How to Restore an accidentally deleted Notebook & its Notes?

[SFeliz 0]

Hello,

[ EVERNOTE 4, Windows XP-Pro SP3 ]

I deleted (by mistake), a Notebook: "Entrees",

(it had 400 Notes in it..).

It's a "synch folder", (not a local folder).

I tried to Restore this deleted Folder via the TRASH link inside EN Win 4.

But...neither the deleted Folder,

nor the 400 Notes are shown there, at all...

Is there a way to restore / recover the accidentally deleted Folder,

(and all its Notes), just the way it was before I accidentally deleted?

What are the clear steps to Recover my accidentally deleted Folder

and its 400 Notes?

HELP!

(I'm a Premium Customer and have also requested Premium Support via sep. email).

Eliz

SF

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

When deleting an entire notebook, you're warned that all notes will be deleted and cannot be undone. Also, IIRC, in this case, the notes are not put into the trash (part of the 'cannot be undone' message.)

If you have a backup of your EN database that includes those notes, you can use that.

Otherwise, if you have a premium account, you may be able to use the history feature, to bring them back, but can't say for sure.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

This thread details how to restore from your own backup. If you only want selected notes (IE your deleted notebook) b/c you've added a lot of notes since the backup, you'd export all those notes to an enex file, return to your "live" database & import the enex file.

[SFeliz 0]

BurgersNFries: Thanks for the quick reply!

Unfortunately,

I did not make a Backup of my Notebook, (and its 400 Notes).

As a Premium customer,

I expected Evernote to safely keep a [file backup] "in the cloud",

for a reasonable number of days,

(backup similar to what Dropbox does).

So, I'm still waiting for EN's response to my Suppt. Inquiry via email.

Maybe they can Restore my deleted Folder...sigh!

-----------

BurgersNFries:

I did read the thread you indicated (above),

on doing my own Backup & Restore, (in the future!) -

but the different posts and opinions in that thread.

are really confusing (well, to me).

I looked all over the EN site, FAQ, Knowledge Base, Forums, etc

but didn't find clear & unambiguous Instructions.

What & How to backup & restore?

Is there somewhere clear STEP X STEP instructions,

which describe how to:

a) Backup and

Restore (if needed, like my case now!)

an EN database?.

If there isn't, maybe this is a good opportunity

to write the "official" simple, clear guide "for the rest of us"...

eliz

SF

EN 4 (latest version), Win XP-Pro SP3

[pwwroa 8]

I am looking for the same info.

I have not lost anything yet, but need to know.

[engberg 89]

If you delete a normal (synchronized) notebook, then all of the notes from that notebook should appear within the Trash in your Evernote client. If you restore them from the Trash, they will go into the "default notebook" for your account. They'll only be permanently removed if you empty the Trash.

If you delete a "local-only" notebook that you created on that one client, then you'll get an extra confirmation dialog that warns you that the notes in that notebook will be permanently removed. Only if you say "Ok" to that dialog ("Cancel" is the default) will it remove your notes.

Do you recall whether this notebook was a synchronized or a local notebook?

If you sign in to your account on the web, do you see any of your missing notes in the Trash there?

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Could you please stop confusing people with your incorrect information.

First, please note I said IIRC (stands for "If I Recall Correctly")

Second, this was the behaviour in 3.5 as shown below:

Third:

It's a "synch folder", (not a local folder).

I tried to Restore this deleted Folder via the TRASH link inside EN Win 4.

But...neither the deleted Folder,

nor the 400 Notes are shown there, at all...

And finally...try it yourself...delete a notebook with notes & then try to find those notes in the trash.

Thanks.

You're welcome.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

If you delete a normal (synchronized) notebook, then all of the notes from that notebook should appear within the Trash in your Evernote client.

Dave, are you sure? (I do note you said 'should'...) I just deleted a test notebook (sync'd - not local) with 8 test notes from EN4 build 121088. If I go to the trash and sort by creation date (they were created today, just ~15 minutes ago), I don't see them...??? I checked both the Windows EN4 trash & the web client's trash. (And they'd been sync'd to the cloud b/c I created them in 3.5 to get the above screen cap I posted, sync'd to the cloud & down to EN4, where the notebook was deleted.)

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Ok, upgraded EN4 to the latest build (available to me), which is 121256.

• 1. Emptied the trash.
  2. Right clicked on a sync'd notebook (with three notes), delete
  3. Trash is still empty.

[engberg 89]

I apologize, it looks like the behavior from the 3.5 client wasn't correctly preserved. The v4 client gives a warning about the deletion being permanent, including notes:

We'll modify this to restore the 3.5 behavior in the future. Unfortunately, if you deleted a notebook like this previously, then the only way to recover the missing notes would be from a local backup of your database on your PC.

[ndoan 2]

I just had this issue and was able to get around it. Remember that Evernote keeps a "master" copy of all your notesat evernote.com and you can access it directly there. I believe this is what you are synching to when the synch process initiates.

 

1. I deleted a Notebook "C" by accident on my PC client. Notebook "C" is a sub-notebook of "A"

 

2. I could not find the Notebook or the Notes in the trash

 

3. Did a quick internet search and found that this is expected behaviour

 

4. Disconnected my PC from my wireless so that my deletion of Notebook "C" did not get synched to the Master copy at Evernote.com

 

5. On wife's computer went to the Evernote website and logged into my account - Notebook "C" is still there because I hadnt synched yet!

 

6. Renamed Notebook "C" to "DONT FRIGGEN DELETE ME C" and for good measure moved it to a completely different top level Notebook "B" to hide it from the synch process.

 

7. Reconnected my laptop to the wireless and initiated the synch process

 

8. Notebook "DONT FRIGGEN DELETE ME C" now appears under Notebook "B" with all original notes still in there. Notebook "C" has also been deleted from both Evernote.com and my client.

