Problem in version 10.5 when starting the app offline

[Jörn Pachl 5]

When starting the app, a short configuration procedure will be passed before the database is opened. When the device was offline for quite a while without Evernote running, that configuration procedure requires a data connection, otherwise it will fail. Then, you cannot open your database, not even the locally stored notes. That's very annyoing. I often use Android devices offline. There are also 'WiFi only' Android devices that do not have a data connection when no suitable WiFi network is in reach. I now always start Evernote at home before leaving the house. That's a little bit clumsy, however. On another device, I still have version 8.13 running that does not have that problem.

[Alxa 502]

I tested this with EN 10.6. I also see the obvious lag in starting up cold without internet connection. But eventually I could get a glimpse on my offline notebooks at least... sadly the notes did not show none of the embeded images which they did when online. Considering that, offline is not totally working for me too. Aside to the huge performance drop missing consistent offline handling it is one of the big show stoppers with EN 10 for Android. Schade!

@Jörn Pachl maybe you could add the offline topic to your thread title to make it clear to more users. Thanks.

[Jörn Pachl 5]

It seems to depend on how long the device was offline. After a short time, the text notes are still there but all the attachments are gone. After a longer period of time, the configuration fails, and an empty database appears.

This seems to be related with another issue I just noticed. In older versions, for each notebook, there was a button by which you could activate and deactivate an offline mode. With offline activated, all content for that notebook including all file attachments was downloaded to your device. So, it was always available independent from a data connection. Here, a screenshot from version 8.13:

In version 10.x, that button is gone:

[PinkElephant 8,996]

On the EN iOS client, in the settings, you need to go to notebooks, offline notebooks and select the notebook(s) you want to have offline. Then a download starts (there are many threads in the forum about this process - read the newer ones, everything before v10.5 may not apply any longer). Probably the mobile clients are similar, I don't run any Android device.

Only what was downloaded to offline will be there when going offline.

The rest is cached maybe, but will go away while memory is reused. This is specific to Android, that has a different memory management than iOS. In iOS, it is gone the moment you close the app.

[Jörn Pachl 5]

Thanks, I just found it also in the Android version. So, it has just moved. However, there is still the configuration problem when starting after a longer offline period. Then, not only the contents of the notes are missing, there is not even a list of notes. I will make a screenshot when it happens next.

[PinkElephant 8,996]

EN v10 is build around being online - it is basically a session within of a browser (the framework). With iOS it is reliably there, but without offline notebooks only some short information and the thumbnails, plus a search index. Before I downloaded my offline notebooks, I had appr. 450MB of app data - now with a full download it is 19GB.

Offline download works for me, since 10.5 it is reliably updating as well. I have both my iPhone and my iPad prepped with a full offline download. In this setup it is even better than the desktop client on the Mac, where offline content relies on the syncing process and can only be switched on or off, but not explicitly set like in the offline notebook settings of the mobile clients.

[Jörn Pachl 5]

Just found out that the problem only occurs when starting offline after the cache has been deleted. The Evernote app seems to store everything just in the cache, even the notebooks for which the offline mode was activated.

[PinkElephant 8,996]

Interesting difference between the mobile clients - on iOS there is no EN cache, just the app itself, and then a container called app data (as with all other apps). Offline data is in this container.To remove it, the whole app needs to be deleted.

[Jörn Pachl 5]

I just downgraded to version 8.13.3 of which I still had an apk on an older device. Now, everything is running again nicely. There is no longer that problem with starting the app offline, not even after having deleted the cache. So, the problem was obviously related with some changes made in a later version.

[Jörn Pachl 5]

Actually, that solution did not really work. After some time, Evernote automatically upgraded to version 10.6. Normally I get asked whether or not to accept an upgrade, but not this time. Good news is, that version 10.6 runs better than 10.5.