Error exporting notes/notebooks

[kelsieka 0]

I cannot export any notes or notebooks from Evernote - I keep getting the message shown below. How can I move my notes when I can't get access to them outside of the program? 

[agsteele 2,964]

You don't say how you are trying to achieve the export. Remember, you can only expect a notebook at a time or a maximum of 100 notes together.

If you are not breaking those limits then I'd probably rebuild my local data. File, Sign Out, Remove your data.

When you log back in the data will be rebuilt. Note that this will take some hours depending upon how many notes you have. So leave the export over the weekend to be sure everything is in order before trying the export again.

[kelsieka 0]

I am choosing the export option from the three dots at the right side of the note or notebook. I was able to do this last week... now I am getting this error message. I just tried again and now the export option is gone entirely. Something weird is happening... I have logged out and back into my account after waiting for an hour. I feel like I am being held hostage since I can't do what I need to do -- and I am paying for this service. I am trying to export only 20-30 notes from one notebook at a time. Remove my data? That sounds like a very scary option... 

[Boot17 1,482]

This is the first time I've ever seen any reports of that error message. So either this a new error that we will start seeing more reports on, or it's a problem localized to your account.

Perhaps something is broken with all the technical-debt cleanup going on -- this has happened more times in the last years than fingers I have to count on. Waiting for another release might fix things if this is an error affecting a wide number of accounts. This remains to be seen.

The problem could also be with some meta-data in a bad state. Can you export any other notebooks or notes? My suggestion would be to try and start out exporting a smaller note or a small group of notes first and try and see if you can pinpoint if you have a problem note that is aborting the whole export.

Since you have a paid subscription, you can also file a ticket with Evernote support.

[agsteele 2,964]

Rebuilding your local data should not be risky. The master copy is held in the Evernote servers. When you log back in everything is restored from the cloud.

[Mongobear 15]

I'm getting this same error message.  Once a year I export all my notebooks to an external drive, as a safety backup.

I keep getting the failure above on some of the larger notebooks.  But what is weird, is that let's say it fails at about 45% of the way through a particular notebook.  I then go back to that same notebook and try again, and it ZIPS through to the 45% mark (where it failed the last time), and then SLOWLY starts ticking off the next notes. 

It may fail several times, but it eventually gets through to the end.

But I have also noticed that the export process has become VERY slow.  It always used to export really quickly, but I estimate that it now takes about five to ten times as long to export the same notebooks as it did the last time I did this process.  And I have a faster computer now than I did then!  So something is definitely up.

One of the notebooks has about 50,000 notes, and it's failing consistently around the 10-15% mark.  It may take me forever to export, but I keep trying again and again...  

Sigh...

[agsteele 2,964]

Try using either evernote-backup or Backupery. 

[Mongobear 15]

Thanks!  I may have to resort to that if I can't get this notebook to export.  Backuppery looks fairly inexpensive, so maybe that's my best bet.

[agsteele 2,964]

Evernote-backup is free and in my experience a lot speedier than Backupery.

[Mongobear 15]

Thanks!  I'll check it out, but it looks like it might be beyond my skill level...  {:{)}

[PinkElephant 8,241]

On trying I found some actions work better if the app (or the whole computer) is taken offline before starting an activity.

This is true for most multi note actions. It seems the new client works them down sequentially, which means that after each note it makes a brief server contact. Taking it offline stops this, and usually speeds up the operation significantly.

But make sure you have a fully synced local copy before doing so - else content will be missing, especially attachments.

Then take the app / computer offline, and start the export by notebook.

[Mongobear 15]

This is an excellent suggestion!  I’ll give it a try!

 

[Mongobear 15]

3 hours ago, PinkElephant said:

On trying I found some actions work better if the app (or the whole computer) is taken offline before starting an activity.

This is true for most multi note actions. It seems the new client works them down sequentially, which means that after each note it makes a brief server contact. Taking it offline stops this, and usually speeds up the operation significantly.

But make sure you have a fully synced local copy before doing so - else content will be missing, especially attachments.

Then take the app / computer offline, and start the export by notebook.

I tried this, and got an error message saying it could not export notes with attachments without an internet connection…  {:{(}  Unfortunately, there are a lot of notes with attachments in the notebook I’m trying to export

[DmytrQ 0]

Had same issue with 10-76-2 fresh downloaded. While on an other computer with 6.25.1.9091 (309091) Public  it took seconds.

[Michael B 0]

Good to see it's not just me having the problem.

Tried all the above with no luck.

Win 11

10.76.2-win-ddl-public (20240214093250)
Editor: v176.53.0
Service: v1.92.0
 

[Rense 48]

I'm also running into export problems, when trying to export a notebook of ~6000 notes. It runs for a bit, and then throws an error saying "We found the following note that may be blocking the export. Please open the note and resolve any banners", with a reference to the specific note. When I delete that note and try again, it just comes up with a different problematic note. So far I haven't found any system to the notes that apparently create problems. Also, I have no clue what is meant by "banners" here.

