Can no longer search keyword within pdf document

[ClifW 0]

I have used Evernote for years on my Android device. As a technician, one of the features I used most frequently was opening a pdf of a large manual and searching for a specific word to quickly finds the info I needed. After the most recent upgrade, there no longer seems to be a search mode. What's up? The removal of this function dramatically reduces the usefulness of this app for me.  Can anyone help me out?

[QFieldBoden 41]

On 12/30/2020 at 3:28 AM, ClifW said:

I have used Evernote for years on my Android device. As a technician, one of the features I used most frequently was opening a pdf of a large manual and searching for a specific word to quickly finds the info I needed. After the most recent upgrade, there no longer seems to be a search mode. What's up? The removal of this function dramatically reduces the usefulness of this app for me.  Can anyone help me out?

I too rely heavily on searching within PDFs which makes v10 virtually useless for me. Bitterly disappointed. As you can see from the attached website clip you are supposed to be able to "find anything fast" and if paying for the service search within PDFs. I'm paying for something that I can't do. I wish I could find a viable alternative.

[eric99 980]

27 minutes ago, QFieldBoden said:

I too rely heavily on searching within PDFs which makes v10 virtually useless for me. Bitterly disappointed. As you can see from the attached website clip you are supposed to be able to "find anything fast" and if paying for the service search within PDFs. I'm paying for something that I can't do. I wish I could find a viable alternative.

I've the same problem with indexed pdf files. V6 still searches my indexed pdfs, but V10 doesn't anymore

[QFieldBoden 41]

4 minutes ago, eric99 said:

I've the same problem with indexed pdf files. V6 still searches my indexed pdfs, but V10 doesn't anymore

I know, it's absolutely pathetic. It is completely outrageous that Evernote can still be charging for a service which is, according to their website, still available when it patently doesn't work. I suppose they will just say that people will have to use the legacy version if they want to use that feature. Appalling.

[PinkElephant 8,095]

The arguments cuts as well the other way: Unless on mobile, nobody forces you to use the v10 version. You can stick with legacy, and search happily whatever you want to find.

There are many missing features in v10, so I decided it is plainly work-in-progress. Which means, as long it does not work for me, it still needs progress.

[aukirk 367]

@QFieldBoden continuing the exchange from the other thread here... have you tried searching for a term in a PDF that you know is OCR'd?  I wouldn't think that would be the issue, as I believe Evernote scans for OCR when indexing attachments, but wonder if that is the issue?  Maybe try taking a new PDF and confirm you are able to search for a unique phrase or number within the Mac Preview app... then add that to a new Evernote note to see if it finds it?  You could also take an older PDF already in Evernote and download it to see if you can find a term/phrase within Preview and then see if that same document is not being returned in Evernote?

It seems like you may have an indexing issue.

From the other thread, I know myself and at least another user posted examples where we are still able to find specific terms within an attached PDF using the Evernote search:

 

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[s2sailor 2,187]

@QFieldBoden,  search within a PDF with the v10 Mac client is definitely working for me.  I do all of my own OCR, so maybe that is the difference.  What isn't working correctly is the highlighting of the search terms.  It highlights them in the first note of the list, but in none of the others.

[QFieldBoden 41]

32 minutes ago, aukirk said:

@QFieldBoden continuing the exchange from the other thread here... have you tried searching for a term in a PDF that you know is OCR'd? 

Thank you for the suggestions but to be honest I've pretty much given up on it, sad as that is and even if I spend ages on it and continue to have the issue I will get nothing back in a timely way from the "support" desk any more. Currently when you submit a support ticket they are saying they are hoping to get back to people within TEN DAYS! Given that I pay a premium subscription and have done so for years if that's supposed to be priority support then it's a joke.

[QFieldBoden 41]

1 minute ago, s2sailor said:

Search within a PDF with the v10 Mac client is definitely working for me.  I do all of my own OCR, so maybe that is the difference.  What isn't working correctly is the highlighting of the search terms.  It highlights them in the first note of the list, but in none of the others.

"It highlights them in the first note of the list, but in none of the others" - and how useful is that, with multiple page PDFs? 😞

[s2sailor 2,187]

2 minutes ago, QFieldBoden said:

"It highlights them in the first note of the list, but in none of the others" - and how useful is that, with multiple page PDFs? 😞

Very useful.  At least I know what notes contain the search term.  I typically open large pdfs to search within, so no change from how I have usually done this in the past.  Who wants to scroll through large documents looking for highlighted terms?  I don't.

