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Way too many updates!


jkoseattle

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I like Evernote a lot, and use it every day.

HOWEVER, I am offered a "new version" of Evernote WAY, way too often. These updates take several minutes to install, require me to close Outlook and IE, two applications I need to do my work, and when they are done, I see no discernible difference in the application.

So in effect, these reminders are essentially asking me to stop everything else I'm doing for a few minutes with no noticeable benefit. We have come to refer to it in the office as paying our Weekly Evernote Dues.

Please, consider making your updates less frequent, less obtrusive, or somehow transparent. It's quite irritating, and affects my productivity. And I realize I can just opt out of updates, but I never know when an "important" one is going to make a difference to me, so I feel I should take heed when they come up.

The frequent and obtrusive updates are seriously degrading my opinion of Evernote.

Thank you.

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Hi jkoseattle, welcome to the forum :)

I have to be honest, I never expected to see a post about too many updates.

You may see no difference in the new versions, but not every change is cosmetic. If you read the release notes, you can see that the majority of changes made are under the hood, so to speak.

Every update contains some fix or another so is always useful in some respect.

Update notifications are shown in a period of idle time, and have a "remind me later" option.

I guess the few minutes can be changed to a couple of seconds to read the release notes in the notification and check whether you want to update at that particular time or not. You could then check again and update in your own preferred time.

Scott

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And I realize I can just opt out of updates,

That pretty much sums it up. Keep calm, opt out & carry on. Every ~6 months or so, backup your database (well you should backup more often than that!), upgrade to the latest version & go forth.

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I have to be honest, I never expected to see a post about too many updates.

I think this is the second time in my life I've seen this complaint. And I'm no spring chicken (as my father used to say). The other time was also regarding Evernote & maybe about six months ago.

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  • Level 5*

At least Evernote lets you choose the updates you want to install. Unlike certain operating system companies that force you to update your machine without telling you what they are installing unless you really search for the information. Then they provide minimal/no support when it messes up your day. Evernote is very responsive when they discover they have inadvertently introduced a bug that needs fixing quickly.

I usually do the installations, but not always. Generally there are no problems, but I do like to back up my database just in case!

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  • Level 5*

Unless OP has Evernote-OCD, I don't see the problem. Just make sure that you have pre-release updates unchecked in the settings, and skip the public updates where the log doesn't present anything useful. If you have a problem getting whats "important" and "is going to make a difference" for you, just decide for yourself to update just once a month. Why have Evernote hold back on updates they may put out at once, just because a few people have slow connections, slow computers and no will to make decisions on their own?

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hmm.  It sounds like the Evernote folks are basically saying "We like it this way and you can read the release notes to decide whether to do anything with the popup message about the update or not."

Now this may be reasonable but it doesn't feel as if the question of whether there are updates a bit too often for user happiness is actually being addressed.   Sometimes I personally feel that if a program is being updated too often (in my admittedly subjective view) that it may have more problems or less stability than I would like.  The Firefox barrage of relatively recent times being a case in point.    So it is probably worth the Evernote team giving some thought as to whether the update schedule/practices are optimal for their users and the product image.

p.s.  I LOVE this product.

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Hmm. It sounds like the Evernote folks are basically saying "We like it this way and you can read the release notes to decide whether to do anything with the popup message about the update or not."

Now this may be reasonable but it doesn't feel as if the question of whether there are updates a bit too often for user happiness is actually being addressed. Sometimes I personally feel that if a program is being updated too often (in my admittedly subjective view) that it may have more problems or less stability than I would like. The Firefox barrage of relatively recent times being a case in point. So it is probably worth the Evernote team giving some thought as to whether the update schedule/practices are optimal for their users and the product image.

p.s. I LOVE this product.

IMO, people are over thinking this. Want the latest/greatest release? Download/install it. If you don't, then don't. it's really very simple. (shrug) I honestly can't even conceive why this thread exists.
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If I understand the problem, it isn't that there is anything wrong with Evernote, but improvements make people wonder if there might be, so they don't want so many improvements? I guess I see things differently, because I like all of the updates!

