Hard to search and import a backup - saved by Legacy

[notetakeingguy 90]

I need to find an electronic copy of my social security card. It had disappeared from my LastPass so I wanted to check an old backup of Evernote where I use to keep it. I found a 2016 ENEX file and confirmed it was in there by opening it up in Textpad and searching. I tried importing a 2016 ENEX file with 2,700 notes. It took forever. Then I did a search, and couldn't find it, wasting about an hour. I let it sit overnight. Next morning, tried a search, it still couldn't find it. I tried deleting the notebook and reimporting it, but that didn't even work.

Then I opened up my Legacy version, which I've turned off all syncing for. Imported the ENEX in a few minutes. Did a search, and found it immediately. Grand total, 10 minutes. Exported it to an ENEX and imported it in v10.

[PinkElephant 8,394]

Which proves ?

Software A compared to software B has different properties. Surprise …

[AlbertR 589]

50 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

Software A compared to software B has different properties. Surprise …

Sorry - both are payed software under one and the same service contract of one company.
A user relies on accessability of his data forEVER (as long as the service company keeps alive).

[gazumped 11,830]

Getting a little hypothetical here - an 8-year old export file from one software fails in v10,  but is readable in a 4? year old discontinued version - which re-exports to the same file format which is then readable in v10.  Seems to me something changed in ENEX formatting in the intervening period and the format was brought more up to date by the re-export. 

The issue wasn't raised to the new Evernote team so no-one there had a chance to investigate or comment.  Hardly a stinging comment on the ephemerality of file types.

Plus - even in v6,25 backups from v4 and earlier were no longer readable directly.  From memory earlier versions had to 'upgrade' to v4 and one of the original team had a conversion utility to bring the content up to date.

[notetakeingguy 90]

I think v10 read the imported ENEX file, and I could access the notes, but I just couldn't SEARCH for a note since it hasn't indexed it. I suspect it has something to do with the volume of notes, and syncing needed vs legacy keeps it offline.

[gazumped 11,830]

A great light begins to dawn - 

1. With any volume of new content,  updating the search index isn't instant and is done from the server (I think) and 
2. Older version notes need to be translated into the latest format - that feature was described as 'on demand' - i.e. when you look at a note it gets updated;  so importing pre-v10 ENEX files will automatically (I would think) cause a search issue.  That,  I would say,  is worth pointing out to Evernote.  Maybe use feedback though,  to avoid a lot of boiler plate nonsense replies?  

I could (very easily) be wrong,  or at the least,  out of date,  and maybe with this sort of situation it automatically -with time- gets resolved in the background;  but it is worth pointing out!

[notetakeingguy 90]

I wonder if I had imported a newer enex, if it had taken so long to be able to be searchable. 

 

For me, the point was that using the old Evernote, I could find my data pretty quickly, whereas it took several hours with the new Evernote, and I couldn't find it. Maybe it was due to the Age of the file, maybe not. 

 

I hesitate to report this to Evernote, because, as noted on this board, the customer service tends to get boilerplate responses, or non-response.