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Thank goodness for the web app


Don Sakers

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The Evernote Mac client is so slow, and slows down my whole system so much, that I'm reluctant to start it up any more. I've been relying on the web app whenever I can.

Sigh.

Do you have tens of thousands of notes? My main account has over 62,000 notes & I've been using the web app for it b/c the Windows client was unbelievably slow. I've pretty much determined it's b/c of the size of my database b/c using a different, smaller account on the same computer, same hard drive functions normally. More info here:

http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/53078-free-account-in-addition-to-premium-account/

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The Evernote Mac client is so slow, and slows down my whole system so much, that I'm reluctant to start it up any more. I've been relying on the web app whenever I can.

 

Sigh.

 

Don, what versions of Evernote and Mac OS are you running?

I'm running EN Mac 5.5.1 with about 10K Notes and Mac OS 10.8.5 on a MacBook Air 13-in without any performance problems, except maybe for sync being slower than I'd like.   However, I do have a number of UI issues.  :-)

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The Evernote Mac client is so slow, and slows down my whole system so much, that I'm reluctant to start it up any more. I've been relying on the web app whenever I can.

Sigh.

Do you have tens of thousands of notes? My main account has over 62,000 notes & I've been using the web app for it b/c the Windows client was unbelievably slow. I've pretty much determined it's b/c of the size of my database b/c using a different, smaller account on the same computer, same hard drive functions normally. More info here:

http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/53078-free-account-in-addition-to-premium-account/

 

 

BNF, I'm sorry to hear this.  I know it must be a huge PITA to have to use EN Web vs EN Win.

 

Frankly, I'm appalled at the EN scaling issue.  I think there are two major issues:

  1. Performance with a large number of Notes, and/or a large local database
  2. EN Database too large to store on local hard drive

For all of us active EN users, it is just a matter of time before we hit one or both of these showstoppers.

IMO, these issues are by far the most important issues Evernote needs to make a permanent redesign for.

Otherwise, calling themselves a 100-year company will be the biggest joke in town.

 

One can only hope that with both you and GM reporting these issues they will give them prompt attention.

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Well, one thing to remember is that whatever this problem is, the solution will not be a quick fix. I expect that the solution to this is a little ways off in time. 

 

The problem is not straightforward. There are windows and mac desktop applications that use different styles of databases. There are users with 10k notes who are experiencing slowdowns or not, there are users with 3k notes experiencing slowdowns or not. Before any action can even start taking place the source of the problem (likely, "problemS") needs to be located, which can take time. 

 

Implementing a solution will also be tricky. My suspicion is that it will likely require serious modifications to how Evernote stores and fetches data from the local databases, in addition to other under-the-hood enhancements. This is a chore in itself because this would need to be done differently on two desktop platforms. However it also requires that there be some mechanism to migrate existing databases to the new scheme without damaging anything. Again, this is once for each desktop client. 

 

This also can't be half-arsed. If Evernote botches this and people lose data or end up with corrupt databases, that will suck BIG time. 

 

So it is a big task, and a task that has to be done VERY carefully. I'd rather they take their sweet time getting it damned right than have them rush out a fix that doesn't completely solve the issue, or because of careless implementation carries the risk of data loss. 

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Well, one thing to remember is that whatever this problem is, the solution will not be a quick fix. I expect that the solution to this is a little ways off in time. 

 

. . .

 

So it is a big task, and a task that has to be done VERY carefully. I'd rather they take their sweet time getting it damned right than have them rush out a fix that doesn't completely solve the issue, or because of careless implementation carries the risk of data loss. 

 

Agreed, it is a big task and must be done very carefully with lots of testing.

So it's past time for Evernote to get started on this project.  Some users are already experiencing a scaling issue.

Now is the time to act.

 

I'd love for Evernote to announce that they are working on this redesign, a long-term solution.

They don't have to provide an estimated completion, just that they ARE working on it.

I think this would give both long-time and new Evernote users a lot of confidence to stick with Evernote.

 

P.S.  I think it would be very helpful if one of you moderators would change the Title of this thread to something like "Evernote Scaling Issue".

