How can I temporarily prevent my PC from synching

[promosinc 16]

I accidentally deleted some text in one of my notes and I'm trying to retrieve it.  I am an Evernote Plus paid user.  All my other connected devices (Android phone, Kindle Fire tablet) seem to synch my Evernote notes in real time, but on my PC desktop there is a slight delay when I open Evernote and then synching begins, so I'm thinking this might be my best hope for retrieving the lost text. Could someone tell me how to turn off synching for Evernote just on my PC or temporarily for all devices? Do I do this on Evernote.com or would opening that force the sync to my desktop app?

[PinkElephant 8,170]

Cut all internet connections, WiFi and LAN cable.

But I am pretty sure it is too late for that. If you use v10 (not legacy), the sync has most likely already taken place.

[PinkElephant 8,170]

When you look at the bottom right of your notes window on any desktop client, you will see a greyed text like "All changes synced". Whenever you change something, you will see this text briefly change, and then go back to this standard. This is syncing in action, and it usually is FAST.

You can only try to cut one of your other devices to prevent syncing there. So go to flight mode with your Android, then open EN.

The note is still there as it was before the change ? Then duplicate the note, close both copies, and reconnect to the internet. The duplicated note will sync independently from the other.

[PinkElephant 8,170]

If both methods did not work, there is only note history. With Plus and Free you can't access it, but it is running for your account as well, grabbing changes in the background, keeping versions of older states of the notes.

You need to go at least on a personal subscription to be able to access note history.

Warning: You can go to Personal (for a month, or longer), but you can't go back to Plus then. It is staying with Personal (or any other current subscription), or falling back to Free.

This depends on your decision, whether the content is more important or your current subscription level.

[promosinc 16]

Thank you for your responses, PinkElephant. I have lost the old text on my Android phone and on my tablet, but I think on my desktop client (or app -- I'm on Windows 10), there is a setting to determine how often I want it to synch. So when I open it, I can see the synch icon spinning, in other words it has not already synched as it does with my other devices. But is there no setting at Evernote.com web that I can use to stop all syncing temporarily? I'm really not sure whether I'm running legacy or the updated version on my PC. It looks like legacy to me, and I'm most comfortable with that for now, but I just can't remember how I set it up last year when I got this new computer. If it is the legacy app or Windows client, is there anything I can do? I don't want to open it to check because then I will surely lose the old note. I want to remain with Plus for now, so updating to Personal is not the right choice for me.

[PinkElephant 8,170]

If you see a syncing wheel at the top of the window, you are on the legacy client. For Windows it is 6.25.

But since you say the Android and tablet have already updated, the web server (holding the master copy) has probably synced as well. EN does only sync through the web server - they never sync device2device.

You can't prevent the web server from syncing - it is sitting in a Google data center, and they are listening to the web all the time.

The only sync you can prevent is that of any device - usually by cutting the internet connection, plain and simple.

If you go to the web client, and look it up, this is the sync status on the web server.

On which device did you do the accidental change ?

[promosinc 16]

I did the accidental change on my Android Pixel 2XL

[PinkElephant 8,170]

The mobile client syncs when the note is closed on the device.

It goes from there to the server. It will go to any other device as soon as a device gets online with the EN client open (maybe with a little lagging).

If your PC was not active, or if EN on your PC was not active then, it could not yet sync. To sync, the PC must be on, EN must be open and the internet connection must exist.

If you cut the internet connection, you can prevent syncing. Pull the LAN cable from the PC (if it has one plugged), switch off the Router (if you can). Then start the PC, and to be sure switch off the WiFi there as well. Try to open a browser and type a website into it - if it does not connect to any web site, you are offline.

You can now open the EN client, go to the note and open it. It can't sync. If it is still the old note, you are in luck. Make a duplicate of that note, maybe even copy the content manually to a new note. Then close EN. Restore the internet connection, make the browser test (it should connect now).

When you now restart EN, the new notes (the duplicate and copy) will sync with the server, and the other devices. Maybe the old note is overwritten, but you have the duplicate and the copy, preserving the old state.

If the EN client on the PC has already synced, you will see the new version of the note there as well. Then all that won't help.

Then it is note history, as described above, which will kill your Plus status, or the content is gone for now. As long as the note is not deleted, it will keep the note history, so you can come back to it in the future, when on a relevant subscription level.

[PinkElephant 8,170]

I am off now, bed time.

[promosinc 16]

Thank you so much, Pink Elephant, for your very thorough answers and your guidance. It's greatly appreciated and I think I understand my options. At the risk of sounding like a total wuss, we just went through a very tricky cable to fiber optic conversion, and the tech was very specific about not messing with the fiber optic wire, so I'm a little panicked about cutting the connection. I will call Comcast after Thanksgiving and discuss this. I don't really want to give up my Plus subscription.

Thank you again and a very happy Thanksgiving to you. I will report back if I can manage to save the old note.

[agsteele 2,952]

Just turn off WiFi or unplug the network cable from the computer. You don't need anything as radical as disconnecting your internet service.

[promosinc 16]

Thank you - will do. 

[PinkElephant 8,170]

Right, just pull the network cable from the PC. It has a little notch you need to press to unlock it.

Unless you are running an enterprise style home network, you do not have fiber to the devices. It is nearly 100% a standard Ethernet cable.

To make it work again, just put the unplugged cable back in and wait a moment.

Maybe you don’t have an Ethernet cable, if your computer is only connected by WiFi. You need to disable the WiFi (if it is active, which is often the case) anyhow. This can be done in Windows system settings, network.

If you have both, the computer is cut from the internet only if BOTH are disabled.

Another option is to disable your router - usually done by just pulling the power source from the electric outlet. This will cut all Internet connections, for the whole home network.

Then it is not necessary to do anything with your computer. To check if the internet is off just open a browser, and call a website. If it is giving you an error, internet is off.

Then open EN and take a look.

To restore the router, just plug the power back in. It will go through internal routines and reconnect the internet - this usually takes 2-3 minutes.