(Archived) Feature Request: Cloud-only notebooks

[akrde 19]

We have the "Sync this notebook to my computer" option available for shared notebooks in the actual Windows client.

Wouldn't it make much sense to have the same cloud-only option for normal notebooks too?

If you agree then please vote this feature request up, thanks....

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

No, I don't agree. I don't want a cloud to be the only repository for valued information.

[akrde 19]

I thought about three notebook options:

- local only, no sync

- local + cloud, sync

- cloud only, no sync

That way everyone could define every scenario for notebooks:

- notebooks with confident data: local only

- notebooks with non-confident data: local + cloud or cloud only

Cloud only notebooks wouldn't be as performant as local notebooks, but they would save valuable harddisk space...

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

but they would save valuable harddisk space...

Disk is cheap. Given that a premium member can upload only 1 gb per month, you're talking about 12 gb over the course of a year. Less for free accounts. If you don't have 12 gb to spare, EN is not going to be the only thing you have problems with.

[krakeninferno 0]

This feature would be incredibly helpful. I have a business, and would love to keep some of my business-related files on my local system with sync enabled, some on my local system only, and all of my personal files on the cloud only. If Evernote had this feature, I could quit trying to make Memonic or Springpad do.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

and all of my personal files on the cloud only.

And then, what will you do if/when that cloud goes down & you have no way to get copies??? Entrusting your data to cloud only apps is not a good thing, unless you don't care if you lose it. Even my grocery list is backed up onto my iPhone. Anything more important than that is also on my PC & gets backed up regularly to other hard drives and offsite locations.

[akrde 19]

Disk is cheap. Given that a premium member can upload only 1 gb per month, you're talking about 12 gb over the course of a year. Less for free accounts. If you don't have 12 gb to spare, EN is not going to be the only thing you have problems with.

One example, where cloud-only notebooks could be really useful anyway:

I'm using Evernote on many machines, and one of them is my developer notebook where i have to keep many virtual machines with different development environments.

Virtual machines are big and free hard disk space is usually limited because you can't normally add another second harddisk (external drives are no solution here).

So it would be very cool if i could define some of my big non-essential Evernote notebooks as cloud-only notebooks now, wouldn't it?

[akrde 19]

Here's another example where cloud-only notebooks would come in very handy.

If Evernote would implement such notebooks and let users upload files > 50 mb to such notebooks then this would be a great Premium service enhancement and another useful "How to use Evernote" feature.

Why using Dropbox, Crashplan, Jungle Disk, Mozy, and so on, if we could have all these services (and much more) in one tool: Evernote!!!

[Metrodon 2,184]

Disk is cheap. Given that a premium member can upload only 1 gb per month, you're talking about 12 gb over the course of a year. Less for free accounts. If you don't have 12 gb to spare, EN is not going to be the only thing you have problems with.

One example, where cloud-only notebooks could be really useful anyway:

I'm using Evernote on many machines, and one of them is my developer notebook where i have to keep many virtual machines with different development environments.

Virtual machines are big and free hard disk space is usually limited because you can't normally add another second harddisk (external drives are no solution here).

So it would be very cool if i could define some of my big non-essential Evernote notebooks as cloud-only notebooks now, wouldn't it?

Why not just use the web app on your VMs?

[akrde 19]

Why not just use the web app on your VMs?

Because i need them portable, without the hassle of external drives.

[Metrodon 2,184]

I don't get it - can you not access the web from your VMs? No need for a portable drive.

Or am I missing something?

[allen 39]

Maybe a better solution would be selective sync? You could, on a per workstation basis, indicate which notebooks to sync. So your home notebooks are at home (and on the web), your work notebooks are at work (and on the web)

[Guest]

I also think that selective sync on each computer ist the best solution. I have suggested this some time before and I am waiting for this feature.

[akrde 19]

I don't get it - can you not access the web from your VMs? No need for a portable drive.

Or am I missing something?

I don't want to use Evernote in my VMs. I have several big VMs on my local notebook hard disk, which uses most of my hard disk space. So my local hard disk space is very limited for my Evernote database on my notebook. That's why cloud-only notebooks would come in very handy here.

