Mobile version taking too long to update it's database

[jcg42 4]

The last time I opened Evernote on Android (Pixel 5a) it said I'd need internet connectivity while it upgraded the next time I opened it.  It has been on the spinning Evernote icon screen showing 20% for over 15 hours now. How long should it take with 35,000 notes?  Been a customer for over 10 years and never seen this behavior before.

Edit 7/25: Nothing has changed; new app, notifications on/off, power cycles, left overnight at the spinny icon (woke up to 33%). Time to explore alternatives?
Edit 8/6: Uninstalling and reinstalling the app today fixed the issue. Had done this many times prior, including deleting data. Hopefully this fixes it for good.

[Charles Gauntt 1]

I am having the same problem on a Samsung Galaxy tab S6 tablet.

[christopherdr 1]

Same, it's been circling itself and not opening for several days now. Pixel 7pro

[Stuart Rudner 2]

I  have been having that issue as well and now, only a handful of my notes show up no matter how long I wait.

[PinkElephant 8,772]

Switch the Autolockscreen off, put it on a charger, make EN the active app and let it run over the night.

Check then if it has corrected itself.

[gadget 28]

Had the same. Cleared app data and cache and reinstalled the app. Logged in and everything seemed fine. When you make a fresh install nothing is on the device that needs to be converted, right ? But no. Next start of app comes up with that "need internet to update message" again und now all I get is the starting screen but no access to any note. Google Pixel 7 Pro.

BTW: The login process is also a disaster. I use 2FA. You enter Username + Passwort and than you are prompted to enter second factor which I have in Google Authenticator. When I switch to Authetnicator to get the 2FA Code and switch back to Evernote App the Login reloads and you have to re-enter Username+Password. When you have done this the 2FA Code has expired.

[tveit 2]

I have been having that problem since 10.95.2 update, unable to use.

I just this morning cleared data, deleted & reinstalled EN on Pixel-7-Pro.  This time I got 10.96.1 and after brief "syncing", all is good.

[VincentC 338]

5 hours ago, gadget said:

You enter Username + Passwort and than you are prompted to enter second factor which I have in Google Authenticator. When I switch to Authetnicator to get the 2FA Code and switch back to Evernote App the Login reloads and you have to re-enter Username+Password. When you have done this the 2FA Code has expired.

Yes, I found this about a week ago.  It was kind of comedic.  Fortunately, when I set up Google Authenticator for Evernote, I set up my tablet and a second phone at the same time so they all will generate authenticator codes I can use with Evernote.  The workaround I discovered was to call the 2FA code up on my alternate device and enter it on my phone. (There are YouTube videos on setting up Google Authenticator on more than one device so you can do this.)

Alternatively, I imagine one could use the "emergency" codes that authenticator gives during the setup process.  Of course, this means that you have to have saved those codes and remember where you put them.  I myself >might< be able to find them if I really need to,

 

Vinnie

[PinkElephant 8,772]

Nobody needs to use Google Authenticator.

EN insists to only name this app, but in fact ANY authenticator app that produces OTP codes will do.

Personally I use Authy, which is easy to setup on different devices. There are many others, and you can stick to the one you already use, like MS Authenticator or most password managers.

[gadget 28]

On 7/11/2024 at 3:18 PM, tveit said:

I have been having that problem since 10.95.2 update, unable to use.

I just this morning cleared data, deleted & reinstalled EN on Pixel-7-Pro.  This time I got 10.96.1 and after brief "syncing", all is good.

Did just the same yesterday evening again. This helped briefly but today I have added just one note (photo of an invoice) on the android  app and have the circling again, stuck at 25% and so unable to use the app even when back in wifi coverage. Will try to reinstall later when I am near a second device to generate the 2FA Code thanks to the borked login process. What a mess.

[mattandbrook 4]

Having the same login problem on a Galaxy S23. When I finally am able to login I get "To improve Evernote's performance, the app has to undergo an optimization process.' 20+ hours later it's still not finished. Ridiculous lack of testing here is leading to breaking changes from minor version updates. Very disappointing. 

