Very slow typing response and long typing delay in long text notes (Mac version 10.8.5)

[Jeff Bass 53]

When typing new text at the bottom of a long text note (about 90,000 words; about 5,000 lines of text), the typing response is VERY VERY slow. When typing characters, nothing appears for 20-45 seconds, then it "catches up" and the text that was typed during the 20 seconds appears. Then when resuming typing, this happens repeatedly. It makes adding text to long text notes unusable. Shorter text notes don't seem to have this problem. I am not an unusually fast typist. I did not experience this problem with the old Evernote before v10.

This problem does not occur in Evernote Legacy for Mac. I am using both Evernote 10 (specifically, v10.6.9 as of 1/24/2021) and Evernote Legacy on 2 different Macs. I can edit the long note in Evernote Legacy and type new text lines at the bottom just fine with normal typing response. Then when I open the note in Evernote 10.6.9, typing text lines at the bottom of the same note experiences 20-40 second delays for the typed text to appear. This is a very repeatable problem for multiple different notes that are over 5,000 lines long. The notes are text with no images or attachments.  (I have been using Evernote since 2008 and have 11,000 notes that total about 15GB in Evernote Legacy. I am not sure if my large number of notes or my large database size are part of the problem or not). About 5% of my notes are "long" text notes (over 1,000 lines). I don't want to have to break the notes into smaller notes, but when I did that as an experiment on one of the long notes, Evernote v10 was able to edit the shorter notes just fine.

Problem occurs on 2 of my Macs: 1) MacOS Catalina 10.15.4 (MacBook Air with 4GB RAM & 512GB SSD) and 2) MacOS Big Sur 11.1 (MacBook Pro with 16GB RAM & 512GB SSD). 

My Evernote version from "About Evernote" pulldown menu item:

10.6.9-mac-ddl-public (2254)
Editor: v116.1.14913
Service: v1.26.7
 

Edited March 4, 2021 by Jeff Bass
Updated Evernote version information; problem still occurs in 10.8.5)

[Jeff Bass 53]

I have submitted a support ticket for this problem (submitted today, 1/24/2021) and will update this topic when I hear a response. I have been experiencing this problem ever since Evernote v10 on Mac was released. I switched back to Evernote Legacy, because Evernote v10.x is not usable for me with this slow typing problem. About every week or 2, I open Evernote v10 on a different Mac, then update the EN v10 to the latest version, then duplicate the problem. It has consistently been there in every new version of Evernote v10 since v10.4. The newest version 10.6.9 is slightly faster in displaying characters as they are typed at the end of long notes than v10.4 was. But it is still way too slow (over 20 seconds to catch up to display newly typed characters on a 5,000 line text note) to be usable.

[hasman404 7]

Just updated to 10.6.9 today and i will have to agree with you. I have a long text file and it has become painstakingly slow. It's basically not usable. I will have to revert to an older version till this issue is fixed. 

[Jeff Bass 53]

I was contacted by email by Evernote Support (within 1 day) and they asked me to do a QuickTime video of my screen as I experienced the typing slowness in a large text file. The large text file edited just fine in Evernote Legacy, allowing me to add lines at the end with no typing slowness. I closed Evernote Legacy and opened Evernote Mac v10.6.9. I opened the same note. I started the QuickTime screen capture video. I started typing 4 lines. After 3 characters appeared on the screen, none of my additional typing appeared. Then after about 5 minutes (yes...5 MINUTES) the text that I had typed appeared. I sent the link to the video in my reply to Evernote support, as requested. Will continue to update this topic as this support issue progresses.

[Kitalooclef 9]

The typing slowness is absolutely untenable. After 10+ years of using this product, it might be time to find something else. There's no point if it can't keep up with my typing. If I'm on a video call? Forget it, I had to pop open text edit and put all my notes there because Evernote could hardly respond at all. Interested to hear if your support ticket gets us anywhere. For now, I'm researching new products :(. 

[rdelgado 2]

I am having the same problem. When I first run it, the typing is dreadfully slow. After a while it seems to normalize.

Here is the version info: 10.6.9-win-ddl-public (2254)
Editor: v116.1.14913
Service: v1.26.7
© 2019 - 2021 Evernote Corporation. All rights reserved

 

Thanks,

rdelgado

[hasman404 7]

I'm waiting desperately till you hear back. Currently back on legacy which works fine (but obviously looks ugly and i am so used to the new fonts now). Migrating to another platform is going to be painstaking as i am very heavily invested but yes if it doesn't get better in 2 weeks i will have no option but to find other platforms which can handle text documents.. Please keep us posted.

[hasman404 7]

@Jeff Bass Have they responded to the video you sent them ? 😕

[DrumWise 2]

I'm having this same problem. I'm trying to type lesson notes while on Zoom calls and it's un-useable! Is there a way to install an older version?

[Jeff Bass 53]

@hasman404, Yes, they responded to the video. They said they "do not currently have an estimated time on when it will be addressed".

Timeline: I opened my original support ticket January 25. Evernote support emailed me and asked for the video January 26. I created and sent the video January 26. Evernote support sent me an email saying they got the video and were referring the issue to technical support January 26. I got an email from technical support on January 27 that said they are doing further investigation, assessing the issue and prioritizing this in a future release, with no estimated time for addressing it. Here is the relevant paragraph from the January 27 email to me from technical support:

Quote

Thanks for contacting Evernote Support and for reporting this issue. This issue has been reported  for further investigation. The product team will assess the issue and work on prioritizing this in a future release, but I do not currently have an estimated time on when it will be addressed.

