Evernote is (still) slow - Please do something

[Frederic 1]

Hello,

 

Evernote is becoming too slow to be used any longer.

 

It takes seconds to update a single keystroke, so it's unusable. I'm using Evernote on Windows (7, 8 and 8.1), iPad 3 and Samsung Note 2 Android, and the problem is the same across these plateforms. Being a Premium User doesn't help.

 

When browsing the discussion forum, it seems that the problem has been around for a long time and Evernote doesn't manage to solve it.

 

What's next for users like me?

 

Frederic

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

Hello,

 

Evernote is becoming too slow to be used any longer.

 

It takes seconds to update a single keystroke, so it's unusable. I'm using Evernote on Windows (7, 8 and 8.1), iPad 3 and Samsung Note 2 Android, and the problem is the same across these plateforms. Being a Premium User doesn't help.

 

When browsing the discussion forum, it seems that the problem has been around for a long time and Evernote doesn't manage to solve it.

 

What's next for users like me?

 

Frederic

Hi. Welcome to the forums. I'd start a support ticket, because I don't think that sounds right. Android is snappy for me, Windows is OK, and iOS is (as you said), quite slow. That's only one of the three for me.

[gazumped 11,652]

Yup - me too on W7 and W8 and 15000+ notes.. working fine thanks..

[orks 4]

Same here, I see slowness only in IOS. Windows is OK. Android is "quite" OK. On the iphone, Evernote is quickly becoming completely unusable for me and, bad luck, it used to be the platform where I was mostly creating content, specially while offline during weekends.

Now I'm desperately looking for alternate ways to post notes to Evernote.

It seems the most promising alternative is being via email. Using gmail, i create a note offline and send email with the note to my Evernote Address.

It can work, but this is not what I would like to move to.

 

Every day, i keep an eye on the apps updates just longing for a new update from Evernote to have this slowness resolved.

And I hope it comes soon.

[Larry G 1]

I agree - almost unusable ever since they made the major update.  They really need to fix it.  I'm investigating other options in meantime, since Evernote is almost unusable now.  Used to be my favorite program before the update.  Anybody know if we can download the old Evernote somewhere to revert back to it?

[Tiberius 15]

Same here, but only on the iPhone 4, not on the (also kind of old) iPad 2. Also see the "SLOW tying" thread.

[Depaz 2]

Mine is really slow.  Evernote is not working well on my iPhone 4S and iPad 2.  Very, very slow and sometimes crashes.  And like you guys said, it's becoming unusable.

[orks 4]

And now there's this routine, everytime i need to type a note in the iphone, first, i need to close all the other apps to ensure Evernote will have resources. That's not being enough though.

More, every day, I find myself watching the warning for apps update just to check if Evernote will, finally, do something.

Any info if the same slowness is occurring in the iphone 5S?

[ImFantastic 1]

I'm using Evernote on my iPad 2. Looking for a reason to upgrade to the new iPad Air, other than resolution. I thought I would read here that Evernote would run faster on the Air. What I'm reading doesn't give encouragement. Does anyone have any experience that the Air will be faster?

[orks 4]

I'm using Evernote on my iPad 2. Looking for a reason to upgrade to the new iPad Air, other than resolution. I thought I would read here that Evernote would run faster on the Air. What I'm reading doesn't give encouragement. Does anyone have any experience that the Air will be faster?

 

 

Well, i'm assuming that, with a faster processor, everything is faster in the new ipad and iphone.

[ImFantastic 1]

 

Well, i'm assuming that, with a faster processor, everything is faster in the new ipad and iphone.

[ImFantastic 1]

I guess I could provide more info. The start up is what is annoying me. Search and note making seam fine. My Evernote app is 597mb, 297 notes. So, it's not too large.

I looked at OneNote for iPad. It has more features for formatting, but has extensive start up time as well, and is 530mb before any notes are added.

Just would like to be sure the increased processor speed of the Air will positively effect this app in iOS vs. iPad 2.

[orks 4]

My database is over 2GB with almost 7,000 notes. What i just did was to open a ticket with Evernote, will send activity log so they analise to see if there's anything wrong.

My Evernote loads normally, no unacceptable slowness. Problem is searching and writing notes.

As your database is not that huge, you could try to uninstall everything and re-install.

I did that a couple of time in the past but, in my case, it take long hours to synchronize all my offline notes again.

If you're premium user, I suggest you also open a ticket with them.

Good luck.

