(Archived) Evernote for iOS 7 feedback

coolhandpete · September 26, 2013

Please, Evernote Team, take a deep breath and restore the terrific functionality of what was, until 5 days ago, the best app I've ever used.

Specific issues:

1. Shortcuts list is complicated to get to, confusing to find. From the main screen, I can see all my shortcuts. In another place, in spite of having plenty of real estate, I can only see 7 or 8. The "open star" icon sometimes adds a shortcut, sometimes opens the shortcuts list. This may be a learning curve issue, but why add to the learning curve?

2. Can't access shortcuts without closing a note. Makes it difficult to switch between shortcuts (I.e., it's not really a shortcut.)

3. No stylization. This is the only way I've found to segment long notes. I use continuous notes for separate meetings with individual clients, and used to use sub-section text for the date and time of each meeting. Now it's all one long note with similar text throughout. Interestingly, my old stylized text from the iOS 6 days hasnt gone away, I just can't make more!

4. Adding Tags from within a note doesn't show the list of tags - The user must remember the relevant tags (and type their names!), not just check several. The benefit of Evernote for me has been that organization is simple when I can easily tag notes with multiple tags (I usually aim to use at least 3 tags per note). My tags list is approx, 50 items long. I made that list to facilitate my organization. Now when I need it most, I'm required to draw it from memory.

5. I have observed a wonky scrolling problem where every character I type makes the screen jump up until after three characters the cursor is disappeared.

6. Returning from background sometimes yields strange results, forcing the user to click several times inside the note text to keep typing. In the meantime, sometimes the note frame goes blank for a second before returning with the note scrolled to the top of the screen (losing my place). Sometimes when returning from background, the UI hangs for 9-10 secs during which no input registered.

7. The announcements section is wasted real estate. Put them inside settings or something. This is advertising bunk, pure and simple. Get out of my workspace with that nonsense.

8. When I assign a note in a notebook, the app should return to the note screen without clicking out of the notebook chooser. Tags is a different story because I always use multiples.

dav555 · September 26, 2013

The following search fails in the iOS7 version:-

-tag:A

The following works:

tag:A

Exclude tags are still crashing the app even in the 7.0.1 just released for iOS7....

Come on Evernote, you can do better than this...

RL7836 · September 27, 2013

As I work with several machines at the same time, the visual cue telling me if the note is synced or not is mandatory. I cannot imagine how one could have removed this feature.

Just read six pages of this thread & a few others as well, checked the blog, checked the KB, etc. I have not seen an answer posted on the sync staus. Since I go back & forth with multiple devices (& sometimes in areas w/o internet access), I need to know whether notes have sync'd (without having to visit each modified note to check).

I saw some notes that some people have turned off background updating. Does that provide an option for manual sync?

I know that I'm not the most observant person in the world - so hopefully I've overlooked something....

Ron

GrumpyMonkey · September 27, 2013

As I work with several machines at the same time, the visual cue telling me if the note is synced or not is mandatory. I cannot imagine how one could have removed this feature.
Just read six pages of this thread & a few others as well, checked the blog, checked the KB, etc. I have not seen an answer posted on the sync staus. Since I go back & forth with multiple devices (& sometimes in areas w/o internet access), I need to know whether notes have sync'd (without having to visit each modified note to check).

I saw some notes that some people have turned off background updating. Does that provide an option for manual sync?

I know that I'm not the most observant person in the world - so hopefully I've overlooked something....

Ron

The most recent version of the app (7.0.1) has a clear indication of sync status. If un-synced, you'll see a green arrow in the upper right-hand corner.

southernforge · September 27, 2013

As I work with several machines at the same time, the visual cue telling me if the note is synced or not is mandatory. I cannot imagine how one could have removed this feature.
Just read six pages of this thread & a few others as well, checked the blog, checked the KB, etc. I have not seen an answer posted on the sync staus. Since I go back & forth with multiple devices (& sometimes in areas w/o internet access), I need to know whether notes have sync'd (without having to visit each modified note to check).

I saw some notes that some people have turned off background updating. Does that provide an option for manual sync?

I know that I'm not the most observant person in the world - so hopefully I've overlooked something....

Ron

The most recent version of the app (7.0.1) has a clear indication of sync status. If un-synced, you'll see a green arrow in the upper right-hand corner.

Not every iPhone/Evernote user sees the green on...GREEN redesign as an improvement </rant>

GrumpyMonkey · September 27, 2013

As I work with several machines at the same time, the visual cue telling me if the note is synced or not is mandatory. I cannot imagine how one could have removed this feature.
Just read six pages of this thread & a few others as well, checked the blog, checked the KB, etc. I have not seen an answer posted on the sync staus. Since I go back & forth with multiple devices (& sometimes in areas w/o internet access), I need to know whether notes have sync'd (without having to visit each modified note to check).

I saw some notes that some people have turned off background updating. Does that provide an option for manual sync?

I know that I'm not the most observant person in the world - so hopefully I've overlooked something....

Ron
The most recent version of the app (7.0.1) has a clear indication of sync status. If un-synced, you'll see a green arrow in the upper right-hand corner.

Not every iPhone/Evernote user sees the green on...GREEN redesign as an improvement </rant>

Well, as someone who has long spoken out against Evernote's insistence on reducing contrast (the gray on gray for Mac is especially egregious) instead of increasing it, I have to agree with you there! However, I think I am tilting at windmills now. It has been a year and Evernote (as well as Apple) has apparently decided this is the way to go, so I think I will have to let this one go. After all, it's their decision to make, and they know design a lot better than me.

sandy · September 27, 2013

The tab is just too busy with too much stuff there. I really liked the old one. Really handy to get to important or frequently used notes & notebooks. But this new one is awful.

zeitgen · September 27, 2013

Yet another unhappy user...

The new app is VERY laggy compared to the previous version. It lags when scrolling, opening search takes 1-2 seconds after tapping search, opening the left menu takes 2 seconds after tappping the elephant icon. Is it THAT processor intensive?

Editing (trying to edit) tags is funny - you've now got the green cursor and selection inside the green tag bubble. Selecting text is guesswork.

And I fully agree on what has already been stated on the Announcements. This thing should be accessible within several taps but definitely shouldn't mess up my workspace.

oobflyer · September 27, 2013

Another one to add to the list:

After updating to ios7 if you try to add something to an existing note, the screen jumps up the top of the note while you are typing, so that you cannot see what you are typing at the bottom of the note.

alba63 · September 27, 2013

I haven't installed the new version of Evernote on my ipad. I made the mistake of updating to ios7 earlier in the week and wow, is it hideous...

I am now disciplined enough to withstand to upgrade to new (iOS and app) versions. My iTunes app counter shows me almost 60 apps that could be updated, which I only do when I am dead sure that I will like the new one better or if I absolutely need the new features. Which in general is not the case. My iOS Evernote version is now 4.xx. It works as great as on day one and I do not miss anything.

I respect the EN idea and concept, but I cannot understand how often the team changes essential Gui features and caracteristics. As far as I can see, all professionally used programs for the classic computer platforms generally keep essential design features for quite a long time (like 5-1 years) and are quite on the conservative side. A year ago (not even a full year), the iOS 5 update of EN created already a storm of complaints and temporarily made the app store rating drop to 2,5 stars for the (then) current version. Now with EN 7 the same seems to repeat itself.

It is beyond me how the team can take the risk to frustrate a large part of the user base with new radical design and functionality changes instead of keeping the whole thing in a way that allows us to use EN as a well known tool that one can operate almost blindly.

Or, if the team wants to try out new design features, there absolutely should be a sober and user- configurable "Business version" of EN for people who just want to use a fast, effective and well- known Gui.

Bernie

Jan Peeters · September 27, 2013

Wouldn't mind losing the hectic background pattern. In an already full screen with very thin type this makes thing less easy on the eyes. Make it even green.

derlinzer · September 30, 2013

# Background sync is broken

# Reminders are broken (already were before)

# No album for photos taken from within the app

# German localization is broken

derlinzer · September 30, 2013

I haven't installed the new version of Evernote on my ipad. I made the mistake of updating to ios7 earlier in the week and wow, is it hideous...

