Need Local Notebooks Back or I Have to Cancel Subscription

[easygreenus 3]

My employer is a technology company. They can't risk Evernote snooping through the company secrets in my notebooks, or Evernote setting that Data. Not in a nefarious way, but just selling general customer data. Many if not all companies have found that data about their customers is a very valuable asset.

Or, what are the chances Evernote will get hacked?  Or, they succumbed  to Ransomware like that pipeline company?  

If all my notebooks are local, its on me to protect it.

Easygreenus

[EVBV50 0]

Local vs. Online Notebooks was a beauty.  That was the PURPOSE of using Evernote. 

It is inane that they removed this feature.  We need to depend on their security ??  

My account has been breached multiple times in the past year already. 

 

Please bring back Local Notebooks + include security for each notebook !!! 

[easygreenus 3]

I mistakenly allowed Evernote to upgrade my copy of their software and I have regretted it every since. I can't use a product that removes control of my companies proprietary Data.  Having access from multiple devices has zero value to me. Privacy and Security are the only things I care about..

I have had a subscription and depended on the Evernote application since 2014.

I have to ask myself, why risk loosing a significant portion of your customer base by removing an EXISTING feature like Local Notebooks. The only answer I can come up with is they have realized the value of their customers data. They must be selling it.  Maybe not any specific note or notebook, but by aggregating data about location, use, etc for other customers to add to their analytics.

Thinks about that when you add a note with confidential data.

If they don't add Local Notebooks back by the time my subscription renews (2 months), I'm not renewing.

Easygreenus

[TerryS 13]

Easygreenus:

I'm sad for everyone in your position. I attended Stacey Harmon's webinar about the new Evernote and it seems that *local* notebooks are gone forever.

My notes: what is not returning? Local notebooks; presentation mode; context; scansnap evernote edition firmware and software; outlook clipper

At present, none of those bother me. However, if my employer forbids online notebooks someday, I will have to find another tool/system too.

*edited to be precise--See DT Low, below.

Edited May 14, 2021 by TerryS
For consistent definition for a local notebook.

[PinkElephant 8,117]

@easygreenus BlaBlaBla

They must be doing this or that … evil forces at work … world conspiracy … where is my alu foil hat …

The reason for not supporting local notebooks in the new version is much simpler: It is based on a framework, which is practically a browser without an own user interface. The framework handles the relation between EN client (running embedded) and the computer on which it is running.

It doesn’t support local storage.

If you want to have local storage, you can continue to use it with the legacy client.

This will stop working one day: So you better think about exporting your stuff meanwhile to a solution of your choice that is based on local storage.

[DTLow 5,736]

42 minutes ago, TerryS said:

it seems that offline notebooks are gone forever ... My notes: what is not returning? Local notebooks

To be clear, Online notebooks are data stored on the server (the master version for syncing)    
                      Offline notebooks are a data copy stored on the device (for access while offline) 
                      Local notebooks are data stored only on the device; not uploaded to the server

Local notebooks are only supported by the Evernote Legacy product   
Online and Offline notebooks are supported by both the Legacy and v10 products

[TerryS 13]

Thank you, I was not clear on that!

[PinkElephant 8,117]

About the other features they took away:

Presentation mode: Probably too much coding for too little usage 

Context: Not sure about this, maybe a coding issue. I think it would put quite a load on the server, now that everything is running off the cloud storage.

EN edition ScanSnap: The ix500 is end of life, when you go to the Fujitsu web site. So maybe nobody wanted to code new software for them. They are not bricked, they can be converted to standard ix500 by firmware download. However scanner support in general is weak on the v10 client.

Outlook clipper: Probably the same thing - MS is supporting the O365 solutions.

At the moment the support for offline (not local) content is better on the mobile platform. One can choose which notebooks to download, the status is transparent. For me the desktop v10 clients are sort of a black box regarding offline content.

There is quite a lot that needs to be added to v10 - currently a mix of legacy and v10 is probably needed to support more advanced workflows.

[gazumped 11,667]

14 hours ago, easygreenus said:

My employer is a technology company. They can't risk Evernote snooping through the company secrets in my notebooks, or Evernote setting that Data. Not in a nefarious way, but just selling general customer data. Many if not all companies have found that data about their customers is a very valuable asset.

Or, what are the chances Evernote will get hacked?  Or, they succumbed  to Ransomware like that pipeline company?  

If all my notebooks are local, its on me to protect it.

Easygreenus

Hi.  Local notebooks won't be back - see your other post for the reasons why - which are purely techical,  not part of some weird conspiracy.  As I understand it - purely as a user - any notes you sync with Evernote are as secure as any assets you store with online banking.  It's true that if information is online it's at risk - but then unless you have a PC that is not connected to any internal or external network,  information on your PC is probably more exposed to hacking than anything deposited with Evernote. 

All you have to do is click on an email attachment / load the wrong web page / go to a business page that has been hijacked by malware,  and you could be ransomed at home. 

