Offline notebooks don't download completely

[SvenSND 30]

Hi everyone, I've got some issue with offline notebooks on Android.

I'm using the latest version (10.26 1120549) of Evernote. I've selected the option to download all the notebooks to make them available offline.

After several days, some notebook aren't downloaded yet. All my notes are 300Mo max so it should not be a problem with Wi-Fi.

Has someone experienced the same problem? I've read topics where the issue is apparently solved. I've uninstalled / reinstalled the app but the problem still remains.

Have a great day!

[PinkElephant 8,261]

It will take a long time ….

At least it takes a long time on iOS.

Best way is to switch off the lockscreen, put the device on charger and make EN the active app during the night. It will download when you don’t need it.

My 8k of notes took 3 nights to transfer to my iPad Pro, with a lot of memory and on fast WiFi.

[SvenSND 30]

Thank you very much @PinkElephant

I will do as you say ! I already tried to set screen on "30 min stand by" but it didn't help.

I didn't think it would take so long. Do we have any idea why I takes so long? (it works almost perfectly on Windows10)

Thanks again for your help. Have a great day!

[PinkElephant 8,261]

No idea - i just got caught with the same problem, and started to try some things.

Since iOS cuts every app short that consumes resources in the background, it was a natural one to try without the autolockscreen. Progress was visible the next day.

If it is urgent, do it by notebook, the important ones first. Selecting only 3-5 notebooks at a time seems to accelerate things somehow. But if you have got the time, just put it into download config in the evening, and let it run.

To reduce stress on the phone I dimmed the screen to lowest during the night run.

Hint: It may be that when logging out the download gets lost. So better stay logged in on a device with a download.

[SvenSND 30]

Hi @PinkElephant

I've tried several solution too. With the latest update I've also tried to take the app out of the "battery optimized applications" but it doesn't seem to have any effect.

It's not really urgent, it's mainly for testing purpose on a phone. I'll let it work for some nights but the progress bar really seems to be stuck

[PinkElephant 8,261]

If it is stuck, try to start it all over. Take one notebook this time.

My impression is it handles clear priorities better than „all notebooks“.

[SvenSND 30]

Hi @PinkElephant.

I did as you said taking one notebook at a time and it went pretty fine.

I first had to uninstall the app as going into the notebooks made it freeze.

Now everything seem to work fine!

[Akos_M 33]

That solution no longer works, cause i've tried it on Android, and it's no longer downloading anything since the latest update. I have about 2800 notes, all in a single notebook. Support recommended to me, to uninstall and reinstall again, but I don't want to risk all my offline notes again. This issue has been going on for almost a year now. I can't understand why they are unable to solve it.

[Alxa 483]

I totally agree, compared to EN8.13.3 this is clearly a bug. Leaving a device screen on for several nights to (maybe) download some MB of notes is a ridiculous work around maybe for a week or two giving the devs time for bug fixing. But Evernote clearly not addressing this issue since the very Android 10.0 -  that is for over 14 months now - shows they even do not care about UX for the paying customers. A very bitter outcome to me. 😔

[PinkElephant 8,261]

My largest notebook is close to 2.000 notes, it still syncs and holds data for offline use. I am on iOS, so no direct comment about Android. But on Sunday the last Android user following my advise managed to get the download working.

It is for sure not what we users would expect, but better a slow workaround than no offline option at all.

 

[SvenSND 30]

Hi everyone,

This worked for me on the latest android version. Although the progression bar on the screen doesn't make progress, it's actually charging in the background.

You have to quit the notebook screen, then go into it again. 

It's pretty slow, I've got almost 800 notes for 400Mo and I took almost 2-3 hours, charging notebook by notebook

I totally agree it's a big turn off for me. But the rest of Evernote seems to be improving

[PinkElephant 8,261]

What is good with offline notebooks: Once the initial download was through, it never happened to me again that the updates of changed or new notes would have taken extra time. This runs just in the background while the app is in use.

If you go for example for travelling and have added some notes right before, just check the settings - notebooks - offline page. It shows for all selected notebooks the current status. If it is still working on some, (noticeable by a long green bar with a small grey tip to the right) usually a few minutes are sufficient to let is finish.

[Alxa 483]

Well maybe this updating works more reliable on iOS. But this is not always the case on (my) Android devices, unfortunately. It is still a big deal breaker. Really hope they will find some time to put things right.

By the way: on EN8.13.3 once (and if) set, the offline notebooks were updated in the background in the user given interval. That was the seamless UX of Evernote I loved for years. I could always rely on having all my notes updated offline on mobile. Let's say planning my trip this evening, taking my mobile and tablet the next morning and everything is already there and offline available without having to get in touch to every device, opening EN, check if download is completed... in the year 2022 this feels way to clunky

[SvenSND 30]

@Alxa, I feel like you too. For now I don't find Evernote as reliable as the "Legacy" version. I let a phone and the computer on legacy and just use the new version on another phone. Progresses were made but I still don't feel completely safe

[Kiche7 2]

I had the same problem. Notebooks had looked to be stuck downloading with multiple in progress. 

