How to replace cloud files from local Mac files?

[Vectorbud 6]

I have two computers that share evernote files. One of them has correct files while the other one has a LOT of corrupted files. I logged in to Evernote using a browser and the corrupted set of files appeared. How do I replace the corrupted cloud files using my local Mac set of files?

Is there a way to make a backup of my Mac local files before I begin. Is there some folder I need to duplicate, such as ~/Library/Application Support/Evernote or some such?

Also, I am worried that my  local good files will be synched and over-ridden, and I wish to avoid that. I don't know if it is safe to quit the app or keep it open with the correct files showing.

[PinkElephant 8,066]

First rule: Don't start EN on the Mac with "good" files while you are online. Go offline and stay offline for the next time.

The usual way to solve this would be to use the "good" Macs EN client in offline mode. While offline you export the "good" set of notes to an ENEX file. Selecting them individually has a limit of selecting 50 notes at a time. If they are all in a notebook, you can export the whole notebook to an ENEX file.

The ENEX files serve as backup of the good status. Once you have created them, quit the EN client on the "good" Mac. Make sure it is not running any more may looking it up in the activity monitor, or by other means.

Now go online with that Mac again. Copy the ENEX file(s) to the "bad" Mac. Open the EN client and import the ENEX files. They will import as a new notebook each. The notes are new ones now. Wait to let them sync to the server. Check in the web client everything is there.

Now you can delete the corrupted ones. Replace them by the good copies.

This should work. There is a second way through the EN folder in the path you posted. But if it works through the ENEX file, it is the better way of restoring your old notes.

[Vectorbud 6]

Thank you. I have a lot of files and it would be time-consuming to export the "good" ones in batches of 50. I think I can do that if I must.  However, I prefer to try your 2nd approach except that I'm not sure I understand what you have in mind. Can I just copy my~/Library/Application Support/Evernote folder from one Mac to the other and then relaunch EN on the other Mac? Better yet, is there a single file or subfolder that contains my "good" files that I could copy from one Mac to the other? Or is what you have in mind more complicated than that?

[PinkElephant 8,066]

The problem in your case is the corrupted files have reached the master copy on the server. When removing the local copy, it will download a fresh copy from the server.

When replacing the bad local data with the good copy, this may happen as well.

The ENEX export/import creates new notes with new IDs. These will not be overwritten.

About the selection: I would not be too selective when creating the ENEX files. Full notebook copy, then the selection limit does not play a role. Import a notebook, check it is ok, sync, check again on the server, and then delete the old one, holding corrupted notes.

What makes me think: You say you have plenty of corrupted notes, in different notebooks. Why ? Maybe support should take a look before you try to restore.

A single corrupted or duplicated note - OK, not good, but happens. But many ??? Unless you touch a note, it won’t sync, and won’t be corrupted. I don’t understand the mechanism leading to a large scale corruption.

And this is something support should probably check out.

[agsteele 2,940]

7 hours ago, Vectorbud said:

Thank you. I have a lot of files and it would be time-consuming to export the "good" ones in batches of 50. 

You can, instead, export a single notebook. This should be much quicker and is, generally, the preferred approach. Unless you have dozens of notebooks it should be quite speedy.

[eric99 978]

10 hours ago, PinkElephant said:

First rule: Don't start EN on the Mac with "good" files while you are online. Go offline and stay offline for the next time.

The usual way to solve this would be to use the "good" Macs EN client in offline mode. While offline you export the "good" set of notes to an ENEX file. Selecting them individually has a limit of selecting 50 notes at a time. If they are all in a notebook, you can export the whole notebook to an ENEX file.

The ENEX files serve as backup of the good status. Once you have created them, quit the EN client on the "good" Mac. Make sure it is not running any more may looking it up in the activity monitor, or by other means.

Now go online with that Mac again. Copy the ENEX file(s) to the "bad" Mac. Open the EN client and import the ENEX files. They will import as a new notebook each. The notes are new ones now. Wait to let them sync to the server. Check in the web client everything is there.

Now you can delete the corrupted ones. Replace them by the good copies.

