New blog post: Evernote Free accounts will have fifty notes and one notebook

[Federico Simionato 1,024]

An update to the Free tier: https://evernote.com/blog/evernote-free-note-limits

[WilliamL 654]

I personally think the limitations are fair and still allow collaboration with a family user or work colleague who isn’t using the app exclusively. 

I’ve expressed elsewhere a disappointment at how this is communicated to users. My view is a company must strive to offer what they publicly state they are offering. For Evernote this has not been the case. This could have been mitigated by simply popping something on the website and maybe a blog stating trials were occurring as changes likely are coming. 

As I said I understand why this is being done, but I think it could have been done more transparently and I am concerned by that. I do hope consideration is given to a new basic tier that users who don’t need power features but more notes etc could be considered (basically what was the free tier but a few quid a month). 

I am glad there is now clarity. 

[Ricardo Meléndez 2]

Can anyone tell me how can I request a full refund? My subscription was renewed today but I don't want it. It is impossible to get an answer?

 

Thank you

[janndk 509]

53 minutes ago, Federico Simionato said:

An update to the Free tier: https://evernote.com/blog/evernote-free-note-limits

"In keeping with Evernote’s 3 Laws of Data Protection, and to ensure that you retain full ownership of your data, any Free user who currently has more than fifty notes and one notebook will still be able to view, edit, export, share, and delete existing notes and notebooks."

What about future ended/canceled subscriptions? Same terms?

[Jon/t 1,309]

40 minutes ago, janndk said:

What about future ended/canceled subscriptions? Same terms?

Yeah I think if you cancel or downgrade then nothings gets deleted or removed and folks can export when they want. Just can't add more. 

[mackid1993 741]

Good, at least there is an announcement finally. This makes sense and probably should have been implemented long ago. @Federico Simionato can you comment if the note limit counts towards notebooks that I a Professional subscriber share with a free user. Like if I want to collaborate with someone without an EN subscription can they have a free account and work in my shared notebook that can have more than 50 notes?

[Latrellbelle 3]

I've downloaded all daily notes going back to Mar 2023 and deleted them from the program; I have one notebook with 20 notes and it's still telling me to upgrade.  It has removed my shortcut for making templates and when I try to create a new note it still wants me to upgrade.  Is there a glitch.

[PinkElephant 8,158]

Ask the company or find out on the 4th of December by joining the WWT (world wide test).

[gazumped 11,691]

With a bot of help from Bing GPT (misspelling intended) I got these uses for Evernote going forward - 

• Recipe Collection: Save favorites 
• Learning Notes: a new language or studying a new topic.
• Book Summaries: to remember key points.
• Travel Plans: travel itinerary, places to visit, restaurants to try...
• Fitness Tracker: workout routines and progress.
• Meeting Minutes: important points from meetings or conversations.
• Event Planning: parties, weddings, guest lists, food, and schedules.
• Budgeting: monthly expenses and savings.
• Gardening Notes: when seeds are planted, when to water, tracking growth.
• Dream Journal: record dreams as soon as you wake up.

Seems like it's still a great app to use from a mobile for instant access - even if the notes have to get transferred elsewhere later...

[CalS 5,281]

Well, methinks this is the final nail for Legacy use,  other than as a lookup tool.  Dust off those migration plans or sign up.

[PinkElephant 8,158]

Actually it leaves Legacy practically untouched.

Legacy already was sort of inconvenient when EN started to enforce the device limit. Sacrificing 1 out of 2 clients for that piece of code, plus maybe a mobile one is as close to a bad setup as it gets.

[bobbyt2 6]

Why was my account limited before the 4th of December?  This has hit me while trying to study for exams.  It seems rather unethical to blindside someone.

[CalS 5,281]

If one is using Legacy as a production app 50 note add limit sort of kills that scenario, if I read it right. 

[Boot17 1,464]

The 50 note add limit kills Free accounts on Legacy or v10. There are probably still paying subscribers using Legacy that won't be affected quite yet. So still one more nail to come for them.

[Boot17 1,464]

7 minutes ago, bobbyt2 said:

Why was my account limited before the 4th of December?

A trial run was down on a reported 1% of free accounts starting about a month or so ago. You were one of the "lucky" ones that got it early. I saw someone get the message starting today, so looks like the trial is still expanding until the Dec 4 date when it will roll out to all Free accounts.

[carlosgm 77]

@Federico Simionato I have been a paying evernote subscriber for a few years and I have never seen your customer service so degraded, there are tickets that have not been answered for 1 month, I hope that new users who go from free to paid do not experience this terrible technical support . .

How do you want us to help you have a better product if you ignore our feedback for days, weeks or even months? Example tickets: #3769888, #3785859

It would help me a lot to know the reason why your service has degraded so much and why it takes them so long to answer support tickets. It would be enough to answer me "thank you... we are going to review the ticket".

I don't expect immediate answers but I would at least expect them to answer me a few hours or even a couple of days later.

Thank you.

 

[surfshark 11]

I have been using Evernote for more than 10 years. Although I used it lightly, I paid for it. Until recently, the program became laggy. Problems with the mobile app reflected that it had not been repaired for several months and was canceled. It is normal for users to pay, but I hope the problem can be solved. repair

PC version 10.67.2: The operation is obviously stuck (the basic problem has been eliminated, it occurs after updating evernote)
)
Mobile version: Android's return gesture loses its function (not fixed for several months), dark interface settings page jumps and flickers (not fixed for several months)

🙏

I'm looking forward to fixing the issues and returning to being a paying user (the tag system works great for me)

[gazumped 11,691]

4 hours ago, carlosgm said:

It would help me a lot to know the reason why your service has degraded so much and why it takes them so long to answer support tickets. It would be enough to answer me "thank you... we are going to review the ticket".

At a rough guess...

