(Archived) lost content of note?

[lisad 0]

I use a Macbook Air 2010 and Evernote (mac application version). I took 3 hours+ of notes while on the road on Thursday, the notes were taken when I did not have access the internet. Later that afternoon (Thursday) I re-opened Evernote while connected to wifi and according to the activity log the note did sync at that point. I recall referring to the note at that point so I know the text was there. Then last night on Friday I returned home, opened up Evernote and the note in question was completely blank. I bought the premium service and looked at note history but it only has one version of history from Friday night which is blank. Two questions-- what happened, why is the note blank? And two, is there any way to find the note somewhere? My time machine backup does not have a copy of the note at all nor does it have copies of any of the notes I created on the road (because I was out of the office, but I am surprised that a time machine backup created when I got home earlier in the day doesn't have any of my notes from on the road either.) The other notes I created while on the road are not blank, though, and do have longer note history entries (were created on earlier days). Anyone have this experience and can tell me what happened and if there is hope to recover this one, and how to prevent in the future?

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

I use a Macbook Air 2010 and Evernote (mac application version). I took 3 hours+ of notes while on the road on Thursday, the notes were taken when I did not have access the internet. Later that afternoon (Thursday) I re-opened Evernote while connected to wifi and according to the activity log the note did sync at that point. I recall referring to the note at that point so I know the text was there. Then last night on Friday I returned home, opened up Evernote and the note in question was completely blank. I bought the premium service and looked at note history but it only has one version of history from Friday night which is blank. Two questions-- what happened, why is the note blank? And two, is there any way to find the note somewhere? My time machine backup does not have a copy of the note at all nor does it have copies of any of the notes I created on the road (because I was out of the office, but I am surprised that a time machine backup created when I got home earlier in the day doesn't have any of my notes from on the road either.) The other notes I created while on the road are not blank, though, and do have longer note history entries (were created on earlier days). Anyone have this experience and can tell me what happened and if there is hope to recover this one, and how to prevent in the future?

Hi. Welcome to the forums! I am sorry to hear about the loss of data. I suspect it is not recoverable, but you never know, and it never hurts to start a support ticket with customer service (see my signature below).

I have no idea what happened in your case, but I have lost data with the current public version of the app as well. I do not know what happened in my case either, but based on the activity logs, I strongly suspect the related notes feature. This is my pet theory, and may be completely wrong, but I have shut off my related notes (in preferences) for now. So far, I haven't had any more data loss. If I receive an answer from support or a workaround, I will be sure to pass it along!

[lisad 0]

thanks for the reply! I've been using Evernote for tons of notes in the past 6 months, so this just really worries me, if a note's contents can just randomly disappear.. I'll try the turning off related notes just in case. I've opened a ticket as well. Do you know if notes are saved locally or is the only hope for a backup that the note is synced to the cloud? For really important notes I am just trying to figure out how to make sure I have a copy saved somewhere, without having to export each one. I'm hoping maybe too that support will tell me they have a version of the note that is not currently visible on my note history.. Of course the note that disappeared was a really important one, hard to recreate as I was taking notes during a meeting with folks we only meet with once a year. I just had no idea notes could disappear. Now I know I guess.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

thanks for the reply! I've been using Evernote for tons of notes in the past 6 months, so this just really worries me, if a note's contents can just randomly disappear.. I'll try the turning off related notes just in case. I've opened a ticket as well. Do you know if notes are saved locally or is the only hope for a backup that the note is synced to the cloud? For really important notes I am just trying to figure out how to make sure I have a copy saved somewhere, without having to export each one. I'm hoping maybe too that support will tell me they have a version of the note that is not currently visible on my note history.. Of course the note that disappeared was a really important one, hard to recreate as I was taking notes during a meeting with folks we only meet with once a year. I just had no idea notes could disappear. Now I know I guess.

You're welcome. Notes ARE saved locally and the content should NOT disappear. However, as the Dude would say, new "stuff" has come to light. I always keep multiple backups and regularly run Time Machine in the hopes of avoiding any possible problems, but you are saying that your Time Machine somehow missed it (was the note already gone by then?), so that is worrisome. I wish I could say more, but I am still waiting to hear back from support about what happened in my case.

For the benefit of others, I will copy/paste my note to support here. Perhaps, someone smarter than me will have some advice. I had a long note history and a separate copy in another account, so I didn't have quite the same situation, but the mysterious disappearance of the content suggests the same problem is at work.

The Timeline

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

- I was using Evernote on Windows (via Parallels) for most of the day

without problems. I synced, and everything appears fine in my Windows

account. I exited the Windows app and used the Mac app for a few

minutes at the end of the day.

- The Mac client says that I updated one note about 20 minutes ago

(December 30, 2012 11:46 PM). It is completely empty, and I only

noticed it because it was strangely at the top of the list when I

sorted by date updated, even though I had not actually looked at it

for a few weeks.

