Local Notebook with pdf - evernote creates duplicate files

[matejm 0]

Hi there, 

 

i´ve been using Evernote for a couple of days now. I have one local Notebook, its filled with notes with attached pdfs. All of them get saved in the evernote folder. Which is good. 

The problem is, everytime i open a pdf out of Evernote in my pdf-application (Foxit Reader) the pdf gets duplicated and saved as a new pdf with changing version number: examplepdf[1].pdf ... examplepdf[2].pdf..examplepdf[3].pdf
Same thing happens if i open it with Adobe Reader (out of Evernote)

Is there a way to turn this off? 
I like to keep those pdfs local as some of them are very large, duplicate files are just unnecessery

 

 

cheers and thanks for any help

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Hi there, 

 

i´ve been using Evernote for a couple of days now. I have one local Notebook, its filled with notes with attached pdfs. All of them get saved in the evernote folder. Which is good. 

The problem is, everytime i open a pdf out of Evernote in my pdf-application (Foxit Reader) the pdf gets duplicated and saved as a new pdf with changing version number: examplepdf[1].pdf ... examplepdf[2].pdf..examplepdf[3].pdf

Same thing happens if i open it with Adobe Reader (out of Evernote)

Is there a way to turn this off? 

I like to keep those pdfs local as some of them are very large, duplicate files are just unnecessery

 

 

cheers and thanks for any help

Your post is unclear. IE, " have one local Notebook, its filled with notes with attached pdfs. All of them get saved in the evernote folder. " Are you sayng you save all the PDFs in a folder on your hard drive as well as in a local (non-synced) notebook in Evernote? And does "everytime i open a pdf out of Evernote in my pdf-application" mean you are opening the PDF that's on your hard drive rather than opening the PDF that is an attachment in a note in Evernote? If so, it sounds like you've set up the folder on your hard drive as an Evernote import folder. Each time a file is added or modified in that folder, Evernote will import a copy of the file into a new Evernote note. The way around this (creating a new Evernote note each time the file is modified) is to modify the PDF that is the attachment in an Evernote note, instead of the file on your hard drive. To clarify, Evernote import folders simply add any file from that folder that is new or modified. It is not a file syncer in the sense that it modifies the version already in an Evernote note.

[matejm 0]

To clarify: 

I create a local Notebook, create a Note and attach a pdf. That pdf gets automaticly safed into the default folder for Evernotes local files. I now delete the original pdf, which was lets say in my download folder. 
From now on the only way i interact with that pdf is through evernote. By opening that pdf via Evernote into Foxit Reader or Adobe Reader, it opens the one and only version of that pdf, which is in the local default evernote folder. I don´t modify that pdf in any way. After Closing the pdf and opening it again via Evernote into my pdf-reader, Evernote duplicates that pdf and opens a new Version: examplepdf[1].pdf 

Closing that pdf and opening it again via Evernote results in examplepdf[2].pdf. Now there are 3 files of this pdf stored in Evernotes local default folder. 

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

To clarify:

I create a local Notebook, create a Note and attach a pdf. That pdf gets automaticly safed into the default folder for Evernotes local files. I now delete the original pdf, which was lets say in my download folder.

From now on the only way i interact with that pdf is through evernote. By opening that pdf via Evernote into Foxit Reader or Adobe Reader, it opens the one and only version of that pdf, which is in the local default evernote folder. I don´t modify that pdf in any way. After Closing the pdf and opening it again via Evernote into my pdf-reader, Evernote duplicates that pdf and opens a new Version: examplepdf[1].pdf

Closing that pdf and opening it again via Evernote results in examplepdf[2].pdf. Now there are 3 files of this pdf stored in Evernotes local default folder.

Evernote uses "notebooks", not "folders". Attachments added to notes are not stored in a folder on the hard drive in the Windows client. They are stored in the Evernote SQL database. Your statement "That pdf gets automaticly safed into the default folder for Evernotes local files" is not true. When you add a PDF to an Evernote note, it is only added to the note (in the SQL database), regardless if the note is in a local or synced notebook. If you open the PDF attachment, a copy is created on your hard drive for editing purposes only. After you save the changes, the newly modified note is updated in the original Evernote note in the SQL database. In theory, the working copy created on the hard drive should be deleted after the database copy is updated. But that may not always happen for some reason.

"By opening that pdf via Evernote into Foxit Reader or Adobe Reader, it opens the one and only version of that pdf, which is in the local default evernote folder" is also untrue & sounds like you are not opening the PDF in the Evernote note b/c you are using the phrase "Evernote folder". To open the PDF that resides in the Evernote SQL database, you double click the PDF from within the Evernote note. You do not access any file in any folder on your hard drive.

[matejm 0]

Nope, not the answer i needed. 
I´ve already explained everything. 

 

"Evernote uses "notebooks", not "folders""- how about C:\Users\*Username*\AppData\Local\Evernote\Evernote\Databases\Attachments 

 

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Nope, not the answer i needed.

I´ve already explained everything.

"Evernote uses "notebooks", not "folders""- how about C:\Users\*Username*\AppData\Local\Evernote\Evernote\Databases\Attachments

As I said in my post above, that is the working file. You should NOT be editing any file in that folder on the hard drive. You need to be editing the one stored in the SQL database. Please reread my post.

[ScottLougheed 1,316]

While I am not a windows user, I wonder how long those "duplicates" would persist? For example is it possible that these files will be culled once a proper sync takes place?

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

While I am not a windows user, I wonder how long those "duplicates" would persist? For example is it possible that these files will be culled once a proper sync takes place?

I think the work files are supposed to be deleted once the attachment is either saved or closed. But for some reason, some are not. I occasionally simply delete any files on the hard drive just to clean it up.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

 

Nope, not the answer i needed.

