Why Are Search Results Still Slow To Update?

[John in Michigan USA 129]

Device: Macbook Pro (13", 2020) MacOS 12.6

EN: 10.46.7-mac-mas-public (459469), Editor: v158.2.19526, Service: v1.58.7

I am very disappointed to find that search in the latest EN client for MacOS still sucks.

Background: I've been needing to upgrade my desktop device and EN client. I got started in personal computing in 1985 on the Apple II, but have been using Windows for personal use for the past decade. About two weeks ago, I decided to give Apple a test drive. I am happy to report that my Macbook Pro experience has been great, except for the inevitable learning curve as I unlearn the various Windows techniques, especially keyboard shortcuts which are ingrained in reflex memory. My experience with EN on MacOS has been less positive. Part of the problem is that I am moving from an ancient Win client to the current Mac client, which is mostly my own fault for putting off this update for so long.

Today's question: I use EN for GTD (Getting Things Done) so I depend profoundly on saved searches. In EN on MacOS I find that when I add or remove a tag, which should cause a note to appear or disappear from my saved search results screen, it never updates immediately, and in most cases takes over 30 seconds (!!) to update the search results. To be clear, this is all local. Forcing a sync by exiting EN and re-launching doesn't make any difference! Nor is this an intermittent problem. The delay happens every time I add or remove a tag!

The lack of replies to https://discussion.evernote.com/forums/topic/136035-saved-search-based-on-reminder-dates-not-updating-24-hours-after-changes-in-1012/#comment-618400 suggests that this was expected behavior as of May, 2021. In my test drive, I haven't encountered any delay longer than maybe 15 minutes, but maybe I've just been lucky. Is this sort of delay (anything longer than a few seconds) *still* expected behavior?

Searching on "saved search" under https://discussion.evernote.com/forums/forum/719-evernote-for-mac-issues-versions-100-and-above/ didn't return many recent, relevant results. Are there other parts of the forum, or other keywords, I should be searching on?

Are there any unofficial fixes, mitigations, or work-arounds I should be aware of?

Anyone still using the legacy client for MacOS? Should I give it a try?

Edited November 12, 2022 by John in Michigan USA
Forum copy-paste is bugged!

[agsteele 2,950]

There is a significant curve to the learning required moving from Legacy to v10. Some proponents of GTD will say that it isn't possible to do with Evernote v10. Others have learned to work around and discovered new ways of doing old things.

You could run Legacy alongside v10 on the same machine although I would not advise switching back too often if you intend to move up to v10. For me, making a determined decision to switch and not use the old version meant to got the new v10 ways in my muscle memory.

As a Windows user I can't say that I notice anything apart from a second or two for search results to update. I search for notes with a specific tag. Select a note in that list  and, for example, remove that tag and the note disappears from the search results almost immediately.

[PinkElephant 8,117]

When search seems unreliable on a desktop client, it may be the local database got corrupted. Other signs may be a long startup time for the app, or an inconsistent note count between clients.

To rebuild it from the server, go to settings and  remove the checkmark from „Keep a copy …“. Log out, quit the app, restart the Mac.

Start EN, log into your account. It will now start to build a new local database. First it only loads note headers and metadata, attachments will follow. I supervised the network traffic the last time I did - it took 3 days until the full download had happened, and the network traffic went to zero.

[CalS 5,280]

@John in Michigan USAYeah, this is one of the things that made me leave EN last year, though no local notebooks was probably the biggest issue for me. 

I keep an eye on the progress and V10 is much faster than it was a year ago, web version anyway.  The Internet centric model by its nature will generate lags, many being  sub-second and slightly noticeable.  Index updates would seem to be most problematic if one is used to 6.25.1 real time index updates in the local environment.

[John in Michigan USA 129]

5 hours ago, PinkElephant said:

To rebuild it from the server, go to settings and  remove the checkmark from „Keep a copy …“. Log out, quit the app, restart the Mac.

Sorry, I've just spent 1.5 hours searching Help and Forums, poking around the client settings and the server (web client plus account settings), can't figure out how to do this. I feel dumb asking this of you 🥺. EN: 10.46.7-mac-mas-public

[PinkElephant 8,117]

Just toggle this checkmark OFF, and log out.

[agsteele 2,950]

9 hours ago, John in Michigan USA said:

10.46.7-mac-mas-public

You might also choose to update your application. The current version is 10.48.5

[PinkElephant 8,117]

In general I am very much in favor of running the latest update. In this case however my assumption is a corruption has occurred in the local database. This will not be healed by updating.

[John in Michigan USA 129]

On 11/13/2022 at 3:28 AM, agsteele said:

You might also choose to update your application. The current version is 10.48.5

Looking at https://help.evernote.com/hc/en-us/articles/360061882314. Generally speaking for MacOS, should I be using the app store EN or the one from evernote.com/download?

[agsteele 2,950]

I think that most users favour the direct download from evernote.com. The store version runs inside a sandbox which sometimes limits what you can do. However, one or two users have said that they find that the store version resolves some issues.  I would go with the download.  See if that meets your needs without hassles. If so, then stick with that. If though you find issues that don't work for you then pop back and see if we can advise the store version to resolve.

Please note that the download does not, generally, update as speedily when a new release comes along. If that isn't a big deal then nothing to worry about or just download from the website and install over the top of the current version you are using. If, though, you want the latest version with the minimum in interaction as quickly as possible then the store version is better but I would say that the benefits of the download outweigh getting the new release right now

[Paul A. 621]

On 11/12/2022 at 7:07 AM, John in Michigan USA said:

Today's question: I use EN for GTD (Getting Things Done) so I depend profoundly on saved searches. In EN on MacOS I find that when I add or remove a tag, which should cause a note to appear or disappear from my saved search results screen, it never updates immediately, and in most cases takes over 30 seconds (!!) to update the search results. To be clear, this is all local. Forcing a sync by exiting EN and re-launching doesn't make any difference! Nor is this an intermittent problem. The delay happens every time I add or remove a tag!

I don't use GTD, but I also encounter the slowness with a search updating to reflect a newly tagged note, and I similarly find it quite frustrating. It used to take even longer in the early days of v10, but it's still far from snappy. I've said it many times before, but the pre-v10 on desktop would update virtually instantly, and it felt magical.

Lots of other improvements in v10, but this in particular is a big step backwards.