JPEG Images Not Indexing - Premium

[DaveVT 1]

I recently upgraded to Premium and uploaded a very large quantity of notes, all of which were JPEG scans of documents, both printed and handwriting. After a couple weeks, full text searching is still not working on these notes, and when I click on the "Information" icon, the Attachment Status is listed as "x images have not been indexed".

 

I confirmed that the notes have synced to the server, because I can see them in the web client. Searching doesn't work in the web client, either.

 

Notes that I have uploaded by taking a picture with the Evernote iPhone app more recently (i.e. in the past couple days) have successfully indexed, and the full text search works. I added a test note earlier today with just a single JPEG from the same set of document scans, and this has not been indexed.

 

The scans are 600 DPI JPEGs that range in size from 1MB to 5MB each. I added them by dragging them from Finder into the Evernote Notes pane, and then merging groups of scans from separate documents into single documents, so that there are a number of single documents, each containing a large number of JPEGs (20-100 each). I ran into the 100MB per note limit a few times, and have kept the documents all under 100MB. Most appear to be around 50MB. My test document has a single JPEG and is 4MB, and that also has not indexed.

 

Any ideas on what I can do to force the documents to index, or find out why the indexing isn't working?

 

Thanks so much!

[JMichaelTX 4,118]

For Premium accounts, the Evernote OCR of images should be very quick.  I uploaded a small image yesterday, and was amazed that it was searchable as soon as the sync finished.  But it was a small image, so that could definitely be a factor.

 

After 2 weeks (as you stated), all of your images should be searchable.  If not, there could be some bug at play.

You might try uploading a small jpeg image (<< 1MB) as a test to see if it becomes searchable.

 

If you are unable to resolve your issue quickly, you may want to submit a bug report and/or do a EN Support Chat. (see links below).

 

A few comments/suggestions about your workflow:

1. Keep the scan resolution as low as you find acceptable.  Generally 300dpi works very well.  That is my default.
2. If you're scanning documents:
   1. Scan to PDF at 300 dpi
      1. Much easier to handle, view, read multi-page documents
      2. Easy to annotate using PDF tools (I don't like the EN Annotation tool)
      3. Easy to share with others via email
   2. OCR prior to import to Evernote
      1. Makes your PDFs immediately searchable
      2. Allow you to select/copy text from the PDF
3. If you're trying to use Evernote as a photo library, it can work, but there are a number of dedicated photo managers that work much, much better.
   1. Most dedicated photo apps allow you to store on your local hard drive, but easy to select and upload to online sites for sharing
   2. I do store selected photos (usually smaller, lower res) for important events, family history, etc.

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".

 

See Evernote Chat Support., available business days 7am-7pm US CST. 

(Chat option appears AFTER you click “Continue” on initial “Evernote Support” page.)

[DaveVT 1]

Thanks so much for the quick reply! I will try contacting Evernote support when they open tomorrow. RE: the workflow, I really appreciate the input. I read a number of people suggesting 600DPI for handwritten notes, and that in order to get handwriting recognition, I would need to upload JPEGs rather than PDFs. Is that still the case, or perhaps I read some old suggestions?

 

Per your suggestion, I uploaded another random JPEG from my PC and it indexed immediately. I uploaded the smallest file size JPEG from my batch of scanned files (which was smaller than the random JPEG I used as a test), and it did not index. So, I've confirmed it's unrelated to file size, and I'm thinking maybe there is something special about the format of the JPEGs from the scanning process. 

 

Will close the loop here once I talk to Evernote Support in case it helps someone else in the future.

[JMichaelTX 4,118]

@DaveVT:

 

I can't really speak to the best process or resolution for scanning and OCRing handwritten Notes.

You might do a test with a few of these Notes:

• Use notes with different levels of legibility
• Scan at different resolutions.
• Try both PDF and JPG

I know this is a bit of work, but when you get through you should know the process that works best for you.

 

My personal solution:  Don't make handwritten notes.  Type (or talk) everything directly into Evernote)