I´ve already explained everything.

"Evernote uses "notebooks", not "folders""- how about C:\Users\*Username*\AppData\Local\Evernote\Evernote\Databases\Attachments

As I said in my post above, that is the working file. You should NOT be editing any file in that folder on the hard drive. You need to be editing the one stored in the SQL database. Please reread my post.

To prove my point, completely close up Evernote. Make sure there are no elephants in the system tray. Then delete all files from the folder you listed above. Now, invoke Evernote & you'll see the PDF attachment is still there. That's b/c on Windows, as I said before, attachments are stored in the Evernote SQL database by calling up the note in Evernote & double (or right clicking) the attachment. You should NOT be editing any of the attachments folder on your hard drive. I don't know how to be any more clear.

[jefito 5,589]

Nope, not the answer i needed. 

I´ve already explained everything. 

 

"Evernote uses "notebooks", not "folders""- how about C:\Users\*Username*\AppData\Local\Evernote\Evernote\Databases\Attachments 

 

Terminology mismatch.

Evernote uses the "...\Attachments" folder to hold *temporary* copies of attachments that are being edited (or viewed) by external Windows programs. This is indubitably an Windows folder, but that's a Windows file system thing. The Evernote terminology for the thing that holds notes is a "notebook", which has properties similar to a file system folder, but doesn't exist as a folder in the Windows file system. In addition, Evernote notebooks do not contain attachments, they contain notes; Evernote notes are the things that contain attachments.

Anyways, back to the Attachments folder: once you're done editing/viewing, edited files should be pulled back into the Evernote database, and the temp files should be cleaned up automatically. Unfortunately this process is not robust in all cases (not all external programs behave correctly in this scenario, from the limited experience I had while working for a prior company that used a similar scheme to do external editing of attachments in a database). The upshot is that these are temporary copies and can be deleted if you're certain that no external program is using them; the actual attachments that Evernote uses are persisted in the Evernote database.

To your original problem: it sounds like there's some problem in the hand-off of Evernote's temporary copy of the PDF to the viewer/editor, or vice-versa. It can be a pain to figure out what's going on; it's not out of the question that it's a bug with Evernote, too.

[gazumped 11,652]

I'm also a long-time Windows user and I have an Attachments folder which gets cleared out from time to time when it annoys me.  A file appears there whenever I open an attachment,  and if I edit the attachment and re-save it,  it goes back to the same folder as well as updating the attachment in the note.  I don't know exactly what is the relationship between this floating file and the attachment,  but deleting older copies doesn't seem to affect notes or attachments.  If I open an attachment more that once,  I get (2),  (3) etc after the name.

 

There's no way to turn off this activity AFAIK,  but you can probably automate clearing out the folder with file-management software if it becomes a problem.  Evernote seem to be aware of this situation,  but haven't come up with a fix yet...

[ScottLougheed 1,316]

I'm also a long-time Windows user and I have an Attachments folder which gets cleared out from time to time when it annoys me.  A file appears there whenever I open an attachment,  and if I edit the attachment and re-save it,  it goes back to the same folder as well as updating the attachment in the note.  I don't know exactly what is the relationship between this floating file and the attachment,  but deleting older copies doesn't seem to affect notes or attachments.  If I open an attachment more that once,  I get (2),  (3) etc after the name.

 

There's no way to turn off this activity AFAIK,  but you can probably automate clearing out the folder with file-management software if it becomes a problem.  Evernote seem to be aware of this situation,  but haven't come up with a fix yet...

I think the reason for this mechanism is to prevent conflicts when Evernote syncs while an attached file is being edited. This way Evernote can sync to its heart's content without accidentally overwriting the attachment currently being edited. Only when the file is done being edited, saved, and closed, does the new file re-join the database and get pushed to the server. 

[jefito 5,589]

I'm also a long-time Windows user and I have an Attachments folder which gets cleared out from time to time when it annoys me.  A file appears there whenever I open an attachment,  and if I edit the attachment and re-save it,  it goes back to the same folder as well as updating the attachment in the note.  I don't know exactly what is the relationship between this floating file and the attachment,  but deleting older copies doesn't seem to affect notes or attachments.  If I open an attachment more that once,  I get (2),  (3) etc after the name.

 

There's no way to turn off this activity AFAIK,  but you can probably automate clearing out the folder with file-management software if it becomes a problem.  Evernote seem to be aware of this situation,  but haven't come up with a fix yet...

I think the reason for this mechanism is to prevent conflicts when Evernote syncs while an attached file is being edited. This way Evernote can sync to its heart's content without accidentally overwriting the attachment currently being edited. Only when the file is done being edited, saved, and closed, does the new file re-join the database and get pushed to the server.

It's really how this stuff works in Windows, and maybe other OS's too. The file exists as a Blob in the database, where an external program can't get at it. In order to make that happen, it needs to be extracted and written to disk somewhere (another popular location is your User Temp folder). Once you do that, then you can invoke the 3rd-party program and point it at the file on disk. In theory, when that program's done, you pick up the file and re-BLobify it back into the database. And delete the temp file.

"In theory" being the area where things can go bump...

So sure, this also prevents conflicts while you're editing, but the that's just a side-effect. The primary reason is that a third-party application needs to operate on a physical file on disk: it's a requirement of the process.

[keving326 0]

i use DuplicateFilesDeleter for all type of duplicate issue

[jefito 5,589]

i use DuplicateFilesDeleter for all type of duplicate issue

Tell us how you use it with Evernote, please.

[Terry E 5]

This exact same problem --- of creation of "temporary" versions of Evernote file attachments upon opening of them --- also exists with Mac OS X Lion and Yosemite.