Evernote replacement suggestions AND how to transfer 10 years worth of data

[Cjank 1]

Just received my 1 month renewal warning.

A 50% increase? Shocked me so much I found my way here to write this post.

Curious if others can share:

1) What platform you're moving to

2) How you're going about transferring all your data across

I'm a boomer and have no idea how to do any of this.

So I'll probably end up staying to avoid the time to transfer the data over.
 

But out of principle, I'm at least investigating.

 

Shame on you Evernote. 50% is criminal.

[PinkElephant 8,785]

I didn‘t see you complain when EN was struggling the years before. Cheerio, boys, do more for less !

I didn‘t see you complain when prices were kept even when it was obvious it didn‘t work out. Who cares, the sun is shining (ignore the clouds and the gale winds).

And now you say it is criminal ? Maybe „criminal neglect“ in your perception, but hardly anything but settings things straight in the end. They are more or less making up what had been avoided in raises for years.

But, anyhow: You can export from any desktop client. Export is done by notebook, and each export creates an ENEX file that holds the notes from that notebook. That is the general procedure. As an exception some apps have an importer that uses the cloud interface without a need to create ENEX files before..

Which app to pick is entirely up to yourself. I always tell NOT to follow „the usual advise“. Use cases are different, personal preferences are different. Search a little her in the forum or in other places, make a short list, and then try at least 3 options before committing. And check there is an easy way out as well, some apps happily import, but have „forgotten“ to code an export tool.

Edit: I forgot, I stayed and even went to Professional when I decided I need the additional features. Worth the money, not only for avoiding the migration effort and cost. Thanks to @AlbertR to post the obvious.

[AlbertR 704]

13 hours ago, Cjank said:

1) What platform you're moving to
2) How you're going about transferring all your data across

I remain with EN and there's not need to transfer data. I think the price is acceptable for a stable service over many years. Count your time to find a better solution and convert these hours and days to € or $. This money is saved with EN 😉

[kkarney 146]

14 hours ago, Cjank said:

Just received my 1 month renewal warning.

A 50% increase? Shocked me so much I found my way here to write this post.

Curious if others can share:

1) What platform you're moving to

2) How you're going about transferring all your data across

I'm a boomer and have no idea how to do any of this.

So I'll probably end up staying to avoid the time to transfer the data over.
 

But out of principle, I'm at least investigating.

 

Shame on you Evernote. 50% is criminal.

Shhh. Don't say anything negative. You will be chastised.

Speaking for myself, I think the new version is terrible (slow and missing features I used to rely on). There is no support whatsoever (except the defensive kind offered by customers in these forums).

But I'm sticking w/ Evernote. Why? Because, like you, I have more than 10 years of my life inextricably bound to EN, and the effort to switch to something new is just too much. There are ways to transfer data to a new app (I was able to do this with Notion, for instance), but I found that adapting my workflow to a new app was simply more of a PITA than giving up and staying w/ EN. 

My greatest fear is that the total radio silence from EN support means that it's not long for this world. I just hope they give us a chance to get things together before they close up shop and disappear completely.

[AlbertR 704]

38 minutes ago, kkarney said:

My greatest fear is that the total radio silence from EN support means that it's not long for this world. I just hope they give us a chance to get things together before they close up shop and disappear completely.

Yep - that would be a problem to many, many people (including me). On the other hand the new pricing and streamlined internal organization will help to continue the service in future.

Regarding support: I got a sign of life for 3 open ticket last Friday - OK, not the solution (looks like a triggered machine message). But someone decided to give this sign, so he/she believes in beeing able to answer in near future 🙏.

[Boot17 1,536]

There have been three times when I looked really hard to migrate away from Evernote in the last few years:

• The implementation of the v10 version -- late 2020 
• The acquisition by Bending Spoons & subsequent changes -- announced late 2022
• The new UI revamp -- late last month (not just the UI, but a few other things leading up to it as well)

All combined, I've spent well over 100 hours looking at other alternatives. (A lot of time wasted for sure, but it was kind of fun for me personally too.)

