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(Archived) That attachment folder..


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  • Level 5*

There have been a few threads here about the attachment folder, which seems to be the place that a temporary copy of an attachment is held when that attachment has been opened from within a note via the desktop client, presumably for editing. It's been noted here that the current content of attachments is held entirely in the Evernote database, so presumably the contents of that folder are just .TMP files.

I've noticed though that my folder is getting rather big. I intend to test out what happens if I set up an attachment, edit it and then delete the copy which is kept in the attachments folder, so I can clear out that folder and save myself (currently) around 500MB of disk space.

If that folder truly is a sandbox for temporary changes though, it would be nice to have a "clear temp attachments" tool from within Evernote with any built-in safeguards that might be required to avoid giving the main database any digestion problems...

This is not just me being mean about disk space - while my Evernote account is protected, as are some of my attachments, that folder is currently in the clear on my hard drive and open to casual viewing if anyone gets that nosy..

If anyone has cleared the attachments folder with good or bad results I'd be grateful for any feedback; otherwise I'll report what happens in my test in a couple of days.

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In my experience, the Attachments folder can be cleaned regularly. As you suggest, it is a temporary area to store files that are opened from EN notes. The only time I've needed to access it is when I use the 'Open With...' command to edit jpgs, which are not automatically updated when closed (as extensively covered in other threads) and need to be reattached manually from this folder.

I just cleaned mine out as a test then (as I have done before) and found no ill-effects. The files simply start building up again every time I double-click an attachment.

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  • Level 5*

Thanks @logandb it's good to get an independent confirmation. I ran my test which confirms that even with a file in that folder deleted, the relevant note still has a full copy of the attachment. It was still going to be a bit of a leap of faith though to kill 500MB of storage in one go without worrying that somewhere some vital information might be forever lost... Happy now though; cheers.

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  • 1 year later...

[...]

This is not just me being mean about disk space - while my Evernote account is protected, as are some of my attachments, that folder is currently in the clear on my hard drive and open to casual viewing if anyone gets that nosy..

[...]

I completely agree, there should have a button to clear that folder or to clear it regularly and at least, empty the folder when you log out from evernote desktop, that doesn't happpen like this, I think there is a known security leak. How can we report that?

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  • Level 5*

Hi. It's no more a security leak than your entire database, which is in the open as well. Restricting access to your computer, password protecting it, and encrypting the entire drive would be a good idea if you have security concerns.

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  • Level 5*

When you're logged out, I dont think that your database is vulnerable... Tell me who you can access files or notes inside the .sql file?!

Anyone. The database is not encrypted. Here are some instructions to get inside it and look around (http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/18966-working-directly-with-evernote-windows-database-revisited/). If you want to protect your Evernote data (and everything else on your drive) from unauthorized intrusion, then you should encrypt your hard disk.

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