(Archived) HELP: Search is working incorrectly, but on which platforms?

GrumpyMonkey · February 4, 2012

I consider search to be the thread holding all of my memories together, and it is coming unraveled. I just don't know how and where! I know there are lots of other threads about broken searches. I thought it would be nice for me, everyone else, and the developers to pull them all together in one place. If you want a list of basic search operands, see the Evernote Knowledge Base (https://support.ever...earch-operators). For a complete list, see the API overview (http://www.evernote....vernote-api.htm).

Obviously, it goes without saying that Evernote will sort this stuff out. But, let's leave stuff criticizing them out of this thread. They must know about some of them by now, but maybe they don't know how and where it is broken either.

1. -created

As far as I can tell, -created is broken on the Mac. It is broken in iOS on the iPad. But, it works correctly on the Web.

jbenson2 · February 4, 2012

I mentioned this issue back in 2010.

To get around the missing Due Date field, I use the Created Date field for appointments and tasks in the future, including stuff for later in the day.

I was looking for a tip on how to search notes that only contained today's date plus the past.

Here is Dave Engberg's response:

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Re: Saved Search Grammar for "today plus the past"

by engberg on Mon Oct 04, 2010 6:14 pm

We're adding '+' to the grammar in anticipation of due dates, so you'll be able to do:

-created:day+1

I think it already works that way on the web, but we're adding it to the clients.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Year and a half later - still waiting for a Windows solution.

In this example, I assume it is either too difficult or it is not a priority.

My rather clunky workaround to find notes for just today (Feb 4) is to use:

created:20120204 -created:20120205

Feb 5 will be:

created:20120205 -created:20120206

.

JMichaelTX · February 4, 2012

I consider search to be the thread holding all of my memories together, and I am sorry to say that it is coming unraveled. I just don't know how and where! I know there are lots of other threads about broken searches. I thought it would be nice for me, and everyone else, to pull them all together in one place.

Evernote has done a great job of creating/capturing/collecting our "memories".

I too have collected all my memories somewhere in my brain.

But I can't always retrieve all of my memories.

That's where Evernote is supposed to come in -- provides us with a great tool to quickly and easily retrieve our "memories".

The current Evernote Search is supposed to be the tool by which we do this.

Unfortunately, it has two major drawbacks at this point:

Search grammar/syntax is too hard to use, and is incomplete.
Search engine appears to have a number of bugs, which are different on different platforms

Could someone provide a comprehensive list of known search bugs?

GrumpyMonkey · February 4, 2012

@jb

i wanted to try that, but the created search doesn't work on my platforms. it's really too nad.

@jm

that's what this thread is for! let's collect the broken stuff and we can keep track of it. maybe it will also help get search back on the roadmap.

Crsawood · February 5, 2012

I seem to be finding more problems as well. Yesterday, I was trying to search "Intitle" for a word in a specific notebook, and it returned 2 results. 5 exist in the notebook. The web-based version finds all 5.

It appears that all of the "-" functions are not working for me. I have a support ticket, and the first suggestion was to re-install Evernote. I did so, and the same problem was still here. The next suggestion was to move the Evernote database, and let the software re-download a new database. I am trying that right now to see how it works, but I am doubtful, given the other problems reported.

JMichaelTX · February 5, 2012

@jm
that's what this thread is for! let's collect the broken stuff and we can keep track of it.

I guess I was hoping that the "someone" would be an Evernote employee who would list for us the known search bugs they have on their bug list. I know they don't normally share their bug list, but was hoping that they would make an exception in this case.

We could then add any bugs not on their list.

Owyn · February 5, 2012

Not sure what the issue is with "created:".

e.g. I created a new saved search "Created Yesterday" (created:day-1 -created:day) on the web client and synced it to the Windows and iOS Touch clients. The search worked correctly and consistently on all 3 clients.

jbenson2 · February 5, 2012

Not sure what the issue is with "created:".
e.g. I created a new saved search "Created Yesterday" (created:day-1 -created:day) on the web client and synced it to the Windows and iOS Touch clients. The search worked correctly and consistently on all 3 clients.

If I want to see what is behind me in the past, then Created Yesterday is fine.

created:day-1 (53 notes)

-created:day (16,280 notes)

But as far I can tell, there are no effective searches for what is due for all of today.

Consider the following scenario.

It is the start of business day at 8am.

I want to see, or print, all the appointments, tasks and reminders scheduled for all of today. ( 5 items )

1.) The Evernote search for today (since) is created:day

will find everything for today before 8am (2 items)
will find everything for today after 8am (3 items)
will find everything else in the future (75 items in my case)

2.) The Evernote search for today (before) is -created:day

will find everything entered today before 8am (2 items)
will not find everything for today after 8am (0 items)
will find everything before today (16,280 items)

And there is my clunky workaround to find all of today's items.

created:20120205 -created:20120206 ( 5 items - for the Win! )

As I have mentioned before, I found a way to get around the missing Due Date.

