(Archived) Exit feedback from a former user

[Barry F 0]

Hi,

I'd like to offer some constructive feedback about why I'm no longer using Evernote. To summarize, it's too buggy to be useful.

When I first started using Evernote I was thrilled that I could create and edit notes and share them on my Windows PC and Android device. I immediately gave the app 5-stars on Android Market. After all, it did everything I needed and it's FREE.

I use Evernote almost exclusively to keep lists, so the numbering/bullet feature was very important to me. Unfortunately this feature never worked well on either platform, especially Android. Unfortunately the bugs in lists only got worse and one day I noticed that support for editing lists on Android was nearly dropped: I could only edit one line at a time, which is frustrating. But even worse, it is impossible to insert a new numbered or bullet into a list, which is maddening. At that point your market rating changed from 5 to 3 stars.

The bugs were not limited to Android, either. Editing lists on Windows is a nightmare, too. It's impossible to move list items without formatting errors. Rearranging lists became a tedious process of copy/pasting line-by-line. I've been using Evernote for 8 months and the only improvement I witnessed was in the latest Windows upgrade, which helped only slightly.

I was learning to live with the list issues on both platforms, but I could not live with the sync bugs. Editing lists on both platforms occasionally caused sync errors that were handled poorly. They didn't happen too often, but when they did, I lost data, and I was furious. For an entire month my Android device was displaying note previews correctly, but when I opened the editor it reverted to a previous revision of my note, making it unusable, of course. I nearly uninstalled the app but that bug was fixed just in time.

Yesterday, however, Evernote for Windows encountered another sync error and deleted my most important note. That was the end of Evernote for me, and I had to downgrade your market rating again, to 1 star. Amazingly, my Android device still had the note, albeit an older version (thank god the sync doesn't work properly or it may have been completely lost) which I promptly emailed to myself.

Again, please accept this as constructive criticism from another Android app developer. Evernote is an amazing app, in theory, but too buggy for the average user, and IMO doesn't stand a chance as an enterprise app in its current condition. Maybe I just had bad luck, and maybe the users that gave the Android app a 4.7 rating are right, or maybe they just don't use it as intensively as I do. All I know is Google Drive is out, and it's impressive, so I urge you strongly to address the above issues.

Barry Fruitman

[peterfmartin 221]

Yesterday, however, Evernote for Windows encountered another sync error and deleted my most important note.

Can you explain in more detail what exactly happened?

[Barry F 0]

I wish I could give you more detail but all I remember is seeing a sync error message, and then my note was almost empty, except for the first line. I don't see one of those "Note Conflict" copies, either.

I just checked my phone and the it finally synced, clearing the note there too.

Barry

Yesterday, however, Evernote for Windows encountered another sync error and deleted my most important note.

Can you explain in more detail what exactly happened?

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

I use Evernote almost exclusively to keep lists, so the numbering/bullet feature was very important to me. Unfortunately this feature never worked well on either platform, especially Android. Unfortunately the bugs in lists only got worse and one day I noticed that support for editing lists on Android was nearly dropped: I could only edit one line at a time, which is frustrating. But even worse, it is impossible to insert a new numbered or bullet into a list, which is maddening. At that point your market rating changed from 5 to 3 stars.

The bugs were not limited to Android, either. Editing lists on Windows is a nightmare, too. It's impossible to move list items without formatting errors. Rearranging lists became a tedious process of copy/pasting line-by-line.

Sorry about your data loss. However, FWIW, Evernote's focus is not a to do list/task manager. So you're pretty much comparing apples to oranges. And I don't know what you mean about editing one line at a time... AFAIK, you can only edit one line at a time on any computer/device...??? And yes, you can insert lines into a bulleted list on the Windows client.

EN's focus is a data collection, organizer & retrieval tool. I mostly use the EN desktop app & it pretty much has worked flawlessly for me for four years now. I occasionally use the Android/iOS app (on Kindle Fire, iPhone, IPad) and my only complaint is that they are slow. So I normally use a third party app for entering notes from my devices.

There are several true to do list/task manager lists out there. I'm sure you won't have a problem finding one that works for you.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

Hi Barry. Thanks for sharing your experience. What did customer support say about your issues? Tgey take data loss pretty seriously and in my experience they are quite knowlegable and helpful.

To address your points about bugs, the application is a work in progress, and certainly not perfect. Hopefully, your experiences will provide data that will help them address the concerns you have raised.

Personally, while I think GDrive is an impressive product, at this point I don't see it competing with Evernote in terms of core competencies, and I wouldn't consider it a viable alternative.

Anyhow, be sure to check back with the Evernote app. Updates are released on a frequent basis and it is constantly improving.

[Barry F 0]

Hi,

I contacted support about the list editing problems but didn't receive a reply. I didn't expect one as I'm a free user but I hoped they took me seriously since what affects free users also affects paying users.

As for the sync issues I didn't contact support as they happened infrequently, and after yesterday's disaster I was simply fed up.

I won't argue with you about GDrive as I only started using it today. I'm going to use it for a while and probably check back in with Evernote in a few months.

Thanks,

Barry

Hi Barry. Thanks for sharing your experience. What did customer support say about your issues? Tgey take data loss pretty seriously and in my experience they are quite knowlegable and helpful.

To address your points about bugs, the application is a work in progress, and certainly not perfect. Hopefully, your experiences will provide data that will help them address the concerns you have raised.

Personally, while I think GDrive is an impressive product, at this point I don't see it competing with Evernote in terms of core competencies, and I wouldn't consider it a viable alternative.

Anyhow, be sure to check back with the Evernote app. Updates are released on a frequent basis and it is constantly improving.

[Phil Dean 150]

Can you please provide the ticket number as I cannot locate any tickets for your email address, maybe you used a different email address when you submitted a ticket. CS replies to every ticket that we receive even for free users, Premium get priority but we still provide relevant answers for all tickets regardless of status

[Barry F 0]

Hi Phil,

I looked everywhere and I cannot find it. Perhaps I never did contact support in which case I was mistaken and I'm sorry.

I do appreciate the support now but to be honest I'm not interested in resolving the issues for myself anymore, as I've moved on. I was just providing feedback on my experiences with Evernote, and I hope you do take them as the constructive criticism which they were intended.

Thanks,

Barry

Can you please provide the ticket number as I cannot locate any tickets for your email address, maybe you used a different email address when you submitted a ticket. CS replies to every ticket that we receive even for free users, Premium get priority but we still provide relevant answers for all tickets regardless of status