[Metrodon 2,184]

OK - I get what you mean now.

I'm surprised that anyone would want to keep their data only in the cloud though - what happens if Evernote have an issue and your cloud data is lost? Or if you lose your web connection? etc? etc?

How big is your Evernote data? I would imagine that compared to most things on your HD it is using a relatively small amount of space.

[ping13 31]

I agree with the feature request of the original poster. The point is: you may use more than one desktop client. One client should have a complete backup of your clod data, agreed. But others may not need to duplicate the complete EN database.

Assume the following scenario:

• 
  [*:wcxxe3eo] I have Evernote on my home Mac. It is now fully sycned and also should be in the future fully synced. Thus I have a complete backup of all my data.
  [*:wcxxe3eo] I have Evernote on my work PC. It is now fully synced and but I could keep my private notebooks away from my work PC, if I really would like to.
  [*:wcxxe3eo] I now want to use Evernote on a new laptop, that I borrow for 2 weeks from my office. I want to use a desktop client and actually just need one notebook synced. Currently, I need to sync my complete database, which takes hours at least. With selective sync, I may only need 5 minutes.
  

There are (at least) two advantages with the requested feature:

• 
  [*:wcxxe3eo] selective sync saves bandwidth (which is not cheap compared to diskspace).
  [*:wcxxe3eo] selective sync would allow to keep private notebooks from a work PC (or vice versa).

There is (at least) one disadvantage: An inexperienced user might use this feature extensively and may miss that some notebooks are not backuped at all to one of his desktop computers.

By the way, iOS devices have a selective sync...

Also note, that an often requested feature at Dropbox was selective sync, which they now have implemented. (Note that I use and will use Dropbox and Evernote at the same time. I don't want to replace one with the other)

[Metrodon 2,184]

One of the central tenets of Evernote as described repeatedly by the CEO and CTO is that you should always be able to get your data. So, if Evernote suffer some sort of catastrophic disaster the users should still have a copy stored locally.

It seems to me that Cloud only notebooks would be contrary to their vision.

[ping13 31]

And I completely agree with this tenet!

I think the name "cloud-only notebook" does not describe the concept correctly, selective sync is better: As I've written above, my primary (and maybe my secondary) computer has all my notes. But my temporary laptop (or a VM) might only need one or two notebooks. My data is safe on my first (and maybe secondary) computer, but in some circumstances it's good to have only a selected set of notebooks on a third computer.

Again, iOS devices and presumably Android devices work like that already!

[Michael Campbell 4]

One of the central tenets of Evernote as described repeatedly by the CEO and CTO is that you should always be able to get your data. So, if Evernote suffer some sort of catastrophic disaster the users should still have a copy stored locally.

It seems to me that Cloud only notebooks would be contrary to their vision.

They already do this with mobile. I don't know if anyone is doing this, but if someone has an evernote account and his ONLY client is a mobile device, then they already have a cloud-only storage. If EN dies, well, he's out of luck, but at least he knows it.

It's a contrived example, but it's not unprecedented.

I see a lot of pushback from the "elder statespeople" on this idea, but I can't help but wonder if this is because they're looking out for us newbs' best interests, or they simply can't see past their own "this is how we've always done it".

[jefito 5,589]

I see a lot of pushback from the "elder statespeople" on this idea, but I can't help but wonder if this is because they're looking out for us newbs' best interests, or they simply can't see past their own "this is how we've always done it".

Maybe it's just that some people just don't see this as a burning issue, as simple as that.

(you haven't really seen "a lot of pushback", believe me )

[gazumped 11,706]

Not pushing, but I don't see the attraction of selective sync or cloud only storage. I understand there may be a specialised need for it, but I'd be more concerned that I might forget to sync something important, or that Evernote - or my internet connection to it - might have a nervous breakdown exactly when I need access to some important data. I want all my stuff exactly where I can touch it!

With EN's focus on stability and security I wouldn't imagine they'd willingly put users in the position of being unable to get at their data and maybe even of losing it. Just my opinion, and I'm not even an elder statesperson. Well, not a statesperson anyway. Still Evernote read the Forums, so if they have a quiet moment some day you never know..

