(Archived) Can't Open Database

[tmayberry 0]

Help:

I tried synching evernote folders (mac) using chronosync. Now I open evernote and my notebook doesn't open and no notes are available. I found the data including the sql file on my hard drive, but can't find a way to open it. Any help at all. Thanks!

[engberg 89]

It sounds like that application may be corrupting our data storage. You may need to rebuild a clean local database:

If you don't have any important notes that have not been synchronized to the service, you can try the following:

Please try moving your Evernote database directory so that Evernote will regenerate a new local database by copying your notes back down from the service. To do this:

Quit Evernote.

In the finder, open the "Library" folder in your home directory. (This is in the directory with your name, NOT at the top level of your hard drive.)

Navigate to "Application Support", and then "Evernote"

Move the "data" directory from that location to a different place (like the desktop)

Start Evernote, provide your username and password again if needed

This will synchronize all of your notes from the service and create a new local database.

[tmayberry 0]

I don't use the service, so there's nothing out there to download. Like to keep my stuff local only. Sounds like it may be TOO local now. Any other thoughts? Thanks!

[engberg 89]

If all of your notes are in Local notebooks, then we don't have any backup for you to restore from.

You need to get a working copy of your database back in place so that you can run our application and use the Export function to export your local notebooks to .enex files. If you're using some sort of backup software like Time Machine, you can try restoring the whole Evernote data directory to a working point in time. This is in the location I indicated in my last post.

[robe070 4]

My PC database became corrupted so I deleted it and re-synched from the server. But, the local notebook is gone, of course. I have backups of the database. Yee haa! But I can't get the notes out! BooHoo!

Is the only way to restore my lost notebook to replace the EN database with my backup, export it, put the current one back and import the notebook?

Seems a bit cludgy. How about allowing notes to be imported directly from an EN database? Expressly for this situation? That is recovering from a backup.

[engberg 89]

If you have a working database, you can just synchronize to get up to date. If you have a corrupted database, but you can still manage to Export a notebook, then you'll want to do that and then Import it into a clean database later.

It would be hard to assume that we'd be able to reliably Import from a corrupted database, unfortunately.

[robe070 4]

A little mis-understanding Dave. So I think I need to start again...

1. The backups are not corrupted.

2. The corrupted database is corrupted and I'm not talking about this!

3. I've already synch'ed and its the Local Notebooks that of course are not there and I have the issue with.

4. I don't have an export of the local notebook. I only have a copy of the database which contains the local notebook, which you stated in some other post was a perfectly reasonable backup strategy.

Is the only way to restore my lost notebook to replace the EN database with my backup, export it, put the current one back and import the notebook?

Seems a bit cludgy. How about allowing notes to be imported directly from an EN database? Expressly for this situation? That is recovering from a backup.

[engberg 89]

If you have an older database that has all of the local notebooks, and that older database backup isn't corrupted, then you can just quit Evernote and restore that old database to the primary location. When the app starts, it will update all of the normal (synchronized) notebooks, and not touch the local ones.

[robe070 4]

thanks, that works