I am now disciplined enough to withstand to upgrade to new (iOS and app) versions. My iTunes app counter shows me almost 60 apps that could be updated, which I only do when I am dead sure that I will like the new one better or if I absolutely need the new features. Which in general is not the case. My iOS Evernote version is now 4.xx. It works as great as on day one and I do not miss anything.

I respect the EN idea and concept, but I cannot understand how often the team changes essential Gui features and caracteristics. As far as I can see, all professionally used programs for the classic computer platforms generally keep essential design features for quite a long time (like 5-1 years) and are quite on the conservative side. A year ago (not even a full year), the iOS 5 update of EN created already a storm of complaints and temporarily made the app store rating drop to 2,5 stars for the (then) current version. Now with EN 7 the same seems to repeat itself.

It is beyond me how the team can take the risk to frustrate a large part of the user base with new radical design and functionality changes instead of keeping the whole thing in a way that allows us to use EN as a well known tool that one can operate almost blindly.

Or, if the team wants to try out new design features, there absolutely should be a sober and user- configurable "Business version" of EN for people who just want to use a fast, effective and well- known Gui.

Bernie

I don't mind changes to the GUI and addition of new features - as long as everything WORKS.

Evernote recently messed up Reminders, background sync, photo taking and not to mention the once great Skitch. They add one new feature and break two others. Instead of focusing on fixing already broken stuff, they add new features on top and change stuff one got used to. That's a prime example of how it should not be done...

dcc · September 30, 2013

I did not see these mentioned (although it's hard to tell since this thread has gotten quite long).

# Bug: Shortcuts do not work for stacked notebooks. They seem to work for regular notebooks and for Tags, but a shortcut to a stacked notebook brings up some random set of all notes.

# Feature request: After selecting a context (a notebook, a tag), and getting the view that lists the notes in that context with the title (notebook name, tag name) at the top of the screen, it would be nice to be able to click on that title to get a dropdown list to select another notebook or tag (as in the Mac version).

(IOS7, ipad 3, EN 7.02)

michaelkin · October 1, 2013

This upgrade has been a train wreck for me. They are down to 2.5 stars on the AppStore, and sinking fast.

Admaque · October 1, 2013

I'm a premium user on an iPad 2. Colleagues share notebooks with me for joint editing. Since loading EN 7 and the replacement of the notebook view by a list, none of these shared notebooks appear on that list and therefore can't be accessed through the note book menu. I know they are there - searching for known words in these notes produces notes that have the shared notebook title. Anyone else having this problem - or am I missing something?

Stuhrer · October 1, 2013

It was worth a try, therefore, I sent the following request to the support for version 7.0.2:

Hello,

Evernote 7 had a quite big number of bugs and usage problems. Would it be possible to get a list of all fixed bugs and changed features in this latest version? In iTunes I just see that a number of bugs have been fixed but not which. I don't want to check all the bugs that are relevant for my use cases.

Thanks in advance,

Bernd Meyer (Premium User)

And this was the answer of the (German/Swiss) support:

Bitte entschuldigen Sie dieser Unannehmlichkeit. Es scheint, dass es der Grund eines Bugs ist, der diesen Fehler verursacht.

Wir freuen uns, dass Sie sich die Zeit nehmen, uns diesen Fehler zu melden. Wir haben einen internen Fehlerbericht mit dem QA Team eingereicht. Der Bug wird klassifiziert und dokumentiert.

Leider ist dies nicht etwas, was ich für Sie in dieser Zeit reparieren kann.

Wieder wollen wir uns um dieser Unannehmlichkeit entschuldigen.

Vielen Dank, dass Sie Evernote ein besseres Produkt machen,

In English this would be something like this:

Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience. It seems that a bug is the reason for this problem. We are greatful that you are taking the time to report this bug. We have filed an internal error report to out QA team. The bug is classified and documented. Unfortunately, it is not possible to repair the problem at this time. We again apologize for the inconvenience. Thank you very much that you want to turn Evernote into a better product.

LOL

alba63 · October 1, 2013

This upgrade has been a train wreck for me. They are down to 2.5 stars on the AppStore, and sinking fast.

German App Store, current EN version:

- 11x 5 stars

- 1x 4 stars

- 3x 3 stars

- 9x 2 stars

- 25 x 1 stars (!!!)

Seen the success EN has had so far on the note taking market, there doesn't seem to be too much worries of loosing it again.

I stay with my rack stable and age old version (4.xx) until I am convinced the newer one gets the job better done.

gonsalvr · October 2, 2013

I found the solution to Evernote iOS 7's UGLY green on green UI and all its bugs. I uninstalled from my iPhone and downgraded to ver 5.4.3 Wow.... I've never been so thrilled to downgrade to an earlier version.

gonsalvr · October 2, 2013

I found the solution to Evernote iOS 7's UGLY green on green UI and all its bugs. I uninstalled from my iPhone and downgraded to ver 5.4.3 Wow.... I've never been so thrilled to downgrade to an earlier version. Its one thing to be inspired by Apple's minimalist design... its another thing to poorly implement it and in doing so totally ***** up your product.

BD1 · October 2, 2013

I bought the Clever iphone app. This is much more along the lines for what the Evernote app should look like and function like. You can customize the sidebar. It has slide left to right to go back/up a level. It's not perfect but much, much better than the Evernote app.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/clever-another-client-for/id551017006?mt=8

gatorbrit · October 2, 2013

It does surprise me that EN developers seem to think that reworking the entire interface every few editions is a good thing. It is not. Why do they keep doing this? The current versions is horribly cluttered. The green interface is horrible and hard to read.

At least provide some degree of customization. For example, shortcuts is fine but a lot of people don't use it - I know I don't. So let us hide that panel.

Showing the last two notes as tiles in the notes panel is pointless because on the iphone no one can read tiles that small.

So yet again the EN IOS developers try to reinvent the wheel when there are plenty of nice interfaces for IOS - just look at wunderlist - a simple format that works.

I tolerate this because I am a heavy EN user - but tolerate is the word. I don't enjoy using EN on IOS - I just suck it up and try to do the heavy lifting in the mac or windows program.

BD1 · October 2, 2013

I have looked for alternatives for evernote mac/ios but have not found one yet.

ZoZo · October 2, 2013

Totally agree. Stop with all these massive UI changes!

This new version is a complete mess on my 4s.

(Off-topic : please don't mess up the Android version!)

cameronreilly · October 3, 2013

I'm having a serious issue with EN on my iPhone 5 (iOS7) syncing. It's working fine on my iPad2 (iOS7) though.

Here's an example:

I just opened EN on both devices. Both were last opened 18 hours ago.

The iPad synchronized the 12 new notes in about 7 seconds.

The iPhone took 4 minutes.

Apart from these issues, I like the new design.

Stuhrer · October 3, 2013

I bought the Clever iphone app. This is much more along the lines for what the Evernote app should look like and function like. You can customize the sidebar. It has slide left to right to go back/up a level. It's not perfect but much, much better than the Evernote app.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/clever-another-client-for/id551017006?mt=8

I absolutely agree with you. Clever HD is in many aspects much better than the Evernote App. It is stable, has a clean interface that is much closer to to the desktop version. I like the possibility to store tags, notebooks and others to the sidebar. It is also much faster than the Evernote app. The only limitation is note editing. But I found a solution for this as well. I use Drafts for the creation of notes. This supports the Markdown syntax and allows to upload to Evernote. After a short time I was used to the syntax and I now can create nicely formatted notes in a much faster way.

With these two applications I am again close to my workflow that I was used to with the old Evernote iPad app. However, I would prefer to do all my note taking and organisation in a single app but at the moment it is just not possible. I just hope Evernote will be able to provide an app for the iPad that is useable again soon (it 'just' has to provide the features of the previous version). At the moment it is not, at least not for me.

dhevans_6 · October 3, 2013

I've gone through the 7 pages of comments, and consider myself lucky that I don't have the syncing issues other have had in terms of data loss. Sync, especially on the iPhone is slow though.

I can crash Evernote every time if I leave a PDF of a reasonable size open on my iPad3 - will crash two or three times before it finally closes the PDF and lets you back in the notes screen.

Wanted to +1 the laggy tagging on mobile devices, especially my iPhone5. I'm ending up mistyping and adding stupid words as tags, and cleaning them up on the Mac version later.

