Useless .enex imported file of all my notes and still need to sync from scratch!

[Lovely Elephant 5]

Hi

I had to reinstall my Windows OS. Before that, exported all my notes into a .enex file (about 700 MB / 2500 notes). Now in the fresh Windows, I installed Evernote and while disconnected the internet, imported the .enex file of all my notes. It imported successfully, but it just a single file of all notes, without the notebooks that I named, it's a mixed single file of all notes that many of them are unrelated to each other and need to be tidy and classified! That’s the disappointing importing process and why Evernote did like this and why it didn’t keep my notebooks (with their names like before) and its notes inside them? It seems I should select notes one by one and create the notebooks from scratch and send the related notes to specific own notebooks.

Another horrible thing is, when I start to sync, Evernote brings back the notebooks that I need and also their notes from cloud service, and it doesn’t care about the imported .enex file and that is completely useless and now I post my question here, Evernote syncing to get all notebooks and own notes. 

So export/import function for me is useless, I thought after importing function, Evernote won't download the notes from the cloud service, because I have them all, just sync to see what things have changed:

1- I expect in export/import function, Evernote keeps my named notebooks with notes inside them and recovers them as they showed before reinstalling Windows, not a mixed single file that needs to rearrange from scratch to their own notebooks.

2- And when start to connect and sync, Evernote recognizes the notes and doesn’t import them again. Just sync the difference and changes.

I’m a free plan user – Evernote 6.24.2 on Windows 10.

Best
Masoud🙂

[DTLow 5,721]

5 hours ago, Lovely Elephant said:

It imported successfully, but it just a single file of all notes, without the notebooks

This is a limitation of the enex export; it does not include notebook details    
To preserve notebook assignment, use separate exports for each notebook   
   
Also, The export does not include note-id   
The import creates new notes

>> I had to reinstall my Windows OS ...imported the .enex file of all my notes. 

The best practice is to simply log into your account   
The sync process will restore your local notes database from the server (except for Local Notebooks)

[CalS 5,108]

5 hours ago, Lovely Elephant said:

1- I expect in export/import function, Evernote keeps my named notebooks with notes inside them and recovers them as they showed before reinstalling Windows, not a mixed single file that needs to rearrange from scratch to their own notebooks.

You have to export and import by notebook for this to work.  Mostly useful as a backup, particularly for local notebooks in the legacy version.  Can be used for a fresh start but download is safer, even if it does take longer.

[Lovely Elephant 5]

15 hours ago, DTLow said:

This is a limitation of the enex export; it does not include notebook details    
To preserve notebook assignment, use separate exports for each notebook   
   
Also, The export does not include note-id   
The import creates new notes

The best practice is to simply log into your account   
The sync process will restore your local notes database from the server (except for Local Notebooks)

It's too bad the exported/imported file doesn't include the notebooks details and note-IDs. Export notebooks could be a good idea to import one by one instead of a mixed confusing single file.

After this experience, I agree with live sync to restore the notes. It's a better than .enex method for me. Fortunately, my notes are simple, light notes of webpages, not media like audio or video, and didn't take too much, even with my low-speed connection! 

11 hours ago, CalS said:

You have to export and import by notebook for this to work.  Mostly useful as a backup, particularly for local notebooks in the legacy version.  Can be used for a fresh start but download is safer, even if it does take longer.

Yes, download and sync is safer and better.