Win 10, Evernote 10.79.3.

[PinkElephant 8,241]

It may be you have a corrupted local database. In this case it would not be the note creating the problem, but the database.

You could recreate the database. However until everything had downloaded fresh, it will take some days.

Your decision.

[champagnesupernova 0]

On 3/12/2024 at 11:51 AM, Rense said:

I'm also running into export problems, when trying to export a notebook of ~6000 notes. It runs for a bit, and then throws an error saying "We found the following note that may be blocking the export. Please open the note and resolve any banners", with a reference to the specific note. When I delete that note and try again, it just comes up with a different problematic note. So far I haven't found any system to the notes that apparently create problems. Also, I have no clue what is meant by "banners" here.

Win 10, Evernote 10.79.3.

Same thing happening to me today, multiple times have had this error message and likewise have no idea what the reference to "banners" is. I am trying to export a large notebook and it is really really slow and after about half an hour of exporting it's crashed the whole thing with this error message as it doesn't like a particular note. This has happened earlier with other notebooks and it seems to be where the note has a date in the title with hyphens  e.g. "cake recipe  01-12-07"   Same error message of "we found the following note that may be blocking the export. Please open the note and resolve any banners. then shows the name of the note in quotation marks and then a long string of letters and numbers in brackets as an "ID"which I'm guessing is the note ID? I am really unhappy with Evernote and their latest huge hikes on pricing and now it seems that they are blocking users from exporting notes to take our business anywhere else?! 

[ciara_belle 26]

Plus one.. the price hike is ridiculous -- i was paying 69.00 when i started w/ evernote more than a decade ago .. now .. 160 ?? outrageous (and with features gone like auto filing of clips in the most likely notebook for nearly a. year now and no acknowledgment of the issue.. ( i mean who wants ALL their web clips in one folder??? ) 

i get this same error - my notes are not 'corrupt' . i'm doing the tedious - ridiculous 100 at a time (which is clearly there to discourage migration away from evernote).. at 19k of notes its slow enough. then to find it kick back on an export for 'one' note w. no real proper error msg.. i mean .. as above .. what is a 'banner' ??? there are no hints or direction on how to 'fix' the apparent issue... 

on this batch i deleted the offending note.. and voila .. it picks ANOTHER note w the same error.  Heck it should at least give the option to 'skip' the offending note.. nope. 

"We found the following note that may be blocking the export. Please open the note and resolve any banners."

(mac os)

 

[BLK Dragon 24]

v.10 can't even export one notebok without errors (if that notebook has 200+ notes)

Better option for backup would be evernote-backup tool, especially for those who has 50+ Gb of data and large notebooks with lots of notes.

[Kaspar 11]

Same here. Exporting a notebook takes 2-4 attempts, depending on the size. Each time it gets a bit further before it fails, until reaching the end "successfully".

 

[champagnesupernova 0]

14 hours ago, BLK Dragon said:

v.10 can't even export one notebok without errors (if that notebook has 200+ notes)

Better option for backup would be evernote-backup tool, especially for those who has 50+ Gb of data and large notebooks with lots of notes.

Thanks for this, where do I find this and does that produce a .enex file that can then be exported / imported to allow you to migrate your notes to another note app? Thanks for any further advice. 

[BLK Dragon 24]

6 hours ago, champagnesupernova said:

Thanks for this, where do I find this and does that produce a .enex file that can then be exported / imported to allow you to migrate your notes to another note app? Thanks for any further advice. 

evernote-backup

(it's a command-line tool)

By default, it exports each notebook into separate ENEX-file.
There is undocumented option to export each note into separate ENEX-file (but it has issues with notes that have very long titles with special characters etc.).

[s2sailor 2,278]

23 hours ago, ciara_belle said:

i'm doing the tedious - ridiculous 100 at a time (which is clearly there to discourage migration away from evernote)

If you export notebook by notebook you are not limited to 100.  That said, I also use the Evernote-backup tool for backing up.  After the initial complete backup, it only backs up new changes.

[champagnesupernova 0]

On 4/9/2024 at 1:38 PM, BLK Dragon said:

evernote-backup

(it's a command-line tool)

By default, it exports each notebook into separate ENEX-file.
There is undocumented option to export each note into separate ENEX-file (but it has issues with notes that have very long titles with special characters etc.).

This looks very technical, possibly beyond me! :-0  I'm reasonably tech savvy but unless there's step-by-step instructions for running stuff using a command Window I'm probably going to fail! 😞

[s2sailor 2,278]

18 minutes ago, champagnesupernova said:

This looks very technical, possibly beyond me! :-0  I'm reasonably tech savvy but unless there's step-by-step instructions for running stuff using a command Window I'm probably going to fail! 😞

There is a readme file that steps you through the process.

https://github.com/vzhd1701/evernote-backup/blob/master/README.md

[champagnesupernova 0]

2 hours ago, s2sailor said:

There is a readme file that steps you through the process.

https://github.com/vzhd1701/evernote-backup/blob/master/README.md

Yes saw that. I guess that all looks very straightforward to you, but like I said that is just a bit too technical for me unfortunately  😞

[s2sailor 2,278]

13 minutes ago, champagnesupernova said:

Yes saw that.