[alfordsteven 1]

I've been using Evernote Premium on the iPad Mini and, like most here, very annoyed at having to tap the screen twenty times to get the keyboard to come up, and then watch the 300 baud-like letters s l o w l y appear on the screen.  I was looking forward to my new Mini with the A7 solving the problem.  It didn't.  Evernote is just as slow as it was on the iPad 2 equivalent (the original Mini), so it ain't the device.  Sad, since I like the app, but it's pretty much unusable.  Anyone hear from Evernote?  I don't see any responses from them.  Maybe they're responding o n  a n  i O S  d e v i c e.

 

Steve

[bounce 74]

I've been using Evernote Premium on the iPad Mini and, like most here, very annoyed at having to tap the screen twenty times to get the keyboard to come up, and then watch the 300 baud-like letters s l o w l y appear on the screen.  I was looking forward to my new Mini with the A7 solving the problem.  It didn't.  Evernote is just as slow as it was on the iPad 2 equivalent (the original Mini), so it ain't the device.  Sad, since I like the app, but it's pretty much unusable.  Anyone hear from Evernote?  I don't see any responses from them.  Maybe they're responding o n  a n  i O S  d e v i c e.

 

Steve

 

Yep. This.  Guess it's time to write another support ticket, might as well put that premium membership to use since the IOS apps are too slow to get any use out of.

[tassiecelt 57]

I've just bought an iPad mini retina, was about to update iOS 7.4 but having second thoughts. Anyone else experiencing this problem? Now that you mention it, I believe the same was happening on my ipad3 which was upgraded.

[shivohum 0]

It's really horribly slow. Does Evernote ever respond on these forums?

[alfordsteven 1]

I posted above, reiterating the horrible slowness and claiming that the new iPad Mini Retina did not address the problem.  I then cast about for ways to solve it.  One way is using a third party app to make a note and zap it to Evernote.  There are several, among them FastEver.  I settled on Drafts, which is highly rated (see recent macworld article: http://tinyurl.com/knm7hj8).  I then used the Send to Evernote option in Drafts and it worked well.  THEN I went back to Evernote and discovered the the note in the main notebook I usually use to record notes was HUGE.  It was huge because Evernote appended every conflict dating back to the beginning of the year with a version of that same file.  That is to say, I was a reasonably large file on its own, but with all the appended files it grew to monumental proportions.  In July I had noticed this and deleted all the appended files, but for some reason Evernote put them back.  I recall Evernote used to post a separate file that recorded the conflict, rather than appending them.  So, I spent a bit of time deleting all the appended files (if you select text and then move to the bottom of the screen, Evernote won't continue scrolling and selecting; I had to Select All and then deselect the original file, then delete) and went back to the original notes file on my phone and iPad.  I didn't have to sit there tapping the screen 20 times for the keyboard to appear--it came right up.  So, in my case, it would seem the slowness in response resulted from the smaller-memory iOS devices trying to contend with opening a file almost too large for their memories.

 

So, now I have a working iOS Evernote, and Drafts in case it doesn't in the future.

 

Note: check the file size of your slowly moving Evernote.

 

Steve 

[Cookies&Java 0]

This slowness in IOS was driving me nuts, but I seem to have sped my app somewhat, this setting made the most difference.

 

Account settings > Note Editor > Switch off 'Save Snapshots' option

 

I also switched off 'Suggested note titles' and removed everything bar the Notes panel on the home screen.

 

This is on a iPhone 4 running IOS 7.

[orks 4]

This slowness in IOS was driving me nuts, but I seem to have sped my app somewhat, this setting made the most difference.

 

Account settings > Note Editor > Switch off 'Save Snapshots' option

 

I also switched off 'Suggested note titles' and removed everything bar the Notes panel on the home screen.

 

This is on a iPhone 4 running IOS 7.

 

Thanks for the hint. I also really don't need that to be configured to "Yes". I'll be observing if it gets better.

What i noticed is that, with the last "bug fixes" deployed by Evernote, performance seems to be getting better on the iphone.

I'm now, slowly, coming back to type notes on it.

I also tried other apps to input data but didn't find no one to allow me to type text and embed pictures in the text.

The best option i found was to create notes using IOS email by sending it to my evernote email address. That helped a lot.

 

Typing text on the iphone in landscape direction, i still cannot see the word spelling that is shown behind the lower bar. That's annoying too.

Appreciate your sharing.