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Are you subscribed to the prerelease / betas?  You could start with opting out of those via the Tools >> Options dialog

 

Otherwise, you should only see public releases (General Availability, which is often abbreviated to GA) every 4-6 weeks usually.

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  • 2 months later...

Same problem here.

 

I have 4 computers so every 4/5 days I have an update notification which is far too often (and too intrusive) for me.

"Tools > Options > Update to pre-release" is unchecked and I am seriously thinking to opt out all updates.

 

I suggest you should think about silent updates mechanism like Chrome or Firefox for example.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I do lots of research and within a few weeks of getting Evernote I went Premium. I love it! BUT, these frequent updates are just plain stupid. There is no way any developer is making improvements that damed fast! I get annoyed with other programs as well...usually the free ones which keep offering updates as a way of data mining, or planting mines within your system. 99.99% of the programs I pay for don't do this. They are well thought out from the beginning and only update 2 or 3 times a year. Neither do they crash or cause other headaches.

Before Evernote I simply kept Favorites lists and had no real issue with copying and pasting into WORD or some such. Though Evernote makes things easier I am always quick to remind them and any other entity, group, or person in my life of that old addage (and song), "Got along without you before I met you, gonna get along without you now."

Google Chrome is a good example. Everybody swoons over it and I loved it, UNTIL it started crashing because of Adobe Flash and Shockwave players. Neither Google or Adobe seem to want to adress the issue. So, ***** 'EM. Firefox was decent before Chrome, and it's just as decent now.

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Welcome to the forum :)

I am going to have to disagree here.Have you read the release notes? Evernote isn't updated for no reason. Personally I like the progress, and would rather time was spent on improving a program, that leaving it as it is, but that is just me...

At any rate, if it really bothers you, there is a solution:

http://www.evernote.com/shard/s26/sh/75f3821d-b1a3-44d0-8326-136c98e81de6/b01691f6f898c9d93f02feecbe679216

Scott

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  • Level 5*

I do lots of research and within a few weeks of getting Evernote I went Premium. I love it! BUT, these frequent updates are just plain stupid. There is no way any developer is making improvements that damed fast!

Not sure what you're basing this claim on. Whole software development methodologies are based around the idea of frequent updates. For example, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_software_development.

 

Firefox was decent before Chrome, and it's just as decent now.

Firefox is a good example of one of the above, particularly if you follow the beta or dev streams.

 

You can always turn off automatic software updates, and check your self, or just refuse to install the automatic ones.

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  • 2 months later...
  • Level 5

I prefer to let the more adventuresome folk try out the upgrades. I stay back in the weeds until all the bugs are worked out.

 

Results: fewer updates and fewer problems.

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  • 2 months later...
  • Level 5*

I have a hard time understanding that this thread is still relevant. Evernote 5 for Windows may have been pushed out a bit too soon as it's filled with bugs and missing features compared to v4, so frequent updates is now more neccessary than ever. I do understand that some may feel that updating is annoying, but if you don't want the update, just skip it and don't update til the next update. It's no different than Evernote holding onto the improvements on their own.

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  • 4 months later...

I agree. Update every week or two is annoying, especially with those issues connected with updating - icon gets unpinned from taskbar, some user configurations are forgotten...

 

Maybe a user setting allowing us to set the amount of days in which we want to check for updates? This could make everybody happy - people who want latest and greatest and people who are fine to update once in a two months.

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  • Level 5*

I agree. Update every week or two is annoying, especially with those issues connected with updating - icon gets unpinned from taskbar, some user configurations are forgotten...

 

Maybe a user setting allowing us to set the amount of days in which we want to check for updates? This could make everybody happy - people who want latest and greatest and people who are fine to update once in a two months.

You do not need to update to every version. Just decline the update notice until you really want to update. Then you can watch the forums, or do whatever else you need to do to assure yourself that the update is what you want.