Background app refresh still doesn't appear to work, but it's not the only app that's failing..

why? · October 3, 2013

I've long since given up updating iTunes on my mac so I have previous versions of app. I'm back on EN 5 and it's much better. However, some issues people a complaining about are iOS 7 issues. EN 5 also has the scrolling issue. Most apps are a disaster when it comes to select/copy/paste except editorial which uses it's own selecting engine.

Be aware of using Clever HD and it's siblings. As mentioned in the reviews it can really stuff up your formatting. I had one note with text one on top of the other after editing with Clever. This is probably more of an issue if you append notes.

My greater concern is with EN beginning to put advertising in the interface. This is not a glitch, but choice. I've long since strongly disliked the announcements and should this get more so would cause me to cancel my subscription and go elsewhere. I really cannot abide advertising of any sort. I know where to go if I want adverts and don't expect them in premium apps.

Looking forward to some EN updates,

Stuhrer · October 3, 2013

Deleting all notes in trash on iPad. Cannot delete more than one note at a time from trash on iPad client. No 'delete all notes' option there.

Emptying the trash is possible but to find this feature is quite difficult:

- Open the notebook Trash "Notebooks -> Trash"

- Make sure "Options - Snippets" is active for the snippets view

- Select a single note in the list

Tata, the button Empty Trash appears!

mrgoerend · October 3, 2013

I miss the tag chooser. Is there one? I have lots of tags and trying to keep them organized means typing the first few letters and then choosing.

Stuhrer · October 3, 2013

Deleting all notes in trash on iPad. Cannot delete more than one note at a time from trash on iPad client. No 'delete all notes' option there.
Emptying the trash is possible but to find this feature is quite difficult:
- Open the notebook Trash "Notebooks -> Trash"
- Make sure "Options - Snippets" is active for the snippets view
- Select a single note in the list
Tata, the button Empty Trash appears!
Thanks for the tip, but on the iPad client I still can't get a 'empty trash' or 'delete all' option to appear following those steps.

Well, I can get there on my iPad, have a look:

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s9/sh/a4e47036-e6bb-43dc-a2ca-ee86b5670db4/047a5ee8f7e297b6c4ef39b1ccc96b03

This is the content of the notebook trash, one note only, an this note has been selected.

Lindsay · October 4, 2013

About a week away from pitching Evernote business to my team at work. I'm a Premium user and I have been bragging about it to everyone for about a year now. This Evernote IOS 7 is just awful, can we revert back to the old interface on IPAD? I am an Android phone but IPad user. I used to just leave Evernote on the stacks tab and could go right to my notebooks and now when the app closes you come back to all notes every time. To delete now you have to open the note first? Why? You can't slide to make note full screen but touch the small arrows, why are you moving backwards. I would build docs on my PC drop it it to a folder and just grab my IPAD for my presentation for both work and play. This is clunky and not what I had expected from Evernote.
I was really happy with the old app this new one is almost unusable. Please let us revert back to the old interface

I totally agree. I just did a iPad training session for my team with the old version that worked SO WELL! They had started to use EN, but now I'm afraid we are back to square one. Please provide a link to downgrade to the previous version!

coolhandpete · October 4, 2013

I'm starting to feel sorry for the design team. I'm sure they worked very hard on this overhauled version. It's unfortunate they extended so far from what they had before - a product most of us raved about. Over the past year, Evernote revolutionized my workflow. Now I'm frustrated that I invested so much time in a fickle product.

mrgoerend · October 4, 2013

I abhored the v5 UI. I like this one much better. I do not believe "most of us" raved about the old version of the iOS app. Definitely not "most of us" on the forums.

Stuhrer · October 4, 2013

I abhored the v5 UI. I like this one much better. I do not believe "most of us" raved about the old version of the iOS app. Definitely not "most of us" on the forums.

Well, when I look to German app store, a vast majority of reviewers hates the latest version of Evernote and Skitch. The overall rating of both apps is in free fall.

GrumpyMonkey · October 4, 2013

I have some quibbles about decisions made regarding features, and I have encountered performance issues, but the overall design is quite impressive. I definitely prefer it to the previous version, in most respects. Yes. It took a little time to acclimate myself to the garish (Apple calls these "fun") colors, but that's something I could say for all of iOS7. Thinking back to this time last year, and then again to this time two years ago, I think it is clear that we have seen major improvements.Honestly, with the exception of the bugs and suggestions I made earlier in this thread, I haven't got any complaints. I can't imagine why someone would mark the app down for its user interface, which seems to epitomize the new Apple approach to things. Maybe it isn't Evernote, but Apple that people are upset about.

Rod Knowlton · October 4, 2013

I'm fairly sanguine about the changes, really, but there is one glaring mistake (that's been mentioned already).

Not having search available on the first screen was a pretty tonedeaf move.

The two primary ways the user interacts with the app are Creating and Searching.

Both should be front and center in the UI.

Many apps are choosing to emulate Springboard and have the search function available from any screen just by pulling down from the top.

That'd be a good option here, I think.

Rod Knowlton · October 4, 2013

Oh, and another thing…

Omnifocus 2 for iPhone has a feature that I'd love to see you copy: long pressing on the upper left navigation element takes you all the way back to the home screen.

EmmaKC · October 5, 2013

Since I upgraded to iOS7 on my iPad (only), every character I type scrolls the screen up one line until I can no longer see the text. Not on every note - just some. I tried copying to another note and deleting the original note, but still happening to that particular note. This doesn't happen on my iPhone (same note), also upgraded to iOS7.

I'm having the same issue, iPhone only. It happened a ton just after the upgrade, the went away and now comes back intermittently. Super irritating and distracting and making me not want to open the app to take notes since I can't count on it working properly. Boo!

Sugeeth Krish · October 9, 2013

Functionally, I don't see a big improvement over the previous version. The fact that I am not able to turn off announcements and market, thereby increasing space for my notebook and tag lists, inspite of being a premium user sucks. The design of note screen looks good, although I wish test was bigger to use the big white screen on the sides of the ipad mini. Freezes suddenly, I hope this bugs will be fixed soon. Searching functionality seems to be better taking use of the indexing in Evernote server as in v5 for desktop.

mrgoerend · October 11, 2013

Feature request: I wish reminders had their own sections in the sidebar.

TeePee · October 12, 2013

Maybe you could add to this list putting Search in main screen? I know this isn't a bug, but I think many of us foind disturbing needing to enter into Notebooks, Tags or another section just to search when this is one of the most important (and publicity) features in EN.

Yes!!! Oh, sorry, decorum in the forum. Yes +!

Seriously though, what development process must be in place for the team to conclude search doesn't belong on the main screen? Seems to defy logic.

enki · October 12, 2013

I wish this 5 features in the next update:

1. Reminders in the sidebar

2. Spell checker

3. Classic sync button in the sidebar with message that everything was synced!

4. Timeline near the notes

5. Search in the main screen

BD1 · October 12, 2013

Maybe you could add to this list putting Search in main screen? I know this isn't a bug, but I think many of us foind disturbing needing to enter into Notebooks, Tags or another section just to search when this is one of the most important (and publicity) features in EN.
Yes!!! Oh, sorry, decorum in the forum. Yes +!

Seriously though, what development process must be in place for the team to conclude search doesn't belong on the main screen? Seems to defy logic.

It does defy logic. Does the evernote development process include input/beta testing from users? It does not seem like it does and there would be some great candidates in this forum to give input in the app usability design process.

GrumpyMonkey · October 12, 2013

Maybe you could add to this list putting Search in main screen? I know this isn't a bug, but I think many of us foind disturbing needing to enter into Notebooks, Tags or another section just to search when this is one of the most important (and publicity) features in EN.
Yes!!! Oh, sorry, decorum in the forum. Yes +!

Seriously though, what development process must be in place for the team to conclude search doesn't belong on the main screen? Seems to defy logic.

It does defy logic. Does the evernote development process include input/beta testing from users? It does not seem like it does and there would be some great candidates in this forum to give input in the app usability design process.

Hi. There is a beta testing program and users are encouraged to join it if they are interested in helping with it. Send a message to gbarry (the forum administrator) if you would like to join.

Metrodon · October 12, 2013

It should be noted that the recent iOS7 app wasn't released as part of the beta program.