[masasoon 4]

私も全く同じ症状で困っています。自分だけじゃなくてホッとした。

この問題が修正されるといいのだけど。

[matthieudesroches 4]

I have the same problem since 3 days now... I just can't open the Evernote app on my Android Samsung Galaxy S22. 

It loads forever but never open (see image). 

Anyone with this same issue?

[David_Cr 4]

hace 46 minutos, matthieudesroches dijo:

I have the same problem since 3 days now... I just can't open the Evernote app on my Android Samsung Galaxy S22. 

It loads forever but never open (see image). 

Anyone with this same issue?

Same problem since fryday. 

Any solution? 

[John in Michigan USA 140]

Same problem. Took over a day for the "optimization process" to finish. Forcing the EN app to close, or power-cycling the phones didn't seem to help. Logging out and logging back in didn't seem to help. Leaving my Android phones plugged in, disabling the various power saving features seemed to help the optimization process go more quickly. Alas, that isn't the end of this story! After optimization, on one phone I have, somehow, zero notebooks but 500 notes. On another phone I  have 1 notebook and 9 notes. In reality, and fortunately on the Windows and Web client, I have 4 notebooks and 5597 notes.

Yet another Evernote quality control fail.

Update: I've lost track of how many times I've logged out and logged back in on various phones, but at least some of the time, it seems to be working in that it gets the app to display the correct count of notes and notebooks. There is obviously a multi-factor thing in effect here. It isn't simply a matter of logging out and logging back in. It's something more complicated. You have to try various things, including:

• disrupting your whole phone-life workflow to reconfigure your phone to run all the time;
• painful trial-and-error about how long to wait before re-installing the app;
• plenty of logging in and out;

...until you find the "magic" combination of steps that finally tricks the app into working. By then you've tried so many things it is impossible to know exactly what you did that worked, and besides, the next time the app breaks it will be a different set of magic steps.

The app is still painfully slow to use. A new wrinkle: some controls respond to the first touch, others are sluggish and require a touch-and-wait approach, or a touch, wait, give up and touch again, control finally responds but it processes both touches and mucks things up.

Look, Evernote, I know apps are hard, I'm willing to pay, be patient waiting for fixes, and accept that certain bugs won't be fixed but in return for that I expect to see net progress, net meaning the rate of fixes, however, slow, must exceed the rate of things that break. Ridiculous. And no, EN fanbois and fangirrrls, my expectations are not unreasonable. EN app used to have net improvement (5+ years ago, but it did). All the paid apps I can think of have a clear, net positive rate of improvement today.

Edited July 17 by John in Michigan USA
Update

[Gareth C 0]

Same issue as described above. Stuck on 95%. Samsung S22 Android 14.

[a1r 4]

Evernote is now fully disabled on my Pixel 7. I'm a customer since 2008.

The 'optimisation' either makes an attempt and freezes around 94% (even when left overnight), or the app just shows loading screen. After a while a link appears, "Show Logs". I won't attach output directly here since I don't know if there are keys in there.

If I clear cache, storage - app starts up, asks for auth, but then requires the 'optimisation' (despite retrieving fresh from the server) which fails in the same way.

Uninstall, reinstall, same behavior.

The web client refuses to run on mobile, "Your current browser configuration is blocking Evernote from opening" on stock Android Chrome. So no workaround.

[robanero 9]

Same Problem for 4 days now.  Can't open evernote at all on Galaxy S22 Ultra!

When opening, its stuck on logo screen with evernote icon and Made with ♥ by Bending Spoons.  No indication that it is doing anything!

[robanero 9]

Just uninstalled and reinstalled and problem gone (I can now use evernote on my S22 Ultra).

Thanks to the notes above, I was ready with my 2 factor codes before I signed in. 👍

[masasoon 4]

Has anyone solved the problem by updating to version 10.96.3? It didn't solve it for me.
The database update never finishes.

[matthieudesroches 4]

Still the same issue here after more than a week, and no answer from the Evernote support team... 