I stumbled on what worked for me... I simply uninstalled and reinstalled multiple times. Lol. 

The sync behavior seems to be different each time I did this where in most cases multiple notebooks in no particular order are downloading at once. 

 

But I stumbled in the working case where the sync started with the most bottom notebook and synced its way up one at a time albeit a little slow. The download icon would follow beside each notebook as it completed each. (around 300)

Maybe there is a bug with the syncing process where multiple downloads are triggered at once and it gets hung up at some point? But in this case it was a single download thread and it worked to completed the full download within about 2 hours (~7GB of data, 3500 notes). Identical issues experienced on S22 Ultra and CX9 Chromebook with Android apps. 

I also find notebooks with new notes added after the download sync show the progress bar again and no progress... I haven't tested if they are actually downloaded and available offline but assume they are... 

The fix should be prioritized by Evernote Dev as it's hard to trust I'll have my notes in offline situations to get "cannot be loaded" type of error. 

[PinkElephant 8,261]

In my posts above (the main one of February 17th) I have described how to make download work - and as well that it takes an amazing amount of time.

I had (on iOS) only initially a problem with the „All notebooks“ option. If I remember it correctly it started to work at about v10.10.

But it can probably speed up things if the larger notebooks are handled individually, and only after these are done to flip to „All notebooks“.

The initial download still is a PITA. With updating I had no problem, this happened during normal use of the app.  

[Akos_M 33]

What is more annoying, for me at least, is no longer the fact that they don't download, but the fact that it's been more than year now, without the development teams input. Shows a completely ignorant attitude from the support team.

[PinkElephant 8,261]

EN staff only very scarcely comments on anything here. If you want an answer, contact support.

Often you get a predefined answer.

If download time for offline use is anything the devs are working on I don’t know - personally I think they have more pressing issues than „fixing“ something that works (somehow).

[Akos_M 33]

I've tried downloading my single notebook by leaving my tablet on for 2 days in a row with screen on, and they won't download. Also, it won't even sync to show my latest notes and all this after I reinstalled the app, to make sure everything is fresh. All to no avail.

[PinkElephant 8,261]

In this case ask support.

[idoc 404]

How can you tell when ALL the offline notes have updated?  I have designated a notebook as "offline" and most of the notes are now available as offline.  However, a few are still now available ie: I get an error message when I try to open them.  However, I see no indication on my iphone when the entire notebook has been downloaded as offline.  Next to the notebook on the Notebooks page there is a little down arrow icon which indicates that the notebook has been designated for offline.  I then go to "sync" and force a sync which completes.  I then put the iphone on "airplane mode" to check if the notes can be accessed, and they are still not available.  This is a problem because I intend to attempt to access those notes when in a foreign country where internet access is spotty or unavailable.  Is there a surefire method of forcing each and every note that I want to have to be available offline?

[PinkElephant 8,261]

Just from my observation: While a notebook still has open content planned for download, it will show a grey bar in the notebook view in settings, tab offline notebooks. If the notebook already has been downloaded, and just a little is missing, it will show a long green bar, and a nearly not noticeable grey tip. But as long as and grey part is there, the green bar will show as well.

Once the green bar disappears, it is because there is no grey tip any more. It then will show the „downloaded“ symbol for a little, and later even this disappears. Then all notebooks are fully downloaded that are selected for download.

One can argue EN should give a better indicator for the download status. Feature requests can be send to EN PM via the feedback function.

[idoc 404]

So one of the notebooks that I demarcated for offline is my inbox notebook ie: default. It has only 8 notes. When I go on airplane mode I can see all eight of these notes. However, when I go to the notebooks list I see a long green line with a gray extension indicating the download is incomplete. I have synced several times and waited several hours.  It’s confusing because I can see all the notes offline, so why does the download like remain that way? I have another offline notebook that has hundreds of notes and this one does not show that green/gray line. It just shows a little download icon. Most of the notes are aggressively offline but many are not. Very confusing. 

[PinkElephant 8,261]

You are aware that there will be no download while the app is not the active app ?

When it is in the background, when the lockscreen kicks in or when it is closed, no more download activity.

Edited May 15, 2022 by PinkElephant
Typo in lockscreen

[idoc 404]

Thanks Pink Elephant.  I should have read your earlier post regarding turning off the lockscreen etc.  Yes, that worked very well.  

[DAB12345 0]

This has needed fixing for a couple of years!

I have removed and re-installed several times, but it still doesn't work. 

The App should at least give some feedback about the log process. 

What a waste of everyone's time! 

... and there are other problems on Android, such as not being able to share to Evernote properly.

I have a feeling nobody from Evernote actually reads these forums. 

 

 

 

[PinkElephant 8,261]

The forum is indeed user2user.

To contact EN, use the feedback or a support ticket.