Windows v.10 Import Folder not importing

[justacat 38]

I'm attempting to gracefully accept using v.10 on windows, with the death of legacy. It isn't easy.

My most recent issue is that pdf files I'm saving into my import folder are not importing. These are files that I am printing to pdf from a web page, and they are correctly saving and appearing in the Add to Evernote folder, which I have correctly set up in Evernote settings, but they are not appearing in my Evernote notes.  Does anyone have suggestions or ideas? I've searched but haven't found anything about this issue.

If I transfer the files out of Add to Evernote to another directory and then move them back in, sometimes one or two of them will import to Evernote, but sometimes not - it's random.

[agsteele 2,952]

Import folders work very reliably for me Win 11 Pro and Evernote 10.82.2

Did you recently upgrade from Legacy? It might be worthwhile completely cleaning out all remnants of Evernote and starting again, with a clean installation. 

I'd recommend Revo Uninstaller. Once the uninstall is complete, you can recreate the import folder links and see how that goes.

As I said, I find import folders generally reliable.

[justacat 38]

Actually I think I did figure it out! I still have Legacy installed, firewalled from the internet. It obviously doesn't sync, but I'm keeping it as a backup in case I need to check an older note at some point in the future that hasn't yet been converted to v.10 - and also as reassurance (and also to torture myself, since it reminds me every time I see it how much I preferred that UI!). I was using the same "Add to Evernote" folder for v.10 that I had been for Legacy, though I'd cleared it out. But it turns out that though Legacy is firewalled, it is still operating as a local app, so when I added a file to the folder, it was importing to Legacy! Legacy is much speedier with importing than v.10, so it beat out v.10 in the import 90% of the time, and once that happened, the note was considered imported by Evernote Prime - even though it actually wasn't now that Legacy is no longer connected to servers.

Anyway, once I set up a new Add to Evernote folder in a different location, the import to v.10 resumed working correctly.

I know there are others who have retained Legacy locally as I have, so this could possibly be helpful if anyone encounters the same issue!

[PinkElephant 8,165]

There are reasons why every import should be delayed by a few seconds. These are explained in other treads, so I won’t repeat them here. It has nothing to do with one app being speedier, it’s no import race.

You just messed up your install of the Import Folder, by connecting the same folder twice.

Good you found the reason.

[justacat 38]

1 hour ago, PinkElephant said:

There are reasons why every import should be delayed by a few seconds. These are explained in other treads, so I won’t repeat them here. It has nothing to do with one app being speedier, it’s no import race.

You just messed up your install of the Import Folder, by connecting the same folder twice.

Good you found the reason.

OMG, why are you chiming in here, with nothing at all useful to add???? Why?

I have read all those threads about delaying import, in my effort to find a solution to my problem. All I can say is, while I don't claim that legacy was perfect or flawless, I never once had an issue with importing from my import folder, or from direct scanning. Those things just worked, efficiently and well, without fuss or workarounds. So whatever speed or delay Legacy used for importing from the import folder (and from scanning) was clearly an effective and correct one. And as best I can tell, import from the import folder works fine from v.10 too. So the issue of delay is simply not really relevant here (as it is in the case of scanning), except insofar as it clearly *does* take v.10 a little longer than it took Legacy to import from the import folder, and that's how I became aware of my issue.

I didn't "mess up" my install of anything. I very purposely connected the same folder I'd had as my Legacy import folder as my v.10 import folder (the import folder field was empty when I installed v. 10). I did this because it did not occur to me, though it probably should have, that Legacy would continue to import after it was no longer connected to the internet. And if it had occurred to me, I would have assumed that the fact that Legacy was importing from that folder would have been IRRELEVANT to v.10 and would not have prevent v.10 from using that folder. BS has proclaimed so loudly that Legacy is dead and gone and defunct, which means v.10 should be totally blind to the existence of old versions that use the old system and database and should not care at all what they are doing, since there is no longer any possibility of conflict. It would be completely reasonable for me to assume that V.10 could use that folder as an import folder without regard to whether my locally operating Legacy version is also still using it - because it's true.

But it wasn't true when Legacy was still operational, last week. Clearly whatever safeguards were in place then to prevent duplication have not been changed - and also clearly, Legacy imports from the folder more quickly than v.10, as a general rule. Which is why the files were not importing to my currently operating version of Evernote, v.10.

The problem is now solved. The folder I am using is now not one from which Legacy imports, so v.10 can take all the time it needs (not long - but longer than legacy) to import the files, and it is doing so without issue.

I am sure I will get used to the second or two extra time it takes, and just add it to the extra seconds and multiple extra steps it now takes me to do many things in Evernote - starting with the seconds it takes to scroll just to see my notes. It's frustrating, since this isn't just a matter of adapting to something different, which always takes time, but of unavoidable additional time from actual inefficiencies that have been introduced, but that's the way it is, and as long as the basic Evernote functionality (that I need) remains, I am sticking with it.

[PinkElephant 8,165]

The simple reason why a short delay is useful: If you say copy a file from a cloud location, initially only a placeholder file is created. It is then converted to the final file by the full download. This can take a little time. If there is no delay, the Import Folder mechanism will create a note from a corrupted, incomplete attachment that is still downloading.

This happens when you are for example using OneDrive on Windows or iCloud Drive on a Mac, and have storage optimization enabled. In this case the full file will exist on the cloud server only. The local drive holds a link to that file. When you move such a file to another folder, the link file is moved, and the download started.

About everything else: By continuing to run legacy you run unsupported software in parallel to the supported client. No matter what goes wrong doing so, no matter what you "assume": The fault of any chaos created by this setup rests with you. You have 2 apps called the same on the same computer. Things can take a bad turn, as you proved yourself. Your decision, your consequences.