PDF's not searchable

[Herstaco 1]

Evernote is not returning search results from some of my PDF's. The PDF's are perfectly searchable in Adobe Acrobat, or when I open them in Edge, but Evernote can't seem to search through them. The search function is one the main reasons I use Evernote, so it's a major problem for me. It does seem to be limited to newer PDF's. Can there be something about a PDF file that makes it unsearchable for Evernote?

Mario

Edit: Evernote does search through some of the PDF's if I search within the note, but not if I use the main search.

[gazumped 11,658]

10 hours ago, Herstaco said:

It does seem to be limited to newer PDF's. Can there be something about a PDF file that makes it unsearchable for Evernote?

Evernote needs to index or OCR a new PDF.  Either task is done on the server and takes a little time. Subscribers get precedence in priority. 

[Herstaco 1]

I don't think time is the problem. There are some I added in 2020 and 2021 (august) that aren't searchable.

[Mike P 2,637]

On 2/24/2022 at 9:30 AM, Herstaco said:

Evernote is not returning search results from some of my PDF's.

If you go to the web version of EN does it work there?

[Herstaco 1]

Hello Mike P,

No, the web version doesn't work either. The PDF's are from one source, a Russian company, but all in English. There is a link in the PDF to a site to check the digital signature on the document, perhaps that is causing problem? Adobe and Edge have no problem with the files, and neither does Evernote when searching within the note. It's just that nothing shows up if I use the main search function. Not if I select start or the folder where the notes with the PDF's are.

[Mike P 2,637]

1 hour ago, Herstaco said:

No, the web version doesn't work either.

I assume you have a personal, professional or teams account. Although that wouldn't explain why some pdfs work and others don't. If you suspect it is the actual pdf I suppose you could create a new pdf by printing the pdf to a pdf printer (e.g. primopdf) and see if it then works. I assume the pdf does contain text rather than scanned images of text.

[Jon/t 1,281]

Check your PDFs to see if they are searchable ... here's what EN can search.

https://help.evernote.com/hc/en-us/articles/208313388

[Herstaco 1]

29 minutes ago, Jon/t said:

Check your PDFs to see if they are searchable ... here's what EN can search.

https://help.evernote.com/hc/en-us/articles/208313388

That looks helpful. However, I see something that looks contradictory, perhaps you can help:

It says: "- Which types of scanned PDFs are searchable?

• PDFs that do not already contain text that you can select or copy"

But then it says under troubleshooting:

"Open the PDF in Adobe Reader or your PDF viewer and try selecting text in the file. If the text is selectable, it should show up in Evernote search."

That seems contradictory to me.

[gazumped 11,658]

1 hour ago, Herstaco said:

That seems contradictory to me.

I agree - if the PDF has selectable text it is surely searchable,  both from any PDF reader and within Evernote.  If it's not searchable is should be OCR'd so it can be indexed and searched - although the OCR might depend on your subscription level.  The help pages are not the clearest source of information sometimes...

[PinkElephant 8,091]

Search based on OCR done by EN in pdf files is available starting with the old Premium plan, and upwards. It is no part of Free and Plus.

For all plan runs the indexing of picture files, which includes jpg, png and gif.

The OCR is done on the server, which means there is some delay, depending on the processing queue. From my experience in most cases it is done within some minutes. All OCR depends on the document quality - for example text in an angle larger than a few degrees will not be made searchable.

For all documents after being searchable the search index must be updated, which is an independent next step.