Offline searching does not work the same as Online searching

[lockiedownunder 1]

I'm new to the Android Tablet. I needed some info urgently only to find I can not search offline. As my tab only has wirless this is a real problem.

I hope this can be rectified.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Please search on "offline notebooks." (Most may be in the iDevice section.) In a nutshell, mobile devices require a premium account with offline notebooks in order to work accurately when you have no internet connection.

[lockiedownunder 1]

Thanks for replying BNF. I have a premium account and have 17 of 19 notebooks synced to my device.

So how do I search the data on the device whilst off line?

Obviously I'm not seeing something, I cant see how to search offline notebooks.

[TheGurkha 1]

There is a limitation on the Android EN that you have to have an internet connection to perform a search.

[lockiedownunder 1]

Thanks, that's disappointing . I purchased a Tablet just for EN and now find out I can't search when away from my wifi.

Arrwell hopefully its something the developers will change in the future.

[xander 0]

This would definitely be a very useful feature!

[Xavier_ 132]

Thanks, this feature is on our list.

[ryl 0]

Great news! I use EN on the underground/metro on my phone because of offline sync -- with offline search I could see all my colleagues going for it too, would definitely recommend.

[Xavier_ 132]

Just to make sure to be clear. I'm not saying that we are sure to develop it, but that your request is collected.

Each request needs to be carefully evaluated before we decide to go further.

[rickmonroe 1]

Offline search is needed, that's for sure. Trying to search without a data connection puts EN into a long, futile search routine that eventually times out. (A quicker timeout would be nice as an interim fix).

But - if you recognize that you have no data connection, you can still "browse" the database offline. Tags are still active, so with some judiciously chosen tags, you can shorten your browsing time.

[AgentDaleCooper 0]

The number one reason I use Evernote is the retrive by search ability that enables me to quickly deal with stuff without having to spend a lot of time organizing it using folders/tags/filenames. Offering a premium offline-notebook function without the option to search for notes offline does not seem to be in tune with Evernotes "search instead of organize"-principle. I hope this will be added to the Android-version which I find to be a really great and thought-through app except for the missing offline search.

[gmc 8]

I would also put my vote in for offline search. I'm a premium member and, having a local mobile copy of everything, was quite surprised that to find that I couldn't search my data without a connection. I do service work (semiconductor equipment repair) and have been using EN to archive my service notes. My shop has marginal cell signal and drops to 1x or nothing so when I try to search from there it may either fail or just takes forever. It's frustrating when I know all the data is right there on my phone but I can't access it. I could understand maybe not doing all the OCR indexes, but if you could at least search the titles, tags, attributes, etc. (the "hard" data) that would be better than nothing. (I haven't tested all of this, btw.) Of course being able to search everything is why I find EN so useful!

[pdiez 0]

+1 for searching offline.

It sounds so weird for me you did not implement this possibility.

We around 300 notes in Evernote, I really don't want to classify then but just search them.

This feature would be really relevant...

[NoraaC 0]

Seems like a nobrainer. I paid for premium to get off line notebooks and was really surprised and disappointed that I couldn't search them.

The search feature is one of the most useful features of the desktop client for me. I hope it is implemented on mobile soon.

[kitezh 16]

Yes, I've been stuck many times recently when I seriously needed offline search - on aeroplanes, overseas, subway... I hope it will be implemented soon.

[katahdin 8]

+1 for searching offline.

It sounds so weird for me you did not implement this possibility.

We around 300 notes in Evernote, I really don't want to classify then but just search them.

This feature would be really relevant...

+1 Trillion requests.

Plus search within notes!!

[Xavier_ 132]

Offline search is available in the latest beta.

Here is the link: viewtopic.php?f=51&t=28415

[cpchang 12]

Offline search is available in the latest beta.

Here is the link: viewtopic.php?f=51&t=28415

Thanks for this huge turn around from your July 21 note of non-commitment, which was a big but fortunately temporary disappointment. Our department's many Android-EN uses (and potential users) are awaiting for this feature to become premium subscribers.

[cswilly 41]

I have a saved search that uses tag:xxxx seaching for notes with xxxx tag.

It works fine Online, but returns no notes Offline. I can find these notes while Offline using the normal tag GUI drilling down to xxxx.

Bug or feature?

[garychenc00l 13]

Hm, I searched history and I got a bunch of notes.

Now when you press back, you should get the tag with the name.

[cswilly 41]

More simple way of reproducing the bug.

1. Open Evernote on your droid with no network connections.
   
2. Press Search icon
   
3. Press Advanced Search
   
4. Press Tags
   
5. Select any tag and press Done
   
6. Press Search
   

The result is Search Results "No notes were found".

Now to see the notes are tagged correctly.

1. Reopen Evernote on your droid with no network connections.
   
2. Press Tags
   
3. Select the same tag as in step 5 above.
   

The result is a bunch of notes with that tag.

Bottom line. Advanced Search does not work in Offline mode (or at the very least has at least one BIG BUG.

[Samuel Deddy 1]

Hello,

I cannot search my notes for android, when my WiFi is off.. Have anyone had this same problem? What should i do ? Thanks for your support..

[spg SCOTT 736]

Hi Samuel, welcome to the forum

Have you enabled Offline search in the settings for Evernote?