 

Too many releases for bugfixes and updates results in embarrassing situations like this:

http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/55349-error-a-newer-version-of-evernote-is-already-installed/

Only a problem for beta users. Beta users accept that bugs can occur (realists understand that bugs can occur in any release, however well-tested). This is a non-issue for most users; it sure wasn't for me (a beta user).
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You do not need to update to every version. Just decline the update notice until you really want to update.

 

Evernote do a lot of new versions, ok with that but the update popup is far too intrusive !

Please implement silent update like Chrome, Firefox, Windows or every software that have a new version every few weeks...

 

 

 

Then you can watch the forums, or do whatever else you need to do to assure yourself that the update is what you want.

 

I don't want to watch the forum to check if a particular update is what I want when the software prompt me about a new version !

Are you doing this for another piece of software on you computer ?!???

 

I have hundreds of software on my computer, and Evernote is the only one which prompt me every few weeks to update !!! 

Hopefully my others softwares don't act like Evernote otherwise it would be a nightmare...

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Then you can watch the forums, or do whatever else you need to do to assure yourself that the update is what you want.

 

I don't want to watch the forum to check if a particular update is what I want when the software prompt me about a new version !

Are you doing this for another piece of software on you computer ?!???

The reason that you might want to watch the forums is that you might get information about updates that you might want to avoid. Some people try to let let others test out new updates first, and that tends to be reported in the forums. If you wish the cherry-pick your updates without any information except the release notes, that's totally up to you.
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  • 2 weeks later...

I agree that the pop-ups about new updates is annoying.

It is not that the updates are annoying, you have made a great software and you are doing a great job constantly improving it! Unlike it seems to happen sometimes from what I gather skimming over the headlines in the forums I never got a problem after an update.

In principle I also like, that you inform me about new features, bugfixes etc. ... and I usually like them thats why I want evernote to check for new updates.

But what I don't like is how the update process is, because it is very disruptive.

 

I mean in 99% of all cases when I start Evernote, I do it because I quickly want to take a note now. Often I am in the middle of something and want it quickly out of my head to be able to fully concentrate on something else.., Reading the information, clicking through the update dialog (eventhough it is pretty simple) and worst of all restarting the application which all means just waiting time while I am balancing multiple things in my head already ... it is just annoying in that situation....

 

So, instead of popup windows, less intrusive bars in the program and I don't want to make restart now, the update should be just applied next time I start the program (than again a bar should tell me that it was updated, with a link to the release notes). Such less intrusive update mechanisms have been employed by programs which have a frequent update cycle (like for example chrome) and at least for me they improve the user experience.

 

In anyways, thanks for making a great program!

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I agree that the pop-ups about new updates is annoying.

It is not that the updates are annoying, you have made a great software and you are doing a great job constantly improving it! Unlike it seems to happen sometimes from what I gather skimming over the headlines in the forums I never got a problem after an update.

In principle I also like, that you inform me about new features, bugfixes etc. ... and I usually like them thats why I want evernote to check for new updates.

But what I don't like is how the update process is, because it is very disruptive.

 

I mean in 99% of all cases when I start Evernote, I do it because I quickly want to take a note now. Often I am in the middle of something and want it quickly out of my head to be able to fully concentrate on something else.., Reading the information, clicking through the update dialog (eventhough it is pretty simple) and worst of all restarting the application which all means just waiting time while I am balancing multiple things in my head already ... it is just annoying in that situation....

 

So, instead of popup windows, less intrusive bars in the program and I don't want to make restart now, the update should be just applied next time I start the program (than again a bar should tell me that it was updated, with a link to the release notes). Such less intrusive update mechanisms have been employed by programs which have a frequent update cycle (like for example chrome) and at least for me they improve the user experience.

 

In anyways, thanks for making a great program!

I fully agree :-)

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  • 1 month later...

Totally agree that the frequency of updates is obtrusive and "undelightful"... There's enough functionality and loyalty in the product for us to put up with this, but it's really not in the best interest of the product development folks at Evernote to be defensive about this misguided strategy. It's not because more people don't complain about this, that it's not an issue with most folks.