Orks

[orks 4]

I posted above, reiterating the horrible slowness and claiming that the new iPad Mini Retina did not address the problem.  I then cast about for ways to solve it.  One way is using a third party app to make a note and zap it to Evernote.  There are several, among them FastEver.  I settled on Drafts, which is highly rated (see recent macworld article: http://tinyurl.com/knm7hj8).  I then used the Send to Evernote option in Drafts and it worked well.  THEN I went back to Evernote and discovered the the note in the main notebook I usually use to record notes was HUGE.  It was huge because Evernote appended every conflict dating back to the beginning of the year with a version of that same file.  That is to say, I was a reasonably large file on its own, but with all the appended files it grew to monumental proportions.  In July I had noticed this and deleted all the appended files, but for some reason Evernote put them back.  I recall Evernote used to post a separate file that recorded the conflict, rather than appending them.  So, I spent a bit of time deleting all the appended files (if you select text and then move to the bottom of the screen, Evernote won't continue scrolling and selecting; I had to Select All and then deselect the original file, then delete) and went back to the original notes file on my phone and iPad.  I didn't have to sit there tapping the screen 20 times for the keyboard to appear--it came right up.  So, in my case, it would seem the slowness in response resulted from the smaller-memory iOS devices trying to contend with opening a file almost too large for their memories.

 

So, now I have a working iOS Evernote, and Drafts in case it doesn't in the future.

 

Note: check the file size of your slowly moving Evernote.

 

Steve 

 

I'll check Drafts. Have you tried to create notes in IOS email and sent to you evernote email address? That helped me for a while when Evernote was totally unusable. Using email had tha advantage of also allowing me to embed pictures within the text.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

I posted above, reiterating the horrible slowness and claiming that the new iPad Mini Retina did not address the problem. I then cast about for ways to solve it. One way is using a third party app to make a note and zap it to Evernote. There are several, among them FastEver. I settled on Drafts, which is highly rated (see recent macworld article: http://tinyurl.com/knm7hj8). I then used the Send to Evernote option in Drafts and it worked well. THEN I went back to Evernote and discovered the the note in the main notebook I usually use to record notes was HUGE. It was huge because Evernote appended every conflict dating back to the beginning of the year with a version of that same file. That is to say, I was a reasonably large file on its own, but with all the appended files it grew to monumental proportions. In July I had noticed this and deleted all the appended files, but for some reason Evernote put them back. I recall Evernote used to post a separate file that recorded the conflict, rather than appending them. So, I spent a bit of time deleting all the appended files (if you select text and then move to the bottom of the screen, Evernote won't continue scrolling and selecting; I had to Select All and then deselect the original file, then delete) and went back to the original notes file on my phone and iPad. I didn't have to sit there tapping the screen 20 times for the keyboard to appear--it came right up. So, in my case, it would seem the slowness in response resulted from the smaller-memory iOS devices trying to contend with opening a file almost too large for their memories.

So, now I have a working iOS Evernote, and Drafts in case it doesn't in the future.

Note: check the file size of your slowly moving Evernote.

Steve

Hi. This is a known feature in iOS that I have often asked to have removed.

http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/29069-conflicting-modification/?p=164208

Other clients will generate a new note for the conflict in a conflict notebook, but iOS will surreptitiously append conflicts to notes, and because there is no message telling you about it, you'll have to occasionally search to find these notes. I recommend users do a search using quotes for "Conflicting modification on".

[xlBigDaddy 0]

I found something tonight that really surprised me!  I am emailing support with this problem.  For the past 3 months, my Evernote has been Ever Slow.  It's been horrible.  I work a lot in the Evernote environment, so to have my main "To Do" list take several seconds per letter typed was too much to handle.  I even started using text files syncing with dropbox, and even just iOS Notes, because Evernote was SO SLOW.

 

(My 3 systems are an iMac with 32GB of Ram, a MacBook Pro, and an iPhone 5s.  Very fast machines and devices.  No excuses why Evernote should have been running so dang slow!)

 

I had searched and searched in vain, but tonight I discovered the problem!  My To Do note was 29,600+ lines long!?!  It should be around 800 or 900 tops, and always updating and deleting, so I was shocked!  Turns out I have been getting these errors:

 

Conflicting modification onConflicting modification onConflicting modification on [** Random dates here **]:

 

It would then automatically copy the note above it and append it to the end.  Wow  That's just crazy.  So after a few of these "Conflicting Modification on..." errors, and exponentially I was crashing my system.  EXPONENTIALLY.