1. New owners buy the company - have limited 'hands on' experience of supporting these individual product features
2. New fixes for existing problems - syncing much improved,  but occasional glitches cause additional support requests
3. New features added - increases support requests and feedback
4. Fixes cause API changes that glitch connected services - third-party companies and users report issues
5. US staff given generous severance and project moved to Italy - in house staff find volume and nature of support requests more than expected
6. Across-the-board price increase - greatly increases volume of complaints / refund requests
7. New initiative to limit Legacy users and promote v10 usage - greatly increases 'new user' support requests for assistance with unfamiliar product
8. Latest initiative to greatly limit Free accounts to avoid substantial and unproductive drain on resources - greatly increases feedback traffic
9. Once into a bit of a support 'hole',  impatient users start to repeat requests,  further increasing admin overhead
10. Adding new staff and resources to clear volume takes time - weeks to recruit and more to train.  New staff take a while to deal with queries efficiently.

Meantime us users in the Forums here may be able to help if you specify Device / OS / Evernote version number and supply a detailed description of what technical issues you're dealing with...

[AlborWorld 0]

A question.

I am an Evernote Plus user and I shared a folder with several people who have a free account. It's used to write lesson notes (more than 50)

@Federico Simionato Will they be able to access the notes and write new ones themselves - as the notebook is mine and I don't have such limitations?

Thank you

[Ullys 13]

I have been using Evernote for free for some years. Just small personal things.
I don't find it a very welcoming business method to just announce me from one day to another that I can't make more notes.
At least some kind of warning a week or a month ahead would have been sensible.
When I look up Evernote's official system limits, it says that free users can create 100,000 notes. https://help.evernote.com/hc/en-us/articles/209005247-Evernote-system-limits

I am missing a cheaper plan for personal use. With the current pricing, if I want to upgrade to the Personal plan, I will have to pay 83% of what a Professional plan costs. That seems rather expensive for being able to synchronize my shopping list across devices...

[gazumped 11,691]

Based on what we other users know so far,  your Evernote Plus account will be converted to Personal at next renewal at a significantly higher cost.  Up to now a shared account has carried with it the permissions of the owner - so theoretically your 'free' users will be able to edit and add notes to your shared notebook.  Copying or moving notes into their own account would be subject to the now standard 1 notebook / 50 notes limits.

However I don't know how the '1 notebook' deal affects sharing - will users be limited to 1 notebook even if it is a shared notebook from somewhere else?

On one hand this means Evernote lose out on making paying customers out of everyone in situations like yours,  where shared free account notebooks are used for teaching - on the other hand they may see it as a good use of their apps.

Only time (or @Federico Simionato) will tell...

If the shared notebook idea doesn't work out in your favour,  you might want to look at Postach.io for your own account - you can create a 'blog' based on one or more Evernote notebooks.  Just add the tag <published> to a note and your students can access the content as easily as a website.

[s2sailor 2,222]

2 hours ago, gazumped said:

• increasing admin overhead
• Adding new staff and resources to clear volume takes time - weeks to recruit and more

I’d like to add #11 to the list:

I think BS under estimated the complexity of the Evernote system and built a support team around that expectation and then made several quick decisions that didn’t work out to be as smooth or easy as they expected.  Also, many of their software updates have included new problems.  They are pretty quick to get them fixed but these generate more problem tickets that just add to the support difficulty. I think they will get this under control but it will take some time to dig out from this support perfect storm.  

I’ll admit that I’m a little surprised by all this.  They are an experienced team and this isn’t new to them, but they will right the ship.  I think it is just harder than they planned.

[carlosgm 77]

hace 4 minutos, s2sailor dijo:

I’d like to add #11 to the list:

I think BS under estimated the complexity of the Evernote system and built a support team around that expectation and then made several quick decisions that didn’t work out to be as smooth or easy as they expected.  Also, many of their software updates have included new problems.  They are pretty quick to get them fixed but these generate more problem tickets that just add to the support difficulty. I think they will get this under control but it will take some time to dig out from this support perfect storm.  

I’ll admit that I’m a little surprised by all this.  They are an experienced team and this isn’t new to them, but they will right the ship.  I think it is just harder than they planned.

Thanks for your response, I share that point #11 because it is an honest perspective of what could be happening.

[carlosgm 77]

hace 3 horas, gazumped dijo:

At a rough guess...

1. New owners buy the company - have limited 'hands on' experience of supporting these individual product features
2. New fixes for existing problems - syncing much improved,  but occasional glitches cause additional support requests
3. New features added - increases support requests and feedback
4. Fixes cause API changes that glitch connected services - third-party companies and users report issues
5. US staff given generous severance and project moved to Italy - in house staff find volume and nature of support requests more than expected
6. Across-the-board price increase - greatly increases volume of complaints / refund requests
7. New initiative to limit Legacy users and promote v10 usage - greatly increases 'new user' support requests for assistance with unfamiliar product
8. Latest initiative to greatly limit Free accounts to avoid substantial and unproductive drain on resources - greatly increases feedback traffic
9. Once into a bit of a support 'hole',  impatient users start to repeat requests,  further increasing admin overhead
10. Adding new staff and resources to clear volume takes time - weeks to recruit and more to train.  New staff take a while to deal with queries efficiently.

Meantime us users in the Forums here may be able to help if you specify Device / OS / Evernote version number and supply a detailed description of what technical issues you're dealing with...

Thanks for your response, I understand your point. I just want to highlight that years ago I didn't see customer support so degraded and it would be good if they responded, at least to know that there is someone behind receiving user feedback (in my case bug reports).

[PinkElephant 8,158]

User Feedback: Meant for features, goes to Product Management, will not be answered.

Support: Meant for bugs, goes to support, will be answered (hopefully)

[Boot17 1,464]

2 hours ago, s2sailor said:

I think BS under estimated the complexity of the Evernote system and built a support team around that expectation and then made several quick decisions that didn’t work out to be as smooth or easy as they expected.  Also, many of their software updates have included new problems.  They are pretty quick to get them fixed but these generate more problem tickets that just add to the support difficulty. I think they will get this under control but it will take some time to dig out from this support perfect storm.  

Bending Spoons has been moving super fast and making a lot of changes which inadvertently break some things here and there that do get fixed later, but is probably also adding to the support backlog. Also, things like removing SMS as 2FA (one of your "several quick decisions") -- while a good move long term, it probably just compounds onto the current support backlog as it seems like quite a few people don't understand how the OTP authenticators work.