- As I have not synced my Windows account yet, the content is still

fine there (so this did not happen in that client), and the note

correctly shows that it has not been updated since December 7.

- The relevant note in the attached Activity Log is '121207 journal

friday' and the issue seems to start from 2012-12-30 23:46:47.

The empty note overwrote the correct one on the server already. I have

recovered the data by copy/pasting from the Windows account before

syncing it. I could have also retrieved the data from note history, of

course. Do we have any idea why the Mac client is (apparently)

deleting data from our accounts? If so, is there anything I can do to

prevent my data from being lost like this? Thanks!

[lisad 0]

thanks again. Yes, I've tried restoring all of the various time machine copies of com.evernote.evernote on my machine that were created yesterday when I got back, to see if the note is there, but somehow none of the notes created since I left town are there-- i.e. the last notes backed up on time machine are 1/4/13. So that is strange too, because of course those notes are still in evernote (the other notes did not have the content disappear). I am not sure how evernote notes work with time machine, but that is a second mystery to me.

[lisad 0]

Hi Grumpy Monkey et al,

Just an update, I did hear from support but they do not have an older version of the note, and unfortunately there is nothing on my computer or time machine (I was away when it was created, and even though I did do one time machine sync, the problem must have occured before the sync because the notes are not in the evernote content folders).

So I've accepted the loss of the note with regret, but now I've got some other questions about the way Evernote works to make sure this doesn't happen again, or migrate to a different note taking program if this is somehow an open, unresolved issue.

1) How to prevent this from happeing? does anyone know how a note can just become blank? What could have happened to do that?

2) How to create a local backup on the computer (rather than relying on a sync of a faulty note)? I see that notes can be exported, which would create a local copy on my computer, but is there any other way to ensure that notes are saved locally in addition to being synced? What happens when you press command S (says save)? I feel there is just a big potential for loss if you are travelling, and an error occurs as must have happened to me, and suddenly the corrupted note is synced everywhere. In my case the "note history" option did not work to save a copy of my original note in this case. So I'm trying to figure out how to make sure there is a backup on my local drive with minimal hassle and having to remember to export, e.g. save. But I'm not sure if the save does anything.

I love the ease of evernote and the syncing that allows for the availability of having my notes on all my devices, but this experience has made me hesitant to continue use until I know how it really works and how to ensure the notes are saved adequately.

any thoughts or other info gathered? Thanks!!

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

Hi Grumpy Monkey et al,

Just an update, I did hear from support but they do not have an older version of the note, and unfortunately there is nothing on my computer or time machine (I was away when it was created, and even though I did do one time machine sync, the problem must have occured before the sync because the notes are not in the evernote content folders).

So I've accepted the loss of the note with regret, but now I've got some other questions about the way Evernote works to make sure this doesn't happen again, or migrate to a different note taking program if this is somehow an open, unresolved issue.

1) How to prevent this from happeing? does anyone know how a note can just become blank? What could have happened to do that?

2) How to create a local backup on the computer (rather than relying on a sync of a faulty note)? I see that notes can be exported, which would create a local copy on my computer, but is there any other way to ensure that notes are saved locally in addition to being synced? What happens when you press command S (says save)? I feel there is just a big potential for loss if you are travelling, and an error occurs as must have happened to me, and suddenly the corrupted note is synced everywhere. In my case the "note history" option did not work to save a copy of my original note in this case. So I'm trying to figure out how to make sure there is a backup on my local drive with minimal hassle and having to remember to export, e.g. save. But I'm not sure if the save does anything.

I love the ease of evernote and the syncing that allows for the availability of having my notes on all my devices, but this experience has made me hesitant to continue use until I know how it really works and how to ensure the notes are saved adequately.

any thoughts or other info gathered? Thanks!!

Hi. If your note loss was anything like mine, then this is a bug, and entirely Evernote's fault. It "should not" be happening, but it is. Some other users and the developers seem to have found some ways to reproduce the error, so we "should" be on our way to a solution. Leaving aside bugs in the program, stuff just happens, and it is always a good idea to have a backup. At home, plug in Time Machine, and it will backup every hour automatically. Your notes are saved automatically as well, so it is unlikely you will lose much, if you ever lose anything at all.

On the road... well, that is a problem. I have done exactly what you described (synced a blank note to the Evernote servers). The good news, in my case, is that I had backups from before I left town on my Time Machine, and note history as well, so no big deal. What about extended trips? That is where you run into issues, because you probably are not using Time Machine, and if you mess something up, it will mess up the local copy, which may not have even gotten to the server yet! Something I have done is to select all of the notes I make / edit each day and export them as HTML files just in case. This is pretty easy to do, it only takes a minute, and it gives you peace of mind.

A smarter person might just designate their thumb drive (you can pretty easily get a 32GB or larger one these days) as a Time Machine backup, and just plug that in while they are on the road