I will continue using Evernote Legacy on my Mac's until i hear back from them. Evernote Legacy for Mac is working fine for me. They gave me a ticket number and an email contact and I will check back via email in a week or so.

Edited January 30, 2021 by Jeff Bass
Added tag.

[Jeff Bass 53]

@DrumWise, yes, you can install an older version called Evernote Legacy for Mac. It can run alongside Evernote 10.6.9 on the same Mac (they use different local storage on the Mac, but they both update to the same Evernote notes servers).

The link to the Evernote Help and Learning article about the Legacy versions for Mac and Windows is here.

You can download Evernote Legacy for Mac by clicking on the green "Mac" link in the middle of the article. Evernote Legacy for Mac is working well for me for now.

[goandigo 1]

So this problem has not been solved? When I try to create a new note it brings me to a blank page on which I cannot type. I can only use my iPad and not my Mac. Come on Evernote. Please solve this?

 

[Jeff Bass 53]

@goandigo, this problem has not been solved as of today, February 1, 2021. I am using Evernote Legacy on my Mac and will keep doing that until they make v10 usable on the Mac. Evernote Legacy is working well on the Mac for me so far. I posted installation information links earlier in this thread.

[robinrobin 17]

On 1/26/2021 at 9:57 AM, Kitalooclef said:

The typing slowness is absolutely untenable. After 10+ years of using this product, it might be time to find something else. There's no point if it can't keep up with my typing. If I'm on a video call? Forget it, I had to pop open text edit and put all my notes there because Evernote could hardly respond at all. Interested to hear if your support ticket gets us anywhere. For now, I'm researching new products :(. 

I know what the problem is!  I just figured it out.  I type long notes during lectures and meetings and drag stuff into the note... omg .. I kept track of how long it took .. 30 seconds, 1 minute, 1 1/2 minutes, sometimes 10 seconds.  100% unusable!  I have been so depressed because I simply can not any longer be efficient and take notes and screen shots. They removed the top bar clipper - so that it clips only one thing directly to evernote and you never see it -- I was clipping my zoom window right into my note and and then typing notes and then again and again .. and it worked 100% beautifully -- super fast and even if something crashed it never once lost the note. NOW ..  the workflow is broken -- and my work around (using the mac screen capture: shift command 4, then find it, drag it into the note.. and then wait and wait .. meanwhile the lecture is going on and I can't type any notes) barely works.  THE FIX IS: turn off the internet for Evernote and it works reasonably well. Not as fast as originally but workable. I have no idea what is taking so long!  I put a bug report in to report that this slowness is due to them trying to sync to the cloud after ever character you type it seems!

[robinrobin 17]

On 1/25/2021 at 10:32 PM, Jeff Bass said:

I was contacted by email by Evernote Support (within 1 day) and they asked me to do a QuickTime video of my screen as I experienced the typing slowness in a large text file. The large text file edited just fine in Evernote Legacy, allowing me to add lines at the end with no typing slowness. I closed Evernote Legacy and opened Evernote Mac v10.6.9. I opened the same note. I started the QuickTime screen capture video. I started typing 4 lines. After 3 characters appeared on the screen, none of my additional typing appeared. Then after about 5 minutes (yes...5 MINUTES) the text that I had typed appeared. I sent the link to the video in my reply to Evernote support, as requested. Will continue to update this topic as this support issue progresses.

 

On 1/24/2021 at 9:43 PM, Jeff Bass said:

When typing new text at the bottom of a long text note (about 90,000 words; about 5,000 lines of text), the typing response is VERY VERY slow. When typing characters, nothing appears for 20-45 seconds, then it "catches up" and the text that was typed during the 20 seconds appears. Then when resuming typing, this happens repeatedly. It makes adding text to long text notes unusable. Shorter text notes don't seem to have this problem. I am not an unusually fast typist. I did not experience this problem with the old Evernote before v10.

This problem does not occur in Evernote Legacy for Mac. I am using both Evernote 10 (specifically, v10.6.9 as of 1/24/2021) and Evernote Legacy on 2 different Macs. I can edit the long note in Evernote Legacy and type new text lines at the bottom just fine with normal typing response. Then when I open the note in Evernote 10.6.9, typing text lines at the bottom of the same note experiences 20-40 second delays for the typed text to appear. This is a very repeatable problem for multiple different notes that are over 5,000 lines long. The notes are text with no images or attachments.  (I have been using Evernote since 2008 and have 11,000 notes that total about 15GB in Evernote Legacy. I am not sure if my large number of notes or my large database size are part of the problem or not). About 5% of my notes are "long" text notes (over 1,000 lines). I don't want to have to break the notes into smaller notes, but when I did that as an experiment on one of the long notes, Evernote v10 was able to edit the shorter notes just fine.

Problem occurs on 2 of my Macs: 1) MacOS Catalina 10.15.4 (MacBook Air with 4GB RAM & 512GB SSD) and 2) MacOS Big Sur 11.1 (MacBook Pro with 16GB RAM & 512GB SSD). 

My Evernote version from "About Evernote" pulldown menu item:

10.6.9-mac-ddl-public (2254)
Editor: v116.1.14913
Service: v1.26.7
 

Jeff === I wrote above that I figured it out... it is that they are trying to sync seemingly every character to the cloud. This algorithm is not the right one.  In no way does this support a real time workflow.  I have an app running call 'Trip Mode' because I am often in places with little or slow Internet and I can't afford to have every program talking to the Internet - so I can specifically turn off apps. When I turned off evernote yesterday when I had a 3 hour meeting I could actually take notes and drag screen shots into the note and not get too far behind.

