Location of File Attachments

[Analyst444 182]

I notice that when I add a file on my laptop to a Note as an attachment, EN makes a copy of the file and places it in a special folder inside my AppData folder. If I open the file from the Note and make changes to it, the original is not changed.

 

Is there any way to get EN not create a copy of the file and to allow me to change the file in its original?

[gazumped 11,652]

You could attach a shortcut to the file on your hard drive, but if you attach the file it's incorporated into the database and the Appdata copy is just created to be temporarily available when you edit the content.

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

I notice that when I add a file on my laptop to a Note as an attachment, EN makes a copy of the file and places it in a special folder inside my AppData folder. If I open the file from the Note and make changes to it, the original is not changed.

 

Is there any way to get EN not create a copy of the file and to allow me to change the file in its original?

 

The short answer is NO.

 

After you add the file to Evernote, best practice is to archive/delete the file on your hard drive, and make ALL edits to the file via the Evernote attachment.  Of course, make sure you have sync'd Evernote, and you can open the file properly from Evernote before deleting it on you hard drive.

 

If your primary purpose in this case is for storage of files in the Cloud, you might be better served using DropBox.

 

There is one other possible approach: store only the file path in Evernote.

• The benefit is that the file continues to reside on your local hard drive
• You will have a clickable link in Evernote to open the file on your hard drive
• The con is that the file is NOT available to other Evernote devices
• To store the file path in Evernote,
  • enter and select the file name,
  • Press CTRL+K to assign a hyperlink
  • Enter "file:///" + the complete file path

[jefito 5,589]

I notice that when I add a file on my laptop to a Note as an attachment, EN makes a copy of the file and places it in a special folder inside my AppData folder. If I open the file from the Note and make changes to it, the original is not changed.

 

Is there any way to get EN not create a copy of the file and to allow me to change the file in its original?

The AppData\Local\Evernote\Evernote\Databases\Attachments directory you cite is not where Evernote stores your attachments. Evernote stores your attachments in its database (the .exb file in the directory above). Evernote does use the Attachments directory to store temporary copies of attachments that you open for viewing or editing. SInce an external program cannot access an attachment in the database directly, Evernote copies the attachment out and stores it in the Attachments directory, then lets the external program loose on it. 

 

Generally speaking, once that program is done with the temp copy, it will be noticed by Evernote and, if it's been modified, then Evernote will suck it back into the database to replace the original. After that, the copy will be deleted. Sometimes this goes astray, and the copy is left behind (this is more of a problem with Windows than with Evernote, based on some experience doing something similar in a previous job).

 

In short, Evernote keeps your attachments in its database, and will allow you to edit them using the mechanism above. If you want to store a file link and edit through that, then you can do that, but only on the machine where the original lives. The file will not be synced to the Evernote cloud, by the way; that may be a good or a bad thing.

[Analyst444 182]

Thank you all for your response and information.

 

I feel the method that the Windows version of EN uses to storage and manage attachments is problematic for a couple reasons:

• It is not obvious to the user that the original file is no longer the master. I discovered this by accident. I had an Excel file in a folder I use a lot. I knew where the folder was. I decided to attach the file to a Note in EN. I did and I made changes by way of the attachment. The next day, I wanted to change the Excel file again and I opened the original file. It was only by luck that I noticed that my last set of changes were not reflected in the original file. I could have easily made changes there, potentially causing problems.
   
• Sometimes I want to sent a copy of a file to a person who doesn't have EN. Yes, I know I could "Share" the Note with the attachment, but that requires explaining to the receiving person how to work with what gets sent to him. I also recognize there are work-arounds, as you guys suggested, but they take additional time and effort. - - - In simple terms, I want to email a file to someone, but it's cumbersome, if I have added it as an attachment in EN.

I plan on submitting a ticket to the EN development team to get them to change how they handle attached files with Windows EN. I'm not encouraged they will do it and they will be able to fall back on a claim that it might negatively impact users who have already attached files to Notes.

 

Parenthetically, I held a 4-hour training session on EN for 2 people last week. They happened to use Macs. When I talked to them about attaching files to EN Notes, I pointed out his un-obvious way EN handles files. One of the trainees said, "let's check this out on my Mac". She did. She attached a file to a Note. Opened it and made changes. She saved it and then used her Mac file navigation program (is it still called "Finder") and found the the original file was the one that was changed. - - - So, if it can be done on a Mac, it can be done with Windows.

 

Sidebar: I found that there are enough differences in how EN is implemented on a Mac versus Windows that I spent more than 25% of the 4-hour training session trying to figure out to do something on their Macs. I humbly suggest the EN Mac Development team and the EN Windows development team need to work more closely together. 

[ScottLougheed 1,316]

Thank you all for your response and information.

 

I feel the method that the Windows version of EN uses to storage and manage attachments is problematic for a couple reasons:

• It is not obvious to the user that the original file is no longer the master. I discovered this by accident. I had an Excel file in a folder I use a lot. I knew where the folder was. I decided to attach the file to a Note in EN. I did and I made changes by way of the attachment. The next day, I wanted to change the Excel file again and I opened the original file. It was only by luck that I noticed that my last set of changes were not reflected in the original file. I could have easily made changes there, potentially causing problems.

   

• Sometimes I want to sent a copy of a file to a person who doesn't have EN. Yes, I know I could "Share" the Note with the attachment, but that requires explaining to the receiving person how to work with what gets sent to him. I also recognize there are work-arounds, as you guys suggested, but they take additional time and effort. - - - In simple terms, I want to email a file to someone, but it's cumbersome, if I have added it as an attachment in EN.

I plan on submitting a ticket to the EN development team to get them to change how they handle attached files with Windows EN. I'm not encouraged they will do it and they will be able to fall back on a claim that it might negatively impact users who have already attached files to Notes.