My solution is certainly not acceptable to the average user, but it works for my needs.

The addition of a Due Date field would improve Evernote's search grammar substantially (and allow 3rd party developers to create To Do.programs)

.

Owyn · February 5, 2012

Tested "Created Today (Exact)" (created:day -created:day+1). I post dated one note for testing.

Works on Web client. Fails on iOS and Windows clients.

jbenson2 · February 5, 2012

Tested "Created Today (Exact)" (created:day -created:day+1). I post dated one note for testing.
Works on Web client. Fails on iOS and Windows clients.

Yup, thanks for verifying.

That is what Dave Engberg mentioned a year and a half ago.

http://discussion.ev...post__p__123985

No fix yet.

JMichaelTX · February 6, 2012

Tested "Created Today (Exact)" (created:day -created:day+1). I post dated one note for testing.
Works on Web client. Fails on iOS and Windows clients.

FAILS on EN Mac 3.0.6

Crsawood · February 6, 2012

I thought that the re-install fixed it, but it did not. Intitle search is inconsistent on the Mac, only returning part of the results. Any search with the "-" appears to be broken on the Mac client, and is completely ignored. Both work fine on the web-based client, as I just confirmed.

JMichaelTX · February 6, 2012

I assume this is the same issue as reported above, but I could not find a way to filter the Note list to a specific date using EN Mac 3.0.6.

I find the EN Search syntax for dates to be counter-intuitive and hard to remember and use.

I have never used any other app Search that works like EN.

It just doesn't feel right for "updated:20120201" to mean updated SINCE 02/01/2012

Seems like we need another Date Search keyword.

For example:

updated:ON(20120201)

updated:ON(today)

updated:WITHIN(20120101, 20120131)

updated:WITHIN(lastmonth)

updated:WITHIN(thismonth)

updated:ONAFTER(20120101)

I think just about anyone could read the above and understand what it means.

If you wanted to be really user friendly, you could allow multiple date formats, perhaps according to the users country.

updated:ON(02/01/2012)

Once you understand just a few grammar keywords that are much like how we talk/think, it becomes pretty easy to remember/use.

There may be better/easier keywords that the ones I used above. I don't really care as long as they are intuitive to most users.

Again, if you wanted to be really user friendly, you could use autocomplete:


USER TYPES		  EN COMPLETES
upd			  updated:<dropdown list of keywords>
				   ON
				   ONAFTER
				   WITHIN
<selects WITHIN>	updated:WITHIN(<start>,<end>)
01/01			 updated:WITHIN(01/01/2012,<end>)
01/31			 updated:WITHIN(01/01/2012, 01/31/2012)

You could also display a popup for date selection.

Owyn · February 6, 2012

The Evernote date/time search specs are all ONAFTER using your syntax.

e.g.

created:20120201 = Created On or After 2012 Feb 01

created:20120202 = Created On or After 2012 Feb 02

and

created:20120201 -created:20120202 = Created ON 2012 Feb 01

JMichaelTX · February 6, 2012

The Evernote date/time search specs are all ONAFTER using your syntax.

Yeah, I think I have finally figured that out.

created:20120201 -created:20120202 = Created ON 2012 Feb 01

This FAILS on EN Mac 3.0.6.

dlu · February 7, 2012

The Evernote date/time search specs are all ONAFTER using your syntax.
Yeah, I think I have finally figured that out.
created:20120201 -created:20120202 = Created ON 2012 Feb 01
This FAILS on EN Mac 3.0.6.

Noted and taking a look at it. Doing a sweep of attributes (including created/updated dates) on the Mac Client

JMichaelTX · February 10, 2012

Just to make sure all bases are covered, Search failures for EN Mac 3.0.7 Beta 1

Both -Created and -Updated fail
Search using the UI Left Panel Attributes fails for ALL BEFORE dates, both "Created" and "Last Modified"

dlu · February 11, 2012

thanks

GrumpyMonkey · March 31, 2012

it looks like jnenson has found another peoblem with how search handles capitalization of search grammar. if we can't fix them, it might be nice to keep a record here of search bugs/inconsistencies.

May · March 31, 2012

Excluding words doesn't work on iOS

GrumpyMonkey · March 31, 2012

the filename attribute is a bit odd on the mac. first of all, filenames don't turn up in regular searches (it would be nice if they did). second, filename:grumpy won't find a file named "grumpy monkey 2011" but a search for filename:grumpy* will. is everything supposed to be wildcard with this attribute?

the filename attribute doesn't seem to work at all on the ipad.

