Joined Notebooks - no shortcuts and can't save searches

[lisec 283]

I've been at it for 2 full days now and I'm still trying to make sense of the new way of sharing notebooks and what it has done to my tags and shortcuts.

 

My kitchen tablet has a free account with nothing on it other than 2 shared notebooks from my paid account: food and recipes.

 

With this latest update, my nicely organized recipes and tags and shortcuts no longer work. 

 

Nested tags crash Android when in a joined notebook

 

I reported this as a bug.  I had all my recipe related tags under a tag called "recipes". In android you would see all your tags and you would know which included nested tags because the number of tags it had nested would display on the right. You would click on that and those nested tags would display.  This crashes my tablet every single time.  It still works fine on my Android phone, so the issue is probably related to either free or joined notebooks. The phone uses my paid version of Evernote (no issues) but my tablet is my free account with two joined notebooks.

 

Jointed notebooks now a separate thing - very separate

 

Joined notebooks are now in their own section on the left menu (on the web) but not in Android. In Android they are still displayed under Notebooks but I think they function the same way as on the web.  The Joined Notebooks isn't a stack: when you select it you must select one of the joined notebooks. In web it takes you to a new page, in Android it just opens that notebook. Joined notebooks no longer populate the "All Notes" section of your account. They are completely separate.

 

Consequences:  

 

• Selecting Joined Notebooks on the web reduces the left pane to that menu item as well as tags - Shortcuts is gone. This might explain why I have spent 2 days trying to save searches and add them to shortcuts to no avail.
• You cannot search across notebooks, and even searching for tags will not result in all notes with that tag. The selected Jointed Notebook is a major and prime filter.  You cannot add "notebook:notebookname" to a search - you will get an error.
• The tags section gets populated for the selected notebook and only the selected notebook.
• You cannot create shortcuts, either by design or because of bugs (see last paragraph)

 

There is no way to save a search.

 

I noticed that on the web and in Android I cannot save a search. If I can't save a search then I can't add it to shortcuts, but it looks like shortcuts might be disabled for joined notebooks anyway.

 

Questions:

 

Are any of these bugs or has Evernote decided to do away with key features again? 

1. Is it a bug or a feature that I cannot create a shortcut to searches within a joined notebook?
2. Is is a bug or a feature that joined notebooks do not populate the "All Notes" section so that I could search across all notes in all joined notebooks?
3. Is it a bug or a feature that I can't save searches in web or in Android, or save them to shortcuts?
4. If I can't see the Shortcuts folder in the left pane in Web when I select a joined notebook, how does his affect the Shortcuts folder that still appears in Android? Doesn't Android get its info from web, such that no matter what I put in my shortcuts folder in Android it will get overwritten in web?

There is definitely a bug in Android with creating shortcuts. I select a tag then another and view notes. I select "add to shortcuts" and am told the shortcut already exists when it doesn't. I know it doesn't because to test I selected a combination of tags I have never put together before.  A 2nd bug in Android and shortcuts is that if you already have some shortcuts and you delete them (hold then delete) the shortcuts folder disappears and is not re-created when you select "add to shortcuts" from the top right menu. The only way to re-create it is to select notebooks in the left pane then clicking way to the right and selecting "add to Shortcuts".

 

My screenshot was to big to upload, so it is here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0By4O12gwJk0iR3BYdG1UeXFsZXM/view?usp=sharing

[gazumped 11,661]

Hi.  I followed your detailed explanation (I think) which seems to boil down to "what was working,  isn't working any more..."  which AFAIK seems to be a pretty convincing bug.  I'd suggest you report that by choosing "report a bug..." in the first dropdown after logging in here> https://www.evernote.com/SupportLogin.action  - if you're a premium or Business user in your 'other' account,  you'll also have access to a Chat option (7am-7pm weekdays,  PST) if you report this via that account.

 

I would ask - why is this a separate account?  If you already have an account including these recipes,  is there a reason you prefer not to log the tablet into the same account?  You could be looking at the notebooks directly,  rather than the shared version.  Not excusing that something isn't working,  just wondering if there's a different route to get you access to the notes.

 

And have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling the tablet app?  There have been some recent updates which may have changed this behaviour,  and maybe the uninstall/ reinstall/ reindex will force the notebooks into line.

 

Just suggestions - please let us know how you get on...

[lisec 283]

I would ask - why is this a separate account?  If you already have an account including these recipes,  is there a reason you prefer not to log the tablet into the same account?  You could be looking at the notebooks directly,  rather than the shared version.  Not excusing that something isn't working,  just wondering if there's a different route to get you access to the notes.

 

And have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling the tablet app?  There have been some recent updates which may have changed this behaviour,  and maybe the uninstall/ reinstall/ reindex will force the notebooks into line.

 

gazumped, thanks for reading and replying to my very confusing ramblings.