Wonder if they are thinking that they can get ahead of the problems with software updates and time and that a lot of the backlog will just go away. Sometimes problems can resolve themselves if you wait long enough (because of other things that were done that indirectly fixed it or changed the nature of it).

[CalS 5,281]

I don't know, old horse not in the race perspective.  Feels a bit like old Evernote.  Many excuses but not so many reasons.  All comes back to management at some point and how they deal with the issues/opportunities before them.  Same at any company.  It's been a couple of years.

[notetakeingguy 90]

I think they did it so less of us premium members will quit because we're so frustrated with the product. I have a support ticket I submitted months ago, and when I checked an update they said they were ready to implement a solution. But I have not heard anything.

 

I think Evernote will have a huge hack, because that's what happens, karma wise, the companies that treat their customers so bad.

 

I also sent a note to Frederico months ago about all the difficulties I've had with windows and Android. No response, and nothing has changed.

[gazumped 11,691]

56 minutes ago, notetakeingguy said:

I also sent a note to Frederico months ago

Yeah - Bill Gates never replies to my emails either...  it's a CEO (or Head of Product) thing...

'Spoons wound up doing Italy's Covid monitoring app,  so I'd say the parent company are a serious IT powerhouse in Europe.  All the (2-3?) takeovers I've been involved with involved something like the current situation:  a lot of folks saying "they bit off more than they can chew" / "service is terrible" while the new owners work behind the scenes to fix things. 

A lot of people leave for various reasons;  every competitor in the market talks in terms of a crisis to recruit as many new clients as they can - and then the new company gets it together,  uses their resources and expertise to move back to being the best-in-class,  and a lot of temporarily former users climb back on board making much less fuss than when they left...

Personally I'm cutting out the middle acts and just sticking with a subscription.  It may take a few months more,  but I'm sure we'll get back to normal service soon.  I'm just glad I'm not part of the crew bailing madly this time around.

The new Evernote team seem competent, professional and determined to get this thing back on track.  I'm impressed that they got things this far in less than a year.  2024 should be interesting!

[mackid1993 741]

These guys really know that they are doing. They are righting the ship and unfortunately it takes time to get things in order.

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,970]

On 11/29/2023 at 1:28 PM, Federico Simionato said:

An update to the Free tier: https://evernote.com/blog/evernote-free-note-limits

At last (considering the rather nasty experience of those who got the unannounced version of this), a very rational and in some ways generous outline of the reasons and prospects for the changes to the Free plan. I note in particular that it is only the creation of notes >50 that is prevented. The supernumerary (I've longed to use that word in a sentence forever) notes can still be edited, which IMHO is where the generosity comes in.

[mackid1993 741]

2 minutes ago, Dave-in-Decatur said:

At last (considering the rather nasty experience of those who got the unannounced version of this), a very rational and in some ways generous outline of the reasons and prospects for the changes to the Free plan. I note in particular that it is only the creation of notes >50 that is prevented. The supernumerary (I've longed to use that word in a sentence forever) notes can still be edited, which IMHO is where the generosity comes in.

They also have been offering one time discounts to ease the blow to a paid plan which I'm sure will end once the shock of the price increase subsides.

[notetakeingguy 90]

And my support ticket from 2 months ago, still not addressed: 3755402

[gazumped 11,691]

3 hours ago, notetakeingguy said:

And my support ticket from 2 months ago, still not addressed: 3755402

Do the support notes say anything?

[thefryhole 50]

If Evernote chooses to change plans without prior customer notification, then what would stop the company from one day deciding to sell users' data and waiting weeks before alerting customers to their policy change? Here Evernote changed the terms without telling the other party, since some users report these limits were imposed on their accounts before the December 4 effective date. That's a worrisome way to do business from a data privacy and security standpoint. Should customers continue to believe their data is safe?

[agsteele 2,952]

The trial of the new note limits which affected around 1% of Free users had been well debated and discussed for two months. It hasn't been hidden. The latest announcement is that the trial is being rolled out to all Free users from Monday.

[PinkElephant 8,158]

The mother company of EN is located in Italy and operates under GDPR laws.

It may be that in some third world legalities like the US companies can simply merchandise their users data - a European company can’t.

Beside this I doubt they even would if not outlawed.

Some people here in the forum argue as if a Free plan would be a birth right. No, it’s not, and using the free plan just means piggybacking on the contributions of the paying users.

And then they find the most hilarious arguments to cover up they just want to continue their extortion.

[gazumped 11,691]

31 minutes ago, thefryhole said:

Should customers continue to believe their data is safe?

You got all the way from "we're no longer being generous enough to allow people to run thousands of notes for years on a free product" to OMG the sky is falling in one jump?  Yes your data is safe.  Even for free users - who were never "customers"!

[thefryhole 50]

I made no mention of the limitations of the free plan, but I appreciate that there is heightened sensitivity and a sense of entitlement here about who "deserves" to use the app and who doesn't. My statement focused entirely on notification provided by a technology provider to their subscribers about changes to the terms of service. And yes, free subscribers are still subscribers. Those subscribers clicked the "accept terms" when they signed up, and they rightly expect that notifications are delivered in a timely manner, meaning in advance of changes to those agreements. We have users posting here and elsewhere that their plans were changed a) without any prior communication from Evernote, and b) prior to the effective date that has now been broadcast by Evernote. If T&C changes are to be made without timely notification, then that's something that could affect other subscribers, too. That's the entirety of my statement.

[Jon/t 1,309]

The T and C's cover this. There's a section called rights to modify the Evernote service which says paid users have a little more power than free. 

[PinkElephant 8,158]

Subscribers have a contract. They purchase a service, and they are entitled to get this service exactly as contracted at the time of purchasing, or better. When the subscription period expires, they are legally entitled to know in advance to which service they renew. That’s by law, and the T‘nC just specify the details.

We can see how this works with the long grandfathered subscriptions like Plus. They get an advance information their subscriptions will not renew, and they need to decide about moving to personal, or downgrade to Free. This happens during a year, always when the individual subscription reaches its due date.

A user of the free plan has no such protection. The terms of us can be changed at any time, given some basics are maintained, like the right (at least in the EU) to always be able to export your data and leave, without a payment. So it is perfectly legal to switch all Free accounts to a new regimen on the 4th of December.