For me, the price increase played a little into it, but in the end (and currently), I really do think that the price Bending Spoons is asking is reasonable especially when you compare it's feature set and compare it against the market. They've also recently opened up additional features to the Personal plan as well: https://evernote.com/blog/14-features-for-all

However, recently I'm more concerned about the performance and a matching feature-set and company direction for my use case vs the price.

So @Cjank, if the feature set and performance of Evernote is working well for you, and it's just about the cost, then I say it'd be best to just continue with Evernote. Also -- if you try cancelling your subscription and start going through the process you may get offered a 40% (or more) discount to stay this first year buying you another year to contemplate.

[cshining41 0]

Yes, I agree, this increase is shocking.   And the inability to export the data is, well, worthy of Apple icloud.  Working hard to find out how to back up data.

I am not a "power user".  I just use notes to save thoughts and outlines.  I am only one person.  There must be an intermediate pricing for that, like $80 per year????

[AlbertR 704]

On 2/19/2024 at 4:09 PM, Boot17 said:

• The implementation of the v10 version -- late 2020 
• The acquisition by Bending Spoons & subsequent changes -- announced late 2022
• The new UI revamp -- late last month (not just the UI, but a few other things leading up to it as well)

THX for this short timeline. It shows what many here forgot: V10 is not an idea of BS - see also Behind the Scenes: Uniting the Evernote Apps - Behind the Scenes Series - Evernote User Forum from February 2020 - sure after some months of work that have been passed before the video (*)

With BS the focus seems to change to fance UI "enhancements". Base idea was great.

(*) Interessting: Hasn't been @Shane D. an empolyee in the past? Now he's shown as a Level-5 forum member whereas some other appear as "Ex Employees" (like @Ian Small with his Teams account...

 

[Jean-Christophe 26]

On 2/19/2024 at 12:12 AM, Cjank said:

Curious if others can share:

1) What platform you're moving to

2) How you're going about transferring all your data across

 

Currently migrating from Evernote to Obsidian, which has a different implementation and philosophy.
Good point : it is free (I am a premium EN user since 15 years, and ready to use Obsidian sync as a customer too).
Bad point : there is a learning curve.

I make export files (ENEX) from Evernote, notebook per notebook, then use a dedicated tool to import ENEX files into Obsidian.
Migrating takes a couple of minutes for hundreds of notes. The easy part.

Then I check and rewrite some of my notes in Obsidian in order to leverage Obsidian features not implemented in Evernote (linking between notes for instance).
But this part is more personal than « migration » itself.
All my notes are stored locally and synced in iCloud so I can use iOS Obsidian apps.
I am also investigating Obsidian sync (8 EUR/month) which could be more efficient.

Last but not least, I spent time choosing the right Obsidian theme, according to my needs, it makes the experience even more friendly and comfortable.
I still need to implement additional features, not available natively in Obsidian, like creating a note from an email received. I was able to create a zap in Zapier to do so. This works fine, I will use it soon after final testing.

You need a minimum of experience to implement all features, but if you do, the user experience is really nice, Obsidian being fast and reliable.
I document this process on my blog, unfortunately in french but DeepL is your friend (and is integrated in Obsidian too) : https://www.jcdichant.com/evernote-obsidian-migration-premiere-mise-en-oeuvre/

[PinkElephant 8,785]

It is free, unless you want to use it’s syncing.

If you do, it’s on the price level of a Personal subscription. Which always includes syncing, as does the EN Free version.

Apples are no Oranges, and we shouldn’t mix them up, by excluding relevant features.

[Jean-Christophe 26]

So what ?
I shouldn’t do that ?

Paying for software is not an issue, specifically if the product delivers the service I am waiting for.
I still pay for EN, even if it is only to be able to work on the migration.

EN has strong points, and weak ones.
But reading you, it is forbidden to talk about weak ones.
You could listen to others, having different needs than you have.