[Brook Bradley 1]

Same problem here, hangs at 33%. Broken for over a week now. Can't user Evernote on my phone at all. No change with today's update.

[David_Cr 4]

The probelm it's not solved. 

- One  week at 33%

- The technical service's responses are generic and do not clarify or resolve the problem.

- Much of my work is mobile, and the use of the mobile app is crucial to my daily life.

 

What's going on?

Why so much silence?

[masasoon 4]

The problem has not been resolved yet. Is the management planning to do nothing about it?

[Gareth C 0]

The problem is resolved for me. A few days ago I enabled notifications (they've been disabled the whole time and I wondered if it was blocked attempting to tell me something) in the Android Evernote app and restarted my phone. I haven't had the problem since then. Can't hurt to try.

[Stuart Rudner 2]

Interesting. I keep my notifications disabled too, though even with that the app seems to be working again.

[masasoon 4]

The latest update, version 10.98.0, was released today, so I installed it right away.
This time, the message "Updating database" was displayed, but now it says "Downloading content," and the progress percentage is also moving. I thought this version might be promising, but no.
I can launch the app for now, but only three of my 12 notebooks are synced.
When will they provide a proper app?

[mattandbrook 4]

Still broken for me, still hangs at 33%

[robanero 9]

On 7/17/2024 at 12:35 PM, robanero said:

Just uninstalled and reinstalled and problem gone (I can now use evernote on my S22 Ultra).

Thanks to the notes above, I was ready with my 2 factor codes before I signed in. 👍

Problem is back: evernote does some downloading then updating, but never finishes.  The percentage goes up very slowly, like at 0.01% at a time if at all.  Some times I see the percentages going slowly down after getting up to 8%.

So again uninstalled, reinstalled (10.97.0), logged in, percentage slowly went up to 100 and the app opened.  Now it is working, BUT when I close the app and reopen, I get the optimization process notification. Closing the app and reopening it does the optimization and then the app works!  🤞hope it keeps working

 

 

 

[mattandbrook 4]

You're doing better than me  

After 4 hours I'm all the way up to .38%! Only another 960 hours to go!

[David_Cr 4]

I still have the problem of not being able to access the service since July 12th.
I have opened several tickets to support, and I still have no response and I am still unable to use the Android application.
The time has come to cancel the subscription after thirteen years.

 

[Hans815 0]

Same story from me (OnePlus 7 Pro): Subscription for more than a decade. Note collection +4GB. Thought it was a good idea to wipe the app and reinstall from fresh. WASN'T!! I did not know I had 4GB of notes... nor that it would take 10+ hours to download them from the Evernote Servers (which, apparently, they think is necessary).

After a week of not being able to even open the bloody app, I finally got it to log me in, update the library to their "newest version", and I was a happy user for 46 hours (even though I came late to a dinner party because I did not dare change even the screen on my phone to call and say I will be late - it was oscillating between 40 % and 20 % complete (!) for hours, when it suddenly got traction (about the time when I had to leave in order to make it on time).

I did say "46 hours"... because it did not even last two days before the dreaded login-failure-screen returned. Now, I can't open the app again. It hasn't even updated the app since last week!! And the number of times I have written to "Service Desk"... only to be told that they can't help me without the log files (which I can generate once the bloody app opens!).

They are draining my patience now. Whatever they did - it should NEVER have made it to Public.

[PinkElephant 8,772]

Since EN and Chrome maybe share some resources, it could be worth to give this a try:

https://help.evernote.com/hc/en-us/articles/29216279537043-Troubleshooting-issues-with-Account-Management-and-Web-Actions-Logins

Since I’m on iOS, I can’t advise further. No such issues on iOS. 

[matthieudesroches 4]

On 7/29/2024 at 3:37 AM, David_Cr said:

I still have the problem of not being able to access the service since July 12th.
I have opened several tickets to support, and I still have no response and I am still unable to use the Android application.
The time has come to cancel the subscription after thirteen years.

 

It's unacceptable that the support team doesn't do any thing about the situation... It's been more than 2 weeks now, and the problem is still there with no solution nor answer from the support! 

