Evernote - best pragmatic practice

[laurence.glazier 142]

I think it is best to use the web app whenever possible, this seems to be much the most reliable. Synchronisation has long been slow to mobile devices, and recently the same issues (especially slow updating of tagged items) have also manifested in my desktop versions.

Yes, I have reported the bugs, reinstalled, rebuilt the data, etc, many times and have my doubts if they will ever be fixed. This need not matter.

It is best to treat the mobile device versions primarily for note taking. Whether recent notes will be searchable, especially by tag, is in the lap of the gods. I have even seen lists of tagged items disappear before my eyes while looking at my iPhone, as recently as today. So at the start of the day, be sure to add to shortcuts any crucial notes you may need while away from the web app, and links to contact and appointment notes you may need. (This is also nice for looking at the day's plan.) Shortcuts synchronise much more reliably. At the moment, the Android app may need its data clearing very often, so check it is working before setting out, it can take a few minutes to rebuild.

Likewise, tasks are best edited in the web app, and repeating ones best checked off in the task edit window.

As nothing else is half as good as Evernote (my personal view), the question is what are the best procedures for operating it? Perhaps a combination of browser windows (as recently described in Taming the Trunk). Maybe sync problems to the mobile apps can be mitigated by storing fewer notes offline (I store them all offline!)

 

 

[gazumped 12,050]

When I was first introduced to the joys of business computing,  things got done on mainframes - and I learned a couple of phrases very quickly:  "we don't use that field" and "the vehicle type goes in here,  where it says [location]"...  The point being that mainframes being big,  expensive,  and as agile as an iceberg,  users got on with what they had,  rather than expecting a tailor-made solution.

We're still in that situation,  even though things are much more agile than they used to be - you need to work within what you have,  rather than expecting a perfect solution  for every device.  

What 'within' looks like will depend on exactly what you do.  I forinstance am mainly desk-based so use a big desktop for most things.  I also have a fancy Samsung (Android) tablet and an old mobile - an antique S7 that won't even run Evernote v10.

The tablet is as flexible as any Android - which is to say it's pretty horrible.  I can use it to find and view notes,  so it's my main "reader" both for Evernote and other documents and web pages,  I can share content back to Evernote - by email if necessary - so it does a job.

The phone is good for images,  so it's my main "scanner" - again I can send images from my phone by email,  or via Microsoft Lens or Adobe Scan.

Between the three devices I have an environment that works for me - your mileage may be different.

[Jon/t 1,641]

Tag sync and other meta data sync from mobile to other apps should speed up a lot when the RENT project is fully rolled out. Should be almost as fast as RTE sync is for the note content, depending on network speeds and whatnot.

[Mike P 2,962]

I'm having major issues with simple tag filters failing to find all the notes. The number of notes in text is correct but they are not all displayed

The advanced search syntax equivalent works perfectly. In this case:

tag:$critical

In fact you can even add it to the incorrect result to get all 6 notes displayed - no need to delete the tag filter

 

 

Note that it is  not recent notes that are failing to display.

 

[Mike P 2,962]

4 minutes ago, Mike P said:

I'm having major issues with simple tag filters failing to find all the notes.

Just to note that this is both Web and desktop. I have done a clean install (Revo uninstaller) and this hasn't helped. 

[Jon/t 1,641]

22 minutes ago, Mike P said:

I'm having major issues with simple tag filters failing to find all the notes

Do a quick "Save most recent logs" and see if RentEnabled is true or false... would be interesting to know. 

I'm seeing tag searches work OK but I'm False.

[Mike P 2,962]

Thanks for the tip. I've got isRentEnabled set to TRUE. I was rather hoping that RENT would solve problems not create them!

[Jon/t 1,641]

7 minutes ago, Mike P said:

Thanks for the tip. I've got isRentEnabled set to TRUE. I was rather hoping that RENT would solve problems not create them!

Interesting... it should. There's a call later and I'll ask about progress and see if anyone else sees this.

[Mike P 2,962]

There is obviously stuff going on in the background. If I do a tag: style search and then go back later to using the filter I sometimes get all or at least some of the notes (in cases where I had previously got none). It's not reliable though. If this is supposed to be how the process works some communication about the fact that I am now on RENT and  what to expect would be the very minimum I would expect.

[Mike P 2,962]

Another observation. If I use the drop down from the blue tag lozenge to select "include sub-tags" I seem to get all the correct notes. Unfortunately this doesn't seem to have any effect on the number of notes listed for the individual tags (which can still be zero)

[gazumped 12,050]

How come a thread about using Evernote as best you can side tracked into tags?  Just askin'....

[Mike P 2,962]

37 minutes ago, gazumped said:

How come a thread about using Evernote as best you can side tracked into tags?  Just askin'....

Valid point. One of @laurence.glazier's pain points was 

7 hours ago, laurence.glazier said:

Synchronisation has long been slow to mobile devices, and recently the same issues (especially slow updating of tagged items) have also manifested in my desktop versions.

so I thought it was relevant but in hindsight a different or new thread might have been more approriate.

I'll add any further comments here: