:

A 'forced' update is more to do with the Play Store than Evernote - you'll need to find the settings in your version of Android to turn off automatic downloads of updates for Evernote.  https://gizmodo.com/keep-specific-android-apps-from-updating-behind-your-ba-1683748216

(Don't just turn off updates for everything!!)

I blocked Evernote updates as soon as v10 came out on desktop,  so I still have my original set-up.  You'd need to re-download the APK and install it without using the play store,  so you need these links... http://cdn1.evernote.com/win6/public/Evernote_6.25.1.9091.exe and https://www.androidauthority.com/how-to-install-apks-31494/

(The install an older version link above is just for desktops)

I did find the auto update setting for the app after much messing around in Google - only available through the android app, not on a pc. I have found 2 sites that claim to have the old apk for EN but they both have terrible reputations for malware... Any thoughts on where to find it on a trusted site? 

[gazumped 11,652]

41 minutes ago, betnel said:

Any thoughts on where to find it on a trusted site? 

Sorry,  no - if I download an APK I'll do it via PC and virus-check it first (no idea if that does any good) then pass it on to my Android for installation.  The PC is fairly heavily warded against bad actors.  I suggested this site - https://evernote.en.uptodown.com/android/download/2259282 - which I have used before,  but it's entirely at your own risk....

[tavor 668]

2 hours ago, betnel said:

I did find the auto update setting for the app after much messing around in Google - only available through the android app, not on a pc. I have found 2 sites that claim to have the old apk for EN but they both have terrible reputations for malware... Any thoughts on where to find it on a trusted site? 

I don't understand why EN is forcing their unhappy android users to go to third party sites when EN *obviously* has the older version. I had tagged one of the employees in another thread on this and got crickets.

3 hours ago, betnel said:

Android App forced update. I contacted EN to try to go back to the 'legacy' android app that worked, was intuitive, & didn't take too much time to load, sort, search. Here is their response:

So we are stuck with the android app that is not quite beta quality and EN made no accommodations to allow us to undo this forced update!

 

Jesh P. (Evernote Help and Learning)

Dec 21, 2020, 2:30 PST

Hello Betnel,

Thank you for contacting Evernote Customer Support.

I apologize for the delay in response. We have been *experiencing a higher-than-normal volume*  of tickets. We are working extended hours and handling tickets in the order they are received. We hope to return to our normal wait period as soon as possible.

I understand that you wanted to * install the previous version of the app* because the new version of the app was slow. I respect your decision.

We actually don't have a way for you to be able to install back the previous version of Evernote for Android. We actually want to be sure that you and other customers are getting the latest features, bug fixes, and security updates.

Let me know if you still have more questions.  

Respectfully,

Jesh P.
Customer Support Representative

 

This is obviously nonsense. Of course they have a way for users to install a prior version - just put the prior version apk up on a server and give us a link, just like they did for legacy versions for Windows and Mac.

Even though this doesn't affect me since I never updated to v10 for android, I am more than a little annoyed by EN's response. It's one thing to completely ***** up the release, but it's another to ***** your users when you could obviously remedy the situation.

[gazumped 11,652]

3 minutes ago, tavor said:

This is obviously nonsense.

I don't know of many Android developers offering direct downloads - the Play store makes a bit of a thing about not downloading apps from other sources and I wouldn't be surprised if going into competition with Google for whatever reason is a commercially bad idea.  Come to that the fact that there are so many alternative sources for older versions of apps also suggests that it's not a service provided by many engineers out there... 

[tavor 668]

2 hours ago, betnel said:

I have found 2 sites that claim to have the old apk for EN but they both have terrible reputations for malware... Any thoughts on where to find it on a trusted site? 

If I were on v10 and wanted to roll back, I'd get the prior version apk from this site (have used them multiple times in the past, never had any malware): https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/evernote-corporation/evernote/evernote-8-13-3-release/

[betnel 26]

Tavor - thank you for the apkmirror. site. Found it & selected download of the pre- v10 apk. My Samsung S9 will not install the apk. I get 'Do you want to install an update to this existing app?' Select Install. It looks like it is working but then it displays 'App not installed.' 

I'm not sure what I am doing wrong here. I accepted 'install unknown apps' in settings. Turned off Google play security, etc. Any thoughts would be appreciated... 

[tavor 668]

4 minutes ago, betnel said:

Tavor - thank you for the apkmirror. site. Found it & selected download of the pre- v10 apk. My Samsung S9 will not install the apk. I get 'Do you want to install an update to this existing app?' Select Install. It looks like it is working but then it displays 'App not installed.' 

I'm not sure what I am doing wrong here. I accepted 'install unknown apps' in settings. Turned off Google play security, etc. Any thoughts would be appreciated... 

Did you uninstall EN v10 first? Did you download the correct version for your phone (the site has a link that helps you figure out which build you need for your phone)?

[betnel 26]

Tavor - Well Duh! It installed perfectly after I uninstalled V10. Should have realized that it would not overwrite the existing app!  

Also, just THANK YOU for sharing your knowledge.

 

[gazumped 11,652]

2 hours ago, tavor said:

I'd get the prior version apk from this site

Thanks! As it's got your recommendation I'll steal that link!! 😊

[Paul A. 609]

On 12/20/2020 at 9:39 AM, PinkElephant said:

Maybe just a hint to get yourself a good, privacy oriented OS with 5+ years of free, working updates that will not snoop on you on every step you make, and helps to fill the data hoard of Google Inc., earning THEM a ton of money from YOUR data.

But I am sure you did not want to hear this ... 🙉

Off topic and definitely not helpful, Pink Elephant. (Also not entirely accurate - millions of iOS users install Google apps on their devices and choose to make that privacy/functionality trade-off, and millions of Android users opt out of many Google services to reduce their exposure to online tracking. That said, I'm not going to get into a big platform war with anyone - I've used both and both have their pluses and minuses.)

 

6 hours ago, ehrt74 said:

Nope, the android client didn't support tables and had very limited formatting. It also only recently added nested tags, but they were clunky. It was also *for me* slower than the new app, which *for me* is lightening fast.

I'm fascinated by this! Could you share what Android hardware you are using? Evernote v10 for Android runs "okay" on my phone (Pixel 2XL), and I'd love to know what hardware makes it run "lightning fast" as I need to upgrade my phone soon.

[ehrt74 240]

6 hours ago, Paul A. said:

I'm fascinated by this! Could you share what Android hardware you are using? Evernote v10 for Android runs "okay" on my phone (Pixel 2XL), and I'd love to know what hardware makes it run "lightning fast" as I need to upgrade my phone soon.

I'm using a Galaxy S20+ with the much-maligned Exynos processor. Evernote starts up in 2-3 seconds and then runs snappily. You can also pin an app to encourage the OS not to shut it (I imagine there are circumstances where it will still be closed), but Evernote v10 often crashes at the moment when you re-open it in this case, so it's not worth the hassle. 

[WilliamInVermont 0]

Thanks to everyone who provided advice and links. I've uninstalled v10 from my Pixel 2 (yeah, I know it's a dinosaur) and installed the 8.x. For me, the worst thing about the "update" was the inability to work with encrypted notes, or to encrypt notes at all, on my phone. Inexcusable. I'm okay for now, but if they make it impossible to use this legacy version, I'll have to unsub and delete my account.

Anyone know of any good note services that do a good job with (phone-accessed) note encryption?