Owyn · March 31, 2012

"filename:" is case insensitive on the Web client and case sensitive on the Windows client. Syntax is exact match with a quoted string or starts with via a asterisk suffixed string.

GrumpyMonkey · March 31, 2012

"filename:" is case insensitive on the Web client and case sensitive on the Windows client. Syntax is exact match with a quoted string or starts with via a asterisk suffixed string.

seems case insensitive on the mac and ios client. syntax does not match with a quoted string, at least for file names with spaces in them.

Owyn · March 31, 2012

Just re-tested on web client. Test case had an attached image, "UB 120208 Chrome Extensions.png".

filename:"UB 120208 Chrome Extensions.png" works

Anything less than the full filename and extension fails.

Quoted strings can not be asterisk suffixed.

e.g.

filename:ub* works but filename:"ub"* fails.

This may be a bug in the web client. It inserts a space in the search string between the trailing quote and the asterisk.

GrumpyMonkey · March 31, 2012

whoops. i forgot the file extension.

on the mac the filename:"filename.pdf" query works, but on the ipad i am not getting any results. i wonder why.

Owyn · March 31, 2012

i wonder why.

Another set of search inconsistencies / bugs.

JMichaelTX · April 1, 2012

I consider search to be the thread holding all of my memories together, and I am sorry to say that it is coming unraveled. I just don't know how and where! I know there are lots of other threads about broken searches.
. . .
Obviously, it goes without saying that Evernote needs to sort this stuff out, and the sooner the better.

GM, thanks again for starting this thread.

DLU, many thanks for fixing the EN Mac search bug for -created and -updated.

Unfortunately, there are still a number of bugs and inconsistencies that remain.

I know that generally Evernote does not disclose their roadmap, but having a reliable and consistent Search engine across all EN clients is necessary (IMO) if we are to trust our memories to Evernote. If I can not reliably retrieve my memories, I am not much interested in doing the work to store them in the first place.

It would be nice to see Evernote acknowledge these search bugs and inconsistencies, and make a commitment to fix, hopefully in the short term.

peterfmartin · April 2, 2012

Geez, I really hope Evernote will soon publish a comprehensive, cross-platform explanation of search grammar. It's absurd that these differences not only exist, but also aren't explained anywhere. Or am I just missing where Evernote has explained them?

JMichaelTX · April 10, 2012

Search in EN Mac fails for a Word in Quotes That Includes Punctuation

When I search for ["EN.Win"] (quotes included) Evernote does a search for two separate words "EN" and "Win".

So it finds any Note that have both "EN" and "Win" somewhere in the Title or Contents.

Since I put the search expression in quotes, I expected the Search to treat the total text as one word, and would only find notes where the string "EN.Win" exists.

It does find Notes with a Tag of "EN.Win", but it also finds notes where the exact text of "EN.Win" does NOT exist in any of the search fields (Content, Title, Tags), but do contain both words "EN" and "Win".

This relates to another thread where we were discussing use of Search Terms with an operator.

I can't use ["EN.Win"]. I have to use "tag:EN.Win" (without the quotes).

NOTE: I am using the characters "[" and "]" to denote quoted text. They are NOT included in the Search term.

JMichaelTX · April 15, 2012

While we have mostly focused on Search bugs in EN Mac, here is a major bug in EN Win that has been fixed in EN Mac.

Using the "-" symbol (meaning BEFORE) with Created or Updated and a future relative date is broken in EN Win.

For example, "-created:day+7" does NOT work properly in EN Win.

JMichael,
Not working created:day -created:day+7 . I changed a number of notes to dates in the future. Any thoughts. I'm on Windows 7.
Jim Adams
No joy in Windows.
created:day -created:day+7
In the Windows beta version I am using it tries to find words starting with 7, created since Today, created before today.
Unfortunately, it looks like this Search Bug has been fixed in EN Mac, but NOT in EN Win.
So my solution will NOT work for you now when using EN Win.

JMichaelTX · April 15, 2012

While we have mostly focused on Search bugs in EN Mac, here is a major bug in EN Win that has been fixed in EN Mac.
Using the "-" symbol (meaning BEFORE) with Created or Updated and a future relative date is broken in EN Win.
For example, "-created:day+7" does NOT work properly in EN Win.

This also fails on EN iPad.

In EN Mac, it returns 4 Notes.

In EN iPad, it does NOT return any Notes.

peterfmartin · April 23, 2012

FYI: I've started a new conversation just for broken searches on Mac version 3.1.0 beta 1:

JMichaelTX · June 24, 2012

Please see

BUG: Searching for Attachments in EN Mac 3.2.0 Beta 2

Although the title says EN Mac, I have also tested it in EN Web and it has the same issue.

(Archived) HELP: Search is working incorrectly, but on which platforms?

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