(Archived) Lost notes...

[atmospherix 0]

I'm by no means a power user of Evernote - I only had a couple dozen maybe - but that's probably why I noticed a good chunk of them had disappeared recently.

I had stored a number of registration codes for small programs I use so that I didn't have to go hunt them down from various places... As luck would have it, I had to do a reinstall of my OS today. Went to go look for a code in EN... nada. There were only 5 or 6, but they're gone. Even the 'registration' tag I gave them is gone. Another long-running note I use to keep track of songs I hear to purchase later has reverted to an earlier state.

Has anyone had this happen to them? I'm kind of afraid to keep using EN at this point.

- a

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Did you look in the trash? (Bottom of left pane on a desktop client.)

[atmospherix 0]

Yes. They aren't there. That still wouldn't explain why the songs note reverted to an earlier state. It's almost like the 'database' that contains my notes got rolled back a month.

[CalS 5,280]

You might want to check how many .exb files you have on your system. Maybe in the update EN found an older version?

[atmospherix 0]

There's only one .exb file and a .exb.thumbnails file that I can see... Keep in mind I just reinstalled Windows so I'm working on a fresh install of Evernote. Were the notes saved locally and not synced for some reason, and I lost them in the reinstall? My understanding was that every time I create/edit a note, the changes are saved to the web - that's kind of the whole point, right?

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

There's only one .exb file and a .exb.thumbnails file that I can see... Keep in mind I just reinstalled Windows so I'm working on a fresh install of Evernote. Were the notes saved locally and not synced for some reason, and I lost them in the reinstall? My understanding was that every time I create/edit a note, the changes are saved to the web - that's kind of the whole point, right?

They are only saved to the web if:

1) they are in a sync'd notebook

2) the EN desktop app successfully sync's to the EN servers.

It sounds like your notes did not get sync'd to the cloud & are now gone...unless you have a backup of your .exb file from before reinstalling Windows. It would be cumbersome to have EN send every single update/change to the cloud, since we're limited to an upload amount. That would easily/quickly max out the monthly upload limit for many people.

[atmospherix 0]

Thank you for your insight, BnF. I only use one notebook that appears to be synchronized. And I would hope over the course of a month or so that I had added those registration codes, the app would've successfully sync'd with the servers, without my manually doing so.

Even in the "Getting Started" section of EN's site, it makes it sound like as soon as a note is created, it's whisked away to the cloud. It doesn't sound like that's the case. Do we know what actions trigger a sync?

Looking at the options in the client, the "Synchronize automatically" option is turned off by default. I'm sure turning that on would solve the problem, but it seems like that should be unnecessary and EN should know when to sync on its own.

Additionally, when I add a note on my phone, it appears to upload the note as soon as I hit "Save". I think that's where the disconnect it... My phone has a the save button that triggers a sync. The Windows client does not, so should I hit "Sync" after every new note or edit?

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

And I would hope over the course of a month or so that I had added those registration codes, the app would've successfully sync'd with the servers, without my manually doing so.

Looking at the options in the client, the "Synchronize automatically" option is turned off by default. I'm sure turning that on would solve the problem, but it seems like that should be unnecessary and EN should know when to sync on its own.

I don't know what the default is. If you had the version on the computer (pre-Windows-reinstall) set to not update automatically, it would not have done so, unless you sync'd manually. I have mine set to sync at the shortest intervals b/c I use it so much & rely upon the info in my EN account. Additionally, if I add something very important, I'll often manually sync. My version of the CTRL-S. I'm not sure how Evernote would know when to sync on it's own.

My phone has a the save button that triggers a sync. The Windows client does not, so should I hit "Sync" after every new note or edit?

Although EN tries to make the app as similar as possible across all platforms, there are some differences due to hardware as well as user experience. IE, an iPhone has certain standards that are not the same as a Windows desktop app. As I said, above, in this post, I have my EN set to sync at the shortest time interval & it's not unusual for me to manually sync, if I've either added something crucial, made a lot of changes, or will be shutting EN down.

[atmospherix 0]

I guess my thinking was that EN saved a note after I was done editing it, say after 15 minutes of inactivity... Or that it ran an overall sync sometime during the night. To a fairly new user like myself, it wasn't apparent that I had to manually hit the Sync button in the desktop client. I'm surprised this hasn't caught more users off guard.

Fortunately I didn't lose anything all that important. I just have to modify my workflow in the future.

And maybe this is more of a enhancement for the desktop client, if anyone at EN is listening ... Have a save button in the desktop client, similar to the phone app. And don't have new notes show up in the center pane until that save button is clicked and the information has been successfully sent to the server, or at least mark it somehow that the note hasn't been synced.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

And maybe this is more of a enhancement for the desktop client, if anyone at EN is listening ... Have a save button in the desktop client, similar to the phone app. And don't have new notes show up in the center pane until that save button is clicked and the information has been successfully sent to the server, or at least mark it somehow that the note hasn't been synced.

1. Sync = save.

2. Since many people save notes in non-sync'd notebooks, it doesn't make sense to "hide" it until sync'd. Also, some people want to edit notes before sync'ing to prevent notes that are edited a lot from chewing up their upload limit.

3. There is a notation that tells you if the note hasn't been sync'd. The "sync" column in the list view.