Can't view any note content

Scrant · March 24, 2015

Hi,

I've seen people post about this before but for many months now I cannot see any note content in my Mac desktop Evernote client. I can see the thumbnail but clicking on any any note displays an error:

error on line 7 at column 49: xmlParseEntityRef: no name

I've installed countless upgrades and I'm currently on version 6.0.7 but nothing fixes it. I'm at the point I really need to be able to access my notes. I can only do that on my iPhone where this doesn't seem to be a problem.

Help!

Thanks much...

gazumped · March 24, 2015

Seems like your Mac database may be corrupt. Would you be able to rebuild it from the server?

Save any local content:

Export any Local Notebooks; select View > Notebooks; right-click on each Local Notebook and select Export Notes from…
Choose Evernote XML Format (.enex) and save the file to your computer
Export any unsynchronized notes

Move your existing Evernote database:

Open Evernote for Mac
Select Evernote > About Evernote
Press and hold the Option key and select Open database folder(keep this folder open)
Select Evernote > Quit Evernote from the Menu Bar
Move the “www.evernote.com" folder (this will contain one or more numerical folders that contain all Evernote accounts you've used on your Mac) from the database folder to another location, such as your desktop

Open your desktop application and login to your Evernote account. Evernote will download all of your synced notes from Evernote's servers and create a new database on your computer.

Once the new database has been created, import any Local Notebooks you previously exported by selecting File > Import Notes.

JMichaelTX · March 25, 2015

I'm not sure that the "Mac database" is corrupt, since on the Mac the Note content is NOT actually stored in a database, unlike in EN Win that @Gaz uses. In EN Mac they are stored in individual files.

@Scrant: Maybe you will ultimately have to redownload all of your Notes, but before you go to all that trouble, you might try to identify the Note that is causing the problem. If the corrupt Note has been sync'd, then a redownload would NOT solve anything.

Review your EN Mac Activity Log to see if it gives any clues.
Review your Notes using the EN Web client at Evernote.com

If you find the problem Note, you could export it as HTML, then delete and empty the EN Trash.

Or, if using EN Web, just select all of the Note Contents and paste into something else, like a Word doc.

Then delete the Note.

I would also suggest that you Submit a BUG report via an EN Support Ticket. In the Support Form, select "Report a bug", and start the Ticket Title with "BUG: " to make it clear. Reporting a bug should be available to all users, including Free Account owners. Other Ticket types available to Free users are "Data Loss", "Crash", & "Sync Issue".

gazumped · March 25, 2015

Where note content is stored may be academic if the OP is unable to see any note which is what the first post says... however; it would be good to have some more feedback from @Scrant before debating the 'best' workaround or fix for this issue.

JMichaelTX · March 25, 2015

if the OP is unable to see any note which is what the first post says... however; it would be good to have some more feedback from @Scrant before debating the 'best' workaround or fix for this issue.

That's exactly why I suggested that the OP try to identify the problem Note using EN Web.

I wasn't talking about the "best" fix, just trying to take the OP's POV and avoid any unnecessary work, like redownload his/her entire account before more diagnostics are done.

BTW, the OP could not export local notebooks as you suggested if he/she can't see any notes.

gazumped · March 25, 2015

In that case we can help the OP look for the most elegant fix when we know a bit more about the situation...

Jackolicious · March 26, 2015

We have logged the issue and are looking for a fix.

Is that note a note you created yourself in Evernote? Is it a web clip?

Scrant · March 26, 2015

Hi guys, sorry for the delay. Work!

Yeah, I can't see ANY note. They all give that box above in my original post in the content area when you click on a note. Most of them are web clips but some are made on the fly mostly from the iPhone/iPad apps. Doesn't seem to matter when viewing them on the Desktop EN client. I can view them all on the web and on my iPhone/iPad with no problem. Something definitely wrong with the desktop version or its corrupt.

Thanks for your help!

Scrant · March 26, 2015

Seems like your Mac database may be corrupt. Would you be able to rebuild it from the server?

Save any local content:
Export any Local Notebooks; select View > Notebooks; right-click on each Local Notebook and select Export Notes from…
Choose Evernote XML Format (.enex) and save the file to your computer
Export any unsynchronized notes
Move your existing Evernote database:
Open Evernote for Mac
Select Evernote > About Evernote
Press and hold the Option key and select Open database folder(keep this folder open)
Select Evernote > Quit Evernote from the Menu Bar
Move the “www.evernote.com" folder (this will contain one or more numerical folders that contain all Evernote accounts you've used on your Mac) from the database folder to another location, such as your desktop
Open your desktop application and login to your Evernote account. Evernote will download all of your synced notes from Evernote's servers and create a new database on your computer.