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Totally agree that the frequency of updates is obtrusive and "undelightful"... There's enough functionality and loyalty in the product for us to put up with this, but it's really not in the best interest of the product development folks at Evernote to be defensive about this misguided strategy. It's not because more people don't complain about this, that it's not an issue with most folks.

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Totally agree that the frequency of updates is obtrusive and "undelightful"... There's enough functionality and loyalty in the product for us to put up with this, but it's really not in the best interest of the product development folks at Evernote to be defensive about this misguided strategy. It's not because more people don't complain about this, that it's not an issue with most folks.

What product development folk are getting defensive? There only on post in this topic from Evernote staff and it asks the poster whether they were getting beta updates, otherwise they should only be seeing updates every month or two.

Quote the defensive post from Evernote staff.

To the topic at hand, how often are you seeing updates? Are you subscribed to betas? If so, lots of updates is par for the course. Otherwise, as staff had said, you'd really only be looking at an update every month or two. When you look at the number of complaints people post on these boards about bugs, I don't see how Evernote could get away with LESS updates, lest folks begin blaming then for resting in their laurels or being recalcitrant!

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i especially came to this forum, to find out if more people were bugged by this.

I also have multiple computers, and Evernote is the only piece of software that is constanly asking me for permission to update.

Please implement an silent auto-update, this is really getting on my nerves

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  • Level 5*

i especially came to this forum, to find out if more people were bugged by this.

I also have multiple computers, and Evernote is the only piece of software that is constanly asking me for permission to update.

Please implement an silent auto-update, this is really getting on my nerves

 

What apps do you have that do silent updates without requesting permission? And EN is the last app I'd want silent updates on. I will often leave several notes open and go home, come back and finish the next day. Last thing I want is all of my open notes closed by a silent update. 

I would like it to update with one permission requests though. It takes three here. I can install service packs in Windows with far less hassle.

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  • 1 month later...

Not very constructive but i would just like to add that i too experience way too many updates.

 

I have now disabled 'check for udpates' on all my devices and switched to the web interface. I am not a power user, I do use evernote daily to sync notes, as I have always done and I'd like to think many of the users do.

 

I am sorry to put it like this, but no I will not read release notes and no I will not reboot my pc because evernote needs to update some services. I know this sounds (and actually is) quite ungrateful, nobody is forcing me to use evernote, but it's just the way it is. I use evernote to be more productive and dealing with the updates contantly on all my devices is not productive at all.

 

A good example of a non intrusive way of updating would be spotify, which asks politely in its statusbar if you would like to restart the software to get the latest version. I believe this will be enough for 95% of the users, the other 5% probably knows where to find the release notes, version numbers, etc. I just don't care. /rant

 

but thanks for the great product ;-)

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  • 5 months later...

I completely agree.  It really SEEMS like every other time I open up Evernote a popup asks me to update.  It's really annoying to stop everything you're doing to read and decide if it's important to update or to postpone it only to be annoyed later.  Can't these updates happen automatically in the background? Does it have to be that frequent?  I've gotten in the habit of using Google Keep to make quick notes instead because the Evernote updates are so annoying frequent that I subconsciously don't want to go to the app unless I really need to.  It's not the end of the world but it's very annoying.   It's even more annoying that the Adobe Acrobat updates that seem to pop up way too often as well.

 

I too searched Google for this subject to see if anyone else was annoyed by this or if I'm just especially irritable!  I know you have to do your updates but of the 100 or so apps I have on my computer the three that comes to mind for the annoying number of updates is Evernote, followed by Adobe Acrobat, and then Windows OS updates when I used to use windows instead of Mac.

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  • 2 months later...

I have to agree with the OP.  I rarely comment on forums though I read them quite often.  I am an IT professional and deal with updates constantly.  Evernote is getting to have the same reputation of Adobe and Java.  Every other time i open the app I have to stop what I am doing, close outlook and my browsers (which may have anywhere from 20-40 tabs open in them based on the work I am doing that day) and update evernote.

 

I love the app!  I could not get through my life on a day to day basis without it. but the updates are absurdly intrusive mind blowingly annoying and just simply way to often.

