Still trouble with the refactored version after more than a year - functionally unusable

[mynah 1]

I am not talking about functions lost and disrupted workflow of a dedicated user. I am not talking about new features I may or may not need. I am not talking about Windows and Android versions, where I don't know where to look for a function and therefore do not know if it is there or not.

I could resign myself and even sort of enjoy starting all over with the new version, inventing new workflows and trying out new features.

The problem is that my Evernote apps do not work at all (except for the Web Clipper, to be fair.)

Today I wanted to find something in the Desktop app. The search was extremely slow, but came up with some hits. The tiles showed up, but the content of the note did not appear in the right panel and I was not able to open the note in a new tab. Then the app stopped completely and needed to be restarted. 

During the past year, there has not been one try of the Android app or the Windows desktop where the function I tried to use physically worked. When I opened the Android app, at first it would crash directly, then it would get stuck on the splash screen, now it tries to import the last clip I sent to it weeks ago. Manual sync will not sync new notes, so they stay on my phone indefinitely. I am tired of sending in tickets for any of these misbehaviors and getting answers that don't fit. 

As a software test specialist, this is a failure of function. EN should have automatic tests running every second before releasing anything at all.

[PinkElephant 6,213]

For some it works, for others not. I have shifted nearly everything to v10, legacy is really just a fallback for me - not used now since some weeks. OK, Mac and iOS - I think desktop should not make a difference, Android on mobile probably does.

Since you don’t tell about the volume and type of notes, no idea for reasons. On Android I have no personal experience.

On the desktop you could try this. It will rebuild the local database:

1. Go to File > Sign Out [name] from the menu bar.
2. Select the "Remove my Evernote data from this device" option, then click Sign out.
3. Restart your computer.
4. Sign back in to Evernote

[mynah 1]

Thank you, Pink. I did not give details on purpose, because it's no longer about troubleshooting issues. As I said, during the past year, I have not had one occasion where EN for Windows or Android worked. I have been getting along with legcy, but that also lags for minutes at a time.

Interesting that it works for some. In the reviews of the Android app, occasionally there is a satisfied customer, but most reviews have been negative and disappointed since the refactor. Each person reports a different problem, or just lagging, or not being able to open the app at all.

Maybe I have too many notes, some 30K (and I believe about 10K have been lost). Now I am going to start my daily operations with Nimbus, backup all my notes to OneNote, and start deleting notebooks from EN. Some years ago, I tried to park older archives in an .enex file, but found that they can not be restored without losing all dates and tags. I also considered creating local folders and moving them to a local backup, but I don't know whether they can be restored.

I will continue to check in on EN from time to time, even rebuild everything as you suggest, to see if things improve, but I will not renew my subscription.

 

[PinkElephant 6,213]

30k is a lot, but within system limits. 

But anyhow, wish you lock.

[mynah 1]

Dear PinkElephant. here another update.

The other day, I had the idea that my problems with the the new version (Android and Windows: physically not working, lagging forever, not capturing shares etc.) might be due to too many notes (30k). So I went ahead and created local notebooks in Legacy such as L-2016, L-2017 etc while keeping only working notes in synced notebooks (now around 2k), On the positive side, tags and, I believe, OCR data has been preserved.

Then I reinstalled EN on Android. Now the performance is acceptable and some things are working.

Then I find out: there are no local notebooks in the EN 10 version. NO way am I re-importing all that reference material, only to have EN choke on it.

In another thread, you explain patiently that cloud syncing is the whole point of EN. Well, there are plenty of other free and low-priced solutions for taking and retrieving notes on different devices, having some workflow, and collaboration. The actual note page on OneNote, for example, is much more responsive and easy to edit. I can live with a workflow from onenote, as it was available at work where Evernote was not allowed.

What I was using EN for was to develop a knowledge network database, carefully evolving keywords, tags, links, saved searches and so on over more than ten years. I will now have to try to recapture all that intuitive thinking in a different language. Physically, Backupery has saved all the material, and I can search it on my disk using Copernic - though it will be hard to find pictures that way. EN has already ruined my timeline by updating all notes re-imported from .enex to a new date some years ago when I got my new computer. Why not back up the creation date in a new field or as text when exporting.

When Legacy goes, I will be gone too. Let EN try their luck with a new generation of users who have tons of productivity and collaboration tools to choose from. I use those at work all the time.

Thank you for all your help!

P.S. I have given up on Nimbus, had trouble with my first new note. They don't have internal links yet, only links to share outside the program. Might check out Joplin.

[PinkElephant 6,213]

There are a lot cloud based services, and there are only a few running off a local memory. As long as you go for cloud, there is a lot of options. When going for localy stored solutions, the field is thinning out a lot - maybe too little choice. When there are alternatives, it is always a good thing by objective measure. But too many alternatives can ruin the day, because you can never be sure you picked the best solution. Some shrug the thought off, other are paralyzed by it.

Maybe 30k notes are (too) much for v10 - I have a forth of this number, and probably a different use case. That EN v10 does not support local notebooks was communicated with the initial release notes. With 30k notes and an elaborated structure you will have a hard time finding a service that does and performs similarly.

v10 allows to export to ENEX choosing a lot of attributes. For example creation and change date can be selected or deselected. When selected, the imported notes hold all the original dates. However the export from and back into legacy preserved these dates as well - there were just no options, less choice than with v10.

 

[mynah 1]

Hallo, PinkElephant, wusste gar nicht, dass Sie Deutsch verwenden :  )

Mein Problem mit Wiederherstellung aus .enex ist schon sehr lange her, vielleicht hat sich das seither verbessert und das Erstellungsdatum wird jetzt mitgespeichert.

On 7/2/2015 at 10:06 PM, JMichaelTX said:

Nice article, BUT, it fails to inform the user of the major limitations of using ENEX files.

One issue with ENEX export/import that everyone should be aware of is that you will lose information in this process:

1. All Note Links to any of the Notes in the ENEX are broken, lost, and will have to be recreated.
2. The ENEX files do not contain any Notebook data.
3. When you Import the ENEX file, the Note Created Date is lost, and set to the current date/time.
4. To preserve Tags in the ENEX files, you must check the checkbox to include Tags during both the export and import process
5. Tag hierarchy is not preserved.  If you had one, it will need to be recreated after the import process
6. If the ENEX files came from Sync'd Notebooks,
   1. the Sync'd NB will have to be recreated, and the import of the ENEX Notes moved into the appropriate NB.
   2. Moving these Notes into Sync'd NBs will go against your monthly upload allowance

Thanks again for your patience.

My issue is not with local storage. I can change my use cases, and use Copernic for local searches. My problems are the performance and fuctionality issues in Android and Windows that have persisted for more than a year now. Open Evernote on Android and see a little green elephant for minutes. Unsynced notes with blue corners finally appear, but there is no sync button. Find "synchronize now" with 5 clicks in the settings, but new notes don't arrive and the blue corners persist.

I was only trying to fix that by moving a lot of notes to local, hoping to keep all the associations I have built up in ten years. As far as I can tell, none of the many alternatives have tag hierarchy. It took me some years to understand the point of that, but then I used it all the time. Notes moved to local notebooks seem to keep their tags and internal links, TOC and so on. The .enex or .html exports do not preserve those.

Unfortunately, moving most of my notes to local has not solved the performance problems, though clipping in Android has improved. If EN ever starts to work smoothly again, I might keep it and develop some new use cases for the tag hierarchy. Is the search syntax still the same? I haven't been able to try it it, because no search has ever finished for me in EN10...

Gute Nacht und Grüße aus Hannover!

 

 

[PinkElephant 6,213]

Hi, just to pick one aspect: Search and search syntax.

It works, but shows some minor, but annoying new specific issues, some depending on the client used, some general with v10.

Examples: The "tag:mytag" command is now case sensitive - "mytag" is not the same as "Mytag". Another example: Even when fully downloaded to offline notebooks, search will not look into pdf attachments when searching offline on mobile.

On the other hand, it has gained the "contains" command, which is very powerful to select specific notes. It allows to select only notes that contain a pdf attachment, for example. I have not tried (since I use legacy only very rarely these days) on legacy if contains works there as well.

In v10 searching is closely related to filtering. A search string will try to convert itself into a filter, and show as such. If entering "tag:Mytag", it will identify the tag and show it selected as blue button above of the search list. If it does not find the tag, it will show the term in red.

On my Mac v10 is slightly slower than legacy. I need to measure it, in most cases it does not influence the use. If it runs very slow on desktops, usually the database is corrupted and should be rebuild. The procedure is slightly different between Windows and Mac, but results in replacing the local copy by a new one from the server.

And finally there is full boolean search, if you want to build more complex search strings. I don't, I stayed with Personal.

No comments on Android - I do not use any Android device.

Grüße aus Mecklenburg.