Blabla doesn’t help, at the end.
 

[PinkElephant 8,785]

You said it would be free. I corrected this, saying it is a subscription if you use their syncing. EN syncing is an integral part of all clients.

Feedback from the forum has shown that using other syncing methods with Obsidian may be technically possible, but doesn’t really integrate well.

So don’t create wrong impressions, and we can focus on other fields.

[AlbertR 704]

3 hours ago, Jean-Christophe said:

... I am also investigating Obsidian sync (8 EUR/month) which could be more efficient.
I still need to implement additional features, not available natively in Obsidian, like creating a note from an email received. I was able to create a zap in Zapier to do so.

THX for your in-detail description so far in your Blog. I for myself cannot agree with all your topics (i.e. that EN cannot link notes) and whether it will be somewhat cheaper that EN. 8€/month + Zapier (free?) to implement an eMail-Inbox?

I also had some tests with Obsidian and found the learning curve too complicated to recommend it for non-IT-insiders.

But your idea to rework all notebooks and thereby delete some note is a good one - I call this work "gardening" my notes 😉 

 

[Onecal 0]

On 2/18/2024 at 11:12 PM, Cjank said:

Just received my 1 month renewal warning.

A 50% increase? Shocked me so much I found my way here to write this post.

Curious if others can share:

1) What platform you're moving to

2) How you're going about transferring all your data across

I'm a boomer and have no idea how to do any of this.

So I'll probably end up staying to avoid the time to transfer the data over.
 

But out of principle, I'm at least investigating.

 

Shame on you Evernote. 50% is criminal.

I’ve started moving my notes to OneNote, which is included in my work and personal Office subscription. I’m using theEvernote2onenote tool which was linked to from Microsoft’s website. It’s not perfect and tasks in notes don’t work but I’ve never liked tasks much anyway. The normal notes have exported fine. 
 

I’ve been using Evernote for 10 or so years and stuck with it despite its annoyances because it’s basic functionality was still useful to me. However a 125% price increase from £3.99 to £8.95 is the final straw and impossible for me to justify. 
 

 

[Feitz 262]

On 2/19/2024 at 1:23 PM, AlbertR said:

for a stable service over many years.

You are probably referring to Legacy, which was discontinued three years ago and unsupported since then. V10 in my view has been anything but a stable and reliable service (and still isn't). 

I am aware BS seem to do their best to correct this, but in the end they bought the company and therefore inherited the liabilities.

[PinkElephant 8,785]

Legacy was not discontinued yet - this will happen when syncing stops. This is already the fate for most old clients. Currently 6.25 PC and 7.14 Mac still sync - we will see for how much longer. It is unsupported as software since October 2020.

[kkarney 146]

1 hour ago, Feitz said:

You are probably referring to Legacy, which was discontinued three years ago and unsupported since then. V10 in my view has been anything but a stable and reliable service (and still isn't). 

I am aware BS seem to do their best to correct this, but in the end they bought the company and therefore inherited the liabilities.

If this is doing their best, then their best is the worst.

[Feitz 262]

14 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

Legacy was not discontinued yet - this will happen when syncing stops.

Development stopped at least three years ago, not even minor corrections were made.

[Feitz 262]

14 minutes ago, kkarney said:

If this is doing their best, then their best is the worst.

Probably V10 is more f***ed up than we are aware of, I don't doubt they do what they can.

[PinkElephant 8,785]

You will know legacy is finally discontinued when you open it one day, and it tells you it can't connect any more. I am convinced BS will give a lead warning when time is up.

Until then you risk to damage your database by using v10 and legacy simultaneously. v10 has taken a huge leap last year by finally abandoning the old syncing logic, moving on to RTE. Everybody running both generations simultaneously forces a permanent conversion of notes between old and new data structure, and causes the risk of breaking content.

You can continue to ***** things up on your account by not dropping legacy now, and fingers crossed note history will help you to dig out one day.