 

So, I copied the text into a text file, deleted the To Do list, and my Evernote it back!!!!!

 

MY EVERNOTE IS NOT SLOW ANYMORE!

 

Now, if I can just prevent that from happening again, then I will be happier than happy.  I hope this helps someone out there, because I was done with Evernote because it was so slow.  Now I'm back to Fast Fast Fast.

 

 

 

 

[Historyan 0]

I am also suffering from slowness. It is really bad today and has never been as bad as this. I have been waiting over 45 minutes for for the Evernote program on my computer to open. I am paying for the premium service that is completely unusable.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

I am also suffering from slowness. It is really bad today and has never been as bad as this. I have been waiting over 45 minutes for for the Evernote program on my computer to open. I am paying for the premium service that is completely unusable.

First, this thread pertains to the iOS client.

Second, if the EN app is taking that long to open, that indicates there is something wrong with your installation. You should uninstall & reinstall. But please search the board on suggestions for doing this based upon your client, since the recommendations differ between Windows & Mac. Also, if you have any unsync'd changes on your desktop (including local/unsync'd notebooks), you will want to export those to enex & import them once you get the app running correctly. Again, exporting to enex has been discussed a lot on the board so please search the board for more info, should you need it.

Third, as a premium user, you have access to premium support, including chat, when there is someone manning the chat service.

[Don Sakers 98]

I, too, have incredible slowness starting up. Tap, tap, tap, etc. waiting for any response, for dozens of seconds each time. This is iPhone 5, iPad 2, and MacBook (which demonstrates, Ithink, that it's not strictly am iOS 7 issue).

I've pretty much settled that it happens when Evernote is syncing. Everything else slows down while sync is happening. Once sync is done, the speed is much more acceptable.

The kicker is that if I turn Airplane mode on (or, on the MacBook, turn WiFi off), there's only a brief slowless (a few seconds). After that, I guess Evernote realizes it's not going to be able to sync, and it stops trying.

Yes, I know Evernote has to sync. One time out of ten, when I open Evernote I want to search for something, and it annoys me when the most recent notes aren't synced yet. But NINE times out of ten, when i open Evernote I want to write a note -- and it annoys me more an ten times as much when i have to wait. Especially when I want to take notes on somehting that's happening right now, and keeps happening while I'm tap, tap, tapping.

I remember many years ago, when I saw the browser message "starting Java," I would scream, "No, DON'T start Java!" Because i knew it was going to slow things to a crawl for long minutes. Now, I want to be able to scream to Evernote, "No, DON'T sync!"

[mkmkmk0 0]

Evernote is so slow now it can't be used.  I have version 5.0.3.1614 (269614) Public.

 

When you type in the search box it takes about 10 seconds to "think" before you can type in more than two characters.

 

Totally unusable and unacceptable.

[Bill Pflum 0]

Ditto for me.  I am running Evernote on a top of the line MacBook Pro - top of the line maxed out and a 50mbit internet connection.  Everything else works fine so I know it's now anything to do with infrastructure.  It's something to do with Evernote.  I have a tiny Evernote DB but it's so annoyingly slow, I may look for an alternative.

Please do something Evernote.  Poor performance defeats the whole value/purpose of the product.

 

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

5.5.1 Beta 3 is running pretty well for me. Could you tell us what is running slow for you? Is it the search, note creation, or something else?

[Bill Pflum 0]

I'd says it when creating notes not search.  Anytime I create a note or select a note to edit there is a delay.  I am using the web version btw.  It's my own personal policy that I won't use any s/w unless it has a pure web native interface.  In any case, I just tried it again.  I select "new note" and there is a delay.  At least there seems to be so to me.  I've been noticing this for weeks as I've really committed to using Evernote heavily.  I really like Evernote..and am on my way of loving it.  I am on a MacBook Pro with Core i7 (quad core), 16GB of memory and 500MB solid state drive.  I was having performance problems for week so I googled and found this thread.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

I'd says it when creating notes not search.  Anytime I create a note or select a note to edit there is a delay.  I am using the web version btw.  It's my own personal policy that I won't use any s/w unless it has a pure web native interface.  In any case, I just tried it again.  I select "new note" and there is a delay.  At least there seems to be so to me.  I've been noticing this for weeks as I've really committed to using Evernote heavily.  I really like Evernote..and am on my way of loving it.  I am on a MacBook Pro with Core i7 (quad core), 16GB of memory and 500MB solid state drive.  I was having performance problems for week so I googled and found this thread.