 

9. Moved "DONT FRIGGEN DELETE ME C" to make it a sub-notebook of "A" and renamed it "C" 

 

10. Cracked open a beer

[ScottLougheed 1,316]

I just had this issue and was able to get around it. Remember that Evernote keeps a "master" copy of all your notesat evernote.com and you can access it directly there. I believe this is what you are synching to when the synch process initiates.

 

1. I deleted a Notebook "C" by accident on my PC client. Notebook "C" is a sub-notebook of "A"

 

2. I could not find the Notebook or the Notes in the trash

 

3. Did a quick internet search and found that this is expected behaviour

 

4. Disconnected my PC from my wireless so that my deletion of Notebook "C" did not get synched to the Master copy at Evernote.com

 

5. On wife's computer went to the Evernote website and logged into my account - Notebook "C" is still there because I hadnt synched yet!

 

6. Renamed Notebook "C" to "DONT FRIGGEN DELETE ME C" and for good measure moved it to a completely different top level Notebook "B" to hide it from the synch process.

 

7. Reconnected my laptop to the wireless and initiated the synch process

 

8. Notebook "DONT FRIGGEN DELETE ME C" now appears under Notebook "B" with all original notes still in there.

 

9. Renamed and moved everything so that "C" is put back under "A" again.

 

10. Cracked open a beer

Good suggestion, if your fast enough!!

Perhaps a good reason to set a slightly longer auto sync interval on the desktop.... I had never thought of that prior to this.

[ndoan 2]

Yes it was definitely a race against time - and involved a lot of swearing that I left out of the above steps!

[Nolajoins 0]

Hi All, 

 

I am so glad to find this forum; I'm a big user of forums and I am currently trying to become a big user of EN in conjunction with GTD.  As such I would expect I will be here often.  Now to why I am introducing myself on this particular thread.  It was the top search item for my particular problem.

 

I accidentally deleted a notebook this morning but I received no warning that I was deleting a notebook "are you sure?" at all.  I actually clicked on the top note and went to delete it and realized I got kicked into another notebook b/c the whole notebook disappeared.  I was able to get them all out of trash and recreate the notebook but all of the tags were gone from the restored notes.  

 

Very good advice on the restore and I will start backing up.  I just want to know what happened.  One of the keys to GTD is trusting your system so you don't hold things in your head.  Uh Oh lol.  I don't know if something funky happened from my palms touching the mousepad on my laptop or what.  In the meantime I have decided to only delete from the right click menu and stay away from the DEL key all together.  I am just trying to restore faith that I can keep something like this from happening.

 

I made sure I am running the latest version and all of the above is in reference to EN windows desktop client.  

 

I think I will love this forum.

 

Scott

[s2sailor 2,185]

I accidentally deleted a notebook this morning but I received no warning that I was deleting a notebook "are you sure?" at all.  I actually clicked on the top note and went to delete it and realized I got kicked into another notebook b/c the whole notebook disappeared.  I was able to get them all out of trash and recreate the notebook but all of the tags were gone from the restored notes. 

This is different behavior than what I see.  If I try to delete a notebook in the left panel I do get a confirm action dialog box asking me if I really want to delete the notebook.  When deleting individual notes there is no confirmation box, those go straight to the trash can.  Are you sure there was no confirmation box?  Create a dummy notebook and put a couple of test notes in it to try again.

 

One thing you can do to help avoid the problem is to disable the left panel from view.  Pressing F10 will toggle the panel on and off.  I typically leave it off since I prefer to work with the two panel view and then I only toggle it on if I need to do something there.

[Nolajoins 0]

thank you S2Sailor,

 

as far as the confirmation box, I don't think there was one.  The only way it could have happened is if the program received input inadvertently from the keyboard but I was looking at the screen when it happened and nothing popped up.

 

Good advice on the toggle side panel off.  I use it a lot for navigation but I may have to go that route.  I will try a dummy notebook now and see what happens.

[KHeaslip 0]

If you delete a normal (synchronized) notebook, then all of the notes from that notebook should appear within the Trash in your Evernote client. If you restore them from the Trash, they will go into the "default notebook" for your account. They'll only be permanently removed if you empty the Trash.

If you delete a "local-only" notebook that you created on that one client, then you'll get an extra confirmation dialog that warns you that the notes in that notebook will be permanently removed. Only if you say "Ok" to that dialog ("Cancel" is the default) will it remove your notes.

Do you recall whether this notebook was a synchronized or a local notebook?

If you sign in to your account on the web, do you see any of your missing notes in the Trash there?

OMG, thanks soooo much!  I accidentally deleted 2 of my most useful and largest notes.  I had pressed record by accident and had recorded a snippet, and when I tried to delete only that, the whole note went with it.  Now I have them back!

[jefito 5,589]

That engberg, he's pretty sharp...

[Mark in Chicago 0]

I have a new problem.  I accidentally hit "leave" on one of the synced business notebooks that belonged to me (nobody had been invited to join yet).  No warning came up when I hit leave.  Now it's nowhere to be found- not even in Trash.  How can this happen so easily without warning, and what can I do to get it back? 

[Jyothi Ganesh 0]

On 1/17/2011 at 9:22 PM, BurgersNFries said:

When deleting an entire notebook, you're warned that all notes will be deleted and cannot be undone. Also, IIRC, in this case, the notes are not put into the trash (part of the 'cannot be undone' message.)

If you have a backup of your EN database that includes those notes, you can use that.

Otherwise, if you have a premium account, you may be able to use the history feature, to bring them back, but can't say for sure.

its a vague reply. I hope you know history feature before you suggest