SalesnSleep · October 15, 2013

Here is what I would recommend - From a 3 year Evernote Premium user who has recommended Evernote to 100's of lawyers, executives and sales organizations (who are now asking me what to use instead of Evernote since the new IOS update):

1) FIRE WHOEVER CAME UP WITH NEW VERSION

2) RESTORE OLD VERSION TO EVERYONE

- Old version actually synced.... new doesn't (renders the app, no matter what else is fixed, totally useless to me and others)

- Old version had simple, straightforward interface.... new version is nightmare - ugly, complicated, confusing

- Old version had a nice little "sync" logo top right... new doesn't

- Old version actually kept data.... new version loses it

- Old version never crashed on me.... new version does

- Old version allowed for basic text functions like indent, easy copy and paste.... new doesn't

- Old version tags worked.... new version = nope!

- Old version I could actually see what I was typing (what a novel concept)... new version I can't once I've typed past the end of screen

- Old version I used Shortcuts list... new version - nope, gone, complicated

HERE IS WHAT IT BOILS DOWN TO:

* worthless if doesn't sync!

* so ugly and confusing I would't use it again if it all worked perfect!

I'll try Clever per others recommendations and post how I like it.

RosscoM · October 15, 2013

I was not all happy with the previous version, so I do consider this one a step forward. But I would like to see the bug (?) addressed where photo thumbnails are always shown in landscape orientation, even when the photo is taken in portrait orientation.

BurgersNFries · October 17, 2013

Here is what I would recommend - From a 3 year Evernote Premium user who has recommended Evernote to 100's of lawyers, executives and sales organizations (who are now asking me what to use instead of Evernote since the new IOS update):
1) FIRE WHOEVER CAME UP WITH NEW VERSION
2) RESTORE OLD VERSION TO EVERYONE
- Old version actually synced.... new doesn't (renders the app, no matter what else is fixed, totally useless to me and others)
- Old version had simple, straightforward interface.... new version is nightmare - ugly, complicated, confusing
- Old version had a nice little "sync" logo top right... new doesn't
- Old version actually kept data.... new version loses it
- Old version never crashed on me.... new version does
- Old version allowed for basic text functions like indent, easy copy and paste.... new doesn't
- Old version tags worked.... new version = nope!
- Old version I could actually see what I was typing (what a novel concept)... new version I can't once I've typed past the end of screen
- Old version I used Shortcuts list... new version - nope, gone, complicated

HERE IS WHAT IT BOILS DOWN TO:
* worthless if doesn't sync!
* so ugly and confusing I would't use it again if it all worked perfect!

I'll try Clever per others recommendations and post how I like it.

Of course the new version syncs.

You may not like the new UI but it's a sure thing with every new introduction, there are those who don't like it. Fact of life.

New version isn't crashing for me. FYI, others complained about the old version crashing, too. Did you uninstall, reboot & reinstall? That is the standard first step in debugging a crashing mobile app.

Clever is nice - I've recommended it several times on the board. But it has it's own failings.

Quirkworthy · October 18, 2013

This change has been a huge retrograde move and completely broke the product for me. To work, EN must be trustworthy. It no longer is.

EN is supposed to aid productivity, but this change has wasted masses of time and lost a bunch of data. It does not sync reliably, looks eye-bleedingly awful and has concealed a number of key functions in obscure places so even using the most basic functionality is slower and more frustrating than before. I've worked with computers on a daily basis since everything was input with DOS and this has to be one of the worst version changes I have ever seen on any platform.

Given that the product I have been telling everyone was so wonderful has turned around and bitten me so badly I can't see myself trusting it again. I need something that can be relied upon to safely manage data that I rely upon for my job. As EN is no longer able to do this I'm going to have to waste another day reallocating all my notes to a more reliable format.

At least this will be the last of my time that EN wastes.

gljenkins · October 18, 2013

This app used to work so well. now it just freezes out on my iphone 5. no matter how many times i re-install, reboot the phone and i have even restored the phone and it just wont work. Is anyone else having the same problem?

Mr.loconeko · October 19, 2013

Hi!

I'm probably mentioning things people already pointed out, but I didn't go through all 8 pages of the thread.

I figure, if more people complain about all the iOS7 bugs and design flaws, the development team might consider adjusting the product.

I'm personally very disappointed with the new version on iOS7 because it is un-intuitive and anti productive to use. I keep going bag and forth through the pages and the app is so laggy it comes to a point that it is just frustrating to use.

Here are my detailed suggestions:

- The maximize button should be in the upper bar with a minimize button to improve the browsing experience and not have to either scroll at the top to expand or having to close a document to access the side bar. It would also allow for a better navigation with different documents.

- Right before iOS7 you had included a option to keep favorite document handy even within an open note, but this is gone and accessing favorites is pointless as you have to go through too many steps to make them useful shortcuts.

- Before iOS7, double tapping a word that was misspelled opened the option to correct it right away, now you have to click the replace option. It should be changed back to allow faster editing. Btw, all the navigation is very buggy: takes many clicks to open the pop up options, we often lose the cursor in the magnifying glass, just pointing the cursor to a specific spot gets frustrating... all of which were fine before iOS7.

- Typing is still VERY laggy, I need to say it again as this is soooo frustrating. Everything is laggy and typing is getting very frustrating.

- An option to add tags in the top bar would prevent to have to scroll to the top every time you want to add one.

All in all, I think the design of the UI wasn't thought out to make work flow easy and fast. Many things need to be rethinked completely. I feel like this version was rushed for the release of iOS7 and now the users are paying for it. As I am a Premium user, I'm seriously thinking of moving to another app unless major bug corrections and work flow would be thoroughly revised. I use to promote Evernote to many of my fellow writers and co-workers, but I wouldn't vouch for it anymore even if you paid me for it.

I hope Evernote is reading this, because they need to get their act together and adress the situation.

wiringbyron · October 19, 2013

Hello, here is some more feedback of a premium Evernote user for the new iPad version for iOS7.
I should have known from my experience with the last major update and waited for some weeks or months before switching. But from the Evernote blog and the enthusiastic statements about the new design I immediatly upgraded and this was a big mistake!
This was the worst ever experience I had in my life with a new program version and I will let you know why.
The problems I have are related to three main areas:
- Functionality
- Usability and Design
- Stability
Lets start with the first:
Functionality
Why would anybody remove useful functionality from an app and hope the users would like it?
Examples:
- Related Notes are missing
- Searches cannot be saved
- No fast scrolling to later notes (only when using alphabetic order)
- No map screen
- Reduced and buggy functionality of the note editor:
- No paragraph styles
- No indentation (only for lists)
- Auto-scroll to bottom so that keyboard always hides text
- Almost unuseable lens feature with missing caret
Usability and Design
I installed iOS7 immediately before Evernote and I admit it takes some time to get used to the flat look and the different colors and texture free backgrounds but I am starting to see the benefits. But who came up with the idea to use this awful new green in a way that makes things difficult to read? Light green text on a darker green background on the Home Screen or barely readable green on grey above the keyboard in the editor? Ugly!
And why is the home screen only using one third of the screen while the rest of the screen is not used? And the top part of this tiny space is used by your notifications and in order to bring it down, you have to select all of them, frustrating. By the way, after a crash they all appear as unread and one has to select all of them again.
The snippet list of notes is also bad. Why is the available space (in landscape mode) not used? And why is it not possible to use the complete space for scrolling the list? My thumbs are just too short to scroll!
And why is it necessary to first open the additional info by tapping 'more...' until the text "delete note" appears to delete a note? Well hidden!
Another well hidden feature is the way to empty the trash completely. First you need to open the trash, then you need to select the snippets view and select a single entry and there it is, the Empty Trash button. It took some time to find that secret!
Stability
And last but not least, the app is very buggy. In the first hour I experienced a crash every other minute. Apart from the crashes I found bugs every other minute, here just a few:
- At first, I didn't see my notes. Only after re-installation of the app and switching off the new background sync
feature I saw my notes
- I changed some notes and re-opened them and sometimes found old content. Is my data safe? I doubt it.
- I clicked on a snippet and another note was opened
- I did searches and couldn't find existing notes. The -tag: doesn't work, wildcards don't work, intitle: doesn't
work, what else?
- After the searches I could't open the notes or some of them
- The notes in offline notebooks are not completely downloaded
- Notes sometimes cannot be deleted (there is a well hidden red text to erase but it doesn't always work)
All in all a very frustrating experience. I immediately looked for an alternative and found Clever HD. It is so much better although it might not look as fancy and modern. The only thing I miss so far is reminders but I have used Evernote for a long time without them. Until the Evernote app is fixed and the original set of functions returns I will use Clever, sorry.
Or is it possible to switch back to the last version without restoring the complete iPad and reinstalling iOS7 but not Evernote? If yes, I would love to go back.
A frustrated premium user.