[Arantes 37]

An honest question: why not modify it so that the 'reminders' notification works as push? It doesn't make sense to have a feature that doesn't function within the app. Since there is an issue with the system allowing apps to run in the background, this should have been addressed long ago. I need to use a third-party app to remind me of my tasks since Evernote is not functioning. @Federico Simionato  is not even responding on the forum to address these crucial concerns.

[PinkElephant 8,158]

It may be crucial for you, but in the bigger picture it’s a detail within of a subfunction.

And clarify what you want: Reminders or Tasks ? My EN app just pushed a notification for a reminder this morning - so I doubt we are talking about the same thing here.

Check notifications settings on your device, maybe you have accidentally turned them off yourself.

[Grant837 114]

On 11/29/2023 at 9:04 PM, Jon/t said:

Yeah I think if you cancel or downgrade then nothings gets deleted or removed and folks can export when they want. Just can't add more. 

Until they again change their policies....

[Grant837 114]

On 11/30/2023 at 6:08 AM, carlosgm said:

@Federico Simionato I have been a paying evernote subscriber for a few years and I have never seen your customer service so degraded, there are tickets that have not been answered for 1 month, I hope that new users who go from free to paid do not experience this terrible technical support . .

Mine, where the Tasks pane does not work on (now all) my windows pc has been 'being worked on" for more than 4 months, without an substantial or meaningful communications (including sending an email a few weeks ago as if I had just submitted the problem... sigh). I had upgraded to Pro a few months before that. 

[Arantes 37]

18 horas atrás, PinkElephant disse:

It may be crucial for you, but in the bigger picture it’s a detail within of a subfunction.

And clarify what you want: Reminders or Tasks ? My EN app just pushed a notification for a reminder this morning - so I doubt we are talking about the same thing here.

Check notifications settings on your device, maybe you have accidentally turned them off yourself.

No, it's not crucial only for me. It's a feature that always worked, and now, with v10, it no longer does. I've enabled all app notifications, even disabled battery optimization for Evernote. If it's in the app, it should work! The reminders I mentioned, to remind you to do something from a note, do work, but you need to have opened the app recently for it to function. If you set a reminder for a distant time, it doesn't work.

It seems like this bug has been neglected; I can't comprehend why it hasn't been resolved until now. This issue has been present since the v10 beta.

[Arantes 37]

Em 30/11/2023 at 02:08, carlosgm disse:

@Federico Simionato I have been a paying evernote subscriber for a few years and I have never seen your customer service so degraded, there are tickets that have not been answered for 1 month, I hope that new users who go from free to paid do not experience this terrible technical support . .

How do you want us to help you have a better product if you ignore our feedback for days, weeks or even months? Example tickets: #3769888, #3785859

It would help me a lot to know the reason why your service has degraded so much and why it takes them so long to answer support tickets. It would be enough to answer me "thank you... we are going to review the ticket".

I don't expect immediate answers but I would at least expect them to answer me a few hours or even a couple of days later.

Thank you.

 

I think exactly the same! I've noticed a significant degradation in customer service. Support has never been this way: even when they didn't have the solution, they would respond, saying it was forwarded to the responsible department for investigation, and they would provide updates on the progress, and indeed, there was feedback. Honestly, with the involvement of Bending Spoons, I had hope for a lot of improvement, but it's not turning out well! Highlights have been simply removed, like the support that used to be. It was so personalized that we knew the name of each analyst who was assisting us; today, not anymore. It's just a generic message without the identification of any person. That is HUMAN, and you took it away! Some things are not difficult for a well-informed decision, and this certainly wasn't one! There's a lack of sensitivity in the team, even more so in those leading the team! I don't even see responses from Federico Simionato anymore; it doesn't happen. Where's the transparency? Where's the satisfaction for the user? Where's the word? We're still waiting for the feature of using the system 'back' key to work in the app, as it was confirmed by the CEO that it would be reintroduced.

[PinkElephant 8,158]

5 hours ago, Arantes said:

… The reminders I mentioned, to remind you to do something from a note, do work, but you need to have opened the app recently for it to function. If you set a reminder for a distant time, it doesn't work.

Does this mean you don’t receive a reminder if between setting a reminder and the due date you don’t open the app (I mean never) ?

Or do you need to open it sometime close to the due date ?

[Arantes 37]

8 horas atrás, PinkElephant disse:

Does this mean you don’t receive a reminder if between setting a reminder and the due date you don’t open the app (I mean never) ?

Or do you need to open it sometime close to the due date ?

It doesn't make sense! I set a reminder to remember something, and I still have to remember to open the app? This is the first time I see a bug being justified like this! With other apps, this doesn't exist. You simply set the reminder, and regardless of when you open the app, it will remind you! I shouldn't have to remember to open the app; it should be reminding me!

[gazumped 11,691]

37 minutes ago, Arantes said:

It doesn't make sense! I set a reminder to remember something, and I still have to remember to open the app? This is the first time I see a bug being justified like this! With other apps, this doesn't exist. You simply set the reminder, and regardless of when you open the app, it will remind you! I shouldn't have to remember to open the app; it should be reminding me!

I believe that was a question,  not a justification...

[PinkElephant 8,158]

This „?“ indicates it’s a question. At least my teacher taught me so …

[mackid1993 741]

1 hour ago, Arantes said:

It doesn't make sense! I set a reminder to remember something, and I still have to remember to open the app? This is the first time I see a bug being justified like this! With other apps, this doesn't exist. You simply set the reminder, and regardless of when you open the app, it will remind you! I shouldn't have to remember to open the app; it should be reminding me!

Are you perhaps running Android. If so I had this issue and the solution is within Android. To fix this long press the app icon and press App Info then choose App Battery Info and change it to Unrestricted. 

That keeps Android from killing Evernote in the background. Once I did this my many tasks that I have set notify me on my phone properly throughout the day. 

Please note this is normal Android OS behavior and not an Evernote specific issue. 

[Arantes 37]

39 minutos atrás, mackid1993 disse:

Are you perhaps running Android. If so I had this issue and the solution is within Android. To fix this long press the app icon and press App Info then choose App Battery Info and change it to Unrestricted. 