Ok, wasn't sure. 

[pohanginapete 1]

@champagnesupernova I understand your apprehension! The instructions assumed a level of geekery I don't have. However, I finally managed to figure out what to do, so here's my simplified version (to be fair, once I worked out how to actually run evernote-backup, the instructions were mostly clear):

• Download using the 'Portable binary' link and extract the evernote-backup .exe file (put it in a folder where you can find it easily)
• Open a Command prompt (type CMD in the Windows search bar to find it)
• Go to the evernote-backup folder by typing CD [name of folder] : for example, cd C:\Users\pohan.000\evernote-backup
• Type the command evernote-backup init-db and enter your Evernote username (or email) and password when prompted (NB: the password will not display on screen. I suggest copying it from a password manager and pasting it in. Take care not to paste it more than once! 😒]
• After you've entered your password, you'll get several lines confirming authorisation.
• Next, enter the command evernote-backup sync. Your notes will start syncing into a database. This might take a while if you have tens of thousands of notes.
• When it's finished, you can export the data, in the default .enex format, using the command evernote-backup export followed by the path to the folder: for example, evernote-backup export D:/Evernote export

I got a couple of error messages partway through the sync stage, but one of the great things about evernote-backup, unlike Evernote, is that it will resume where it left off rather than starting again from scratch.

Hope that helps!

[champagnesupernova 0]

5 hours ago, pohanginapete said:

@champagnesupernova I understand your apprehension! The instructions assumed a level of geekery I don't have. However, I finally managed to figure out what to do, so here's my simplified version (to be fair, once I worked out how to actually run evernote-backup, the instructions were mostly clear):

• Download using the 'Portable binary' link and extract the evernote-backup .exe file (put it in a folder where you can find it easily)
• Open a Command prompt (type CMD in the Windows search bar to find it)
• Go to the evernote-backup folder by typing CD [name of folder] : for example, cd C:\Users\pohan.000\evernote-backup
• Type the command evernote-backup init-db and enter your Evernote username (or email) and password when prompted (NB: the password will not display on screen. I suggest copying it from a password manager and pasting it in. Take care not to paste it more than once! 😒]
• After you've entered your password, you'll get several lines confirming authorisation.
• Next, enter the command evernote-backup sync. Your notes will start syncing into a database. This might take a while if you have tens of thousands of notes.
• When it's finished, you can export the data, in the default .enex format, using the command evernote-backup export followed by the path to the folder: for example, evernote-backup export D:/Evernote export

I got a couple of error messages partway through the sync stage, but one of the great things about evernote-backup, unlike Evernote, is that it will resume where it left off rather than starting again from scratch.

Hope that helps!

Thank you so much for that, I really appreciate it. I am good with using CMD / command windows as long as I know exactly what to type! Extracting files no problem I can understand that so this is really helpful.

 

I'm slightly concerned about the error messages I was getting as there was no indication as to what the problem actually was with the offending note(s) from the random error message I received! if I don't know what the problem is it's hard to fix the note that is blocking the export. I have several hours and nothing better to do I will have a go at the above 🤣 thanks again

⬇️ grateful for any advice about this error message from anyone on here 🙏🏻 

"We found the following note that may be blocking the export. Please open the note and resolve any banners"  

[pohanginapete 1]

6 minutes ago, champagnesupernova said:

Thank you so much for that, I really appreciate it. I am good with using CMD / command windows as long as I know exactly what to type! Extracting files no problem I can understand that so this is really helpful.

 

I'm slightly concerned about the error messages I was getting as there was no indication as to what the problem actually was with the offending note(s) from the random error message I received! if I don't know what the problem is it's hard to fix the note that is blocking the export. I have several hours and nothing better to do I will have a go at the above 🤣 thanks again

⬇️ grateful for any advice about this error message from anyone on here 🙏🏻 

"We found the following note that may be blocking the export. Please open the note and resolve any banners"  

Don't worry about that error message. AFAIK, it's something to do with the Evernote desktop app trying to connect to the server, which I understand is something it does each time it downloads a note (I might be wrong about this, but it doesn't matter). I had the same problem when trying to export directly from Evernote, and when I restarted the export (without doing anything to the identified problem note) it would work fine until it found another apparently problematic note. I don't think there's anything wrong with the notes; the problem is with how Evernote tries to export.

I synced and exported almost 11 thousand notes today and apart from two error messages, which didn't matter because I just resumed the export, the evernote-backup method worked fine. Nothing else I looked into would work (for example, Backupery has disappeared and I couldn't use the Legacy version of Evernote, which used to export seamlessly).

Really hope it works just as well for you. I understand how alarming it is to be completely reliant on Evernote for the security of your data.