I lost hundreds of notes from local notebooks during the v6 "upgrade"

[da3v 1]

Is it possible to restore local notebooks from a backup to v6.0.x, or should I just downgrade and pretend/wish this version never happened?

 

[ScottLougheed 1,316]

You can restore your database from a time machine backup (or any other backup, for that matter) if you have one. Directions (slightly old, but should be generally the same) here:

https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/21651-i-need-to-totally-restore-from-time-machine-how/?p=110320

 

Its dismaying that you lost local notebooks during the upgrade. Did you happen to do an uninstall before upgrading, and during the uninstall, fail to export your local notebooks? That's the only time I could see this happening. Otherwise its a pretty serious bug on Evernote's part. 

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

Scott, I believe that those old (2011) instructions are for restoring EN from a TM backup, BUT using the SAME existing EN app.

 

If you restore the EN data/folder associated with a prior version, then you will need to also restore that same EN app version.

 

I have NOT seen any other reports about the upgrade to Ver 6 causing loss of Local NBs.

[ScottLougheed 1,316]

Scott, I believe that those old (2011) instructions are for restoring EN from a TM backup, BUT using the SAME existing EN app.

 

If you restore the EN data/folder associated with a prior version, then you will need to also restore that same EN app version.

 

I have NOT seen any other reports about the upgrade to Ver 6 causing loss of Local NBs.

Yes you are correct. Although I suspect (i haven't tested) that you could restore a database from an older version of the app into a newer version, just as if the user had simply installed an update and the old database needed to be migrated. I think restoring a v. 6 database into a v. 5 app would be problematic, though. 

 

Like you, this is the first report I've seen of outright loss of local notebooks on the version 6 update...

[NicoleF 0]

I'm still trying to figure out how to update my desktop app without losing all my private notes, so until then am just using the web version!

 

Also, I had been backing up my Evernote account with Revert, so I was able to roll back to previous version of my notes / notebooks and restore them back to my Evernote account. Phew! (Full disclosure I am a co-founder at Revert so this is why I already had everything backed up.) But maybe this is something you would want to do now before there's another incident like this? We back up Evernote accounts for free.

 

Anyway, I wrote a blog post about my experience: How I fixed my Evernote with Revert. 

 

Cheers!

Nicole

[Noffica 0]

Is it possible to restore local notebooks from a backup to v6.0.x, or should I just downgrade and pretend/wish this version never happened?

Is everything gone? Notebooks and tags as well?

 

In my case (which is not isolated), everything was there; only the contents of the notes would appear blank. When I manually downloaded and installed the latest version from the Evernote site, my notes appeared.

[da3v 1]

The local notebook is there, and only seems to contain 3 notes from about a year ago.

 

I installed the app store upgrade, watched in horror as the contents of my notes (sync'd and local) became invisible while they were being indexed. (My notes were still visible in the sidepane).

After indexing seemed to be done, and my notes had not returned, I downloaded 6.0.2 from the EN site, installed it (dragged to Applications folder, replaced existing) and my sync'd notes became visible, but my local notes count dropped to 3.

 

I do see a LocalNoteStore.sqlite buried inside ~/Library/Containers/com.evernote.Evernote/... that is about 3MB and is timestamped before the upgrade. I also see a slightly smaller (but not by much) LocalNoteStore.sqlite-wal that is timestamped after the upgrade.

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

If you have not done an uninstall or deleted the Evernote data folder, it is likely that your notes in your Local Notebooks are still there, in separate Mac files (NOT in any database).  You might try a Mac Spotlight search using keywords you know is in one of your missing local Notes.  This should help you identify the folder where they are located.

 

 

The local notebook is there, and only seems to contain 3 notes from about a year ago.

. . .

[da3v 1]

This is sad, I usually do recursive searches using a wad of piped find+xargs+print+grep+color+whatnot that has evolved over the years.
I just copy it and paste it to the command line, add my strings of interest, and go.

 

I'll give you three guesses as to where I had my copy of that search stored. :-)

 

The good news is, I see a copy of it, and several other things that went missing in numbered folders inside com.evernote.Evernote/old/to-migrate/...

 

JMichael, you are a wonderful, wonderful person. Thank you!!!!