Well said THANK YOU. Sure change the colour, change the button layout. Why put out a bad product when people depend on an app and are paying a lot of money to use it ? An why are we still waiting for an update to fix the bugs ? You guys obviously see the feed back, there should be an app update right away. You cant sell this stuff to businesses and then go "oops sorry we have some bugs, well get around to that soon" The other thing I would love to see is a little more said from the company. When we have a mistake at work I have to personally call the client and apologize. I would love to hear them say "hey we fu$&/@ up and were working day and night to fix it"

michaelkin · October 19, 2013

Well put Magnus and Wiringbyron. The response from Evernote is silence. I do not mind mistakes or errors, mistakes are made by everyone. The updated app is horrible, and I'm talking about functionality, not design characteristics. I have been a Evernote supporter and user for a long time, but this has changed my opinion. I keep hoping someone would accept there is a problem with the iOS update and state they are working to fix it, but apparently this is not going to happen. I'm using Clear, and researching other options, such as OneNote.

GrumpyMonkey · October 19, 2013

Well put Magnus and Wiringbyron. The response from Evernote is silence. I do not mind mistakes or errors, mistakes are made by everyone. The updated app is horrible, and I'm talking about functionality, not design characteristics. I have been a Evernote supporter and user for a long time, but this has changed my opinion. I keep hoping someone would accept there is a problem with the iOS update and state they are working to fix it, but apparently this is not going to happen. I'm using Clear, and researching other options, such as OneNote.

Evernote doesn't typically comment directly on future versions of the app, but the fact that they spend time working instead of chatting with us on the user forum should not be mistaken for a lack of attention to user comments, as past versions of the app have shown (search the forum to find many instances of revisions in response to feedback). As jhull (Evernote developer) has mentioned in another thread, they are currently testing a new release.

Will S · October 20, 2013

Wow—you mean your app actually runs?

Evernote on both my iOS devices running iOS 7 is completely unusable—it crashes and locks up about 5 seconds after reinstall.

I literally cannot use the new app enough to tell if it's "buggy" beyond the fact that it completely does not work.

megsaint · October 20, 2013

Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling the app? The app also works on my iPad 3 and iPhone 5.

michaelkin · October 20, 2013

Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling the app? The app also works on my iPad 3 and iPhone 5.

I think you missed the part where he said "after the reinstall." I have had to reinstall a half dozen times in the last 30 days because of the bugs and freezes. The lag is horrible, and the loss of features incomprehensible.

megsaint · October 20, 2013

Yes, I did miss that. Thank you. As it works for some of is, the issue may well be something other than just the app. I'd suggest the standard iOS troubleshooting steps: reset, restore. Many people who experience lagging with iOS 7 find the problem resolved after a restore.

Best of luck.

michaelkin · October 20, 2013

Well put Magnus and Wiringbyron. The response from Evernote is silence. I do not mind mistakes or errors, mistakes are made by everyone. The updated app is horrible, and I'm talking about functionality, not design characteristics. I have been a Evernote supporter and user for a long time, but this has changed my opinion. I keep hoping someone would accept there is a problem with the iOS update and state they are working to fix it, but apparently this is not going to happen. I'm using Clear, and researching other options, such as OneNote.
Evernote doesn't typically comment directly on future versions of the app, but the fact that they spend time working instead of chatting with us on the user forum should not be mistaken for a lack of attention to user comments, as past versions of the app have shown (search the forum to find many instances of revisions in response to feedback). As jhull (Evernote developer) has mentioned in another thread, they are currently testing a new release.

I appreciate your loyalty but cannot agree. The update was not adequately tested and the impacts have been enormous to everyone that depended on this program. The idea that they could out not put out a single press release on their brand new announcements section that sits on our new home screen acknowledging the problems and loss of functionality is because...they are too busy writing code to fix everything? Really? I would be willing to bet that Evernote has a couple of PR people that write press releases and could type out a quick mea culpa with a timeline for fixes. Instead, every time I have to reinstall the damn thing to access my data I'm treated to a repeat of the iOS 7 announcement about how wonderful the app functions. Ironic, huh?

megsaint · October 20, 2013

The update was not adequately tested and the impacts have been enormous to everyone that depended on this program.

No, "everyone" has not experienced and "enormous" impact. It's working fine for me. Do I like the Market? No, I really want that gone. But the app itself works for me.

michaelkin · October 20, 2013

The update was not adequately tested and the impacts have been enormous to everyone that depended on this program.
No, "everyone" has not experienced and "enormous" impact. It's working fine for me. Do I like the Market? No, I really want that gone. But the app itself works for me.

Listen, I don't know how you use it, and I won't criticize you personally, but look at the app ratings of 2.5. Follow the user board. Look at their Facebook site. There are a huge number of people having similar problems with this upgrade, and the loss of functionality has been detailed in multiple posts. This is not a restore or reinstall fix. I have 8 iPads I manage for a public safety agency that each has different users and apps, and each is having the same problems with the Evernote upgrade. I have had extensive discussions with support, which has been useless. I am very happy for you that the way you use it has not been impacted, but there are an overwhelming number of users that this is having an enormous negative impact on, and we are using the boards to try and get it fixed. 45 days ago I was an Evernote evangelical, but I have been dismayed by what has happened since.

GrumpyMonkey · October 20, 2013

Well put Magnus and Wiringbyron. The response from Evernote is silence. I do not mind mistakes or errors, mistakes are made by everyone. The updated app is horrible, and I'm talking about functionality, not design characteristics. I have been a Evernote supporter and user for a long time, but this has changed my opinion. I keep hoping someone would accept there is a problem with the iOS update and state they are working to fix it, but apparently this is not going to happen. I'm using Clear, and researching other options, such as OneNote.
Evernote doesn't typically comment directly on future versions of the app, but the fact that they spend time working instead of chatting with us on the user forum should not be mistaken for a lack of attention to user comments, as past versions of the app have shown (search the forum to find many instances of revisions in response to feedback). As jhull (Evernote developer) has mentioned in another thread, they are currently testing a new release.
I appreciate your loyalty but cannot agree. The update was not adequately tested and the impacts have been enormous to everyone that depended on this program. The idea that they could out not put out a single press release on their brand new announcements section that sits on our new home screen acknowledging the problems and loss of functionality is because...they are too busy writing code to fix everything? Really? I would be willing to bet that Evernote has a couple of PR people that write press releases and could type out a quick mea culpa with a timeline for fixes. Instead, every time I have to reinstall the damn thing to access my data I'm treated to a repeat of the iOS 7 announcement about how wonderful the app functions. Ironic, huh?

I wasn't talking about the quality of the release. As you'll see in this thread, I've had my share of problems, and I continue to have some of them. My point was that the developers may not comment, but they read and listen to what users have to say. As I said, their policy is not to comment on timelines, so I wouldn'texpect anyone to write anything like that. They might do it, but I suppose that would be the exception rather an the rule.

wiringbyron · October 20, 2013

I think this is a case where they should definitely make an exception. There loosing business by the day.

Stuhrer · October 20, 2013

Yes, I did miss that. Thank you. As it works for some of is, the issue may well be something other than just the app. I'd suggest the standard iOS troubleshooting steps: reset, restore. Many people who experience lagging with iOS 7 find the problem resolved after a restore.

I really can recommend to do this! I had a problem with the standard e-mail program that froze after a few seconds due to an e-mail that somehow couldn't be sent from my outbox. I reset and restored my iPad and now all applications run much faster and evernote as well seems to run more stable and faster. I will do the same with my iPod touch soon. My iPad is pretty full so I guess it might have been a fragmentation issue.