[PinkElephant 8,772]

The login relies on a web authorization.

Read the article I posted above, follow the advise. There is nothing support can do for you (except sending you the same article), because there is a local problem on your device or network.

[mattandbrook 4]

What does the very slow download and conversion process have to do with a web authorization? I would think if the auth was broken nothing would be downloading and converting. 'We're processing your content' should not take literal days to execute. 

[masasoon 4]

6 hours ago, mattandbrook said:

What does the very slow download and conversion process have to do with a web authorization? I would think if the auth was broken nothing would be downloading and converting. 'We're processing your content' should not take literal days to execute. 

Since you can definitely log in, it can't be a problem with web authentication.

[Tim Kowal 27]

I am also frustrated with my Android Evernote app taking undue time (after 10 hours it is as 25%) to process my content. 

My question: Why does Evernote use my phone—rather than its servers, or my PC—to process whatever changes are needed to the content? A phone is the worst candidate to do this kind of grunt work. Not only does it take my mobile usage out of commission, but it is the slowest processor and the worst heat displacement of the other available options. I am worried at what this suggests about the intelligence of Evernote's developers who do not realize this. 

[gazumped 12,054]

6 hours ago, Tim Kowal said:

Why does Evernote use my phone—rather than its servers, or my PC—to process whatever changes are needed to the content?

Not sure what we're arguing about here.  Evernote should be faster than it is on Android is a given.  No notes are stored locally by default because of storage space and speed issues - users have to select 'offline' notes or notebooks and painstakingly download them in background* if that access is required.  Access to those server-based notes is via online authentication and secure access to local notes is part of that security.  Processing changes that are input via a mobile interface on the server and pinging confirmation back to the phone - takes much longer than local processing.

The compromises that Evernote already have implemented on mobiles are to try to improve security and performance.  They do need to try harder,  but nothing about the current process is ill-considered or dumb...

* downloading notebooks at any speed would max out the bandwidth of the phone

[masasoon 4]

10 minutes ago, gazumped said:

Not sure what we're arguing about here.

So the Evernote app takes a very long time to display the "Processing content" message and becomes unusable, but what is the app doing?

[gazumped 12,054]

39 minutes ago, masasoon said:

So the Evernote app takes a very long time to display the "Processing content" message and becomes unusable, but what is the app doing?

Sorry - I'm just another user;  I have no clue which process has an issue.  Best to report this to Support,  include Activity Logs and leave them to improve things if and when they can...

[Tim Kowal 27]

3 hours ago, gazumped said:

Not sure what we're arguing about here.

What appears to be happening is this: Evernote needs to optimize my database—some 20GB— that lives on Evernote's servers. Instead of processing it on Evernote's servers, or on my PC, it appears to be trying to route the entire database to my phone and crank out the optimization inside my pocket. (I don't have offline notebooks.) Whatever it is doing, it makes my phone temperature dangerously hot. 

To give Evernote a chance of completing whatever it is doing, I decided to go without my phone yesterday. I left it plugged in at my desk, next to my desktop computer—a lot of unused horsepower there, but Evernote isn't interested, wants to use my phone instead. Fortunately, it finished sometime over the night, sometime between 12 and 20 hours after it started, leaving my phone plugged in at my desk the entire time, dedicated to doing whatever task Evernote developers tapped my phone alone to perform. 

I've never heard of an app making a phone do so much work. 

[masasoon 4]

On 7/9/2024 at 1:58 AM, jcg42 said:

The last time I opened Evernote on Android (Pixel 5a) it said I'd need internet connectivity while it upgraded the next time I opened it. It has been on the spinning Evernote icon screen showing 20% for over 15 hours now. How long should it take with 35,000 notes? Been a customer for over 10 years and never seen this behavior before.

Edit 7/25: Nothing has changed; new app, notifications on/off, power cycles, left overnight at the spinny icon (woke up to 33%). Time to explore alternatives?

