Database location

[Matt Whitby 8]

Really I most need Evernote on my work laptop, but due to the amount of space left on the SSD on C I can't use it. When will you implement the obvious feature of allowing users to choose the data location?  As a developer of 25+ years we all know it's a trivial thing to implement. If this is never going to get implemented I'll have to find a different solution.

[gazumped 11,652]

Hi.  With the Web client running on the same codebase and catching up rapidly on features,  would that be an option for you until Evernote make this an option?

[mchang 0]

How can I submit "change Evernote local database location" as a feature request?

[Horace_NYC 51]

On 3/7/2021 at 10:50 AM, Matt Whitby said:

Really I most need Evernote on my work laptop, but due to the amount of space left on the SSD on C I can't use it. When will you implement the obvious feature of allowing users to choose the data location?  As a developer of 25+ years we all know it's a trivial thing to implement. If this is never going to get implemented I'll have to find a different solution.

Hello, Matt. I am using the Legacy version (for now), and I have the same situation, even on my desktop machine, which only has 256GB for the C drive, but plenty of space on the D drive. My Evernote file structure is in fact on that D drive. I believe there are instructions on this forum for doing that and, if I remember correctly, it involved something like shutting down the Windows Evernote application, moving the entire directory from the C drive, and then restarting Evernote. Again, if I remember correctly, I was then asked where the directory was, and I pointed it to the D drive.

But it might be better to look for "move database" in this forum. I'm sure that's what I did when I made the move from C to D.

I hope this helps, but I must warn you: I'm really not clear on what Evernote is doing with the new version of their application when it comes to having a local database of all notes (which is what I need). So I'm not the best authority.

[gazumped 11,652]

2 minutes ago, Horace_NYC said:

I'm really not clear on what Evernote is doing with the new version of their application

HI.  It is still possible to move the database folder location in Legacy,  but that hasn't yet made it to version 10,  and may not be part of the longer-term plans.  The v10 database is less flexible and just (I think) meant as temporary storage and an optional offline service.

[Horace_NYC 51]

21 minutes ago, gazumped said:

HI.  It is still possible to move the database folder location in Legacy,  but that hasn't yet made it to version 10,  and may not be part of the longer-term plans.  The v10 database is less flexible and just (I think) meant as temporary storage and an optional offline service.

Thank you for this. And I wanted to get back to Matt, and now you as well, about a support chat I just had. They really don't recommend putting the database on a drive other than the C drive "because it might cause problems with the application."

So: #1 -- that's nonsense. Data are data and code should be able to work with data as long as the files are reachable using whatever addressing is supported by the OS. I seem to work just fine as I am, and I'm not putting data on a program drive when I have a proper data drive. Period.

And #2, you sure are right about the new database not being quite the equivalent of the old. For example: notes created offline have to be exported to be loaded once online (which is not how it works now, I can assure you; my internet provider had a cable cut recently, and I worked offline for two days, and everything synced as it should to the web as soon as I was back online; I didn't need to do anything special).

And #3 -- why do we have to speculate about this database? With all the blog and update nonsense they write, can't someone put out an architecture diagram with some text explaining what we can expect from each part of that architecture?

I'm scared. I'm playing with Nimbus Note really intensely, but its clipper is no substitute for Evernote, and its printing and save-to-PDF capabilities are dreadful. (They say they're working on both.)

I tried Notion too, but I don't make toy notes. I have real and extensive content formatted in a way that makes those notes readable to me, and my Evernote stuff just doesn't look as good in Nimbus (albeit closer than Notion, which is atrocious).

Sorry for the griping. Just needed to get it out of my system.

[DTLow 5,736]

25 minutes ago, Horace_NYC said:

And #2, you sure are right about the new database not being quite the equivalent of the old.

I can confirm the Version 10 database structure is completely different than the Legacy structure   
I don't know about "equivalent", but your logic seems reasonable

>>can't someone put out an architecture diagram with some text explaining what we can expect from each part of that architecture?

That's usually available for the user population    
Did you have such information for the Legacy product?

[Horace_NYC 51]

31 minutes ago, DTLow said:

Did you have such information for the Legacy product?

No, that's true. I didn't. But it all worked, so I was happy. For a number of my development tools, the vendors do make such information available. And for Evernote, it shouldn't be that hard to write.

Thank you for confirming the status of the new database. It gives me something to think about. I'm not giving up on Evernote yet. They may win me around.

[dscnly 4]

I just want to support this. I've just put Evernote onto my new PC, but I have installed 6.25 Legacy as I need the database to NOT be on the C drive. Oddly, when Evernote upgraded to version 10 on my old PC it never complained or objected that the database is on the G drive. But on the new PC the option to pick where the database is to reside it not open to me (or wasn't until I uninstalled Version 10 and installed version 6).

For me, this is a good example of the 'upgrade' to version 10 being a 'downgrade' in usefulness. 

 

 

[agsteele 2,942]

31 minutes ago, mchang said:

How can I submit "change Evernote local database location" as a feature request?

You're in the right place just here. Just vote this topic up at the top of the page.

[dscnly 4]

Just as an aside - I think I found a work-around for this that works with version 10 (but I am sticking with V6 legacy in spite of having a fix). This will only work if Evernote 10 is not running or in the system tray

Copy the Evernote folder from c:\users\username\appdata\roaming\ to somewhere that you want on another drive  eg - G:\data\EvernoteV10\ - once you are sure it has copied delete the evernote folder under roaming

run a command prompt as "administrator"

cd to c:\users\username\appdata\roaming\

enter mklink /j evernote G:\data\EvernoteV10  (or whatever path\name you have used - if your path has spaces in it use quotes "G:\data\Evernote V10"

That creates a dynamic junction from roaming folder to the data folder on new drive, but in testing it seems that Evernote will think that it's files are exactly where it left them and seems happy to follow the dynamic link without needing the actual files to be on the C drive. It worked for me anyway, so I hope it works for others.

But what I also discovered in this is that the local database isn't the database, it's seems to be just a few notes that have been downloaded to work on. There no longer seems to be a local copy of the full database on the local PC - it's all 'in the cloud', so inaccessible to me when my network is busy. Because of that I will be sticking with V6 legacy until my current annual subscription expires in 6 months, then probably going over to Notejoy. I discovered that Notejoy also insists on saving its data in the %appdata%\roaming\ folder on C - but it is also happy to work with a dynamic link so I can actually put all the files somewhere else.  And it seem that like Evernote V6, it is a full copy of the database on the PC, so offline work is not a problem. I just hope all this is still the case in September when I need to make the change over. 

[Matt Whitby 8]

Hello all.

Sorry for the delay. I did chat to support and they said there are no plans to move the database/files off of c drive. This isn't a technical decision. I believe it it's a commercial decision to stop anyone from getting anywhere near their 10gb/month limit.

[DTLow 5,736]

36 minutes ago, Matt Whitby said:

I believe it it's a commercial decision to stop anyone from getting anywhere near their 10gb/month limit.

fwiw  The local database is optional, and only used for offline access

[Matt Whitby 8]

Thanks DTLow, but I do often need offline access.