[Metrodon 2,184]

One of the central tenets of Evernote as described repeatedly by the CEO and CTO is that you should always be able to get your data. So, if Evernote suffer some sort of catastrophic disaster the users should still have a copy stored locally.

It seems to me that Cloud only notebooks would be contrary to their vision.

They already do this with mobile. I don't know if anyone is doing this, but if someone has an evernote account and his ONLY client is a mobile device, then they already have a cloud-only storage. If EN dies, well, he's out of luck, but at least he knows it.

It's a contrived example, but it's not unprecedented.

I see a lot of pushback from the "elder statespeople" on this idea, but I can't help but wonder if this is because they're looking out for us newbs' best interests, or they simply can't see past their own "this is how we've always done it".

Or it might just be because we've been around a long time, seen lots of requests and have a half decent understanding of what Evernote are trying to achieve and how they are going about it?

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

I agree with the op.

Right now it is all (sync everything) or nothing (the web interface) on the computer. But, in iOS we have a choice. So, I think this argument that it is somehow against the EN philosophy not to store things locally doesn't hold weight. Sorry Metrodon. A lot of us are migrating to iOS. I do about 90% of my work on the iPad, and there are times when I don't sync locally for days or weeks.

What I don't get is why would anyone be against the option to selectively sync. You don't have to use the option if you don't want it.

Here is an increasingly common problem case. The Macbook Air comes with 64GB. When I bought it and installed Evernote, I lost about 1/6 of that space. That is a huge chunk of memory, and over the life of the computer (let's say two years) that chunk would have increased to about 1/2 my disk space. Yes. Memory is cheap. But, on the Mac you cannot move your EN library off your computer onto an external drive. I tried using the Web interface, but that was insanely annoying, because it lacks functionality and makes EN completely unavailable during a flight or some other unconnected period. I ended up returning the Air for a different reason, but to be honest, it was immediately apparent that the device had become useless, because I couldn't install the EN app. As soon as I did, it started syncing, and my memory disappeared.

I hope EN will give this some serious thought.

[jefito 5,589]

Be wary of making a virtue of the inability to keep your entire notes database on your mobile device, which is the iOS and Android case. That option is there because it needs to be (e.g. limited persistent storage vs. large note databases). Adding a different capability -- designating a notebook to be cloud-based, is a different beast. Also, the desktop option to keep a notebook local is, unsurprisingly, pertinent only to that particular desktop (since the cloud never sees the local notebook); would cloud-only notebooks have an override for particular desktops (because they have sufficient space)? Maybe. So I dunno -- I see the appeal, and it doesn't seem divorced from the Evernote thingie, since cloud notebooks remain in the cloud, accessible to other devices. Think 20, 50, 100 years down the road, with out multi-terabyte notebooks, gigabit mobile connections, etc.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

i think a toggle (like we have on ios) to make notebooks offline or not would be nice. on the mba, i'd probably just leave the toggle off and use it exactly as i do ios. on the mbp i would probably toggle everything on. in theory (how to implement and the possibility of providing such a feature) it ought to be relatively simple, because evernote has already developed it.

i like to have a local copy and i like to back it up myself, but sometimes that's not possible. interestingly, storage size on computers is trending much smaller these days (obviously, a price/flash/size issue), and people are even going so far as to purchase chromebooks that eschew local storage altogether. frankly, i'm surprised this kind of a feature is not already available on the desktop.

[jefito 5,589]

Chromebooks are a different issue altogether; different OS, different model. With Chromebook, you use the web client. That's rather the point of Chromebooks.

The notion that desktop OS's would be implemented on limited-storage devices is not new; but keeping a very large database wholly on one of these devices is obviously going to be a problem (and yours must be quite large, as mine fits quite nicely on my 16GB Windows netbook). That memory size is trending smaller currently is only a temporary situation; memory always tends larger (and cheaper). For those people wanting to store large Evernote databases on small machines, the answer may be: get a bigger machine, or use the web interface on those machines. I'm not unsympathetic, mind, but that's the answer currently.