That keeps Android from killing Evernote in the background. Once I did this my many tasks that I have set notify me on my phone properly throughout the day. 

Please note this is normal Android OS behavior and not an Evernote specific issue. 

Yes, from the beginning, I set it to 'unrestricted,' still, thank you!

[mackid1993 741]

7 minutes ago, Arantes said:

Yes, from the beginning, I set it to 'unrestricted,' still, thank you!

Try clearing the app cache too!

[ReSergent 5]

I'm incredibly disappointed. Both in the decision by the company and also from all of you suck ups in this thread.

[carlosgm 77]

hace 19 horas, Arantes dijo:

I think exactly the same! I've noticed a significant degradation in customer service. Support has never been this way: even when they didn't have the solution, they would respond, saying it was forwarded to the responsible department for investigation, and they would provide updates on the progress, and indeed, there was feedback. Honestly, with the involvement of Bending Spoons, I had hope for a lot of improvement, but it's not turning out well! Highlights have been simply removed, like the support that used to be. It was so personalized that we knew the name of each analyst who was assisting us; today, not anymore. It's just a generic message without the identification of any person. That is HUMAN, and you took it away! Some things are not difficult for a well-informed decision, and this certainly wasn't one! There's a lack of sensitivity in the team, even more so in those leading the team! I don't even see responses from Federico Simionato anymore; it doesn't happen. Where's the transparency? Where's the satisfaction for the user? Where's the word? We're still waiting for the feature of using the system 'back' key to work in the app, as it was confirmed by the CEO that it would be reintroduced.

If evernote support is not interested in my "free" bug reports, I am not interested in sharing my time with them to improve their product.

I will continue using evernote, but without sharing feedback until their service changes.

[gazumped 11,691]

2 minutes ago, carlosgm said:

I am not interested in sharing my time with them to improve their product.

So issues that you find won't get fixed until someone else finds and reports them?  That'll show 'em...

On a more rational note - Evernote's new owners messed up.  They bought the company,  changed the rates and added a few bugs by 'improving' the product.  Resulting in a flood of support requests and complaints that they're still working through.  Adding new people doesn't much help until they're trained up,  and new systems... well that's how we got here in the first place. 

So IMHO the sensible thing to do is to be patient while they figure this out,  and stop demanding someone fish out a magic wand and fix everything now.  Last I checked the Evernote team are not perfect,  but they are doing their best...

[mackid1993 741]

6 hours ago, gazumped said:

So issues that you find won't get fixed until someone else finds and reports them?  That'll show 'em...

On a more rational note - Evernote's new owners messed up.  They bought the company,  changed the rates and added a few bugs by 'improving' the product.  Resulting in a flood of support requests and complaints that they're still working through.  Adding new people doesn't much help until they're trained up,  and new systems... well that's how we got here in the first place. 

So IMHO the sensible thing to do is to be patient while they figure this out,  and stop demanding someone fish out a magic wand and fix everything now.  Last I checked the Evernote team are not perfect,  but they are doing their best...

It's a little bit of pain right now for a better product in another year. It is what it is. Evernote has some unique features that other services lack which is why I use it, that and the execution. It's easy to build a workflow around. There's very little friction.

[carlosgm 77]

hace 6 horas, gazumped dijo:

So issues that you find won't get fixed until someone else finds and reports them?  That'll show 'em...

On a more rational note - Evernote's new owners messed up.  They bought the company,  changed the rates and added a few bugs by 'improving' the product.  Resulting in a flood of support requests and complaints that they're still working through.  Adding new people doesn't much help until they're trained up,  and new systems... well that's how we got here in the first place. 

So IMHO the sensible thing to do is to be patient while they figure this out,  and stop demanding someone fish out a magic wand and fix everything now.  Last I checked the Evernote team are not perfect,  but they are doing their best...

I think evernote 10 is becoming a great application and that's why I will continue using it. When they have time and again show interest in answering my tickets, I will share them again... not at the moment.

[gazumped 11,691]

14 hours ago, ReSergent said:

I'm incredibly disappointed. Both in the decision by the company and also from all of your suck ups in this thread.

...And you joined the Forums just to tell us?  Any special reason you feel Evernote should continue to provide you with free services?

[PinkElephant 8,158]

14 hours ago, ReSergent said:

I'm incredibly disappointed. Both in the decision by the company and also from all of your suck ups in this thread.

Now my fellow user, I am one of these subscribers who finance all the show.

Tell me, why should part of my subscription money be taken and funneled into your account, just to allow you to continue to use the same service without paying for it ?

My opinion: THIS expectation sucks.

[LiftHeavy 14]

I'm a free user. I'm very sad and disappointed to see this update. Evernote is the best notetaking app out there. Unfortunately, this update will cause many people to leave.

We live in a competitive market that offers hundreds of free apps. Restricting previously free features will cause many people to switch apps. This is the beauty of a competitive market. I think the Evernote team will quickly find that the market demand curve is very elastic. In other words, this update will cause Evernote to lose money in the long run. For the people who are sticking around, keep an eye on your rates. If too many people leave, Evernote will be forced to raise their rates.

I wish you guys the best. Seriously the best app out there.

[gazumped 11,691]

2 minutes ago, LiftHeavy said:

this update will cause many people to leave.

You can't 'leave' something you're not paying for.  And if a lot of free users find another service,  that will only free up resources for actual subscribers to use.  Services will get faster and costs will come down...

[LiftHeavy 14]

16 minutes ago, gazumped said:

You can't 'leave' something you're not paying for.  And if a lot of free users find another service,  that will only free up resources for actual subscribers to use.  Services will get faster and costs will come down...

On the contrary, having less users will affect Evernotes future abilities. For example, advertising revenue (an avenue they may need to go down), future bargaining power, etc. Yes, having less users will free up resources for paying users to consume (which is great for current users, but bad for future prospects). I'd argue the trade off isn't worth it.

Remember, the goal is to gain revenue in a market that offers free apps. Time will tell my friend.

[gazumped 11,691]

Evernote don't sell user data or allow in-app promotions - unlike all the other "free" apps out there.  I appreciate that you're unhappy to have lost your free service,  but the company can't afford to allow users to virtually run a business off free software.  According to the announcement,  the 50 note limit was set to cover most free users anyway.  It's enough to get a feel for whether or not you want to use the app properly.  If you do,  you subscribe - just like most other providers out there.

[PinkElephant 8,158]

It is plain impossible to loose money by shedding users that don’t pay, but still need resources that cost money. This equation is always in favor of less free users.

The only question mark is how to draw new paying users into the service. The stepstone of the Free app use is now reduced. On the other hand there were (too) many who just stopped by with an overly generous Free offer, never thinking about subscribing.

I think in total the effect will be beneficial.

[mackid1993 741]

It's not like Evernote is ad supported. The free plan was a loss leader to encourage people to upgrade to paid. It's been abused for years and really should be rebranded as a trial plan.

[LiftHeavy 14]

9 minutes ago, gazumped said:

Evernote don't sell user data or allow in-app promotions - unlike all the other "free" apps out there.

Correct. My point is that if this update has negative impacts on Evernote, they will need to generate revenue from somewhere else to stay in business. One option is through advertising revenue. However, if their user base drastically decreases, it will mean less advertising revenue in the future. That’s why losing users now is bad. It reduces “future money”.

4 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

It is plain impossible to loose money by shedding users that don’t pay, but still need resources that cost money. This equation is always in favor of less free users.

Incorrect. Evernote will lose “future money”. It’s a big topic but to put it simply: less users means less future opportunities. It may benefit current paying users, but it will definitively hurt future opportunities.

Again, I want to say that Evernote is the best app I’ve ever used.

[mackid1993 741]

17 minutes ago, LiftHeavy said:

Incorrect. Evernote will lose “future money”. It’s a big topic but to put it simply: less users means less future opportunities. It may benefit current paying users, but it will definitively hurt future opportunities.

Evernote will convert some free users to paying subscribers and others will leave. They are losing money by providing the service for free while it's subsidized by people like me who pay. Your argument makes zero sense. Ads go against Evernote's core values, they will never sell your data either. A perpetual unlimited free service costs them more than they may earn from goodwill for offering said free service. This just isn't how economics work.

18 minutes ago, LiftHeavy said:

Again, I want to say that Evernote is the best app I’ve ever used.

Then pay for it! If you use the service, and like it sign up for a subscription.

[Luthien 5]

I really think it is simply cruel and, frankly, *****, to a) fail to announce this and b) spring it on people 2 days after a big sale. I know you personally don't give a *****, but whoever made this call ought to be ashamed of themselves.

[LiftHeavy 14]

12 minutes ago, mackid1993 said:

Evernote will convert some free users to paying subscribers and others will leave. They are losing money by providing the service for free while it's subsidized by people like me who pay. Your argument makes zero sense... A perpetual unlimited free service costs them more than they may earn from goodwill for offering said free service. This just isn't how economics work.

Yes, Evernote will gain some paid users (which is good). They will also lose many free users (which is bad, not good). My position is that the loss of free users outweighs the gains of paid users in the long run.

I just want to mention that I'm studying microeconomics right now. If the market demand curve is elastic, Evernote is in trouble. I believe it's elastic because we're in a competitive market and there are hundreds of free apps out there. Again, time will tell.

[PinkElephant 8,158]

29 minutes ago, LiftHeavy said:

Incorrect. Evernote will lose “future money”. It’s a big topic but to put it simply: less users means less future opportunities. …

The former management and owners tried to do this since 2008, for 15 years, and it ended in having no more future, when the owners sold out. Probably they wanted a life in the end, not an eternal „future“ that never materialized.

The new owners know one simple thing: When you do more of the same, you get more of the same. In this case loosing money - so they decided to change things.

[PinkElephant 8,158]

3 minutes ago, Luthien said:

I really think it is simply cruel and, frankly, *****, to a) fail to announce this and b) spring it on people 2 days after a big sale. I know you personally don't give a *****, but whoever made this call ought to be ashamed of themselves.

LOL caught with your pants down, eh ?

Just got kicked from your free ride, and already bitching about lost rebates ?! Should have taken it on BF, it was clear that the Free thing would come to a crashing end.

Statements like this show me that there is a good number of users who must have never gotten a Free ride in first place. Not because they didn’t deserve it (this too), but because I would never have volunteered to share my subscription money with them.

Well done, BS !

[LiftHeavy 14]

6 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

The former management and owners tried to do this since 2008, for 15 years, and it ended in having no more future, when the owners sold out. Probably they wanted a life in the end, not an eternal „future“ that never materialized.

I suggest you read the Inifinate Game by Simon Sinek. Very good book.

Also, yes, I agree that something needed to change. 100%. But I'd argue that ads would have been a better first choice than offloading free users. And that's coming from someone who absolutely despises ads. That way, Evernote still retains it's user base and generates the revenue it needs.

I want Evernote to succeed. I'm just really skeptical about this move.

[mackid1993 741]

4 minutes ago, LiftHeavy said:

Yes, Evernote will gain some paid users (which is good). They will also lose many free users (which is bad, not good). My position is that the loss of free users outweighs the gains of paid users in the long run.

I just want to mention that I'm studying microeconomics right now. If the market demand curve is elastic, Evernote is in trouble. I believe it's elastic because we're in a competitive market and there are hundreds of free apps out there. Again, time will tell.

Free users take up storage space and computational resources without providing any compensation. The more freeloaders that leave the better. Some will convert to paid, many will find some other free solution that is inferior and some of those will come back and decide to pay. Bending Spoons is making an attempt to create demand by reducing free options, adding features to paid options and thereby creating a new value proposition once people release that there is nothing else that does what Evernote does in one package.

7 minutes ago, LiftHeavy said:

I just want to mention that I'm studying microeconomics right now.

🤦‍♂️

[LiftHeavy 14]

I really want to continue this discussion with you guys but I gotta go do stuff. I said my rant. All the best to you guys.

[PinkElephant 8,158]

EN never was in need for a wider user base. In fact it had more users than it could finance.

EN was in need of a broader customer base - or a smaller percentage of non performing accounts.

It seems they are working on it …

[janndk 509]

21 minutes ago, mackid1993 said:

Ads go against Evernote's core values [...]

Ads might go against [old] Evernote's core values, but not against Bending Spoons' values - so let's wait and see what happens in the future.

Actually ads in EN Free might even be a good idea, if it would secure Evernotes future and helps to keep subscription prices at a tolerable level.

[mackid1993 741]

Just now, janndk said:

Ads might go against [old] Evernote's core values, but not against Bending Spoons' values - so let's wait and see what happens in the future.

Actually ads in EN Free might even be a good idea, if it would secure Evernotes future and helps to keep subscription prices at a tolerable level.

They seem to list the same values. I haven't seen a change in that. If those core values change then I'm out!

EN Free should be a time unlimited trial plan. It should be Evernote Trial. 50 notes, 1 notebook, evaluate it as long as you like within those constraints but don't call it free.

[PinkElephant 8,158]

If they want to sell ads for real money, they must compete with FB and Google. This means ads that match the content. Companies pay to get their ads placed into the right context. This means „reading“ the notes - which was and still is a no go.

[mackid1993 741]

3 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

If they want to sell ads for real money, they must compete with FB and Google. This means ads that match the content. Companies pay to get their ads placed into the right context. This means „reading“ the notes - which was and still is a no go.

Exactly see https://evernote.com/privacy/3-laws-of-data-protection for those who don't know. I think if this changed many of us would immediately ditch Evernote. I don't think Bending Spoons would consider changing this policy.

[janndk 509]

9 minutes ago, mackid1993 said:

They seem to list the same values. I haven't seen a change in that. If those core values change then I'm out!

 

Bending Spoons' top apps Remini and Splice have ads ☝️

[bmcl26 496]

58 minutes ago, LiftHeavy said:

Again, I want to say that Evernote is the best app I’ve ever used

I am on a Professional Plan, which only costs me around 23p per day (UK). It is excellent value.

[mackid1993 741]

1 minute ago, janndk said:

Bending Spoons' top apps Remini and Splice have ads ☝️

Evernote is a subsidiary with it's own CEO. If you look at BendingSpoons.com it's not even listed as one of their products. It's clearly being run differently than their other products which are more or less mobile apps where ad supported business models make sense.

Evernote is a product that houses private and confidential data and also has an enterprise presence. Clearly they are no longer marketing Evernote as just a notetaking app. It's being marketed as a productivity suite. 

Apple Notes, OneNote, Google Keep are note taking apps. Evernote does significantly more and therefore will be run differently than a mainstream consumer prouct.

[mackid1993 741]

2 minutes ago, bmcl26 said:

I am on a Professional Plan, which only costs me around 23p per day (UK). It is excellent value.

Lucky! Professional is $169.99 here in the US which is about 135 GBP. You guys get a great deal! Even in Euros Evernote is cheaper than it is in USD.

[janndk 509]

7 minutes ago, mackid1993 said:

Evernote is a subsidiary with it's own CEO. If you look at BendingSpoons.com it's not even listed as one of their products. It's clearly being run differently than their other products which are more or less mobile apps where ad supported business models make sense.

Evernote is a product that houses private and confidential data and also has an enterprise presence. Clearly they are no longer marketing Evernote as just a notetaking app. It's being marketed as a productivity suite. 

Apple Notes, OneNote, Google Keep are note taking apps. Evernote does significantly more and therefore will be run differently than a mainstream consumer prouct.

Own CEO? Where did you got that? Evernote clearly states it's a Bending Spoons' product!

[bmcl26 496]

3 minutes ago, mackid1993 said:

Lucky! Professional is $169.99 here in the US which is about 135 GBP. You guys get a great deal! Even in Euros Evernote is cheaper than it is in USD.

I was lucky I slipped in under the wire on 27th May for my renewal which did not impact existing users until 1 Jun, so I still qualified for the same amount as last year, $99.  I will have the rise to the UK equivalent of S169.99 at my next renewal, which will only increase my daily rate by around 4p per day (UK) 

[mackid1993 741]

1 hour ago, janndk said:

Own CEO? Where did you got that? Evernote clearly states it's a Bending Spoons' product!

 

https://evernote.com/blog/moving-the-evernote-center-of-operations-to-europe 

 

Quote

On June 23, we announced to Evernote employees that most of our operations will be transitioned to Europe, the home of our parent company, Bending Spoons. 

 

 

Evernote Subsidiary CEO = Francesco Patarnello

Bending Spoons Parent Company CEO = Luca Ferrari

[Matthew DePasquale 3]

On 11/29/2023 at 12:39 PM, Latrellbelle said:

I've downloaded all daily notes going back to Mar 2023 and deleted them from the program; I have one notebook with 20 notes and it's still telling me to upgrade.  It has removed my shortcut for making templates and when I try to create a new note it still wants me to upgrade.  Is there a glitch.

What are you using now?

[shales001 2]

Can anyone help me figure out how to change my billing for the Personal Plan from yearly to monthly on Google Play? I do not see any options to do this. When I go into my account on Windows, it says I have to address billing in Google Play. Do I have to cancel and sign up again? That is the only option I can see. I am considering some other apps than Evernote since the price is almost doubled. Thank you. 

[mackid1993 741]

1 hour ago, shales001 said:

Can anyone help me figure out how to change my billing for the Personal Plan from yearly to monthly on Google Play? I do not see any options to do this. When I go into my account on Windows, it says I have to address billing in Google Play. Do I have to cancel and sign up again? That is the only option I can see. I am considering some other apps than Evernote since the price is almost doubled. Thank you. 

Maybe cancel and resubscribe monthly directly from Evernote.