 

I have gotten to the point that I turned off auto updates and just take a second to check for updates at some point when I have to restart my system anyway.

 

Cheers!

 

CrankyApe/Desert Dweller

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  • Level 5*

Why do you have to close your browsers in order to update Evernote? I don't. 

 

If you're an IT professional, then I'm guessing that you know that WIndows updates a lot more frequently than Evernote does (Patch Tuesday, anyone?). I reckon that Evernote is going to keep on releasing on a more frequent schedule, as do many other applications (Java is banned from my machine). I'm OK with that. But hey, if you've turned off auto-updates, then you've got it all under control already, so I'm not sure what the beef is. You can also follow a site like FileHippo that will tell you when new updates come out, scan the release notes, and see whether you want to pull it in; I do this for other software (Notepad++, DropBox, etc., etc.) and it gives me a pretty good measure of control over this stuff.

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  • 2 months later...
  • 4 weeks later...
Most days I get pop-ups telling me that a new version of Evernote is available and I eventually install the update.
 
(Ther image link below is a Copy.com share)
 
Image 1 link below shows a copy of the Evernote install entry in Control Panel and you can see that it is version 5.8.8.7837, which is the latest available.
 
When I click Help -  About... directly after the install, it confirms that 5.8.8 is indeed installed. This is shown below in the Image 2 link
 
But, if I quit Evernote completely or when I reboot, Help -  About... says that I have 5.0.2.1392 installed. Shown below in the Image 3 link.
 
 
Has anyone else had this problem? 

 

 

The Copy.com link contains the following jpg files:

 

image1.jpg - Latest Version Installed
image2.jpg - Help -  About... straight after install
image3.jpg - Help -  About... after quitting Evernote completely or after a reboot
 
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I am also here because Evernote updates WAY too often.  I saw that this issue goes back to 2012!  I can understand anti-virus software updating daily to keep up with ongoing computer threats.  But wth, this is a note taking app!

 

Also, I'm confused as to why the moderators would get defensive about this??  It may not be an issue or an annoyance to them but it certainly is to many others.  Try giving constructive feedback. 

 

Bottom line, this product updates way too often!

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  • Level 5*

 

Most days I get pop-ups telling me that a new version of Evernote is available and I eventually install the update.
 
(Ther image link below is a Copy.com share)
 
Image 1 link below shows a copy of the Evernote install entry in Control Panel and you can see that it is version 5.8.8.7837, which is the latest available.
 
When I click Help -  About... directly after the install, it confirms that 5.8.8 is indeed installed. This is shown below in the Image 2 link
 
But, if I quit Evernote completely or when I reboot, Help -  About... says that I have 5.0.2.1392 installed. Shown below in the Image 3 link.
 
 
Has anyone else had this problem? 

 

 

The Copy.com link contains the following jpg files:

 

image1.jpg - Latest Version Installed
image2.jpg - Help -  About... straight after install
image3.jpg - Help -  About... after quitting Evernote completely or after a reboot
 

 

 

Mike, it sounds like you have two copies of EN installed. I would contact support. What you will essentially have to do is uninstall from the Windows control panel, then manually remove the other copy, then reinstall. They can give you more complete instructions including saving your current database so after installing, you don't need to redownload everything.

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Thanks EdH, 

 

 

 

Most days I get pop-ups telling me that a new version of Evernote is available and I eventually install the update.
 
(Ther image link below is a Copy.com share)
 
Image 1 link below shows a copy of the Evernote install entry in Control Panel and you can see that it is version 5.8.8.7837, which is the latest available.
 
When I click Help -  About... directly after the install, it confirms that 5.8.8 is indeed installed. This is shown below in the Image 2 link
 
But, if I quit Evernote completely or when I reboot, Help -  About... says that I have 5.0.2.1392 installed. Shown below in the Image 3 link.
 
 
Has anyone else had this problem? 