[Karin Clavel 1]

I've been having the exact same problems. I'm a long time Evernote user, but since some time it's not useable anymore. I came to this community to look for alternatives or tips for getting my notes out of Evernote and moving them elsewhere. Thanks to your suggestions I've now installed Evernote legacy and I'm back to normal productivity. Seems like a huge flaw/bug... I hope they fix it.  Should I report officially?

[iAlfred34 1]

Same problem. Evernote has been rendered 'useless' in my opinion.

[robinrobin 17]

9 hours ago, Karin Clavel said:

I've been having the exact same problems. I'm a long time Evernote user, but since some time it's not useable anymore. I came to this community to look for alternatives or tips for getting my notes out of Evernote and moving them elsewhere. Thanks to your suggestions I've now installed Evernote legacy and I'm back to normal productivity. Seems like a huge flaw/bug... I hope they fix it.  Should I report officially?

Hello Karin - I think you should, because then they will know how serious it is.  I am sure it is because they were trying to sync every thing - Evernote was so great before -- and now with the broken Evernote helper with no way to clip and drag into a note in real time  plus typing a note taking on average over a minute (for me) to give me control back - I have to see what products there are that will give me this functionality. I have had some recommendations, but I am waiting to see if the issues are fixed. I am super unhappy with the way customer support simply closes my cases with 0 explanation. I am not giving up yet -- so please put in a bug report for this....

[Jeff Bass 53]

@robinrobin, thanks for your insight and workaround suggestion. I am using Evernote Legacy for Mac until this is fixed. It's an OK workaround for me. You may want to file an official bug report. See below paragraph.

@Karin Clavel, it may help Evernote technical support to prioritize this problem to a more urgent status if more of us report it officially. You can probably just give a very brief description and reference this forum topic by providing a link to it in your problem report. Here is the link to evernote bug reporting page. Click on the "contact us" link in the middle of the page. You will need to log in using your Evernote log in. You will need to select 3 pull down menu items before you can enter text: 1) select "Technical Issues"; 2) select "Notes"; 3) select "Report a Bug" (you will have to scroll down to this choice; it is at the bottom of a long list). Then you can enter text about the problem. I suggest you include a link to this issue page so they know that many of us are experiencing this problem.

@iAlfred34, I agree. This has rendered Evernote Mac v10 'useless' for me, too. I am using Evernote Legacy until they get v10.x working. I have started looking for alternatives to Evernote in case they can't or won't fix v10. You may want to file an official bug report. See above paragraph.

Edited February 2, 2021 by Jeff Bass
fix typos

[hasman404 7]

Any good alternatives to evernote?

[Jeff Bass 53]

@hasman404, I have been researching alternatives to Evernote because the flaws in the new Mac Evernote version are really severe. I am using Evernote Legacy for Mac for now and it is working well for me. But if the Evernote folks don't make "Evernote for Mac" usable, then I'm going to (sadly) start using something else. I am preparing a long post about "good alternatives to Evernote" and I will post it in a few days in its own thread. I'll link to that thread here. The short answer is that every alternative to Evernote has drawbacks compared to Evernote Legacy for Mac when it is combined with the Evernote ecosystem (Evernote Web clipper; Evernote across all devices; Evernote XML database on Mac readable by other programs; easy input from iPhone camera, Evernote search "seeing" text in pictures or PDF files, etc, etc.). Evernote was very close to ideal for me prior to this new Mac version. But Evernote 10 on Mac is unusable. So I have been actively researching alternatives since November 2020. I will post my research results in a few days.

1. Here is a really good post in a productivity blog that compares many alternatives ranked by number of "Evernote features" that are present. It was the start for my own research: https://projectorius.org/evernote-alternatives/ 
2. The biggest absolutely horrible deal killer for the new Evernote for Mac is the problem in this thread. I literally cannot type into longer notes. An astonishing bug. Absolutely astonishing. Can't type into a note that is longer than 1,000 lines? Really????
3. Here is a list of flaws in the new Evernote for Windows in a Reddit post (most of these apply to the new Evernote Mac Client also): 

[Jeff Bass 53]

Update on my slow typing response tech support ticket with Evernote support. Evernote 10.7.6 for Mac has been released. I upgraded my 10.6.9 to 10.7.6. The slow typing problem is still there on long notes. It is very slightly faster, but still unusable (several MINUTES before typing at bottom of long note catches up to typing). I let the technical support staff who is handling my support ticket know in a reply email. I will update this post when I hear back from them.

(I am tagging posters in this group so you will get pinged on this update: @hasman404, @Kitalooclef, @rdelgado, @DrumWise, @goandigo, @robinrobin, @Karin Clavel, @iAlfred34)

[PinkElephant 8,088]

Type shorter notes, and use a word processor (Word, Pages etc.) for extended writing. A note is not meant to be a book.

Or install legacy to write longer texts.

"No, I insist on using v10, I like the pain !" .... OK, then just continue.

[robinrobin 17]

3 hours ago, Jeff Bass said:

Update on my slow typing response tech support ticket with Evernote support. Evernote 10.7.6 for Mac has been released. I upgraded my 10.6.9 to 10.7.6. The slow typing problem is still there on long notes. It is very slightly faster, but still unusable (several MINUTES before typing at bottom of long note catches up to typing). I let the technical support staff who is handling my support ticket know in a reply email. I will update this post when I hear back from them.