Open Evernote -> Tap the Elephant in the top left (to show the grey panel) -> Tap your username -> Settings -> Search and Storage -> Offline Search.

I think you may have to sync at least once before you can search offline after changing this setting.

Scott

[AGu 1]

I second that. The only way to filter notes when working offline is selecting a tag in the tags list. The other ways don't work offline. For instance, the same is true of the extended search: even selecting a single tag in the extended search results in "nothing".

P.S. I've got offline notebooks and notes therein, the data is synced, "Offline Search" is turned on. The bug persists in several of the last versions. Perhaps, in all of them. Anyway, offline search does not work (on my Samsung Galaxy S II, Android 2.3.5, Russian locale) since the moment I purchased an EN account (16/07/2012).

[Samuel Deddy 1]

@Scott : After I sync my evernote, offline search work again.. Thank you

@AGu : Thank you for your suggestion..

[AGu 1]

After I sync my evernote, offline search work again

I'm glad you got it (and envy you ). In my case, syncing does not help.

[Rense 47]

Hi,

I just noticed that when I run a saved search on my Android tablet while offline, the results are not what they should be. For one, the search is "notebook:2-TODO-Work tag:>" but also notes that do not have the ">" tag show up in the results. When I go online and run the same search, results are fine. So, do I need to be online for a saved search? To me that doesn't make sense, as I thought that all the info that the search needs (notebook, tag) is already available offline??

Rense

[jefito 5,589]

Go to Settings, and verify whether Offline Search is checked.

[Rense 47]

Thanks for the reply. Yes, offline search is checked.

[jefito 5,589]

Hmmm. Did a test of my own, seems to be something related to the use of the 'notebook:' scope modifier, i.e., I have 'notebook:*Test tag:>', which doesn't turn up any notes (the notes are in the *Test notebook), but a search on 'tag:>' does turn up the tagged notes. Might be worth a support inquiry.

[Rense 47]

Thanks for the effort Jefito. Glad it is at least somewhat replicable . In my case, the result is the opposite: also notes that do *not* have the ">" tag show up. But at least your answer to my original question would be "no", right?

[jefito 5,589]

Provided that you've checked the Offline Search setting, the information needed to do searches on your note database *should* be loaded and available when you're offline (I expect that that index loading should take place during a sync). If search isn't working correctly then there's something wrong. Why is why I'd suggest that a support inquiry might be best, particularly since you seem to have a fairly repeatable case.

[thu 0]

I already bought premium upgrade.

Offline search still not working in my Galaxy s3

[spikarder 0]

I cannot do offline search without working WiFi connection either.

I do have premium account, offline notebook to search within, and "offline search" checked under "Settings/Search and Storage", even after the manual sync.

Samsung Galaxy SII, both phone and EN are updated from official sources to the max (Android 4.0.3, etc).

Looking forward for the ability to search through stuff I already have.

Best wishes :-).

[jconkl02 0]

I am having this same issue.  I have offline search enabled on my folders but when I search for a word that is in my note nothing comes up. However if I used tag:"tag name" as the search function, notes with that tag came up.  The funny thing is I was in a doctors office touting how awesome Evernote is. But when I needed it to recall specifics about a prescription, Evernote was no better than my gray matter.

[johen 1]

I'm premium user and I have some offline notebooks. Also I have a number of saved searches. These searches addressed to those offline notebooks. If my phone with fully synced offline notebooks and turned on offline seach becomes offline, saved searches wouldn't work. I understand "offline search" term as "evernote has offline search function which is the same as online search function, but can work in offline mode with offline notebooks". Evernote is some sort of platform for GTD. In this case search speed and availability of search function are critical for me.

 

Can someone write down some links, where I can read and fully understand a mechanism of offline search? I want an official description of offline search function.

[kuna 0]

I've been experiencing this same issue for a while (pretty much since they introduced Offline Search).  I've found--at least with my own devices--that the following works pretty consistently as a workaround:

1. Build your query or select your saved search
2. Perform the search
3. Press the back button to return to the search builder (or whatever you want to call it)
4. Perform the search again just as you see it (without modifying anything)

The second time it seems to come up with the matching notes.  It seems odd, but it's been working for me pretty consistently.  It's almost as if the initial search tries to run a query against the offline index, but the offline index is not yet in memory or ready to receive queries, yet by the second time, it's ready to go.  Not sure if this is the case, just postulating.

[Mark Silberbauer 1]

This is still broken for me. Drives me absolutely nuts. This is something very important to me - I need to be able to filter notes when offline because I'm often in areas without a connection. 

 

I have notebooks set to "offline sync", Offline Search enabled etc. but still have problems. To reproduce, I turn on the connection, perform a successful sync, and then turn it off and  try an advanced search where I filter on a tag. Search results come up with all notes regardless of their tag. Or sometimes nothing comes up at all.

 

This has been broken since day one. I'd rather EN just disabled it rather than advertise it as a premium feature, a feature which is actually broken and in the end leads to all this wasted time.

 

Going to submit another ticket but I'm rapidly losing hope on this ever being fixed properly considering how long these issues have been floating around the forums.

 

Edit: I've submitted a bug report and got assigned ticket #656116.