Evernote is in the business of protecting its clients' data,  like your bank is in the business of protecting your cash.  They do that full time.  They are (trust me) better at it than you would be! 

There is more from them on the topic...

• How does Evernote use my personal information and data?

[easygreenus 3]

I work in a high security area. My laptop is so locked down its barely usable as a computer device unless I'm on a company secured network.

There's no technical reason why Evernote can't bring back local notebooks. They've had to do work to remove them. They made a choice and there must be an economic reason they did it.

Just like Alexa.  With current technology available, there's no reason they can't do local voice processing. There must be a reason Amazon sends all the voice clips they gather to servers in Romania which lacks data privacy laws.

[easygreenus 3]

P.S. - The government won't let us put our work in any of the clouds. We can't use AWS, Azure, Google, nothing. 

[DTLow 5,736]

On 5/16/2021 at 8:37 PM, easygreenus said:

There's no technical reason why Evernote can't bring back local notebooks.

My understanding the technical reason being the Version 10 product is cloud based

[kevinma 0]

No local notebooks.  Goodbye Evernote. Been using since day one.  

[gazumped 11,667]

16 hours ago, kevinma said:

No local notebooks.  Goodbye Evernote. Been using since day one.  

It's nice that you joined the forum specially to say goodbye.  Please do tell us what other solution you find out there.

[PinkElephant 8,117]

Especially what other solutions that are not cloud based …

Personally I know 2 on MacOS, and none for Windows, plus the pretty reduced options from some NAS-companies. Would be nice if there are some more.

[DTLow 5,736]

19 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

Especially what other solutions that are not cloud based … Personally I know 2 on MacOS

Care to share?      
Devonthink is a solution

[PinkElephant 8,117]

Apple Notes is the second. It has an option to store on device only, avoiding iCloud.

Pretty different - DT is very deep, costs money (one timer) and maybe even more learning. AN comes for free, is rather flat and basic - but has full OS integration and surprising features from the OS level.

The NAS systems are simple in their features, no comparison to DT or EN. Their advantage is that you host your notes yourself on the NAS. By installing access to your home network, you can sync your notes over multiple devices, without ever loosing control. It stays your data, because you run your own cloud-style server.

But it needs a significant investment, you need to be able to install and maintain a safe home network and server, and the result is pretty basic compared to cloud services.

[PinkElephant 8,117]

Probably it is an illusion that your local data is more secure than the one in a data center. You need to do it all by yourself: Backups local and remotely, network security, updating all software you are using (including these you are not aware of using, like your router software) etc.

If your account was breached, you have not done enough to protect it: Only use strong & unique passwords, activate 2FA, make sure your access is secure when on public WiFi or (worse) public computers.

If you fail to secure your account, I have serious doubt that you are able to protect your home network, including your local notebooks. That nothing has happened until today does not prove it is secure.

Apart from this discussion (I believe everybody needs to think it through and take an informed decision) you can continue with local notebooks as long as legacy works. EN made it clear local notebooks will not return to v10.

There are alternatives with local storage, at least for Apple devices.

[DTLow 5,736]

5 hours ago, EVBV50 said:

That was the PURPOSE of using Evernote. 

I wouldn't use the word "purpose" but the Local Notebooks feature was a benefit for my use 

>> + include security for each notebook !!! 

A new request? - please provide details

[gazumped 11,667]

6 hours ago, EVBV50 said:

My account has been breached multiple times in the past year already. 

If you're having warnings from Evernote,  I'd suggest you check the IP address in their emails.  I've had two warnings this year about 'third party access' from foreign countries,  but miraculously all these hits came from my own IP address.  It's an issue with IP addressing (I think) that the country-of-origin is a tad imprecise...

(If you haven't had warnings from Evernote - what makes you think you were hacked?)

[PinkElephant 8,117]

This „foreign access“ can happen as well when using a VPN, DNS cloak or the TOR network to access your own account.

[gazumped 11,667]

Yes - I use VPN so my IP changes from time to time.  I'm connecting to a UK server,  but -apparently- their IP addresses come up as originating in various foreign countries,  hence the alerts.

[kevinma 0]

On 5/18/2021 at 6:39 PM, kevinma said:

No local notebooks.  Goodbye Evernote. Been using since day one.  

Heh.  So I decided I could live without the local notebooks.  I even gave them $ to upgrade to personal.  Found out I was using an old version of Windows app which I kind of liked. When I added "personal" which has no features I need but I felt I should throw them some money cause I was using it heavily, new feature pops up taking up screen real estate., contact them to figure out how to disable, they don't know how, and tell me I'm using the old version, we install the new version......

Oh my lord, this is what everyone is complaining about.   They set this product back 10 years easily.  Kind of looks like cartoon.

And I'm knee deep in the Windows app which will go away soon.  Ut oh. 

Time to seriously search for something decent.  This new thing is like bad.  No font choice, all my notes are now defaulted to this huge comic style font.  

On the good side, they happily refunded my purchase.