(I am tagging posters in this group so you will get pinged on this update: @hasman404, @Kitalooclef, @rdelgado, @DrumWise, @goandigo, @robinrobin, @Karin Clavel, @iAlfred34)

Yes, I am having the exact same problem with 10.7.6 - it is somewhat better than 10.6.9 .. but it is still not working correctly.  I think (as I mentioned before) it has to do with how they are trying to sync the note as you are typing it. I can fix this by turning the internet off of the Evernote process !!!!  It is usable -- still 1-2 seconds slower than the original version but better than 30 seconds to 1 1/2 minutes!!  (I am talking about when I drag images into the note (because they BROKE the evernote helper and refuse to have a dialgue about fixing it to how it was )) I think they are trying to sync while you are typing ... Do you think they goofed in the implementation and are doing this synchronously, instead of doing it async in the background??  Why when I disconnect the Internet does the response time improve.  @Jeff Basscan you try typing your notes as a test with the Internet connection off for Evernote and see? This might help them debug the problem. I reported this too.

[robinrobin 17]

44 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

Type shorter notes, and use a word processor (Word, Pages etc.) for extended writing. A note is not meant to be a book.

Or install legacy to write longer texts.

"No, I insist on using v10, I like the pain !" .... OK, then just continue.

Hello @PinkElephant -- The idea is that we are moving forward, not going backwards... I do not want to use the legacy just to write long notes... I don't want to use the legacy to clip into a note, and I certainly don't want to be going backwards by now having to use 'shift-command-4' to clip something and drag it into a note and then wait  30 sec - 1 1/2 minutes until it gives me control back to continue typing in the note.

How does this help the product go into the future by us using legacy?  The product should be getting better with more features, not less. It should be becoming more robust and incorporate the new ways we are taking notes in the age of zooming all day. I refuse to go back to the legacy and let the product go down hill.  I have watched a few interviews with Ian Small that said the product was to be driven by the customer - so I am taking his word on that.  About the 1,000 lines .. um....  I have books in my Evernote... and I write my thesis chapters in Evernote. I don't take short notes. A note can be a book  or chapters in a book.

 

🙂

[robinrobin 17]

4 hours ago, Jeff Bass said:

@hasman404, I have been researching alternatives to Evernote because the flaws in the new Mac Evernote version are really severe. I am using Evernote Legacy for Mac for now and it is working well for me. But if the Evernote folks don't make "Evernote for Mac" usable, then I'm going to (sadly) start using something else. I am preparing a long post about "good alternatives to Evernote" and I will post it in a few days in its own thread. I'll link to that thread here. The short answer is that every alternative to Evernote has drawbacks compared to Evernote Legacy for Mac when it is combined with the Evernote ecosystem (Evernote Web clipper; Evernote across all devices; Evernote XML database on Mac readable by other programs; easy input from iPhone camera, Evernote search "seeing" text in pictures or PDF files, etc, etc.). Evernote was very close to ideal for me prior to this new Mac version. But Evernote 10 on Mac is unusable. So I have been actively researching alternatives since November 2020. I will post my research results in a few days.

1. Here is a really good post in a productivity blog that compares many alternatives ranked by number of "Evernote features" that are present. It was the start for my own research: https://projectorius.org/evernote-alternatives/ 
2. The biggest absolutely horrible deal killer for the new Evernote for Mac is the problem in this thread. I literally cannot type into longer notes. An astonishing bug. Absolutely astonishing. Can't type into a note that is longer than 1,000 lines? Really????
3. Here is a list of flaws in the new Evernote for Windows in a Reddit post (most of these apply to the new Evernote Mac Client also): 

@Jeff Bass I just typed a note with 2000 lines and it seems ok (well one character per line). Is this really a limitation?  I wonder if we can request a zoom call with Ian Small to discuss how we spend hours documenting things and giving supporting evidence of our workflows that prove why we need the functions they have deleted, and still customer support says cuts and pastes canned answers ... basically saying it is a 'feature they are considering'....  when these functions were put into the product for a reason!  I am so upset -

[Jeff Bass 53]

@robinrobin, I did go offline and the typing is still very lagged and slow. It still takes 3-5 minutes to show new typing at the bottom of a 5,700 line text only note. (It is the same long note I reported my technical issue with; I keep testing with that same note). I'm glad you are getting good offline typing response. I am not. I just timed it both online and offline: both took over 4 minutes long for my typing to catch up. The time is variable every time I do the typing test. But it is always over 2 minutes to type a new line at the end of the note. Sometimes as much as 5 minutes. But it is the same whether I am online or offline in v10.7.6. It may be slightly faster when offline, but less than 20% difference.

[robinrobin 17]

4 minutes ago, Jeff Bass said:

@robinrobin, I did go offline and the typing is still very lagged and slow. It still takes 3-5 minutes to show new typing at the bottom of a 5,700 line text only note. (It is the same long note I reported my technical issue with; I keep testing with that same note). I'm glad you are getting good offline typing response. I am not. I just timed it both online and offline: both took over 4 minutes long for my typing to catch up. The time is variable every time I do the typing test. But it is always over 2 minutes to type a new line at the end of the note. Sometimes as much as 5 minutes. But it is the same whether I am online or offline in v10.7.6. It may be slightly faster when offline, but less than 20% difference.

grrrrr .  I think they are trying to be too clever and syncing while typing. Maybe my notes are not so big or I am taking breaks in the middle of typing to clip things and so I am not noticing.  I will pay more attention when I am typing.  Aren't these things supposed to be asynchronous .... 