Once the new database has been created, import any Local Notebooks you previously exported by selecting File > Import Notes.

How can I tell which notebooks are "local"?

gazumped · March 27, 2015

Hmmn. If you can't see any notes anyway, the question may be academic; but if you didn't deliberately create a notebook that you know to be stored only on your hard drive and not synced with Evernote's servers, you probably don't have any local notebooks.

Scrant · March 27, 2015

OK, I tried what you suggested gazumped. It recreated a new database, downloaded all my notes again, and... Same problem. Still can't view any notes. Same error as on my first post. I'm at a loss. EN for Mac totally unusable for me.

Scrant · March 27, 2015

And I've also just upgraded to the new 6.0.8 which didn't fix anything either.

gazumped · March 27, 2015

Wow your setup is really jinxed. @Jackolicious said in post #7 that he's looking into this - although he seems to think there's only one bad note, and you're saying you can't see any of them, so I'd guess they're a mixture of web clips, text and photographs. If you can manage without Mac access for a short while, he may be able to come up with a fix - and as you're already using 6.0.8 you could post in that thread https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/82816-evernote-for-mac-608-released/#entry352057 to get the new version developers' attention...

Jackolicious · March 27, 2015

We have your attention. We're working on a solution. The web client should work in the interim.

kpb · April 5, 2015

Just trying to help with a solution here by adding a bit more detail...

I just installed EN v6.0.8 on a new MacBook Air running OS X v10.9.4, and I am having exactly the same issue described by OP.

I am also using EN v5.5.2 on an older MacBook Pro running OS X v10.6.8, and I am not having the issue described.

I am also using EN v7.7.0.315036 on an iPhone running iOS v8.2 (12D508), and I am not having the issue described.

In all cases, I have synced all my notes, and EN reports successful syncs. In all cases, I have checked to update the EN client, and the response in every case is "You're up-to-date!"

(I suspect the different "up-to-date" versions on the different MacBooks is due to the different OS versions.)

Hopefully this helps.

Thanks for any additional ideas.

kpb

ScottF4 · April 24, 2015

I developed the same problem as Scrant when I updated EN to 6.07 and the database format got updated. I find I can't even create a new note - as soon as I create a new note the error message appears.

kpb · May 6, 2015

Very glad to see (VP of Desktop) Jack Hirsch's comment from 27 March 15 that we "have [Evernote's] attention" and "[they]'re working on a solution." Had hopes that meant something was in the works.

Thus was hopeful when EN desktop client indicated that an update was available; just installed EN v6.0.11 (which is four subversions later than OP's when bug was first reported).

No love here. Essentially the same error continues ("error on line 7 at column 47: xmlParseEntityRef: no name" -- OP's error is virtually identical, citing "line 7 at column 49").

No other info or status updates from Hirsch's team. That the "web client should work in the interim" is not a sufficient response -- especially for those times when web access is difficult or unavailable.

EN: Info, please.

Jackolicious · May 7, 2015

Do new notes created with 6.0.11 suffer from this issue?

ScottF4 · May 7, 2015

Updated to 6.0.11 - unable to create new notes - get same error

JMichaelTX · May 7, 2015

Updated to 6.0.11 - unable to create new notes - get same error

Scott, if you have tried the fixes listed above without success, you may want to consider a clean reinstall that will first remove everything related to Evernote from your system. If you decide to do this, be sure to export all of your Local Notebooks (if you have any) to ENEX files (one NB per file) BEFORE you start the reinstall process.

See How to Completely Remove and Reinstall EN Mac

kpb · May 7, 2015

Do new notes created with 6.0.11 suffer from this issue?

Yes, Jack. I tried creating a new note with EN v6.0.11 on a MacBook Air running OS X v10.9.4 before my last post (#17 above). That post was driven by the fact that v6.0.11 didn't seem to fix the problem.

Updated to 6.0.11 - unable to create new notes - get same error

Scott, if you have tried the fixes listed above without success, you may want to consider a clean reinstall that will first remove everything related to Evernote from your system. If you decide to do this, be sure to export all of your Local Notebooks (if you have any) to ENEX files (one NB per file) BEFORE you start the reinstall process.