 

I use the other account so that the kitchen tablet only has recipes on it for 4 reasons:

1. I don't want my husband seeing my list of potential gifts for him and other such notes
2. I don't necessarily want guests to browse through my Evernote account, and they always pick up the tablet because they think it is cool
3. Ease of use for my husband who doesn't have to browse through 100+ irrelevant tags: the tags displayed are all recipe-related, as are the shortcuts (when they worked).
4. Can't there be syncing issues if I have my account open on two devices at all times? Evernote is always open on my main laptop and we never turn off the kitchen tablet.

I did do the update and that's what messed everything up. I even uninstalled and re-installed Evernote. In the meantime I had to un-nest my recipe-related tags which makes them available on the tablet but now my main account has all those tags all over the place. I suppose I could live with that, but I do prefer the look of nested.

 

It was such a good system before. If you clicked on the "eggs" tag you would get recipes as well as hints and tips from the food folder. Now you have to select food OR recipes which is a shame because you don't often purposefully go looking for tips, but you might read one if it gets displayed on the screen.

 

I might do as you suggest after all and put my main account on it. Have to think about it.  Too bad there isn't a way to disable folders from appearing on particular devices.

[gazumped 11,661]

OK I completely understand.  Thanks for the explanation - and I wasn't requesting a justification,  just wondering whether it was required that the tablet have separate access,  which it clearly is.  

 

Depending on your tablet's storage space,  there might be an option - mobile devices (phones and tablets) don't have the complete database stored in their local space because that could be a problem - some large databases would be bigger than the available space,  and some confusion would ensue...  But there is such a thing as 'offline searchable' - your tablet could download the recipe notes (if it has enough space) and then it doesn't have to be connected to the network to do searches on those notebooks.  Just check the notebooks in your tablet (when logged into the main account) and mark the notebooks to be offline searchable.  They'll download in full,  and thereafter be searchable.  You can edit the notes on the tablet and sync changes back to the web (and thence* to your desktop).  If you add new recipes,  just connect the tablet to the network from time to time so it can update.

 

However.  There have been recent updates for iOS and Mac and PC,  so I'd first suggest getting all your devices up to the latest version and syncing everything.  Then nest your tags again and sync - see if they get transferred to the tablet.  If not,  try the 'offline searchable' option to see if it's feasible.

 

*Sorry - I like words and have been looking for a chance to use 'thence' for a while... funny how it doesn't come up too often!

[lisec 283]

OK I completely understand.  Thanks for the explanation - and I wasn't requesting a justification,  just wondering whether it was required that the tablet have separate access,  which it clearly is.  

 

Depending on your tablet's storage space,  there might be an option - mobile devices (phones and tablets) don't have the complete database stored in their local space because that could be a problem - some large databases would be bigger than the available space,  and some confusion would ensue...  But there is such a thing as 'offline searchable' - your tablet could download the recipe notes (if it has enough space) and then it doesn't have to be connected to the network to do searches on those notebooks.  Just check the notebooks in your tablet (when logged into the main account) and mark the notebooks to be offline searchable.  They'll download in full,  and thereafter be searchable.  You can edit the notes on the tablet and sync changes back to the web (and thence* to your desktop).  If you add new recipes,  just connect the tablet to the network from time to time so it can update.

 

However.  There have been recent updates for iOS and Mac and PC,  so I'd first suggest getting all your devices up to the latest version and syncing everything.  Then nest your tags again and sync - see if they get transferred to the tablet.  If not,  try the 'offline searchable' option to see if it's feasible.

 

*Sorry - I like words and have been looking for a chance to use 'thence' for a while... funny how it doesn't come up too often!

 

Oh I wasn't justifying - I wanted to be clear about my case because I thought that was precisely the sort of thing that shared notebooks was for, and if it wasn't, then I wanted people to know how it could be used in the house. I'm sure many users put recipes in their evernote account and might not want their other stuff in the kitchen. Personally I think it is a scathingly brilliant idea - when it works!

 

Ah, I see what you are suggesting. For a minute I thought you were saying to enable the recipes notebook as "offline" but of course that option is only available for the paid account. You are saying to leave my main account on he tablet, make the recipes offline searchable, and then disconnect the wireless. All my other titles would still appear but the notes themselves would be inaccessible because of the lack of wi-fi connection. Hmm. That could be a workaround. My husband would still have to deal with a gazillion tags, but I could always nest them and name the parent such that it appears first in the tags.  I think I'm going to give that idea a go and see how it works out.  Thanks!

 

Um I think there might be reason why 'thence' isn't used much

[Frank.dg 1,385]

You can edit the notes on the tablet and sync changes back to the web (and thence* to your desktop).  

 

... and thereupon a tinker, thither to the web from whence it came. 

[lisec 283]

 

You can edit the notes on the tablet and sync changes back to the web (and thence* to your desktop).  

 

... and thereupon a tinker, thither to the web from whence it came. 

 

Well done. Brilliant!