A concern about changes and safety of my data

[Brooksking70 3]

I'm a longtime paid daily evernote user (2009).  I'm generally a fan and recommender, but lately I'm getting concerned about the safety of my data.  "Safety" might not be the right word.  I'm concerned about a real possibility of my data becoming unusable with some of the functionality problems lately.  I abandoned the desktop version years ago.  I'm usually quite happy with the web version and mobile version for my needs and, in recent years, it appears they are trying very hard to make them all work and appear identical anyway.  I'm sympathetic with the bugs that come with new features and improvements, but my concerns are related to big bugs in the "core functionality".  Tags not working is a big thing.  Internal note links not working is a big thing.  I have real concerns that my legacy notes and tags will still be broken even after they say some new version has resolved the problem. 

I had to do some real soul searching about evernote when the prices ramped up the last time.  Ultimately, I decided that my data was valuable and it should be worth paying more to use and protect in the evernote format.  I even kinda dug in more to really make this software work for me.  More tagging, more linking,etc.  Not relying on the new stuff so much, just leveraging the "core functionality" --- I'm really concerned that stability is taking a back seat to innovation right now.  Fine when it's free, but not good with heavy use and serious pricing.

 

For these recent problems I see all the work arounds, support tickets already filed, and people moving up and down with their versions to keep things working.  That's all fine for people who make a hobby out using the software and secretly like the software drama (I've been there), but I just need some reassurance that they're not going to accidently break it beyond repair. 

Serious question:  Is there any risk that legacy tags and links could get corrupted for our notes and need to be redone for all old notes?  I'm assuming you can't just "reload" an old back up version of something like this.

Edited August 9 by Brooksking70

[PinkElephant 8,694]

Tags are no issue, they are preserved even when exporting your notes for a backup, and later importing them again.

Links between notes will not survive when a backup is restored. They work based on the notes UUID. Since notes imported from a backup are technically new notes, they have a different UUID. This leaves links behind pouting to nowhere.

This is nothing new, it always was the case, even „back then“ or „in the good old days“ 

[mackid1993 1,210]

I don't have a good answer for you. I do see some changes with them recently. First off, they are interacting more on social media. I see Bending Spoons employees responding to DM's on X as well as public posts. I also see them responding directly on Reddit to users having issues. This is new and a step in the right direction.

I also see a shift in their release schedule. Previously we'd get a new release every Wednesday, but they seemed to have switched to Monday releases which gives them more time to fix any issues that come up as they are caught early in the week. This means by the time the auto update rolls out by the end of the week, any major issues have been caught and fixed (hopefully). This is what I can assume would inspire such a change.

I see these developments as promising, it appears that Bending Spoons is listening to our concerns and making improvements albeit slowly.

[Jon/t 1,612]

The tag issue right now is just really a display thing. The wrong number of notes are returned when you filter by tag but if you use Switch To or a tag search then all the notes appear correctly tagged. That's as far as I understand it.

A lot of the work they've being doing on the backend has been to increase reliability and move to more modern software, even though its been a rough ride.

Right now the RENT project is rolling out slowly and this deals with syncing things like tags, note lists and all other data that's not inside the editor window. The eventual goal is that it syncs almost as fast as the real time sync'd note content. It is a bit bumpy though, so many edge cases to solve.

I'm fairly happy with how its going. I can see where they want to get to which is a modern backend that they don't really need to worry about and is low maintenance, it just works.

[mackid1993 1,210]

10 hours ago, Jon/t said:

The tag issue right now is just really a display thing. The wrong number of notes are returned when you filter by tag but if you use Switch To or a tag search then all the notes appear correctly tagged. That's as far as I understand it.

A lot of the work they've being doing on the backend has been to increase reliability and move to more modern software, even though its been a rough ride.

Right now the RENT project is rolling out slowly and this deals with syncing things like tags, note lists and all other data that's not inside the editor window. The eventual goal is that it syncs almost as fast as the real time sync'd note content. It is a bit bumpy though, so many edge cases to solve.

I'm fairly happy with how its going. I can see where they want to get to which is a modern backend that they don't really need to worry about and is low maintenance, it just works.

I see what you are saying, it's just been a bumpy ride thus far to get to a more stable platform.

[PinkElephant 8,694]

The ride would be much smoother if in addition to hard work on backend and clients, they would start to ASSURE what they did in the last step will still be there before making the next.

What we get now is a permanent setback from already implemented features, because every new release seems to break something, while fixing something else and adding another new feature. Some features that existed were broken, fixed, and then broken again. Which usually is proof that quality management is either not existing, or completely derailed.

A lack of quality management is ALWAYS a management disfunction, because assuring quality is a core management function. Without quality no company can deliver.