[Jeff Bass 53]

@PinkElephant, of course you are right. I am doing exactly that; I am using Evernote Legacy for longer notes. And I can definitely change my workflow to use Pages for longer stuff. But I don't feel I should have to. Evernote Mac v7.x did not have this problem. Evernote Legacy for Mac does not have this problem. Mac Pages does not have this problem. Evernote Mac alternatives like Bear notes, DevonThink and even iOS / Mac Notes do not have this problem. It is an egregious bug. I don't think it is at all unreasonable to continue to ask that it be fixed, even as I am using alternatives and work arounds. I am a paying Evernote "PREMIUM" customer and will keep this thread updated with progress on this bug until it is fixed.  I am feeling annoyed and frustrated by this. Yes, I know there are workarounds. But I have been a paying Evernote customer since 2008 and I have always recommended Evernote to others. I hope they fix this bug so that I can continue to do so.

[PinkElephant 8,088]

We all do.

If you review the forum, there are a lot of postings about performance, RAM/CPU usage, there is a low setting of the limit for note selection etc. Personally I doubt we will ever get the performance back we used to have. This is set off by other advantages - if it still serves the personal use cases in total, we all have to wait & see.

As long as legacy works, I am watching v10 to mature, and hope it will get close to feature parity regarding my personal set of features.

[Jeff Bass 53]

@robinrobin, I'm not sure if the problem is individual character syncing or not. Evernote technical support replied to my most recent update quickly (within 1 business day). I responded back immediately as well. As you can see from my "cut and pasted" reply email below, the problem is related to the number of lines and the number of characters per line. Small files: no problem; 2,000 line file has a slight problem; 4,000 line file has an unusable 90 second delay; 5,000 line file takes a full 3 minutes to catch up. These are not large files. The problem is likely related to memory buffers and or caching. I'm a software developer, so I tried to be precise and helpful in my reply to them. This is a serious "you need to fix all broken windows" type of bug (reference "The Pragmatic Programmer, Tip # 5": Don’t Live with Broken Windows: Fix bad designs, wrong decisions, and poor code when you see them https://pragprog.com/tips/ ). My email reply to them included a link to a short 10 line Python program that generates multiple text notes that illustrate the problem. I also enclosed the 4,000 line note and the 5,000 line note, as they requested. These are notes that really break Evernote v10.7.

 

Quote

 

I am enclosing 2 notes that that illustrate the problem. The files are .enex files, as requested. I am a software developer myself, so I wrote a 10 line Python program that generates notes that precisely demonstrate the problem. The 2 enclosed notes are 5,000 lines and 4,000 lines long. The 5,000 line note takes 3 minutes to catch up when typing a line at the bottom. The 4,000 line note takes 90 seconds to catch up when typing a line at the bottom. The problem is related to the number of lines: a 2,000 line note catches up to the typing, but the typed characters display in a manner that is very jerky and lagging. Smaller notes do not demonstrate the problem at all. These notes have no problems in Evernote Legacy. These notes are not very large; the 5,000 line note is just 400K bytes, which is smaller than a simple photo, for example.

 

The 2 notes contain lines that are randomly 6 to 20 words long, the same as multiple notes that have exhibited this problem for me. These example notes contain randomly sampled words from the Gettysburg Address. In case it might help, here is a link to the short Python program (as a GitHub Gist) that generates these files of varying lengths: https://gist.github.com/jeffbass/4cde8fa8abf3b1dcb2d7c56391ee951e  

 

Thanks for your help with this,

Jeff

 

 

[Paul A. 609]

Amazing work @Jeff Bass; you are giving EN no excuse not to fix this issue. I'm interested in following their response to you, if you care to continue posting your back-and-forth with support on this thread.

[PinkElephant 8,088]

To me it seems there is an interaction with syncing. v10 tries to keep notes synced pretty much all the time.

When a note grows too large, it starts to choke on the syncing - the earlier one is not yet done when the next one tries to start. This leads to the building of lag and blocking - once the syncing is sorted out, the app returns to normal - until the next user interaction causes the next loop.

Just my interpretation of what happens.

[Jeff Bass 53]

@Paul A., & others who may be following this: I heard back from Evernote support; it was just a short email saying they got my files and email and are adding it to my existing issue report : 

Quote

Thanks for these details. I've added this information to the existing issue report. I will let you know once I have additional updates on the progress of this issue.

Thanks,

I'll continue to post in this thread every time I hear from Evernote Technical Support.

Edited February 10, 2021 by Jeff Bass
Added a last sentence.

[kw3 1]

Just wondering if there's any news on this... I am experiencing the same problem with version 10.8.5.  It's completely unusable.  I manage to make it about 10 words into a sentence before Evernote completely hangs up on me and I cannot keep up with taking notes in real-time during meetings.

[Jeff Bass 53]

I just tested typing at the end of my 2 test notes in Evernote Mac v10.8.5. The problem has not been fixed. I sent the following update to my support ticket email thread:

Quote

 

I re-tested typing at the end of each of my test notes in Mac Evernote v10.8.5. The files still take a very long time to catch up to my typing of a new line at the bottom of the note:

For the 5,000 line note, it took 6 minutes 30 seconds to catch up (This note shows in Note Info as: 383 KB - 65,115 words - 336,641 characters)

For the 4,000 line note, it took 4 minutes 30 seconds to catch up (This note shows in Note Info as: 304 KB - 51,564 words - 266,303 characters)

Evernote Mac 10.8.5 is still unusable for typing at the end of these notes. These are the same notes I already sent to you.

I will post back here if I get a reply or other update. I am continuing to use Mac Evernote Legacy. It has no delay typing at the bottom of the same test notes. Evernote Legacy is working OK for "production use" for me, so I will continue to use it instead of 10.8.5 which is not usable at all.

Edited March 4, 2021 by Jeff Bass
Fixed typo

[Chris Smith 3]

So.Damn.Slow.

They've just killed Evernote for me. I've been a paying subscriber for years & I am ready to call it quits. I used to tell everyone I knew how much I loved and recommend Evernote. Not any more. 

The Product and Dev folks must not use Evernote. So much for the 100-year company... 

 

[GThomas 3]

I totally agree with these comments and Evernote has gone from being how I do everything to being a chain around my neck. It is now almost totally unusable. In live meeting I just can't take notes any longer due to the lag in typing. Why on earth does it have to continually try and save the whole note to the cloud if you just add one character - this is insane. There are other issues with the new version, mainly the amount of memory it takes when running and even when 'closed', but the typing and general slowness makes it really awful. I have discovered after months of frustration that I can revert back to the Legacy version, which has been a lifesaver. I don't understand why Evernote has broken its product? I am still paying a Premium subscription for something I can't use any longer. Please fix Jeff's problem as many of us are having the same issue - the autosyncing is the biggest problem - please let us turn this OFF. 

Yours very frustratingly,

Gavin Thomas.

 

[Jeff Bass 53]

I got an email reply from Evernote Support the day after I emailed my "error still occurs in v10.8.5" bug report update (my last post in this thread):

Quote

Thanks for contacting Evernote support. I’m transferring this ticket to the previous support team that you worked with. Thanks for your patience as they review this ticket.

Will keep updating this thread.

[Mark Ansley 1]

The slow typing response seems to be worse when I am on a video call.  I have been using a word document to type and then pasting it into evernote... not a long term sustainable option.  We really need Evernote to resolve this.

[Jeff Bass 53]

Keeping this thread updated. I was contacted by Evernote technical support to set up an appointment for them to use a screen viewer to watch me experience my slow typing problem. At the appointed time on Monday, March 15,  the tech support person captured a video of my Mac's computer screen as I tried to add an additional line to text notes (described above) that were 2,000 and 3,000 and 4,000 lines long. The delays described above were seen and noted by the tech support person, who is passing the example and screen video along to the software engineering folks.

I will continue to keep this thread updated as I hear back from them.

Edited April 1, 2021 by Jeff Bass
Fixed typo

[cbshaw 1]

I'm having the same issue with longer notes. (of which my team and I  have many) This needs to be fixed! Please, Evernote! Your power users need this addressed ASAP

[Jeff Bass 53]

Just tested my 3,000 line note Evernote for Mac 10.10.5. The typing lag to add a line to the end of the note was about 90 seconds. Still not fixed in Mac v 10.10.5. Still works at full speed in Evernote Legacy.

[johnthunder2 1]

same issue here.

about to start testing alternatives.

thanks Jeff Base for sharing your follow-ups

[JohnT_user 5]

I just tested against 10.10.5 for Mac and the same problem still exists.  It's great that there's an awareness of when the sync algorithm gets overrun by data (good troubleshooting from @Jeff Bass.  I keep hoping that Evernote corrects the issues in v10+ and also at least reaches feature/performance parity with the Legacy version.  Until the basics are fixed, it's hard to recommend Evernote as the right tool for managing notes.

[TonyB 1]

I have been having this problem for a while as well with a few notes that have gotten really large.  Disappointed that Evernote has not fixed this yet since it worked just fine in previous versions!  Following now, thanks to everyone posting updates and please keep us in the loop if this problem gets resolved!  Thanks!!

[Alecazam 2]

I can confirm that the stalls while saving are now fixed.  I'm on macOS Big Sur, and this is with build 458444 now on the App Store.  I can continue typing while the save is occurring in the background.  I have reasonable long notes, and the previous behavior was unusable.   Thanks for resolving this issue.

[Jeff Bass 53]

Thanks, @Alecazam.

I just tried Evernote v10.13.4 for Mac with my previous test notes. The problem detailed in this comment thread is fixed for my test notes. There is still a very slight typing lag on the 5,000 line test note, but it is definitely usable. No noticeable lag on the 3,000 line test note.

I hope others who are following this thread will test the new version v10.13.4 for Mac. Please check for slow typing in your own notes and report back here. Thanks in Advance.

[Alecazam 2]

Typing a search is unusably slow.   This and actually typing notes are the two things that I need to be fast.   Just took 20s to display the text "tag" that I typed along with the 15 results in my single note file.

[Ajinkya Pawar 4]

On 1/26/2021 at 9:02 AM, Jeff Bass said:

I was contacted by email by Evernote Support (within 1 day) and they asked me to do a QuickTime video of my screen as I experienced the typing slowness in a large text file. The large text file edited just fine in Evernote Legacy, allowing me to add lines at the end with no typing slowness. I closed Evernote Legacy and opened Evernote Mac v10.6.9. I opened the same note. I started the QuickTime screen capture video. I started typing 4 lines. After 3 characters appeared on the screen, none of my additional typing appeared. Then after about 5 minutes (yes...5 MINUTES) the text that I had typed appeared. I sent the link to the video in my reply to Evernote support, as requested. Will continue to update this topic as this support issue progresses.