Mr.loconeko · October 21, 2013

And so... after trying MANY things to make it work better, I have cancelled my Premium renewal that was coming in 2 months.

I'm a writer and I need a reliable, fluid app. I almost lost weeks of works because it wasn't syncing properly. The app had me frustrated and going crazy at it's new UI which has a major lack of ease of use, and more then anything else, how badly laggy it has become.

If their are any writers around, I've switch to Scrivener on my PC, which is AMAZING! and I'm looking at different options to work on my ipad. If anybody knows a good cheap alternative, let me know!

GrumpyMonkey · October 21, 2013

And so... after trying MANY things to make it work better, I have cancelled my Premium renewal that was coming in 2 months.
I'm a writer and I need a reliable, fluid app. I almost lost weeks of works because it wasn't syncing properly. The app had me frustrated and going crazy at it's new UI which has a major lack of ease of use, and more then anything else, how badly laggy it has become.
If their are any writers around, I've switch to Scrivener on my PC, which is AMAZING! and I'm looking at different options to work on my ipad. If anybody knows a good cheap alternative, let me know!

Hi. Sorry to hear about your problems with the app. I hope that future updates will get it back in shape for you. Scrivener will sync easily through Dropbox with any plain text editor on the iPad. I have my writing synced right now with write room, but i also think notesy is a great app. Evernote (for me) is where i put my research (not so much my writing), because I need 100% control over my text and more flexibility in ordering elements of each project (essentially manual sort order).

Mr.loconeko · October 21, 2013

And so... after trying MANY things to make it work better, I have cancelled my Premium renewal that was coming in 2 months.
I'm a writer and I need a reliable, fluid app. I almost lost weeks of works because it wasn't syncing properly. The app had me frustrated and going crazy at it's new UI which has a major lack of ease of use, and more then anything else, how badly laggy it has become.
If their are any writers around, I've switch to Scrivener on my PC, which is AMAZING! and I'm looking at different options to work on my ipad. If anybody knows a good cheap alternative, let me know!
Hi. Sorry to hear about your problems with the app. I hope that future updates will get it back in shape for you. Scrivener will sync easily through Dropbox with any plain text editor on the iPad. I have my writing synced right now with write room, but i also think notesy is a great app. Evernote (for me) is where i put my research (not so much my writing), because I need 100% control over my text and more flexibility in ordering elements of each project (essentially manual sort order).

Unfortunately, I'm not on Apple... I'm on PC, so I don't have any sync options in Scrivener and I use my Ipad to write a lot, since I'm travelling most of the time.

pbbjr · October 21, 2013

I'm using EN on my iPhone 5 with ios 7.0.2. I've got 9200+ notes in my Evernote premium account. I'm tired of having to delete and reinstall the app all the time just to get it to respond. Even after doing that, after a short time, the app is completely unresponsive.

This is the only ios app I've ever had on my iPhone that does nothing when I press anywhere on the screen. I still have ios 6.1 on my iPad 3, and it works fine.

What is the problem? Evernote on my iPhone is unusable. Please fix this asap!

BD1 · October 21, 2013

You can send a direct twitter message to Evernote's CEO, Phil Libin to give feedback. Send it to @plibin

wiringbyron · October 21, 2013

I tweeted him and the @evernote the other day. No response from either. Crazy that they won't address the issues head on ?

GrumpyMonkey · October 21, 2013

I tweeted him and the @evernote the other day. No response from either. Crazy that they won't address the issues head on ?

Hi. What did you tweet? If you let us know, we might be able to locate a response from Evernote staff somewhere.

wiringbyron · October 21, 2013

I tweeted him and the @evernote the other day. No response from either. Crazy that they won't address the issues head on ?

Hi. What did you tweet? If you let us know, we might be able to locate a response from Evernote staff somewhere.

Vancity Electric ‏@vancityelectric 18 Oct

@evernote any updates coming soon to get rid of the bugs from the io7 update ? The app is almost unusable at the moment. #evernote @plibin

wiringbyron · October 21, 2013

^{I was just curious if they would send something back my way that's all.}

GrumpyMonkey · October 21, 2013

^{I was just curious if they would send something back my way that's all.}

I don't know Phil's schedule, and I don't know how many tweets he gets every day from his 50 million + users

However, we do have info on these forums from one of the iOS developers, jhull, who says they are in testing right now for an update.

http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/42538-places-disappeared-in-ios7-update/?p=234657

Stuhrer · October 21, 2013

I don't know Phil's schedule, and I don't know how many tweets he gets every day from his 50 million + users

I also sent a similar tweet without a response but I don't complain. I didn't really expect an answer from the CEO. But it seems to me that Evernotes strategy at least at this point in time is not to publish any comments on the recent negative responses in the app store and this forum.

However, we do have info on these forums from one of the iOS developers, jhull, who says they are in testing right now for an update.

http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/42538-places-disappeared-in-ios7-update/?p=234657

Well, this post just mentions the "places" feature. What bugs will be fixed or other 'lost' features added is not known. Let us hope for the best.

GrumpyMonkey · October 21, 2013

I don't know Phil's schedule, and I don't know how many tweets he gets every day from his 50 million + users
I also sent a similar tweet without a response but I don't complain. I didn't really expect an answer from the CEO. But it seems to me that Evernotes strategy at least at this point in time is not to publish any comments on the recent negative responses in the app store and this forum.

However, we do have info on these forums from one of the iOS developers, jhull, who says they are in testing right now for an update.

http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/42538-places-disappeared-in-ios7-update/?p=234657

Well, this post just mentions the "places" feature. What bugs will be fixed or other 'lost' features added is not known. Let us hope for the best.

Indeed. Evernote typically does not provide release dates or details about upcoming changes. As jhull said, though, it is being tested, so we can probably hope for a quick release.

BD1 · October 21, 2013

I tweeted the post below to him and said it is example of frustration of many longtime, premium users:

http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/42674-evernote-for-ios-7-feedback/?p=234275

No response

Mr.loconeko · October 21, 2013

I don't know Phil's schedule, and I don't know how many tweets he gets every day from his 50 million + users
I also sent a similar tweet without a response but I don't complain. I didn't really expect an answer from the CEO. But it seems to me that Evernotes strategy at least at this point in time is not to publish any comments on the recent negative responses in the app store and this forum.

However, we do have info on these forums from one of the iOS developers, jhull, who says they are in testing right now for an update.

http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/42538-places-disappeared-in-ios7-update/?p=234657

Well, this post just mentions the "places" feature. What bugs will be fixed or other 'lost' features added is not known. Let us hope for the best.

I understand, but I think a simple "Hey we know we screwed up and we're working on it." would be nice. In this day and age, app companies are all about customer service. They know how fast you can crash and burn with the social networks being what they are and they should acknowledge there mistake. Not caring about your clients, especially when you charge them yearly for your service, is outrageous.

I'm keeping an eye out for any new version, but it will take some major turn around to bring me back.

mcm1956 · October 22, 2013

I have found the most recent update for ios7 to be plain unusable. Mostly it just sits there pretending to sync or something until i get tired and close the app. Very disappointing for something so critical.

jhull · October 23, 2013

As always, thanks to everyone for all of your feedback. While we do not respond to every thread posted, different members of the Evernote team are always reading the forums. Your posts thus far have contributed to each update we've put out and will continue to be taken into account in future versions.

Many of the changes in our recent update are a direct results of posts here. Besides the home screen customization, we made several small usability updates based on your feedback in 7.1. Premium users now have the ability to toggle off the premium background, contrast on the home screen has been increased (especially in the Premium version), and the top navigation bar hides when editing notes in landscape orientation on the iPhone to allow more viewable area.

I can confirm that several top issues reported via the forums should also now be addressed. Here's a small portion of the bug fix list:

- Issues with tag searches should now be resolved

- Search results should no longer include duplicate notes

- The camera roll photo picker should no longer have October incorrectly placed in the sort list

- Saved searches can now be added and removed

- Conflicting modifications should now append previous version's content as expected

- Fixed an issue where opening a note would sometimes appear to display the previous version

All that said, there's certainly more to do. Major UI overhauls are always disruptive, and minimizing that impact on you folks is a top priority. While we're happy with the direction of the app, we know that this version doesn't have everything it needs yet. I can't tell you everything we're working on or give you an exact timeline, but I can confirm that search and sync buttons will be accessible from the home screen soon -- and that related notes will be coming back. Customizable snippets and fast scroll bars will both be coming back to the iPad version as well.