Do they need to fix this?  Sure, and I suspect they will, but they have bigger fish to fry at the moment.

[aukirk 367]

@QFieldBoden ... I definitely understand your frustration, and the lack of support (or presence on the forums or in the community clearly outlining what the direction will be).  If you have found a better solution than Evernote for your digital filing cabinet (I have not)... or decided to just stick with Legacy until there is more widespread positive feedback on v10 before wasting your time troubleshooting this, I understand.  However, out of curiosity, can you clarify whether the issue with the Search is that it does not deliver the note with the matching search terms in the list of search results... is the problem you encountered that it does not highlight the search term throughout a multi-page PDF?  If it is the latter... I can understand that would be frustrating, especially since old Evernote displayed all pages of the PDF... but I would imagine it is a pretty easy workaround to open the PDF in Preview to search within the document... I imagine there are a number of improvements on the Evernote internal roadmap regarding PDF/Annotations (or at least I hope so), so I could imagine that this is a compromise until the bigger feature set is released.  

[QFieldBoden 41]

15 minutes ago, aukirk said:

@QFieldBoden ... I definitely understand your frustration, and the lack of support (or presence on the forums or in the community clearly outlining what the direction will be).  If you have found a better solution than Evernote for your digital filing cabinet (I have not)... or decided to just stick with Legacy until there is more widespread positive feedback on v10 before wasting your time troubleshooting this, I understand.  However, out of curiosity, can you clarify whether the issue with the Search is that it does not deliver the note with the matching search terms in the list of search results... is the problem you encountered that it does not highlight the search term throughout a multi-page PDF?  If it is the latter... I can understand that would be frustrating, especially since old Evernote displayed all pages of the PDF... but I would imagine it is a pretty easy workaround to open the PDF in Preview to search within the document... I imagine there are a number of improvements on the Evernote internal roadmap regarding PDF/Annotations (or at least I hope so), so I could imagine that this is a compromise until the bigger feature set is released.  

Mainly the issue is I think not highlighting the terms. This means that is a search delivers 10 notes with attached PDFs (likely in my case) I now have to open each one and search for the term in each PDF which is NOT time-saving.

[OBrien 12]

I’ve got the same problem. I saved many PDF documents which have so plenty pages like essay or manuals and I could search keyword among them anywhere.

But with v10,  it’s gone...

i know it’s development is in progress. However why can they miss the basic feature like this?? Yes, we can find the note which includes the word.so what?

are we supposed to check every page with small screen on iPhone??? Unbelievable.

please please please, give this back to us. It’s been several month since v10 launch.

[kimbabwe805 1]

I have a similar problem. When I search for keyword, a note with a scanned PDF will show up in the results, but the term is not highlighted ANYWHERE in the document. Even if I open the PDF and search for the term, I cannot find it. Evernote seems to recognize the keyword is in the scanned PDF but can't highlight it or find it when I search specifically in the document. The previous versions allowed me to do this. I'm so frustrated and have been using Evernote to get through grad school. Now I'm getting behind because this tool is letting me down. 

[Spurgeon 0]

I’m really frustrated with this, too. When my company does a price letter update for my customers, they send them all in one 700 page PDF file. Is use my phone and iPad when I am on the road and the inability to find a specific customer’s price letter within the large file is killing the usefulness of the information I save in Evernote, at least when I am away from home.

[PinkElephant 8,095]

The lack of search inside of attachments is one of the big missing features of the v10 versions.

A workaround is to install the app „Documents“ (from readdle). It is sort of a Swiss tool for files, can open most formats, including a video viewer and more.The basic version is free.

Export the pdf file by sharing to Documents. Open the pdf, and hit the magnifier symbol. Voila, it searches, shows as thumbnails the hits and marks them in the document itself. 

This app has everything I would wish to have inside of EN ... but it handles files, not notes. Hint: If the pdf is picture-only (like from a scan) and the OCR of the pdf is done on the EN server, search will not work outside of EN. But for most pdfs that come with a text layer inside like your customer list probably has, it just works fine.

[BrianE0307 0]

I just upgraded to Premium for this feature alone.  Period.  I was so frustrated they created a pay version that one needs to buy to get the Search feature,

I literally held off of this upgrade until I got offered the discounted price for an annual plan yesterday.  I bit.

Upgraded and still can not search a pdf file.  Even more frustrated with EN now