This should work. There is a second way through the EN folder in the path you posted. But if it works through the ENEX file, it is the better way of restoring your old notes.

hmm, have you ever tried to export a notebook when offline? At least on my windows PC it refuses to export notes with attachments in offline mode although all my notes are cached locally. This is a known bug for a long time now : https://discussion.evernote.com/forums/topic/139829-how-to-do-a-backup-of-my-evernotes/?do=findComment&comment=641812

edit: so if offline export doesn't work on a mac either, you may duplicate the good notes on the good mac when offline, maybe put these duplicated notes in another map or tag them. Whatever happens with the original notes when connecting again, you still have a copy now...

[agsteele 2,940]

12 minutes ago, eric99 said:

on my windows PC it refuses to export notes with attachments in offline mode although all my notes are cached locally. This is a known bug for a long time now

I didn't know that.  Thanks for the heads up. Actually it doesn't appear to be a bug.  When I attempted this Evernote presents a warning that attachments won't be backed up if offline and allowing me to just download the content without the attachments. A defficiency but not, technically, a bug

We don't know about the OP's notes which aren't corrupted on one Mac but are on the other. If they don't have attachments then this wouldn't be an issue but otherwise this could be a problem as you imply.

This is probably a job for a support ticket. If the OP is on a free account then a short monthly subscription would be likely to be a worthwhile investment.

[PinkElephant 8,066]

Just tried on my Mac: Opened EN 10.41.5 direct, cut online connection via TripMode app. Went to notebook view, 3 dots, export notebook. Export options window, ENEX selected, confirmed, and it exported just fine.

Reimport worked as well, notes can be viewed and edited, attachments are opening.

After going online, the offline ex- and imported notebook synced to the server, and was added to the master copy of my data (viewed in the web client).

Technically one the Mac it works. But I second the idea to contact support.

[eric99 978]

4 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

Just tried on my Mac: Opened EN 10.41.5 direct, cut online connection via TripMode app. Went to notebook view, 3 dots, export notebook. Export options window, ENEX selected, confirmed, and it exported just fine.

Reimport worked as well, notes can be viewed and edited, attachments are opening

This is a little bit unexpected since we have a single code base now... I assume that cutting online connection via TripMode is exactly the same as a physical full disconnect?

[eric99 978]

6 hours ago, agsteele said:

I didn't know that.  Thanks for the heads up. Actually it doesn't appear to be a bug.  When I attempted this Evernote presents a warning that attachments won't be backed up if offline and allowing me to just download the content without the attachments. A defficiency but not, technically, a bug

The question is, why does it need  a connection for attachments export? Does this prove that not all attachments are stored in the local database? This is at least unexpected behavior...

This "deficiency" may make it very difficult for  recovery scenario's like this one

 

[PinkElephant 8,066]

It seems it is not the same - there must be another channel that is not blocked by TripMode. When going completely offline (cutting LAN and WiFi) it asked to export without attachments. With TripMode enabled it did export, but did not sync. Nothing of the changes made on the Mac client showed in the web client until I disabled blocking the EN traffic. But as I said - it probably believes to be online through another channel.

So back to square 1: Ask support ...

[eric99 978]

19 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

It seems it is not the same - there must be another channel that is not blocked by TripMode. When going completely offline (cutting LAN and WiFi) it asked to export without attachments. With TripMode enabled it did export, but did not sync. Nothing of the changes made on the Mac client showed in the web client until I disabled blocking the EN traffic. But as I said - it probably believes to be online through another channel.

So back to square 1: Ask support ...

Yeah, but you probably found a workaround to make a full ENEX with attachments without sync ?

[agsteele 2,940]

34 minutes ago, eric99 said:

Does this prove that not all attachments are stored in the local database? This is at least unexpected behavior..

I've never believed that ALL attachments are stored locally. That's based on feeling rather than evidence or testing. 

I concur about the challenges in the current scenario. Definitely a support question.