I am having the same kind of issue wrt Windows version 15, and web version. Raised the ticket, but they are not replying to the email. 

[Jeff Bass 53]

Hi @Ajinkya Pawar, they took a few days to respond to my support ticked the first time I reported this. Then over a month to set up an appointment to have a tech support person watch my screen and record my screen as I demonstrated the problem. Then another 2 months to fix the problem for notes up to 5,000 lines long. I was very specific in my support ticket. I provided the specific version number of Evernote for Mac client and also the specific version number of the Mac OS I was using. I also gave them specific (very LONG) times for adding a line to the bottom of the file. That may have made it easier for the support staff to escalate my support ticket to the software engineering folks. You may want to put in 2 support tickets: 1) a Windows specific support ticket and 2) a specific Web Browser with Evernote Web support ticket. 

I continue to use Evernote Legacy for Mac for my day to day production work because it is much faster in lots of tasks. Evernote Legacy for Mac is working well for me so far. And it syncs to the same Evernote database in the cloud. You may want to use Evernote Legacy for Windows for your production work until they get back to you on your support ticket.

Good luck!

[Ajinkya Pawar 4]

@Jeff BassThanks for the reply brother! 

Though they are getting in touch, this whole process is taking too mucgh time which  is irritating. 

Just tell met whether the issue is solved completely or not. If not it will help me to save my time as I have my exam in 3 months. 

[PinkElephant 8,088]

What do you mean by „completely solved“ ?

A Premium members note can have up to 200MB. This is 200 - 000 - 000 bytes (200 million). Say a word has 10 bytes on average, then this is 20 million words - in a single note. Do you mean this by „completely“ ?

Currently we all know there is a performance issue with longer notes. Probably it depends on your setup as well. The workaround is simply to stay below any note size where you experience your EN to slow down. This can be different from those of others.

You can split up large notes. To make it easier to navigate insert a link to the next note at the end of every text. A note with a table of content can be helpful as well.

Better focus on your exam, independent from any measures that you can’t influence. Wish you luck !

[Jeff Bass 53]

@Ajinkya Pawar, I agree with @PinkElephant. EN V10.x is still slower editing longer notes than editing shorter notes. This issue is not "completely solved". There are still "longer note" performance issues in the Mac and Windows clients. The best workaround is to split up your large notes into smaller notes that are fast enough for you. Or use the Evernote Legacy version, which does not have a performance issue with longer notes. Evernote Legacy is working well for me. It continues to be very fast.

My specific problem was "very slow typing response" even in very small notes (less than 1MB in size). My notes contained lots of short text lines  (for example, 5,000 lines of 5-10 words per line). On these notes, it was taking 5 minutes to catch up to my typing a new text line at the bottom of the note. Although my notes were small in total size, they had lots of separate lines ( meaning lots of carriage returns).

That specific problem ("very slow typing response in notes with lots of text lines") has been fixed, but EN V10.x is still slower when editing longer notes than editing shorter ones. My particular problem is fixed: there is no longer a 5 minute delay in typing a new text line in a note with lots of short text lines. But overall slow performance issues with EN v10.x are enough to keep me using Evernote Legacy until they are resolved.

[Ajinkya Pawar 4]

@PinkElephant @Jeff BassOh ok, that's a wonderful explanation! 

Great help brothers! Thank you very much!😊

[jFog 11]

I am having this issue - as I type I see that the text appears with a delay and often some characters are getting lost completely.

I am using the latest macOs and the latest Evernote versions as of today. This is incredibly frustrating and makes the app unusable.

[PinkElephant 8,088]

It is known that v10 has a problem with long, text based notes. It does not only make editing slow, it is probably a major reason for duplication as well. If you want to report it to EN, issue a support ticket.

As a workaround you can split the long notes into several smaller ones. To hold everything together create a table of content note. You can also introduce links to the next notes at the end of each partial note.

Since it needs some work to do it, I only recommend it for notes that you change frequently.

Once EN solves the problem, you can decide to join the notes again - although keeping them split into segments has other advantages as well, like being able to create links to specific points within of a longer text (which is another popular feature request).

[Davidrb 1]

I have this problem with the iPad version, but not the Mac version.  As I type this, there is only a modest lag, but I simply can’t use EN for anything else.  Unless there is a fix soon, I will need to change to a different app.  

BTW, this string starts roughly a year ago, and the issue is still not fixed.  Hard to believe this is a problem within EN’s control or capabilities at this stage. 

So, off to find something different…

[jFog 11]

Evernote used to be an amazingly useful piece of software - simple and useful.

Now it is bloated, full of useless ***** (see "Home"), ruined features, slow piece of garbage, I can't believe I am still paying for it.

This bug is a perfect example that they (Evernote team) no longer care. How bad can be a bug that does not allow to use normally a feature that is in the name of the product - NOTES! It is pretty freaking bad!

I have quite a few large notes that I am editing once in a while for years, it was not a problem on Windows but for some reason ON A MAC that always was a "home" platform for Evernote... I can't do it. It's just not usable.

This is sad, this is how good products die because of incompetent management that probably does not use their own product. I do not think this is an engineering problem, there is just not enough product care to bring it to the good shape.

Sad.

[PinkElephant 8,088]

To go to the core of your post (which is a challenge in itself): Very long, text based notes can be slow to edit. This was already answered: Break them down into several smaller notes, and the handling is back to normal.