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Well, one thing to remember is that whatever this problem is, the solution will not be a quick fix. I expect that the solution to this is a little ways off in time. 

 

. . .

 

So it is a big task, and a task that has to be done VERY carefully. I'd rather they take their sweet time getting it damned right than have them rush out a fix that doesn't completely solve the issue, or because of careless implementation carries the risk of data loss. 

 

Agreed, it is a big task and must be done very carefully with lots of testing.

So it's past time for Evernote to get started on this project.  Some users are already experiencing a scaling issue.

Now is the time to act.

 

I'd love for Evernote to announce that they are working on this redesign, a long-term solution.

They don't have to provide an estimated completion, just that they ARE working on it.

I think this would give both long-time and new Evernote users a lot of confidence to stick with Evernote.

 

P.S.  I think it would be very helpful if one of you moderators would change the Title of this thread to something like "Evernote Scaling Issue".

 

 

They have announced it. In fact, it was included in a post made in reply to you :)

http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/34234-evernote-505/page-3#entry186642

 

True, it was more than a year ago, but we do know that Evernote staff are taking the scalability issues serious. My experience with scalability issues is well-known here on the forums. As for thread title changes (and most other interventions), we try to avoid them unless there is a clear need (misleading, inappropriate, or confusing content).

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They have announced it. In fact, it was included in a post made in reply to you :)

http://discussion.ev...e-3#entry186642

 

Thanks for reminding me, GM.  It's great that Jack has made this statement:

 

 

 However, as more users' databases grow in size, the situation will become more important to solve. Just know that you're not alone in this issue, we Evernote employees are in this boat too, and are looking for the best way to help Evernote manage users' information as their libraries grow.

 

But I still love to see someone at the top, like CEO Phil Libin, make the statement/committment.

 

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They have announced it. In fact, it was included in a post made in reply to you :)

http://discussion.ev...e-3#entry186642

 

Thanks for reminding me, GM.  It's great that Jack has made this statement:

 

 

 However, as more users' databases grow in size, the situation will become more important to solve. Just know that you're not alone in this issue, we Evernote employees are in this boat too, and are looking for the best way to help Evernote manage users' information as their libraries grow.

 

But I still love to see someone at the top, like CEO Phil Libin, make the statement/committment.

 

Well Phil has already made that well publicized blog post earlier this year that makes a general commitment to improving quality. I am going to assume this scaling issue is part of that. 

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Well Phil has already made that well publicized blog post earlier this year that makes a general commitment to improving quality. I am going to assume this scaling issue is part of that. 

 

 

IMO, two totally different issues.  I don't see Phil's commitment about quality as a commitment about scaling.

 

And you know what ASSUME means, don't you?  ;)

I leaned that as a freshman in college.  LOL

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I think Phil did a great job with his statement and (from my perspective) I see Evernote making good on their promises. For me, though, there are two outstanding issues that are causing friction in my workflow, and I am not sure they are included in Phil's mission statement:

 

(1) scalability 

(2) lack of batch encryption (encryption by entire note, notebook, or tag)

 

I know that I am not a mainstream use case, but I still think that both of these are critical issues that Evernote would benefit from addressing. If this is included in Phil's statement, then I am thrilled, but since dropping hints about "sexy" encryption about a year ago, the only significant change on that front has been in the back (an upgrade to 128-bit encryption for selected text), so I am guessing that this is (for some reason) less of a priority than it was last year. Given the increasingly serious lapses in Internet security and active hacking of our data (not Evernote-specific, but really anything on the Web) by state-sponsored and entrepreneurial hackers, I'd like to see this a lot more prominent on the roadmap. From my perspective, the viability of doing anything remotely sensitive on "the cloud" has been called into question.

 

It's not all doom and gloom, though. This is an opportunity for Evernote to step forward and offer the most secure "remember everything" option (they are as "secure" as their competitors, but I'd like to see them be even more secure), and to reiterate their ambitious (even inspiring) goal of making Evernote your external brain by improving on the scalability issues. 

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