Possible major problem when deleting large numbers of notes in the Trash notebook - Evernote not usable

[BriarPatch 1]

After five days and counting, the 5K+ TRASH notebook notes I deleted seems to be causing Evernote to still 'won't refresh' on many many notes in many notebooks. Seems to work ok using the browser chrome but not the Evernote app.  Also cannot add any notes without it taking hours and hours.

The Evernote support team replied:  

• Update to the latest version of Evernote
• Sometimes a note in your 'Trash' notebook will cause sync problems: emptying the 'Trash' may resolve them. There is no way to restore notes once they have been emptied from 'Trash'.
• Sign out, restart your device, sign back in.

This did not work; Evernote on my system seems to be hung up syncing.  I keep getting 'note unavailable ... unable to load this note please refresh the page and try again later'

System is Mac Studio 32 Gb memory MacOS Sonoma 14.1.1 Internet is 200MB/s 1Tb SSD; now in 5th day with same problem.  Evernote using chrome browser seems to be working without issues. 286 notebooks, 16,054 notes. Looking at file manager ...-> Library -> Application Support -> Evernote several files & folders keep changing date and time. Recommendations?

[BriarPatch 1]

Should I 'remove my Evernote data from this device and restart my Mac and Evernote to let it create a new backup?

[PinkElephant 8,170]

I trashed 3.000 notes some weeks ago, without any problems.

But yes, maybe something went wrong on this. You need to check by using the web client what the status is on the cloud server master copy of your data. If it shows the correct situation, you can remove the local copy, and start all over again.

If the cloud copy does not yet reflect the changes, it‘s difficult to advise. You might damage the master copy by breaking it off on the client. In this case I would try support.

In the future try to delete smaller chunks of data in a single action, and repeat the activity only once the prior one has been completed.

[BriarPatch 1]

Thanks PinkElephant.  Just got another input from Evernote Support:  Not sure how I determine unsynced notes as many many notes when I try to open them come back with the 'note unavailable'. with 16K + notes that would take forever.

Evernote Support: 

To rebuild your Evernote for Mac database, follow these steps:
 
Export unsynced notes and/or local notebooks (if you have any):
 

1. Select all unsynced notes, or each local notebook, then right-click and select Export Notes…
2. Choose 'Evernote XML Format (.enex)' next to Format, then Save the file to your desktop
   • Detailed instructions here

 
Move your existing Evernote database:
 

1. Open Evernote for Mac
2. Press and hold the Option key on your keyboard, then select Help > Troubleshooting > Open Database Folder (keep this folder open)
3. Select Evernote > Quit Evernote from the menu bar
4. Move the numbered folder from the database folder to your computer's desktop
   • If you have more than one numbered folder, move each one
5. Open Evernote and log in to your Evernote account

 
Evernote will download all of your synced notes from the servers and create a new database on your computer. You can then import any exported notes by selecting File > Import Notes from the menu bar.

[BriarPatch 1]

The 'web client' shows one note more that the desktop.  Should I assume that the cloud database is good?

[PinkElephant 8,170]

One note difference it close to nothing. Does it mean something ? I can‘t tell, I have lived with a one note difference for a very long time, and it never bugged me.

Important is whether the cloud master copy is OK. Because in the next step the local copy will be erased.

If you want to be on the safe side, you can define the existing database as an invalid copy, but for now avoid to erase it. It then only takes another name change, and the old database is back as the actual one.

Did you install through the website (direct download) or the AppStore ?

[BriarPatch 1]

Below is the .... Library -> Application Support -> Evernote file system.  Do you think just making a copy of the whole 'Evernote' folder and storing it somewhere else sufficient?  The folder size is 40.29GB. I have plenty of additional external disk space.

[BriarPatch 1]

Forgot to add I downloaded from the Evernote Website, I think back in 2009.  What got me into this problem was cleaning up my notes over the period of a week and deleting ~5K unneeded notes and rearranging / modifying the notebook structure.  

[PinkElephant 8,170]

There are 2 ways of handling this:

Copying the whole folder to another location, as a sort of local backup

Quit EN on the Mac, then rename the folder (for example Evernote.OLD).

Just as a reminder: Housekeeping puts a large stress on the whole system. First on the local client, then on the server, and finally on all other clients. My method is this (speeds up the initial operation as well, because it doesn‘t need to sync), only for operations where ich move, change or delete some hundreds of notes, or more:

1. Take the client offline on a desktop. Either flight mode / network off, or more elegant by an app like TripMode. Then make changes.
2. After an initial set of changes, take the client online again. Observe the network traffic with the activity monitor. Don‘t use the client while it syncs all changes to the server. While this happen, keep all other clients offline or off. They should not sync while the master is updating the changes.
3. Once the network traffic to the server is done, take the desktop client with the changes offline. Let maybe the server settle a bit, by waiting some. Then take the first „other“ client online, and let it sync. You can practically have all other clients sync now simultaneously, or one by one.
4. Take the desktop client online again. Make a quick check if all changes have been properly processed. If necessary, repeat with the next block of changes.

OK now, why this, and is it overly cautious ? This, because syncing a lot of changes is a lot of possible failures. If it‘s done in a controlled way, chances are better there will be no syncing trouble. Ans yes, it is overly cautious, but at the same time not really such a show stopper. So why not treat my own data with some respect, and try to make life easier for the system ? I mean, I want to clean up - not create a stress test and find out something went wrong.

 

[BriarPatch 1]

Trying to use work around suggested by Evernote Support:  

1. Press and hold the Option key on your keyboard, then select Help > Troubleshooting > Open Database Folder (keep this folder open)

They must be not using the latest version of Evernote Client as the "open database folder" is not in the drop down list.

Took Pink Elephant's suggestion and copied the whole Evernote folder to another disk and I'm thinking of using CleanMyMac to eliminate the local data or just deleting the whole Folder or using the option when signing out of Evernote by checking the "Remove my Evernote data from this device".  I checked and all my 286 notebooks have the same number of notes as the Chrome Web version and the Chrome Web version also has all the latest notes from a week ago when I stopped usning Evernote.

[PinkElephant 8,170]

Thanks for reporting this ...

Unfortunately it sort of confirms an assumption I had for a while: We see a completely new support team. They receive tickets and try to solve them. For this they use either a Wiki taken from the former team or the same help pages we can access ourselves. They don't know what they are talking about - they just send "stamped" answers.

The "Open database folder" option was in fact located in the additional tools accessible with the <Option> key - in LEGACY ... !

Just my 5ct ...

[BriarPatch 1]

Problem solved using CleanMyMac which wiped the Evernote folder then downloaded Evernote from the Evernote site.  Looking at the Macintosh HD > Users > me > Library > Application Support > Evernote > Resource-Cache folder which was 37.52GB is now 1.95GB after two hours downloading.  Meanwhile Evernote client works after checking several notebooks and notes that did not load before.  It might take a while for the entire Evernote database to sync but meanwhile I can work with the client.  Thanks for your help and insights Pink Elephant.