[PinkElephant 8,066]

Well, Trip Mode is a small app for the Mac, build to control network traffic. The main use is to restrict volume data while on mobile or weak networks. The app symbol is a train, well picked 😂 . When activated it shows each app as it picks up network traffic. The app ranking is dynamically build from the network traffic generated. With a click the app is disabled. But it can be even when the main app is disabled, there is a back channel for example to check if online.

Trip mode has profiles, so you can have it active all of the time. When at home, no restriction, on the train maybe browser traffic, but no services sensitive to ruptures, like EN.

About the availability of attachments: When I compare the local folders of v10 and legacy, the legacy folder is slightly larger - but not to an extend that would be explained by missing attachments. We are talking about a 20% difference, and I use a lot of attachments.

[eric99 978]

6 hours ago, eric99 said:

Yeah, but you probably found a workaround to make a full ENEX with attachments without sync ?

I found a similar workaround for PC :  by blocking Evernote network access in my firewall, a complete notebook can be exported, attachments included, without risk for unwanted sync.  Apparently, as you already noticed , EN uses another channel to find out whether the network is still there 🙂  

[Vectorbud 6]

Wow. Thank you both. I didn't mean to cause this much disruption. I have been away from my computer until just now. Let me be more explicit about the "corruption" and what the current status is. I haven't tried any fixes yet and I left both computers connected to the internet with Evernote open on both of them for all these hours.

All of the files in question are web pages (documents with data I use) that I manually "write" to EN as pdf files. So, I believe you two would consider these to be documents with attachments since they each consist of a single pdf-attached file.

When the filles are created, they always have the name "unnamed document", and I then name them and move them to various notebooks. The corruption is that yesterday I had about 50 documents named "unnamed document" and which have no content. Rather, they seem to be new EN files having the prompt to "start writing, drag files, or start from a template". These files have various dates, and these dates correspond to "good" documents on the first computer. 

These files were all created while using the first computer, and all are dated after Jan 1 of this year. Older files are all OK. I don't think I have opened Evernote this year on the 2nd computer until now.

As I was examining the files just now, about a dozen of them suddenly changed at once. Those files now have correct names and they moved to their correct notebooks. I still have about 40 unnamed documents left... I just looked again just now, and there are only 30 unnamed documents and 3 files that have names but no content.

I wonder if some very slowwwww sync process is strangely underway. I think I'll wait until tomorrow and if I see no further progress, I'll reread your discussion and see if I can export one Notebook at a time. An additional problem I will have is that I have move all of the subject files to different notebooks, and I have 18 notebooks. So I might have to bite the bullet and export each of the 18 notebooks. I hope not. I'll also consider creating a ticket with Support.

I still don't understand how I can have local files on my computer if there isn't a folder on my computer for those files, possibly encoded by EN. And, I should think I could just copy that folder across between computers. The computers are using the same OS (Big Sur).

Also, I observe the computer 1 has started synching EN about 10 minutes ago; it is still synching; and no files have been lost yet. So.... we'll see.

 

[Vectorbud 6]

Looks like I will be contacting Support. I did quickly export all of my folders, one-by-one, as soon as I saw computer 1 start synching yesterday. Today, all of the files for 2022 on both computers are now "unnamed documents" with no content. I tried to import one of the folders but EN stopped me with the message that I had reached my monthly import limit and the import would not  be saved. It said I can increase my monthly limit by upgrading, but I am not sure even then if my monthly limit will be large enough to do all the imports. I don't even know if the folders I exported are good or bad. Hopefully I will get help from Support. I should have followed your advice and kept computer 1 off of the web but that would have essentially disabled the computer, so I didn't. If I have trouble reaching Support, I may ask for advice on how better to reach them.

[PinkElephant 8,066]

If you have been on Free up to now (which I take from the upload limit you were hitting, maybe you said so as well), you had a monthly upload limit of 60MB. That is - if you used it up to the last byte every month - a yearly upload of 720MB.

The upload limit of the smallest subscription you can currently get is 10GB. This means you could upload the content of 12 years of fully consuming a Free upload, not missing a single month in just one month, and still have some legroom left.

Trip Mode would have been an option before, but after it synced now, it would mean to tap the waterhole after the kitten fell into it.