 

 

The Copy.com link contains the following jpg files:

 

image1.jpg - Latest Version Installed
image2.jpg - Help -  About... straight after install
image3.jpg - Help -  About... after quitting Evernote completely or after a reboot
 

 

 

Mike, it sounds like you have two copies of EN installed. I would contact support. What you will essentially have to do is uninstall from the Windows control panel, then manually remove the other copy, then reinstall. They can give you more complete instructions including saving your current database so after installing, you don't need to redownload everything.

 

Thanks Ed, I'll look into that, although I don't know how I could have installed two copies of EN. Wouldn't it have found a previously installed copy and updated it, or was there a bug in an earlier version? Anyway, I'll contact support as you suggest.

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  • Level 5*

Mike, 

 

Yes, EN should have upgraded you by removing the old version and installing the new version. However, somewhere in the EN 5 process the install folder changed from Evernote to Evernote5 (or something like that - doing this form memory of 2013 when EN 5.0 came out, which was a MASSIVE change from 4.x.

 

What made me think of this was when you said it would sometimes launch 5.0.x, which is really old (2+ years) and I remember I had a similar issue, but I was on betas so chalked it up to the beta process. Looks like you might have been bitten by this little glitch in one of the public releases.

 

let us know how support helps. I suspect they will tell you to uninstall, then manually remove all Evernote* folders from your Program Files folder, then reinstall, complete with instructions on how to manually ensure your Evernote database is safe should you have any offline notebooks that aren't stored on their servers.

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  • 3 weeks later...

 

Hmm. It sounds like the Evernote folks are basically saying "We like it this way and you can read the release notes to decide whether to do anything with the popup message about the update or not."

Now this may be reasonable but it doesn't feel as if the question of whether there are updates a bit too often for user happiness is actually being addressed. Sometimes I personally feel that if a program is being updated too often (in my admittedly subjective view) that it may have more problems or less stability than I would like. The Firefox barrage of relatively recent times being a case in point. So it is probably worth the Evernote team giving some thought as to whether the update schedule/practices are optimal for their users and the product image.

p.s. I LOVE this product.

IMO, people are over thinking this. Want the latest/greatest release? Download/install it. If you don't, then don't. it's really very simple. (shrug) I honestly can't even conceive why this thread exists.

 

 

I, on the other hand, CAN conceive why this thread exists. You might not agree with it, but I've stopped using evernote entirely because literally every time I open it I get a new update. You should rethink whether or not other points of view exist for a reason or not.

 

Here's the other thing. I've been around the block a few times myself. I'm a software developer. I'm also an entrepreneur and have led multiple startups to victory. So believe me when I understand the concept of release early and often.

 

But the fundamental issue is that this isn't a web app. Browsers aren't downloading a new version of the javascript and CSS silently in the background. What ends up happening is that every single user is barraged with a new release daily because the Evernote team is pushing new builds on nearly every single bug fix - and we're talking minor issues, here. Releases happen within 10 build updates of the previous sub-sub-sub-version (e.g out past the THIRD decimal) sometimes, with the same exact change list as the previous version.

 

So no, we're actually not crazy. I do like having the "latest", but the inconvenience of updating what feels to be every 30 seconds severely (severely severely) outweighs the "fixed a bug that causes some prefs to get reset when upgrading from 5.8.9 Beta" fix for a lot of people. If notes work, 99% of your customers are happy. The argument of "just read the change list and dont download it if you don't want it" I think severly discards the user experience. I don't want to read a changelist every day. Imagine if every product we used did that. I want to know about major feature releases and security updates so that the stagefright vulnerability doesn't steal my identity.

 

If you guys think that's nuts and we should just all be the early-adopter type, that's fine, but at some point it might behoove you to realize that most of your users don't care about the product as much as you do. You provide a valuable service, and that's all.

 

Just some food for thought coming from a guy who understands at least a little bit about user interaction and loyalty to products.

 

P.s. for the record, iTunes lost me as a user for this, FIrefox lost me as a user for this, and now Evernote lost me as a user for it too. Just because you haven't seen people get annoyed by it doesn't mean it doesn't happen, with this or any other product.

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