[Annika K 7]

New forums user, but I've been using Evernote itself for 'roundabout 7 years now. I picked it up in early highschool and loved it enough, despite its problems (notably a lack of darkmode for so long, and I'm light sensitive!), that I've stuck with it for this long - but 50 notes and 1 notebook is just ridiculous without making another, lower priced tier solely to remove this limit. I never payed for Evernote because I've never needed any of the stuff personal offered. Why would I pay 130$ for unlimited devices when I only ever use my computer and phone? Why would I pay 130$ for 10GB of download when I never hit the 60MB free monthly limit in my 7 years of using the app? Why would I pay 130$ to customize my home dashboard when I'm completely comfortable with the basic one? Why would I pay 130$ to email support I've seen other users say is unresponsive anyway? In fact, I think the only thing in all of the personal plan I have any desire for is the higher note size, but its pretty unusual for me to hit the free limit on a note anyway so that was never enough of a pain-point to justify the expense. In short, I don't need 130$ worth of features. I just need the plain and simple notetaking and organizing app that it's always been. Not offering a more reasonable Evernote Basic (or something) tier to allow that without making me pay for a bunch of features I don't need / will never use just feels greedy when those basic features used to be free. When Evernote begins offering a lesser plan that removes these new restrictions for like, 5$ a month max (the price I could pay to remove ads from other comparable notetaking apps that don't limit my creativity), then I'll pay for this. But I simply can't justify the price of personal compared to other apps I could use.

Furthermore, I may have been persuaded to pay for the personal plan if they had added more to it instead of taken away from the free plan. In an email survey I received not long ago there was a question about what functionality I feel is missing, and my #1 was the inability to put a stack inside of a stack. For example, when worldbuilding, it'd be extremely helpful to have a stack titled [Name of World/Story] and then a stack within that that specifies like [Name of a Deity] and then notebooks within that Deity stack to sort out their [Places of Power] and [Notable Followings] and [Ceremonies/Celebrations] - then the notes within a notebook within a stack within a stack would be extremely well sorted and easy to find.

Another thing they could have added to Personal to make it worth it to me despite the higher price point is the ability to sort notes in a way that doesn't revolve around recency or title. I do a lot of work in chapters, and currently the only way to keep all of my chapters in numerical order is to painstakingly go through each chapter one by one and add or remove a space at the beginning or end of the chapter to make it update. While sorting by title may solve this for some, as they can put a number in the title to denote chapter, it becomes a hassle for me on phone. I often can't see the actual full title of the chapter when doing this, which is how I tend to recognize my chapters, rather than by number. And while some may argue that sorting by date created could also solve this issue, the problem there is that often I (and many others I know) write scenes out of order - and even more often than that I realize I've forgotten a scene I need to add, or have an idea later that would need to be added to an earlier part of the story. Because of this sorting by creation date would probably make the notes even more jumbled than sorting by recency. What I would really love to see is the ability to manually sort notes and for them to stay in that order regardless of any of the current sorting options. Imagine how handy it would be to be able to click-drag a note to any position in a notebook and for it to stay there unless you feel the need to move it again.

I dunno, just frustrated and throwing out ideas, I guess. As stated before, I don't use the forums. I had no idea this change was coming until it hit my evernote today with no warning at all. It just feels so moneyhungry to force this on free users without even offering a more reasonably priced upgrade to simply remove these restrictions. I'm not even asking that my other ideas for personal to be included with this basic pack - I just want the removal of the limits and slightly higher note size and upload limit for those that need those features more than I do. I really hope this gets rectified and a lower price tier is added. But until then its a saddened farewell to an app that's been my companion for over 7 years of my life...

[agsteele 2,952]

As @mackid1993 says. Cancel in Google Play. Your account will drop to Free. Then resubscribe on the monthly plan. You will be on Free while the new sub is processed but you will lose nothing. 

[ReSergent 5]

21 hours ago, gazumped said:

...And you joined the Forums just to tell us?  Any special reason you feel Evernote should continue to provide you with free services?

I have thousands of notes spread across 43 notebooks. I've been busy using EN, and as someone who feels they had no choice but to become a now paying customer I'm glad to see there is a forum where users are able to speak freely.

[gazumped 11,691]

37 minutes ago, ReSergent said:

I'm glad to see there is a forum where users are able to speak freely.

I get that everyone is upset that their nice free lunch got taken away,  but since I've been paying for 15+ years for - apparently - pretty much the same service you've been taking advantage of for free,  my view is a little jaundiced.  You appear to have been lucky enough to enjoy several years' worth of service at zero cost.  Sorry,  but Evernote can't afford that level of charity any longer.  Welcome to the subscribers club.

 

[Arantes 37]

I now receive support feedback with a simple message: 'Without a significant level of detail, we won’t be able to process your request quickly.'

What more do they want?! I made a video capture, sent logs from the app. Do I have to go to the office now and show the bug in person?! What a mess the support has become! Thank you! 

[janndk 509]

8 hours ago, mackid1993 said:

 

https://evernote.com/blog/moving-the-evernote-center-of-operations-to-europe 

 

 

 

Evernote Subsidiary CEO = Francesco Patarnello

Bending Spoons Parent Company CEO = Luca Ferrari

They are both co-founders of Bending Spoons, and it's quite clearly stated everywhere that Evernote is owned by and a part of Bending Spoons. So it would be reasonable to assume that Evernote will follow Bending Spoons' common core values and practices.

[gazumped 11,691]

9 minutes ago, Arantes said:

I now receive support feedback with a simple message: 'Without a significant level of detail, we won’t be able to process your request quickly.'

What more do they want?! I made a video capture, sent logs from the app. Do I have to go to the office now and show the bug in person?! What a mess the support has become! Thank you! 

I assume you received a standard response,  not a specific reply to your submission;  sounds like they're trying to make sure that if there is any additional information available it gets added to the ticket before anyone even starts to deal with it. 

If you're sure there's no more to give,  then maybe just wait until you do get a direct response?

PS - Your post is not the topic for this thread.  If you need any support from the Forums please choose something relevant or create your own!

[victorcamacho 1]

Hello, 

I decided not keep using my free version but i cant use the app anymore. I cant create neither notes or notebooks. It says I can only one notebook and 50 notes but that is not the case. It is literally not allowing me to do anything. I do think is shameful, because it is forcing to pay or leave. All my notes and year and tracking is in there. 

is this the case for everyone?

Many thanks

 

[agsteele 2,952]

Click the X in the top right corner and you'll be able to see you existing notes. You will not be able to add more notes or notebooks unless you have fewer than 50 notes and one notebook.