EverNOTE is for creating and editing notes, else it would be called EverNOVEL.

If you want to report a bug, contact support.

[jFog 11]

The issue has been described here already, the core of my post - Evernote team does not care about the quality of the product anymore.

3000 words is not that big of a note, sorry but this can't be an excuse.

I do not believe it is not possible to solve technically, especially because it was not an issue for me on Windows and is an issue on a Mac.

[WilliamL 654]

38 minutes ago, jFog said:

The issue has been described here already, the core of my post - Evernote team does not care about the quality of the product anymore.

3000 words is not that big of a note, sorry but this can't be an excuse.

I do not believe it is not possible to solve technically, especially because it was not an issue for me on Windows and is an issue on a Mac.

3000? Something else is up. I have 15000 word docs that edit fine, with no lag on both my mobile devices and the pc. Not sure what the issue is but 3000 is nothing really. 

[jFog 11]

I do not have a lag neither on Windows nor on Android phone (at least I did not notice on one so far), but both my macs - old MBP from 2015 and new MBP M1 Pro - skip characters or/and show what I type with a delay in notes with 3000 words. Probably even less, I did not try to find the threshold.

[PinkElephant 8,088]

There might be some data corruption of the local database.

To replace it with a fresh copy, this is the procedure:

1. Go to the Evernote menu, Preferences, and uncheck „Keep data when leaving“
2. Log out of EN (File menu), quit EN (cmd-q). When asked confirm "Remove Data from This Device".
3. If you want to be very sure, restart the Mac
4. Open EN, log back in, wait for it to run an initial sync. 
5. Let the initial download run, and leave the app open. It will take a while to download the full content, for offline use.

On my MacBook Pro I don’t have any lagging, even on larger notes.

[jFog 11]

Thanks for the advice @PinkElephant, I will try that, but I am a bit skeptical because I've got my MBP M1 just recently and I did a fresh install on it (not TimeMachine) so everything including EN was brand new with fresh local databases.

[jFog 11]

@PinkElephant I do not have "Keep data when leaving" in the Preferences menu, is it the same as "Save Data at Log Out"?

[jFog 11]

OK, so I did the reset and it did not help, this lag has been inconsistent, I can type for some time now and then it starts lagging and then back to normal just to start lagging in 30 seconds again. I see the same behavior still.

Thanks for the suggestion though.

[PinkElephant 8,088]

Currently out of further ideas.

What you could try: Interrupt the editing for a moment, open another note briefly, then go back to the first one. Just to see if a) this changes something (which would point to a syncing issue) and b) as a workaround.

Further I would stay in contact with support.

[affectski 11]

Having a similar issue on Windows. It's more or less fine at around 10k words, starts lagging at ~15k, and becomes really frustrating at ~30k. Not unusable, but annoying, since I'm a fast typer, and it takes about an extra second for the words to appear.

The thing is, I use Evernote almost exclusively for journaling, and I write ~5k words per week. In the past, I could easily keep 6 months' worth of thoughts in a single note, last year I had to cut it down to 3 months per note due to lag, and now the lag is very noticeable after a few weeks of journaling.

Disabling spellcheck helped a little, but didn't really solve the problem. I guess it's just the way it is with EN.

[PinkElephant 8,088]

It does not make sense to blow up Note sizes, just because „it used to work“.

Define a reasonable note interval for journaling, like weekly or monthly. Create a TOC note that allows to jump quickly to a time period, the backlinks will take you back. This works better than this one long note, because there are no jump markers allowed inside of notes - between notes they are no problem, the note link is the jump marker.

For completeness: Which client version are you using ?

[Martinoz 2]

Quote

Evernote used to be an amazingly useful piece of software - simple and useful.

Now it is bloated, full of useless ***** (see "Home"), ruined features, slow piece of garbage, I can't believe I am still paying for it.

This bug is a perfect example that they (Evernote team) no longer care. How bad can be a bug that does not allow to use normally a feature that is in the name of the product - NOTES! It is pretty freaking bad!

I have quite a few large notes that I am editing once in a while for years, it was not a problem on Windows but for some reason ON A MAC that always was a "home" platform for Evernote... I can't do it. It's just not usable.

This is sad, this is how good products die because of incompetent management that probably does not use their own product. I do not think this is an engineering problem, there is just not enough product care to bring it to the good shape. I've stumbled upon a typing service that's revolutionizing the way I tackle written tasks. No longer do I have to spend hours typing up documents or reports myself. This service https://www.typingservice.org/ handles everything with finesse, from transcribing audio recordings to formatting documents flawlessly. Their quick turnaround times and commitment to quality ensure that deadlines are met without sacrificing accuracy. Thanks to them, I can focus my time and energy on other important aspects of my work, knowing that the typing is in capable hands.

Sad.

Well, I wouldn't sugarcoat it, as far as I'm concerned, the service has a second wind now.

[Glee 1]

Running the latest client on my Mac (see below for info on version and Mac OS) and am baffled by the incredibly slow typing response on an existing long note.    It is literally taking seconds per key stroke.

A new note, types as normal.

Fresh reboot of the machine did NOTHING.

I followed some of the advice in this thread including unchecking the option to save all notes locally, sign out, etc - no joy.

Evernote, please help!!!!!!!

I think this began with the latest or one of the latest updates.

Thanks

 

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[VincentC 264]

You are not on the latest version.  Latest is 10.83.5.