 

 

After I get done making a gazillion snapshots of those folders, is there a good way to nudge the EN client into migrating those items? (I see about 8,500 of them, so I could see why it might have wanted to put it off until after the long weekend.)

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

da3v, that is GREAT news!  

 

The very first thing to do is to backup the folders where you found your lost Notes.

You can copy them somewhere, or select the folder(s), right-click, and choose "Compress".  This will create a ZIP file that you can move somewhere safe.

 

Next, your best bet is to contact Evernote Support to get their help in recovering these notes.

I could make some guesses, but I really don't know how since I've never done it and haven't seen the process documented anywhere.

 

You may not like this, but for $5 you can upgrade your account to Premium for a month, and thereby get their full support, including real-time Chat support.  If the data is really important, that is what I'd do -- think of it like giving up 1 drink or a couple of cups of coffee.

 

EDIT:  If you are Premium account owner, the fastest way to get support is via Evernote Chat.

See Evernote Chat Support., available 9am-4pm US PST. (Chat option appears AFTER you click “Continue” on initial “Evernote Support” page.)

 

The good news is, I see a copy of it, and several other things that went missing in numbered folders inside com.evernote.Evernote/old/to-migrate/...

 

JMichael, you are a wonderful, wonderful person. Thank you!!!!

 

After I get done making a gazillion snapshots of those folders, is there a good way to nudge the EN client into migrating those items? (I see about 8,500 of them, so I could see why it might have wanted to put it off until after the long weekend.)

 

[SoftwareMarcus 388]

Evernote for App Store saves your data in the Container folder you found. The downloaded app saves everything in the Application Support folder but should have migrated your local notes. I'm not sure why this didn't work but it sounds like it failed. I think the best way to get your local notes back will be to download and use the Mac App Store version again once we ship v6.0.1 which we submitted to Apple last week Wednesday and are just waiting for them to approve it. I would make a copy of the Evernote data under the Container folder before you do this just to be safe. Most people using the Mac App Store version are not seeing the really bad issues you saw with notes not displaying and we still don't know exactly why some are seeing this and others are not. I hypothesize it has something to do with reindexing slowing down the machine which causes a timing issue causing the editor to stop working. In any case customers are reporting that 6.0.1 has fixed their issue. Once Apple gives us the OK 6.0.1 will roll out to customers and I think it will be OK to use that version again. Your Mac App Store Evernote data is fine. The notes not displaying had nothing to do with the data Not being there. All your data is still there which is why I think it will be OK to use the Mac App Store version again.

Does that make sense?

[mog404 1]

Local notebooks went missing. Not sure what upgrade was the cause, but happened at some point after App Store upgrade 6.0.x.

 

I went back to the download from Evernote.com (6.0.3) and local folders reappeared. 

[lisec 283]

My local folders are also missing.  I have a pro account and a free account. Both accounts have "local" folders and both are missing.

I uninstalled evernote and when I installed v6 I panicked a bit because it was creating notebooks I hadn't used in years. That's when I noticed that it had changed the location of my database from my preferred location to evernote's default. I stopped syncing right away. I checked the folder that has my .exb databases and everything was still there. Whew.  Except that I had no local notebook.  I opened my free account and it also had no local notebook.

And here's the thing.  I still had windows explorer open to my database folder from yesterday.  I opened it in a new folder just now.  Evernote wiped the folder clean and re-created just what it needed for my two databases (I had a 3rd .ext database folder in there yet another free account and it is gone. Attachments folder emptied). 

Serious serious stuff.

 

[lisec 283]

Ah, hang on.... What Evernote did was to create another databases folder in my default one.

So instead of having

MyPerferedDatabaseLocation\Databases\main.exb   Evernote created a subfolder with the new databases

MyPerferedDatabaseLocation\Databases\Databases\main.exb

So all my stuff is still in my folder, but evernote is looking to this databases\databases\ folder for the exb files.

 

[lisec 283]

2 hours ago, DTLow said:

2 Points

- on the Mac, there is no .exb file; there is a database folder containing various files

- on the Mac, we are not able to specify a database location; there are two locations depending on the direct download or Apple Store.

 

Apologies. I googled "v6 removes local notebooks", got this thread and forgot to look at the breadcrumbs. Didn't realize it was a Mac thread.