Question about practical storage limitations of Evernote

[Juliaset 0]

Hi. I'm a long time, but casual user of Evernote, and I'm starting to think about how I could get more out of it.

My main question has to do with storage limitations. What if I were to start putting all of my household documentation in it? Would the database get so large that it would start getting hard to use? For example, I have a Fujitsu Scansnap that I use to scan all my bills, etc. Can I start throwing all of those in Evernote? What kind of volume limitations am I going to start running into? Is there some other reason why that might be a bad idea?

Thanks!

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

I have over 42,000 notes & my database size is over 15 gb and the EN search still works very fast.

[gazumped 12,066]

I'm a fairly intensive user, currently in the process of converting a garage full of press cuttings, old correspondence and current day-to-day activities into something I can search from my laptop or the smartphone. I got a ScanSnap to help me. Haven't noticed anything slowing down after around 6,000 notes - I believe the current maximum is 100,000 so I've got a way to go yet. I'd say the only thing you have to be wary of is being able to find stuff after you've converted it into electronic storage.

PDFs, and JPGs get OCR'd and indexed after you save them, so the contents are searchable. Save enough documents and you'll get 100+ hits on any and all searches. To exclude the background noise you can use search terms that exclude certain classes of document - all those tagged "receipt" forinstance.

Learn a little bit about tag and notebook stacks before you get too far into your conversion process to make sure you can still find the important stuff. It's not hard, but you need to do a little planning and a fair amount of notebook "gardening" to keep those important documents easily to hand.

[skyhskyh 2]

Apologise for being a bit off topic. I have questions, questions and questions

I am a evernote newbie. I am still trying to figure out many things etc... I've read lots of post and searches, but I am still a bit confused about storage and bandwidth allowance.

Please correct me if I am wrong:

Storage: we have in EN servers: Not specified but I guess very large enough for people to have more than 15g data

Bandwidth: The limit we could upload (including deleting / modifying data used) is 60mb for non premium and 1g for premium?

Overall picture: Does That mean, if I am planning to organise say 100g of data into Evernote, I could only do bits by bits, using only 60mb or 1g if premium user each month, then after many months, I could then be able to have all these 100g data organised?

Question: Then maybe when I am out somewhere, I wanted to search for my data, read and maybe modify a little using my mobile, the download doesn't count but when I have modified the note (say 50mb), then if I have used up the monthly quota, I have to wait till next month until I could sync it to my EN server? Accordingly, I could only sync it my desktop next month and then be able to back up the data to my local HD?

The other question is:

After I have organised this 100g of data after many months, if I was out wanted to browse and read my some of by larger notes (say a total of 10g), just searching and reading, no modifying, then this download data has no limit, right?

[Metrodon 2,188]

Apologise for being a bit off topic. I have questions, questions and questions

I am a evernote newbie. I am still trying to figure out many things etc... I've read lots of post and searches, but I am still a bit confused about storage and bandwidth allowance.

Please correct me if I am wrong:

Storage: we have in EN servers: Not specified but I guess very large enough for people to have more than 15g data

Yup

Bandwidth: The limit we could upload (including deleting / modifying data used) is 60mb for non premium and 1g for premium?

That's the monthly allowance.

Overall picture: Does That mean, if I am planning to organise say 100g of data into Evernote, I could only do bits by bits, using only 60mb or 1g if premium user each month, then after many months, I could then be able to have all these 100g data organised?

Yes, but you can also have local notebooks that aren't sync'd with the Evernote web service but are available to you to organise and search on your PC or Mac. Each month you can utilise unused allowance to copy these notes to a sync'd notebook.

Question: Then maybe when I am out somewhere, I wanted to search for my data, read and maybe modify a little using my mobile, the download doesn't count but when I have modified the note (say 50mb), then if I have used up the monthly quota, I have to wait till next month until I could sync it to my EN server? Accordingly, I could only sync it my desktop next month and then be able to back up the data to my local HD?

Yup, but are you really likely to make a 50mb change on a mobile device. A lot of people start with Evernote and wonder if the upload allowance is going to be sufficient - have a bit of patience and I reckon 99.9% think it is fine.

The other question is:

After I have organised this 100g of data after many months, if I was out wanted to browse and read my some of by larger notes (say a total of 10g), just searching and reading, no modifying, then this download data has no limit, right?

Yup

[Juliaset 0]

Thanks for the replies, all. It was very helpful!

I think I'm going to go ahead and try it out as my main reference document storage and also take your advise, re: organization.

[JohnDM 122]

As of July 17th 2014 using Evernote 5.4.1 (Windows)  iPad and iPhone for OSi (7.4.1)

I have 5,445 notes of which 975 are Private Notes not synched to the cloud

Total EXb file size is 3.7 Gig

 

So far so good, searching and retreaving is very fast. I use Evernote every day for business and personal

 

Biggest problems I sometimes have is on my mobile devices downloaded notebooks that might be too large which will crash your phone and pad, so you have to think what you need to be on your phone. I have a Notebook called "Cel Phones" which I put current working files into -- this I then clean up from time to time moving older files I'm not needing critical access to a non-downloaded notebook, I have other notebooks which I will always want on my phone such as "Clients" and or "Sales Calls" etc.

 

Gazumped is right - Note file naming and tagging is critical to finding what you need when you have hundreds of hits on a word search,  I also use index pages from "Copy Note Link" (hyperlinks)  which I find more helpful than searches -- I use both. A search will get me close but then I have a link to the index page at the top of each note, so any note will get me to it's specific index page, then from the index page I can go right to where I need to go. So, for example, each of my Clinet main note acts as an Index page to all relevent notes associated to that Client plus their contact info and contact log

 

 

If we ever do get to a database file size that is too big, the biggest Question I haven't seen discussed is the best may to migrate out or "archive"  notes that really won't need to be seached but rarely to reduce the database size. One possible way???? 

 

1) Put Notes you want Archived into a new Notebook

2)  Share Notebook with a new Evernote Account

3) From new Account copy shared notebook to its own new Notebook

4)  from Original account delete original shared notebook

 

Anyone see any problems with that or a better way?

[GrumpyMonkey 4,320]

Hi.

Theoretically, a massive amount of data can go into Evernote. But, practically speaking, unless you have a few terabytes on your computer's hard drive, you'll want to think strategically over the long term. your yearly upload limit is about 50gb and your account total is currently about 10tb.

http://www.christopher-mayo.com/?p=169

Multiple accounts are unwieldy, but one solution. You can also reduce the size of your notes by optimizing content.

http://www.christopher-mayo.com/?p=127

[JimKn 30]

If you find your database is getting too big you can always export unused notes in a format that preserves the formatting (.enex) and then save those files to an external drive.  It removes it from Evernote but you can always import it back in to Evernote if you need it. 

 

Windows: "File" "Export..." or right click "Export Notes..."

 

Mac: "File" "Export Notes..." or Right Click "Export Notes..."