general question on offlining notebooks on ios devices

[idoc 404]

A few months ago I selected one of my notebooks (with 3000 notes) to be an offline notebook.  My recollection at the time is that I literally had to force my display to keep active for several hours (iphone and ipad) while the notebook was downloaded on the devices.  Eventually it downloaded after many hours.  A few weeks later I toggled the switch back again (not sure why).  My question is does that action now uninstall all of the downloaded data that was initially put on the devices?  I have a feeling that it does because as I'm looking at it now it appears to be trying to download all 3000 of those notes again.  Another question: does the display need to be kept continuously on as the download occurs?  Or does the download stop when the screen turns off?  Should these types of large downloads only be attempted using wifi? Last question: if the switch is toggled to "make offline" does this mean that as notes are added to the notebook they are automatically downloaded to the device when my device is turned on?

[PinkElephant 8,274]

Not sure about the constant on display, but probably yes. iOS is cutting off apps running in the background, so it seems it needs to be kept alive.

There is now this little download indicator at every note. You can literally see if a note is still download.

[idoc 404]

Thanks Pink.  Yes, I can see the little downloaded notes but I think that when the display closes after a few minutes then the downloading stops.  It's a very strange requirement.  Yesterday, I had to literally watch my ipad go from 100% charge to 0 as it tried to download an entire notebook.  About 70% of it downloaded.  Also, do you know whether changing that toggle switch erases all the previously downloaded notes?  Initially I thought that switch was simply there to make the notes available offline and that if you no longer had a need for offline access you could just toggle the switch off.  However, I now think that if you do that it disappears your notes.  I could be wrong.  So many of us travel these days that I'm surprised that much of this is still mysterious.

[laurence.glazier 110]

I keep all my notes downloaded. But if you turn those toggles off, it merely stops the future automatic downloads. They stay on file (I have tested this.)

However, be careful about signing out of your account (which Support sometimes advises when resolving issues). This may solve some immediate problems but I have found it to clear all the offline data and require it to start again.

[PinkElephant 8,274]

Usually when you toggle a notebook off for the download, it will ask whether you want to keep the download.

The log out Problem is true: On logout the offline data becomes inaccessible, and the connection won’t come back when logging in again. So it’s download time again … which now works far better than initially, but still takes quite a while for a full offline account. As stated the EN app must still be kept in the foreground, with the device active (automatic lockscreen disabled) and preferably on a charger. This is an iOS issue, it doesn’t allow background apps activities that will consume a ton of data transfer and battery.

[Jean-Christophe 25]

Notes apps on iOS can download and sync in the background if you switch on « background refresh ».
Using every day Day One, Apple Notes, Drafts and Obsidian, I can check this every day.

I tried Upnote, Bear, the same, even OneNote was syncing in the background.

For some reasons which I do not know, Evernote is not able to do the same as far as I can see.

[PinkElephant 8,274]

Background sync is not a background download.

Background sync is a continued activity after using an app. iOS limits these activities, from what I’ve read about it the background task will be terminated after maybe 10 minutes. Further activities are limited, for example for push messages, looking up account mailboxes etc.

Background activities that go on for hours, consuming significant system resources like an ongoing download are not permitted.

[Jean-Christophe 25]

All mentioned apps are able to get new content created or updated in different devices, to sync it and to download it from my experience, without requiring an one screen on iPad or iPhone. It’s easy to test.

[PinkElephant 8,274]

When the app was in use before - and within of a limit. Even Apples own apps are under control: Syncing of new photos to the iCloud for example will wait until conditions are right, sometimes even waiting for the iPhone to be on charger, and in a Wifi connection.

Beside this iOS sometimes terminates apps running in the background, for example when in need of RAM. Memory allocation on iOS is quite different to Android - one reason why iOS devices with comparatively low system resources perform better than their Android counterparts. But that's due to a strict regime, mostly to conserve battery charge.

[idoc 404]

OK, I was not aware that I ever logged out or if I ignored a warning when I switched the toggle.  I am now spending another 10-12 hours downloading notes that I just downloaded a few months ago.  I can't imagine what made me think that I had to switch those toggles to OFF when I returned from the last trip??  Anyway, part of the value of this forum is to help others learn from one's dumb mistakes.  

[laurence.glazier 110]

Perhaps it wasn't you. I am sure my toggle once or twice got switched back to off without my intervention. When I notice, I put it back on. I don't think the parts already downloaded were gone. I think Evernote should offer the chance to store the downloaded data when signing out, but I can understand there are technical issues, as they would need to bear in mind the use-case of multiple accounts on the same device.

[idoc 404]

The fault was mine.  However, I discovered another item of interest after keeping my screen on for 12 hours to download a large notebook ie: the little circle on the top kept indicating that it had not completed downloading.  I was suspicious because every since note in the notebook  had that grey, down pointing arrow which indicates that it has been downloaded.  So, why is the circle at the top still indicating that it is only half completed?  I shut EN down, re-opened and immediately realized that the download was over (and had probably been over for many hours).  I now know not to look at the progress of the download at the top, but to actually stroll the notebook and check that all of the notes have indeed been downloaded.