dedupe function?

[eecastro 0]

Is there a way to dedupe my notes?

 

I have used a web-service to download all of my highlights made on Kindle and upload those to Evernote (one note per book). Since the service doesn't remember that it had run for me previously, and there's no way to limit the synchronization to just "new" books which hadn't been backed-up before, my Evernote now has duplicate entries for books that I had already synchronized the highlights for.

 

With more than a hundred books with highlights, I'd rather not do this manually; further, the next time I back-up my highlights to Evernote, the same problem will occur.

 

So, is there a function in Evernote wherein it will dedupe?

[ScottLougheed 1,316]

There isn't any built in function for this, unfortunately. I think there'd be significant challenge implementing such a thing given the richness of the content and it's variability. For example, if you add the same screen capture an image of a wine bottle label twice, thus containing the same content but framed slightly different, are these duplicates? It would require some rather sophisticated programming to be able to tell a computer that, despite the fact that these notes contain images of different dimensions, with similar content, they are in fact duplicates. But then, what if they aren't? What if you have to images of the same object intentionally, such as from slightly different angles, or a screenshot of an icon where the hue of the background has changed very slightly based on feedback from a colleague, then are these duplicates or not? In other words you'd need a very sophisticated algorithm to deal with this, then you'd still need a considerable amount of user-auditing to iron out the details. While I totally understand how such a thing is useful, it would be a rather large undertaking while Evernote has some other, more immediately threatening fish to fry such as the already-apparent scaling issue that a de-duping algorithm would like make worse by creating more metadata and using more server/client overhead!

Clearly such a thing would be immensely helpful especially where automated things are concerned such as your situation. Currently, barring the existence of a third party tool, you'll just have to deal with dupes as you come across them. Most likely any duplicates will turn up if you search for a string of text they contain.

If you don't actually end up detecting the dupes, they're as good as not there and the quota required has already bee used so removing them would gain you very little.

If you are experiencing LOTS of duplicates routinely, you might reconsider or re-jig your backup procedure for your book highlights.

Tricky situation, Evernote does not offer a built in easy solution.

[Sentinel 195]

Is there a way to dedupe my notes?

 

I have used a web-service to download all of my highlights made on Kindle and upload those to Evernote (one note per book). Since the service doesn't remember that it had run for me previously, and there's no way to limit the synchronization to just "new" books which hadn't been backed-up before, my Evernote now has duplicate entries for books that I had already synchronized the highlights for.

 

With more than a hundred books with highlights, I'd rather not do this manually; further, the next time I back-up my highlights to Evernote, the same problem will occur.

 

So, is there a function in Evernote wherein it will dedupe?

I agree with Scott.  I would reconsider your backup process you are using to upload your highlights to Evernote.  That seems to be the culprit of your problem.