Evernote destroying Microsoft Attachments

[JHaferBTD 3]

We now have several instances where an attached/embedded files, Excel or Word, get corrupted when we open them. It's not all the time, and has not been an issue until just recently. Say the last few months. But once the attachment gets corrupted, it's unloadable and the history is non-existent. It's like Evernote links the doc to a null object. It seems to happen when you try to open the attachment. You get a spinning icon and sometimes a partial load that you cannot really see. Then the title of the attachment in the note reverts to "Untitled Attachment". If you don't have an offline copy, you're out of luck.

[Paul A. 650]

This has happened to me multiple times with PDF files on the Mac desktop app. It hasn't happened to me very recently though, and I have been told that fixes have been made that should resolve some or most of those bugs.

How recently that it happened to you, and what version of the app were you're using?

[gazumped 11,776]

Hi.  If you are genuinely a Teams user,  then please contact Support - you should get priority help,  especially for (apparently) corrupted data.  Please let us know what reaction you get.  One thing to try if/ when you get another 'unnamed attachment' - rename it to DOCX or whatever format it should have.

[JHaferBTD 3]

Paul A, This has happened as of yesterday. We are using the latest version of the Windows App.

 

gazumped, We are unable to rename the files. We've tried many times.

[gazumped 11,776]

Just now, JHaferBTD said:

We've tried many times.

It was just a thought - contact Support (and please let us know what you find out!)

[JHaferBTD 3]

I have submitted a ticket. I will reply here when we have resolved this incident.

[JHaferBTD 3]

Still no word from Evernote. The issue remains unresolved.

[gazumped 11,776]

3 hours ago, JHaferBTD said:

Still no word from Evernote. The issue remains unresolved.

Hmmn.  7 days so far?  You're getting closer....

[JHaferBTD 3]

zzzzzzzzz.... Still no response. We are starting to look for other solutions.

[PinkElephant 8,284]

Never had attachments „destroyed“ - and I really doubt anybody will target Microsoft attachments explicitly.

I have the feeling that something like this may be related to syncing actions, like OneDrive or some O365 protection that interferes with EN properly working. But that‘s only a gut feeling, I am out of Windows, and happy about it.

[Thad49 5]

Upgraded from Ancient EN since forced to by that EN version stopping Syncs. Now on Windows 10.73.4.

Pdf document inserted into a note, shows filename correctly, opens correctly, often saves correctly.

BUT, maybe twice a week the "Untitled Attachment" replaces the doc's title and is a dead link that does nothing. Horrible feeling to have a key work document disappear.

Happened just now, and for grins I tried the trick of clicking on another note, then returning to the problematic note, and -- the expected title and link and document were restored. But that disappearance does NOT build confidence about future losses.

[AlbertR 571]

1 hour ago, Thad49 said:

But that disappearance does NOT build confidence about future losses.

Exactely my concern. I had to wait tooo long to get an "Untitled" by known later - so I took a history version of the note to restore at least the last version.

Hope such sync problems will go away with RENT - but are attachments metatadata? I think not - attachments are part of the content. So they have to be synced immediately since RTE has been introduced...

[Thad49 5]

Don't know if this applies to all Windows EN installs:

Snooping on my drive, I found that "C:\Users\(Stephen)\Documents\Evernote\(8 digits)\external-edits\" seemed to have:
- one folder with a UUID-name for each of my (recently?) embedded pdfs
- underneath that, a set of folders each with a UUID-name containing one timestamped copy of that pdf

Or, just do a search in "C:\Users\(Stephen)\Documents\Evernote" for *.pdf and see what you find.

I'd also done the manual (external to EN) backup of this pdf document once it seemed that EN could lose the embedded version.

[gazumped 11,776]

12 minutes ago, Thad49 said:

Don't know if this applies to all Windows EN installs:

Apparently so.  My Win 11 EN 10.73.4 has such a folder with about  zillion image and file entries.  Guessing this is either where Windows app files come to be edited once attached to a note,  or these are the attachments (except in my case I would have expected many more files here).  If anyone is submitting a ticket on this,  please ask whether it is safe to delete this folder from their account...

[Thad49 5]

"such a folder...(is) where Windows app files come to be edited once attached to a note"

Yep. If I go to edit my attached pdf in my Adobe Reader, the subdirectory that the pdf file is open in, and where the edits are saved in is exactly that "C:\Users\(Stephen)\Documents\Evernote\(8 digits)\external-edits\(UUID)\(UUID)"

[gazumped 11,776]

Yup.  The glory of Windows apps is that they need a normal file in a normal folder for any edits.  So Evernote has to create a temporary file from an attachment to be able to allow another app access.  Once that file has been edited it can be saved back to the note it came from - but Windows doesn't release 'ownership' that quickly so the file sits in its folder until someone does housekeeping later.  There was a similar folder in the Legacy app which I used to clear out from time to time...  not sure yet whether it's safe to do that here.