 

Oh. I don't have high expectations for the web version. Your processor, memory, and SSD will do you no good there. Sorry. However, if you download the native interface, you'll get a whole lot  more functionality, and it ought to be pretty snappy. I'm not sure why you would insist on a web interface (which Evernote has), as that drastically limits the ability for you to leverage the power your computer has. In the case of Evernote, at least, you'll have a much more enjoyable experience with the native app.

[Bill Pflum 0]

Thanks.  I am a passionate believer in the web and have been since it's inception.  I'm in the tech bus (30 years) btw.   I live in the browser - I expand my browser to become my whole desktop.  I don't use any native apps.  99% of the apps I use (and that are available) don't even have a native app for Windows, MAC etc.  I'm surprised - shocked actually - that you have a non- web "native app" - that's extremely rare these days (near extinction - thankfully.  ).  I really like Evernote a lot so I'll have to live with it as or find something else.

 

Thanks for your help.  Much appreciated!

[@paddyboy 1]

I too am very disappointed with how slow evernote has become.  I only have approx 2600 notes and love the product.  I have introduced it to my organization to many individual users and was considering the business product.  I must now say that I will not consider the business product until the slowness issue has been resolved.  I deleted my local install and reinstalled it an synched it to no avail.  It is painfully slow.  It can take up to 7 seconds for a search parameter to be recognized.  When switching from one window to another is also painfully slow.  Please help evernote!!

[gazumped 11,652]

I too am very disappointed with how slow evernote has become.  I only have approx 2600 notes and love the product.  I have introduced it to my organization to many individual users and was considering the business product.  I must now say that I will not consider the business product until the slowness issue has been resolved.  I deleted my local install and reinstalled it an synched it to no avail.  It is painfully slow.  It can take up to 7 seconds for a search parameter to be recognized.  When switching from one window to another is also painfully slow.  Please help evernote!!

 

If you have speed problems,  1) clean remove and reinstall the app often works and 2) if it doesn't,  raise a support ticket for individual help.  Same comments for any colleagues with issues.  This is an iOS thread but I assume we're talking different desktop installations here.  I currently have 17,000 notes and no major issues,  but if this is an Evernote issue with different OS's a useful workaround while Evernote look at the issues might be to split accounts into personal and work / archive and active and use more free accounts to hold less-critical data.

[jbenson2 2,147]

Gaz,

 

No major issues - I assume you are referring to your desktop also.

Are you able to run 17,000 notes on your iOS or Android?

I gave it a try, but the lag was too much for me.

[gazumped 11,652]

I run one offline searchable notebook on an Android, which has a few hundred notes in it - the full 12GB hasn't been practical because of storage issues.  I do use the Android as a remote terminal around my local wifi area to input and search on the full database,  and it hasn't been notiiceably slower.  I don't use it unless I have to on a 3G connection though - things do tend to drag then...

[Don G. 1]

(cross-posted from similar topic)

 

I believe I have solved this. I can’t be certain every step is needed, but this is what I did – and an increasing Evernote startup delay went from minutes to literally sub-second. Windows 7 64 bit.

1. Uninstall your local Evernote using normal the normal Windows 7 “Programs and Features” uninstall.
2. In your user AppData folder (which is usually hidden, so you may need to change that in your folder controls), search and destroy any files owned by Evernote. Note that these may appear in at least two different sub-folders; be thorough. Note also, though, that other programs such as your browser(s) have data in AppData. If you care, don’t kill stuff related, for example, to your Google searches done to try to solve this problem!
3. Use CCleaner to clean up (i.e., clobber) any registry references to Evernote.
4. Remove any remaining Evernote desktop shortcuts – including Launchpad icons.
5. Download the current Evernote install file and run it. Set up a new launchpad icon (optional). Start Evernote and sign in. Enjoy (assuming this all works).

Note:  I’m reasonably certain the root cause of the problem is that at least one Evernote update did only a partial job of switching all references to itself – and of cleaning up after the update itself. There was a load of stuff in the AppData folder(s) relating to previous Evernote versions.

 

Final note: I have two Windows 7 systems with the same exact versions of Windows and of Evernote. One had this problem (solved as above). The other seems not to … yet. This might or might not relate to the fact that one system (the one that had the problem) is several years old, whereas the other was rebuilt from scratch (a completely new hard disk) within the last six months.  So, it could be that Evernote’s installation routine failed to clean up a really old previous Evernote install at some point. That’s just an educated guess, though.