Good news. After deleting the data and installing the latest Android app version 10.99.1, I was able to use it completely again. This problem that has been bothering me since around July 12th seems to have finally been resolved. What about you guys?
However, I am very dissatisfied with the way Evernote's management has handled this issue. I will look for a note-taking app to replace Evernote.

[GabrielAquilano 2]

3 hours ago, masasoon said:

Good news. After deleting the data and installing the latest Android app version 10.99.1, I was able to use it completely again. This problem that has been bothering me since around July 12th seems to have finally been resolved. What about you guys?
However, I am very dissatisfied with the way Evernote's management has handled this issue. I will look for a note-taking app to replace Evernote.

I am retrying it now. 

It is actually a pity; I'm also pretty much done with it. I realized how dependent I am on the application, how risky it is for the data to be locked-in after similar situations in the past... and how I came to accept that lock-in. It should be simpler than this. And I never loved how resource hungry and bulky this, which is an advanced (but still yet) note taking application, had become. It should be blazing fast. Not even mentioning mobile; and I was one of the Linux beta users that were ditched (which I could live with.... bt not happy).  Just came to that realization.

[Stuart Rudner 2]

15 minutes ago, GabrielAquilano said:

I am retrying it now. 

It is actually a pity; I'm also pretty much done with it. I realized how dependent I am on the application, how risky it is for the data to be locked-in after similar situations in the past... and how I came to accept that lock-in. It should be simpler than this. And I never loved how resource hungry and bulky this, which is an advanced (but still yet) note taking application, had become. It should be blazing fast. Not even mentioning mobile; and I was one of the Linux beta users that were ditched (which I could live with.... bt not happy).  Just came to that realization.

If you find a good replacement for EN, please let me know.

[a1r 4]

OK closing out my story, after 4-5w of not having mobile access, the latest version does work correctly.

There was still a local upgrade process which wasn't fun to see, but it helped to see the progress reported in fractions of a percent (1.45%) and it actually completed this time. The current version is 10.101.2.

I'm disappointed that there wasn't an official recognition of the issue and a 'we're working on it,' but at least the fix eventually arrived. It's still a mystery what the upgrade was or if it'll ever be required again.

[a1r 4]

Worth mentioning that my support request sat for a month with no response. Still none.

[a1r 4]

OK last post from me but joining the dots, this is what the local upgrade process was: https://evernote.com/blog/rent-metadata-sync

[andy777 13]

On 7/16/2024 at 2:12 PM, a1r said:

Evernote is now fully disabled on my Pixel 7. I'm a customer since 2008.

The 'optimisation' either makes an attempt and freezes around 94% (even when left overnight), or the app just shows loading screen. After a while a link appears, "Show Logs". I won't attach output directly here since I don't know if there are keys in there.

If I clear cache, storage - app starts up, asks for auth, but then requires the 'optimisation' (despite retrieving fresh from the server) which fails in the same way.

Uninstall, reinstall, same behavior.

The web client refuses to run on mobile, "Your current browser configuration is blocking Evernote from opening" on stock Android Chrome. So no workaround.

"Your current browser configuration is blocking Evernote from opening" on stock Android Chrome. So no workaround.

Enabling "Desktop Mode" in my mpbile browser helped to at least access my data with the web bowser.

[andy777 13]

with 10.101.5 for android it worked for me. Even the optimizing was done in about 1 hour (>30.000 Notes)

But now i want everything offline on the phone like before. But this seems to need days or weeks ?

Any suggestions to speed this up ?

I have the phone with screen on and Evernote on the screen .... nearly day and night. But the page "settings" - "offline" - "notebooks" shows not much of progress.

[gazumped 12,054]

Mobile devices historically don't download anything very quickly - there's usually very limited processing power,  minimal bandwidth,  a huge likelihood of local traffic - and with all that the operators usually want the phone to remain able to make and receive calls and email/ sms messages at all times. 

Having 30,000 notes available offline seems... ambitious... regardless of what happened in the past.  If you really want it to happen,  you can only talk to Support.  Meantime maybe have a notebook available offline and move a (much) smaller number of notes into that notebook a fwe days before you will need them?