 

[PinkElephant 8,117]

Maybe they made a quick calculation and found out: This guy will „employ“ a support worker alone - better we let him go 😉 for /to Free.

On legacy: There is no communicated date when it will stop working. I think it will run as long as the OS is allowing it to run - which on Windows may be practically forever, who knows.

[mynah 1]

On 5/19/2021 at 6:56 PM, PinkElephant said:

Especially what other solutions that are not cloud based …

Personally I know 2 on MacOS, and none for Windows, plus the pretty reduced options from some NAS-companies. Would be nice if there are some more.

OneNote for Windows (formerly OneNote 2016) remains free, and OneNote 2019 and 2021 is included in the respective standalone Office packages. They are designed to sync over OneDrive but will also use notebooks stored locally. They do seem to require a MS account, as does Windows itself.

[Jon/t 1,292]

21 minutes ago, mynah said:

OneNote for Windows (formerly OneNote 2016) remains free, and OneNote 2019 and 2021 is included in the respective standalone Office packages. They are designed to sync over OneDrive but will also use notebooks stored locally. They do seem to require a MS account, as does Windows itself.

OneNote is very good, I used it for a while. You do have to pay for an Office 365 license for offline notebook use though.

The main reason I moved back to EN was that OneNote seems to be going down a more educational route and I like the more productivity approach from EN.

[PinkElephant 8,117]

The easiest solution to keep content local with EN v10 is to link files on the own drive into EN notes.

They can be organized and tagged as usual, you can add some text with keywords as well. The files themselves stay outside of EN.

Personally I think most of what is discussed to be „local“ content can as well be stored inside of the cloud account - most of it is not that secret as it is discussed, and the cloud content is pretty well protected, if you keep your account safe (strong, unique password plus 2FA).

[mynah 1]

Thank you for the suggestion. I might be able to use it for working with local files on my drive. That would be a new use for EN, but not something OneNote could not do as well or better.

However, as I explained in another thread, my reason for local notebooks was not because of trust issues. I basically resigned on that long ago when EN moved to the US. I had originally chosen it specifically because it was based in Switzerland.

I turned to local notebooks again recently to remove some 25k notes from the cloud to see if that would help with the intolerable EN 10 performance issues on Android and Windows. There was, in fact, some improvement. But I do not want to lose 10 years of hand-built associations, tags etc. among those 25k notes, as well as their original timeline.

A re-import from .enex I did some years ago when I got this new computer destroyed my timeline and also lost the contents of some thousand notes. The time and date of a clipping is important reference data when the original Web page disappears.

But I really appreciate your holding up the tent.

[PinkElephant 8,117]

Personally I have no problem with local notebooks - I have never used them.

It makes no sense to me to choose and pay a cloud based service, with a ton of server based functions, and withhold relevant documents from this service. If I want to keep stuff local, I keep it out of EN (or other cloud based services) altogether. I run my own NAS with some TB of disk capacity, so I am not short of space to fill. But it is not there for secrecy, it simply works much faster than any cloud for my pictures.

But thinking about solutions is fun, even if I don’t want to use them myself.

[CalS 5,280]

Upside to local notebooks in old EN was the ability to search across all notes in one place.

[PinkElephant 8,117]

Tempi passati ...

A workaround will not be a 100% solution. Anyhow one can still search in the folder(s) holding the linked files.

[CalS 5,280]

Mox nix.  I know the horse left the barn when EN opted not to include local notebook features in V10.  Point is searching local (confidential) and synced notebooks concurrently in one place was a benefit of old EN.  Hence the angst for some with use cases different than yours.  It is what it is.  🤷‍♂️

[PinkElephant 8,117]

Sometimes it makes sense to rethink use cases. The use may change, or the environment.

When the local storage for EN was created, the world was just testing the cloud waters, and ransom was a real world issue, not a virtual pest.

Holding data in local storage implies you need to keep it safe yourself. This means investing significant amounts of time, money and effort. Some may not want to do it, more are simply not able to do it. It is not that simple any more, most devices are online these days.

It needs to be said that „local storage“ is not the safe haven it used to be. A well run cloud service (like EN provides) is safer and more secure. 

About the privacy there is no need to argue. It boils down to a question of trust, if you decide to accept the measures taken by the service. If you don’t, you are free to use the onion concept: Put the content into an encrypted container, using another encryption program. There are some open source solutions available with solid reviews about their performance and security.

Then place the encrypted content into a note as attachment. Use tags and/or text to make the content searchable without compromising its details. „Tax declaration 2021“ will be found, without telling a word about the figures and details.

Personally I think practically nothing a person holds in an EN account (legitimate content, that is) needs any further treatment than simple, good account security. I do not hold the keys to nuke my neighbors, or to blackmail my boss. And who cares I paid some taxes (like anybody does) or have interests. The tracking of internet and messenger use tells more about us than what we store in our notes.

Other users may have other levels of personal security needs. Fine with me, just don’t spend life time and quality over bothering. Life is too short to be wasted like that.