-----

For those of you with issues synching or crashing, please get in touch with our support team if you haven't already. We are making bug fixes every update that gets put out, but that doesn't always mean that your specific issue will get resolved. Our support folks are sending any new problems to the dev team each day, and will work with you to get the logs and other information that devs might need to get things fixed. They also will have any known workarounds.

Stuhrer · October 23, 2013

@jhuli: Thank you very much! This is great news. I can imagine that you are very busy at the moment fixing bugs or adding more requested functionality to the apps. And while we know that you are reading the forum and from the updates could see that you are reacting on the opinions of the users a post like yours once in a while especially when the discussions are as hot as recently is very helpful. Please do this more often. A little bit of transparency is good for the users but also for you. Thanks again!

Mr.loconeko · October 23, 2013

I agree with Stuhrer, this post is very welcome. However, on my end, the experience didn't improve. I'll still be waiting for more updates, but I doubt it will ever be the same great app.

anjoschu · October 23, 2013

jhull, thank you very much for your post. It is very much appreciated.

Since this thread has your attention, I'd like to point out the following problem/unexpected behavior:

- In EN 7, a search for "Elephant" fails to find notes which contain "Elephants", "Elephant-like", etc. In other words, only exact searches work. In pre-7.0-Evernote, "Elephant" would also have found "Elephants", "Picture" would also have found "Pictures", and so on.

This behavior makes finding all relevant notes more time consuming (in a mobile environment, no less) and is inconsistent with other Evernote clients.

P.S.: The issue number under which this has been reported is 184417.

GrumpyMonkey · October 23, 2013

This behavior makes finding all relevant notes more time consuming (in a mobile environment, no less)

I disagree with this. I think it depends on your use case.

and is inconsistent with other Evernote clients.

Sadly, I think I have to agree with this. Android (last I checked) shows you the wildcard appended to your search. Mac secretly appends it. I haven't got my Windows client on hand to check the behavior, but my memory is that it secretly appends the wildcard as well.

Personally, I don't want the interfaces to be mucking around with my searches. If I want a wildcard, I'll put a wildcard. If I want quotes, I'll put quotes. But, we are in agreement about consistency. Whatever Evernote does, it needs to be consistent across clients. My recommendation if they use wildcards is to stick them in there so that when we look at the search field we know what is being searched instead of having to guess every update.

Stuhrer · October 23, 2013

jhull, thank you very much for your post. It is very much appreciated.

Since this thread has your attention, I'd like to point out the following problem/unexpected behavior:

- In EN 7, a search for "Elephant" fails to find notes which contain "Elephants", "Elephant-like", etc. In other words, only exact searches work. In pre-7.0-Evernote, "Elephant" would also have found "Elephants", "Picture" would also have found "Pictures", and so on.

This behavior makes finding all relevant notes more time consuming (in a mobile environment, no less) and is inconsistent with other Evernote clients.

P.S.: The issue number under which this has been reported is 184417.

I don't know whether this is a bug or a feature. Using Elephant* should find all occurrences. This would be OK and even better than the explicit wildcard at the end because it would allow to decide whether you want to search for an exact word or the beginning of a word. Of course the best would be to support regular expressions. But the current search is at least inconsistent among platforms. On some platforms you need the wildcard on others not. It should be consistent on all platforms.

Sorry GrumpMonkey, you have been faster, I totally agree with you!

GrumpyMonkey · October 23, 2013

jhull, thank you very much for your post. It is very much appreciated.

Since this thread has your attention, I'd like to point out the following problem/unexpected behavior:

- In EN 7, a search for "Elephant" fails to find notes which contain "Elephants", "Elephant-like", etc. In other words, only exact searches work. In pre-7.0-Evernote, "Elephant" would also have found "Elephants", "Picture" would also have found "Pictures", and so on.

This behavior makes finding all relevant notes more time consuming (in a mobile environment, no less) and is inconsistent with other Evernote clients.

P.S.: The issue number under which this has been reported is 184417.

I don't know whether this is a bug or a feature. Using Elephant* should find all occurrences. This would be OK and even better than the explicit wildcard at the end because it would allow to decide whether you want to search for an exact word or the beginning of a word. Of course the best would be to support regular expressions. But the current search is at least inconsistent among platforms. On some platforms you need the wildcard on others not. It should be consistent on all platforms.

I believe the search is working as intended, but as you said, it introduces a consistency in the experience across apps. The problem (as I see it) is that you have two kinds of searches. Basic searches that don't use the search grammar have wildcards implicitly or explicitly appended to them in some apps, or not appended at all in iOS. However, on all platforms there is no wildcard whenever you use advanced search grammar (basically, any of those terms followed by a colon).

Personally, I'd say drop the wildcard and make everything 100% consistent. But, if we are going with past precedent, we'll have a wildcard appended to regular searches (hopefully, displayed so we know what is happening) and no wildcard for the advanced searches. I think consistency across every search is the most straightforward, but consistent inconsistency (following past precedent) is arguably more familiar to users.

anjoschu · October 23, 2013

I believe the search is working as intended, but as you said, it introduces a consistency in the experience across apps. The problem (as I see it) is that you have two kinds of searches. Basic searches that don't use the search grammar have wildcards implicitly or explicitly appended to them in some apps, or not appended at all in iOS. However, on all platforms there is no wildcard whenever you use advanced search grammar (basically, any of those terms followed by a colon).

I'd like to give a little background about my situation, to illustrate the use case I'm referring to.

In about 90% to 95% of all searches, I don't remember what terms exactly I need to search for (I've got Evernote to remember things for me, right? ). I usually try my luck first with one, then maybe with an added or an alternative search term. I almost never know beforehand whether my search terms should be plural or singular. I still use the search grammar for advanced stuff, usually in situations where I can take my time. Unfortunately, asterisks are clumsy to type on iOS (hidden in a tertiary keyboard mode), and I already had the situation where I stood at the counter with staff waiting for me, trying to produce a receipt that I just knew must be there, making mistakes a couple of times because it was just pretty difficult to enter search grammar syntax on my mobile phone with people tapping there feet next to me.

I get the "clean vs dirty" distinction, but if "clean" means more work in 90% of my searches, I start to feel a bit uneasy. I've composed more than 3000 notes where not once did I pay attention to things like morphology and singular vs. plural terms because searches just worked they way they did. This suddenly changes with EN 7 and 90% of my searches from now on need to be "advanced". Somehow, this makes me feel helpless and lost.

Stuhrer · October 23, 2013

... consistent inconsistency

Funny, but I understand what you mean and I agree.

GrumpyMonkey · October 23, 2013

I believe the search is working as intended, but as you said, it introduces a consistency in the experience across apps. The problem (as I see it) is that you have two kinds of searches. Basic searches that don't use the search grammar have wildcards implicitly or explicitly appended to them in some apps, or not appended at all in iOS. However, on all platforms there is no wildcard whenever you use advanced search grammar (basically, any of those terms followed by a colon).

I'd like to give a little background about my situation, to illustrate the use case I'm referring to.

In about 90% to 95% of all searches, I don't remember what terms exactly I need to search for (I've got Evernote to remember things for me, right? ). I usually try my luck first with one, then maybe with an added or an alternative search term. I almost never know beforehand whether my search terms should be plural or singular. I still use the search grammar for advanced stuff, usually in situations where I can take my time. Unfortunately, asterisks are clumsy to type on iOS (hidden in a tertiary keyboard mode), and I already had the situation where I stood at the counter with staff waiting for me, trying to produce a receipt that I just knew must be there, making mistakes a couple of times because it was just pretty difficult to enter search grammar syntax on my mobile phone with people tapping there feet next to me.

I get the "clean vs dirty" distinction, but if "clean" means more work in 90% of my searches, I start to feel a bit uneasy. I've composed more than 3000 notes where not once did I pay attention to things like morphology and singular vs. plural terms because searches just worked they way they did. This suddenly changes with EN 7 and 90% of my searches from now on need to be "advanced". Somehow, this makes me feel helpless and lost.

