(Archived) How *should* I have done it?

[dmee 3]

OK, before I start, I hold my hands up - this was 100% my stupid fault, but I thought I should mention it (i) to check how this *should* have been done (ii) to try and prevent it happening to anyone else and (iii) to see what I should be backing up.

Background: Computer runs like a dog some days - I know I have loads of stuff running but most days I use most of it - however I decided to create a second User where nothing much loads so if I know I'm in for a "fast as poss computer" day I could use this.

So, I'm on my new login and I need something from Evernote, I open Evernote and log in and am presented with a blank set of notebooks. I go investigating and see that Evernote store the data under each User's folder - as this is new user, no data there yet. Yes I could wait for days whilst it Syncs with website, but I decide to shortcut this. I only want one copy of data on my hard-drive so I edit the database to point to my old file location. Evernote pops up a note saying I may lose data. I ignore it! I still end up with blank screen where all my notebooks and data should be. No biggie says I, and I login using old User. Open its copy of Evernote and it too shows nothing. No probs, let it reload from web.

OK, so fastforward and Evernote has spent 2 days chugging away reloading everything - not a fun time - wish it was quicker but there's 27,000 notes to grab......

Then the gut wrench - I had a local folder - thankfully nothing important - but of course that's vanished into the ether :-(

So, my "don't panic, everything's on Evernote's servers" attitude takes a kick in the teeth - my questions -

What should I backup to ensure Local folders get saved.

How do you change data locations without wiping data

Would it be worth an "ah, your pointing me at a folder already containing Evernote data for this login - do you want me to load that" routine, rather than the existing, "wipe whatever's there"

Why is data stored per user rather than per Evernote login

How could I now change my data folder to point to a Dropbox folder, whilst maintaining all my downloaded data etc as I have Pack Rat keeping every copy of files in Dropbox and this would then also cover me backing up local folders in one fell swoop

Maybe you should add a second "Are you really sure, you will lose any Local Folders" pop up for muppets like me :-)

[jbenson2 2,149]

What should I backup to ensure Local folders get saved.

A lot of questions - been answered on this forum if you use search.

Answer for most important one:

In Evernote Windows, copy the .exb file that has your username.

This will backup everything, including the local folders.

You can find it by selecting >Tools >Options >General Tab >Open Database folder

I let Carbonite do it daily and I will run a manual backup 2-3 times a week just to be on the safe side.

I keep the past 5 most recent backups

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Essentially what you tried to do would be the same as restoring from a backup. The difference, of course, is that you're trying to make two user profiles use the same database on the same computer.

Here's a thread on how to backup and restore on the Windows client. I've done this several times, including within the last month, so I can attest that it works. In fact, I did something very similar to what you tried to do. On one of my Windows XP computers, I added a different internal drive & loaded Windows 7 on it. So my main computer can now boot WinXP or Windows 7, depending upon which drive I boot from. Regardless which OS I boot, they both use the same Evernote database residing on my computer.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

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How do you change data locations without wiping data

By treating it as a restore in the thread I linked to in above post and having current backups!!!

.

Why is data stored per user rather than per Evernote login

Actually, EN data is stored by EN login. Your exb file is login-name.exb. If you have used multiple logins on your Windows desktop, you'll have multiple exb files. However, when setting up a new Windows user, it's now stored by Windows user as well & is a Windows issue. After all, you *are* setting up a different user account. It's generally assumed if it's a different Windows user, they may want to have different data.

In my specific situation (having a dual boot computer that will use the same Evernote database on that computer, regardless which OS is booted up, here's what I did.

NOTE: This is WINDOWS ONLY!

Your EN database location is found by going into Evernote, tools/options & general tab. My EN database folder resides on my V drive in the MyENFiles folder.

First thing I did was backup the entire v:\MyENFiles folder. (This is the one I'd been using for several years under WinXP). I then renamed v:\MyENFiles to v:\MyENFiles_20121007 (the date I was doing this). This way, I had two copies of my live EN folder and no v:\MyENFiles folder. (A girl can never be too rich, too thin or have too many backups...)

Then I installed EN on my new OS (Win7). I invoked EN under Win7 & logged in. It creates a new exb file & starts to download from the EN servers. I then change the newly installed (Win7) EN to point to v:\MyENFiles. (I don't remember if I stopped the download or not.) Since this folder no longer exists (because I renamed it), I don't get the wipe out existing data message. So now the Win7 Evernote is now pointing to v:\MyENFiles & has a newly created EN exb file that has only a few of my notes in it & none of the local notebooks. I fully exit EN (no elephant in the system task bar.) I deleted the NEWLY CREATED exb file (in v:\MyENFiles), which was confirmed by the created & modified date/time as well as the size of the file. (You could simply rename it to be cautious. But in my case, my live EN database is 32+ gigs & this one was only a few megs, so it was pretty clear it was not my live database.) I then COPIED (not cut) the exb file from v:\MyENFiles_20121007\ to v:\MyENFiles\ Now, both versions of Evernote are using the exb file located in v:\MyENFiles folder that contains my 52,000+ notes including my local (non-sync'd) notebooks. Now, if I boot to WinXP & add some notes to the local notebook, then boot to Win7 on that same computer, the newly added notes to my local notebooks are there.

Hope this makes sense.

[dmee 3]

Cheers for all of the above - didn't get any notifications anyone had replied - sorry

So, basically DON'T IGNORE warnings ;-) and only play when you've plenty of backups :-)