See How to Completely Remove and Reinstall EN Mac

JMichael: Are you suggesting that v6.0.11 will address this problem after EN has been completely removed and a clean reinstall done? I'm happy to try that, but I don't want to go through the trouble if Jack & his team are still unclear about v6.0.11 being an appropriate fix...

JMichaelTX · May 7, 2015

JMichael: Are you suggesting that v6.0.11 will address this problem after EN has been completely removed and a clean reinstall done? I'm happy to try that, but I don't want to go through the trouble if Jack & his team are still unclear about v6.0.11 being an appropriate fix...

I can't offer any guarantees, but when all other fixes fail, a clean reinstall will often fix the issue.

It seems like most users are running Ver 6.0.11 without this issue.

I'm running Ver 6.0.11 on three Macs, two with Mavericks, one with Yosemite.

Have you tried a simple app reinstall?

See: How do I uninstall and reinstall Evernote [App]?

It's up to you. You can wait for another release or try the clean reinstall.

aadenyihongchen · May 11, 2015

Hi,

I got the same problem and finally found the root cause in my MBPR with OS X 10.10.3.

The symptom appears only when I move Evernote App (from Mac App Store) to the folder which named with '&'.

I have submitted the bug and get the support ticket #1062883. Hope it can be solved soon in the next release.

ScottF4 · May 14, 2015

Do new notes created with 6.0.11 suffer from this issue?

Yes, Jack. I tried creating a new note with EN v6.0.11 on a MacBook Air running OS X v10.9.4 before my last post (#17 above). That post was driven by the fact that v6.0.11 didn't seem to fix the problem.

Updated to 6.0.11 - unable to create new notes - get same error

Scott, if you have tried the fixes listed above without success, you may want to consider a clean reinstall that will first remove everything related to Evernote from your system. If you decide to do this, be sure to export all of your Local Notebooks (if you have any) to ENEX files (one NB per file) BEFORE you start the reinstall process.

See How to Completely Remove and Reinstall EN Mac

JMichael: Are you suggesting that v6.0.11 will address this problem after EN has been completely removed and a clean reinstall done? I'm happy to try that, but I don't want to go through the trouble if Jack & his team are still unclear about v6.0.11 being an appropriate fix...

Did a modified simple uninstall and reinstll of 6.011. Evernote is working now

kpb · May 15, 2015

Finally got EN v6.0.11 to work on the MacBook Air running OS X v10.9.4.

Don't know if the problem had anything to do with past versions or uninstalling/reinstalling.

Initially, I uninstalled & reinstalled EN via the instructions at How to Completely Remove and Reinstall EN Mac; when i reinstalled, I put the app back in the same place it was before I'd uninstalled it. No joy; problem continued.

Noticed aadenyihongchen's post (above); he'd determined that moving EN from an app folder with an ampersand ("&") in the name seemed to help. Since my app folder had an ampersand in the name, I changed the name of the folder. Bingo. Problem solved.

Seems like a pretty basic thing to avoid & fix...

JMichaelTX · May 15, 2015

Noticed aadenyihongchen's post (above); he'd determined that moving EN from an app folder with an ampersand ("&") in the name seemed to help. Since my app folder had an ampersand in the name, I changed the name of the folder. Bingo. Problem solved.

This is very strange. Why would any app folder have an "&" in it?

Aren't all of your apps in the "Applications" folder?

aadenyihongchen · May 15, 2015

Noticed aadenyihongchen's post (above); he'd determined that moving EN from an app folder with an ampersand ("&") in the name seemed to help. Since my app folder had an ampersand in the name, I changed the name of the folder. Bingo. Problem solved.

This is very strange. Why would any app folder have an "&" in it?

Aren't all of your apps in the "Applications" folder?

Not strange, just wanna make the apps organised in "Application" folder

Jackolicious · May 15, 2015

Wow. That's a weird one. Thanks for figuring it out. Logging it internally!

Scrant · May 15, 2015

Yep! That's it. Mine was in a folder with "&" symbol. I have hundreds of apps so have to categorize them in folders. This one was in "Office & Productivity". Moved it back to apps and it works fine. Please fix. Thanks!

infiniteline · July 14, 2015

Hi,

I got the same problem and finally found the root cause in my MBPR with OS X 10.10.3.

The symptom appears only when I move Evernote App (from Mac App Store) to the folder which named with '&'.

I have submitted the bug and get the support ticket #1062883. Hope it can be solved soon in the next release.

Thanks so much for figuring this out! It was driving me crazy.

Can't view any note content

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