Well, the use case makes sense! My solution? A toggle. Leave the app with a wildcard default if they want and users like yourself can go about their business without a care. For people who search differently with different use cases (remember, iOS is on everything from the small iPod Touch to the large iPad Air), they can modify the search behavior. That would be ideal.

I know Evernote (following Apple) shies away from catering to the tinkering crowd, but it sure would be nice to have more control over the app. A lot of apps I don't care about granular settings and a totally get the minimalistic / simplistic thinking, but for my external brain? I don't mind spending time tweaking that.

kbklv · October 23, 2013

Evernote,

I am trying to understand what prompted the design decisions of your iOS 7 app. There is the possibility that my workflow no longer aligns with your vision, and thus a change on my part needs to be made. In the spirit of understanding, I have posted some questions below. I respectfully request that you promptly answer them all.

Q1. Please list your intentions for those using the app. Take as much space as you need in your reply.

A1.

Q2. Visibility is an issue. Several users of Evernote (myself included) have had (and still have) a difficult time finding the buttons to make a note of any sort. There is not enough contrast in your UI. Your buttons for creating new notes are also too small. The small buttons cause users with larger indexes to have an increased amount of accidental taps, producing a less enjoyable user experience. Lastly, the ability to delete notes suffers from visibility issues as well. I am curious, what prompted these design decisions? Again, take as much space as you need.

A2.

Q3. Evernote's mappings are an issue. The software's controls do not always produce the effects expected. When I click on my Actions Pending shortcut, I get taken to All Notes. Why?

A3.

Q4. Feedback is an issue. Your photo notes is a perfect case in point. Once a user takes a photo, the camera remains. There is no feedback telling the user what to do. After poking around, I was able to discern that I could:

1. Take another picture

- or -

2.

a. Click on the photo grid in the lower left-hand corner (I think that's what it is, but I'm not sure.)

b. Tap the check mark in the lower right-hand corner of the next screen

c. Tap on the newly-created note from Evernote's "home" screen

d. Add a title, change the notebook (if needed), and add tags (as needed) to finally make the recently-taken picture a fully-fledged note

In my humble opinion, it would be better to give the user some feedback. Perhaps a banner, letting the user know of the steps to be taken. That being said, when will Evernote fix its feedback issues?

A4.

I look forward to your insightful responses. The reasoning behind your design decisions will help me to decide if Evernote is still a good fit for me.

Cheers!

Metrodon · October 23, 2013

This is a user forum so asking direct questions from Evernote is unlikely to solicit a direct response.

Evernote staff do read pretty much all posts and will occasionally comment, but I very much doubt you will get answers to items like your Q1.

AlisonPG · October 23, 2013

Q4. Feedback is an issue. Your photo notes is a perfect case in point. Once a user takes a photo, the camera remains. There is no feedback telling the user what to do. After poking around, I was able to discern that I could:

1. Take another picture

- or -

2.

a. Click on the photo grid in the lower left-hand corner (I think that's what it is, but I'm not sure.)

b. Tap the check mark in the lower right-hand corner of the next screen

c. Tap on the newly-created note from Evernote's "home" screen

d. Add a title, change the notebook (if needed), and add tags (as needed) to finally make the recently-taken picture a fully-fledged note

I disagree that this is an issue. It is designed to allow for multiple pictures to be taken, if desired, and when finished the check mark is pressed. It works fine in my opinion

kbklv · October 23, 2013

@Metrodon I realize Evernote has a penchant for remaining silent, but I believe they would benefit from answering my questions. It gives them an opportunity to let their logic be heard.

@AlisonPG Thank you for your reply. I'm not debating whether or not the photo note process is well-designed. I'm concerned about the lack of feedback from the app, among other things. Feedback along with visibility, proper mappings, system images, and making certain the program's intentions are being realized when the app is used, are all hallmarks of good design. (I apologize for the run-on sentence.) One of my favorite books ever written is The Design of Everyday Things. I've read it from cover-to-cover three times, as the principles tend to fade from this old lady's brain. I'm seeing design decisions in the app that don't follow good design principles. At least not my understanding of them. My true fear is that Evernote is losing its edge in this department. If they are, it's time for me to find a new home for my data and fast.

Metrodon · October 23, 2013

I can't see them coming on here and saying "we've lost out design edge, thanks for pointing it out".

But anyway, good luck.

mrgoerend · October 23, 2013

I'm confused as to what "Premium background" actually means. I assumed it meant that Evernote would sync my notes in the background if I'm a premium user.

I am, but when I open my Evernote app either on iPad or iPhone, I still have to wait while my notes sync up. I was really hoping for a situation where, whenever I opened my app, all my notes would be there, already synced. I figured that's what background syncing was, but it doesn't seem to be that.

Can someone explain exactly what Premium background does so I can set my expectations?

Stuhrer · October 24, 2013

Premium background just means the display of a structured background instead of pure green. And when you move your phone it moves behind your text and your text seems elevated.

Background sync has to be activated in the settings app. But it should be on per default. I switched it actually off, because it gave problems in the first version. I don't know whether it works now.

mrgoerend · October 24, 2013

Premium background just means the display of a structured background instead of pure green. And when you move your phone it moves behind your text and your text seems elevated.
Background sync has to be activated in the settings app. But it should be on per default. I switched it actually off, because it gave problems in the first version. I don't know whether it works now.

Thank you for this clarification. I have Reduce Motion turned on, so I won't see the "Premium Background."

Is there supposed to be background syncing going on or is what I described expected behavior? If I edit/add notes on my Mac during the day, then launch Evernote on my iPhone, it spends time syncing everything up and notes get added to my list, etc. I was under the impression that with background syncing, when I opened my Evernote app on my phone the notes would just be there, updated and ready to be used.

Stuhrer · October 24, 2013

Thank you for this clarification. I have Reduce Motion turned on, so I won't see the "Premium Background."

You are welcome. Even with 'Reduce Motion' you should see the slightly structured background. It just does't move.

Is there supposed to be background syncing going on or is what I described expected behavior? If I edit/add notes on my Mac during the day, then launch Evernote on my iPhone, it spends time syncing everything up and notes get added to my list, etc. I was under the impression that with background syncing, when I opened my Evernote app on my phone the notes would just be there, updated and ready to be used.

Yes, this should be the effect of background sync.

There is a setting in the settings app: Go to general an something like 'Background sync or update' (I am using German language). There you find the switch for Evernote. But if you have not changed it (I think it is on per default) it might not work at all.

AndyMax · October 24, 2013

Thanks, I too had trouble understanding the 'Premium Background' option in the ios Evernote app. And to my chagrin, I could not find much, if anything, online that describes this feature.

Is there somewhere anyone can point me to that would have a description of how to use this?

Sometimes, I still read and need instructions!

(Archived) Evernote for iOS 7 feedback

Recommended Posts

coolhandpete 4

Link to comment

dav555 5

Link to comment

RL7836 13

Link to comment

GrumpyMonkey 4,319

Link to comment

southernforge 69

Link to comment

GrumpyMonkey 4,319

Link to comment

sandy 3

Link to comment

zeitgen 3

Link to comment

oobflyer 1

Link to comment

alba63 5

Link to comment

Jan Peeters 13

Link to comment

derlinzer 5

Link to comment

derlinzer 5

Link to comment

dcc 2

Link to comment

michaelkin 10

Link to comment

Admaque 9

Link to comment

Stuhrer 253

Link to comment

alba63 5

Link to comment

gonsalvr 8

Link to comment

gonsalvr 8

Link to comment

BD1 10

Link to comment

gatorbrit 70

Link to comment

BD1 10

Link to comment

ZoZo 14

Link to comment

cameronreilly 16

Link to comment

Stuhrer 253

Link to comment

dhevans_6 1

Link to comment

why? 37

Link to comment

Stuhrer 253

Link to comment

mrgoerend 89

Link to comment

Stuhrer 253

Link to comment

Lindsay 3

Link to comment

coolhandpete 4

Link to comment

mrgoerend 89

Link to comment

Stuhrer 253

Link to comment

GrumpyMonkey 4,319

Link to comment

Rod Knowlton 0

Link to comment

Rod Knowlton 0

Link to comment

EmmaKC 7

Link to comment