 

Parenthetically, I held a 4-hour training session on EN for 2 people last week. They happened to use Macs. When I talked to them about attaching files to EN Notes, I pointed out his un-obvious way EN handles files. One of the trainees said, "let's check this out on my Mac". She did. She attached a file to a Note. Opened it and made changes. She saved it and then used her Mac file navigation program (is it still called "Finder") and found the the original file was the one that was changed. - - - So, if it can be done on a Mac, it can be done with Windows.

 

Sidebar: I found that there are enough differences in how EN is implemented on a Mac versus Windows that I spent more than 25% of the 4-hour training session trying to figure out to do something on their Macs. I humbly suggest the EN Mac Development team and the EN Windows development team need to work more closely together. 

 

Your friend may have tested wrong. I have used EN on a mac for 4 years and any file that is attached is squirrelled away in the database directory in the nether regions of the system files. The 'original' file gets duplicated and Evernote does not reference the original. For example, if I take a screenshot, it is saved to my desktop. If I drop that screenshot onto a note in Evernote then annotate it in Evernote, the screenshot on the desktop is completely un-changed. Only the file tucked away in EN's local database is changed. 

 

I like it this way. Whenever I attach a file to Evernote, I either delete or archive the original. I don't want to fret about remembering whether a file in Folder X happens to also be an attachment in EN. If I move this file, delete it, or whatever, then Evernote will not be able to keep track and the attachment will be broken. Besides that problem, if Evernote were to always refer to files located elsewhere on the user's drive, it wouldn't be able to effectively synchronize those files across devices. 

 

Evernote's behaviour is not terribly transparent but it is very standard issue for a program of this nature. Think of it like adding an attachment to an email. Lets say you take "my memoirs.docx" located in your documents folder and attach that to an email to your publisher. Once you send that email You know  that you can make subsequent edits or delete the "my memoirs.docx" file in your documents folder without it influencing the attachment. 

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

It is not obvious to the user that the original file is no longer the master. I discovered this by accident. I had an Excel file in a folder I use a lot. I knew where the folder was. I decided to attach the file to a Note in EN. I did and I made changes by way of the attachment. The next day, I wanted to change the Excel file again and I opened the original file. It was only by luck that I noticed that my last set of changes were not reflected in the original file. I could have easily made changes there, potentially causing problems.

 

Evernote does not "sync" files in a Dropbox sort of way, nor have they ever claimed to do so. If you modify the file via the attachment in the note, that modified file is updated across EN on all your devices in the EN app. That's how they roll. But they do not (nor have they ever claimed to) sync those changes to the original file that may still be residing on your hard drive.

 

imes I want to sent a copy of a file to a person who doesn't have EN. Yes, I know I could "Share" the Note with the attachment, but that requires explaining to the receiving person how to work with what gets sent to him. I also recognize there are work-arounds, as you guys suggested, but they take additional time and effort. - - - In simple terms, I want to email a file to someone, but it's cumbersome, if I have added it as an attachment in EN.

 

It's very easy to pull the file from EN by opening the attachment, then doing a "save as" to your hard drive.  This takes about five seconds.

 

I plan on submitting a ticket to the EN development team to get them to change how they handle attached files with Windows EN. I'm not encouraged they will do it and they will be able to fall back on a claim that it might negatively impact users who have already attached files to Notes.

Parenthetically, I held a 4-hour training session on EN for 2 people last week. They happened to use Macs. When I talked to them about attaching files to EN Notes, I pointed out his un-obvious way EN handles files. One of the trainees said, "let's check this out on my Mac". She did. She attached a file to a Note. Opened it and made changes. She saved it and then used her Mac file navigation program (is it still called "Finder") and found the the original file was the one that was changed. - - - So, if it can be done on a Mac, it can be done with Windows.

Sidebar: I found that there are enough differences in how EN is implemented on a Mac versus Windows that I spent more than 25% of the 4-hour training session trying to figure out to do something on their Macs. I humbly suggest the EN Mac Development team and the EN Windows development team need to work more closely together.

The way any app (not just EN) functions on various OSes will always differ. The developers have to work within the parameters of the OS they are working under and make the application work as efficiently & as well as possible under that OS and maximize the positives of that OS while minimizing any constraints of that OS.. Otherwise, there would simply be one application & you would download that same file no matter if you were using Mac or Windows or Android or iOS.  And the linux folks would be ecstatic to finally have the app running directly under their OS.

 

I would respectfully suggest if you are going to be giving training classes (and especially if you're charging people for these classes) on the intricacies of EN on various OSes that you become more knowledgeable about these intricacies (and differences) rather than assume EN works (or even is supposed to work) the exact same way under the various OSes. 

[jefito 5,589]

The basic use case in Evernote is this: if you want Evernote to be the place where a document is stored, you make it an attachment to a note. In the desktop clients, you can view and edit the attachment (if you have appropriate external tools available to handle that file type), and make a copy of it and save it to disk. When you make an attachment out of a file, Evernote forgets that it ever knew anything about the original file. You can move it, delete it, or attach it to another note, whatever you want, and it's all independent of the attachment copy (or copies). The attachments are synced to other devices in your Evernote client ecosystem, and changes that you make to an attachment in Evernote are reflected only in the attachment inside Evernote and not to any external cpies.

If you want the file to reside in a location on your hard drive, then you can, with some effort, make a file link to it in an Evernote note. You can edit the file on disk, and it will be modified only on disk; the file pointer remains valid unless you rename or remove it. Changes that you make to the file on disk are not synced to any other devices, so you can't edit it from other devices (it may be possible with some URL magic, but I've never investigated this; that's a 201 level course).

In short, making an attachment means "I'm storing this document in Evernote". If you don't want that effect, then don't make it an attachment.