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Data liberation true synced backup, google keep and general feedback


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I have loved evernote since I first landed eyes on it, quite in the beginning. Still I'm a free(loader) member since February 21st, 2011 (pasted, boy do I hate any forums that's not made in discourse!) and, more than not collaborating with its existence, funny enough, I never really ever used it. I do take notes on it eventually, but never read them. Okay, once I've used the awesome OCR for searching in an image, and that was it.

 

I always think about contributing, like I did to lastpass, dropbox, google, crashplan and so many other services I find essential, and I do feel notes are basic. I love google keep, despite its lack of being able to truly backup (automated) / liberate data in a synced way. Which is one of the topics here.

 

1. I do realize Evernote also don't have true backups, only terrible ways of going around it. But just how terrible is it really? Can we count on it? I would sure feel much more confortable if I could add dropbox and google drive into that equation, rather than just Time Machine and *maybe* crashplan.

 

2. I use google keep a lot because it's blazing fast, for my workflow. And because it offers google search in it. Plus it's simple in its interface and highly complex on the backend... Sharing notes, colors, every single thing. How does Evernote compare to it today? Back in the days, evernote was way too slow. I still think it's slow, but I never used it "in production" so I wonder from experienced users... Do you get annoyed by its slowness?

 

3. Reason I'm coming up with this now is the apparently annual 3 free months offer that, they said on the email, should expire today (will it really, though?). What other offers are or were there? What would be the best time to and way to purchase it? I shouldn't really bother about it, since it's a very small financial gain in the long run, but for right now it matters to me. Any difference in prices from paying from europe and paying from US (VAT and stuff)? Couldn't easily see it on the website right now.

 

4. I was going to direct this to support, but they threw me here. Very aggressively, and badly. Boy, all this could be so much better if only they used discourse... Including for their support... And removed that dreadful "ticket" page which asks you to elaborate a title carefully and then "deletes" it for you when you're ready to follow up with your question even after their suggested research. Sucks so much! Don't Evernote has a pre-sales team? They should look at viv and other talking robots out there! :D

 

And I'm done for now.

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That was my plan. 4 years ago and every then in a while again and again, including today. ;P

 

Could you share your "easy backup" link, though? I've already shared my research and I found nothing with a true backup as described. Sorry but in my mind manual backup is about the same as no backup.

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That was my plan. 4 years ago and every then in a while again and again, including today. ;P

 

Could you share your "easy backup" link, though? I've already shared my research and I found nothing with a true backup as described. Sorry but in my mind manual backup is about the same as no backup.

 

Here is a link, though not specifically for Evernote.

http://www.christopher-mayo.com/?p=962

 

Backups

1. Evernote has note histories

2. Time Machine (you appear to have a Mac)

3. If you use more than one computer, those other computers become backups

4. You can apparently (I don't) use a third-party service like Revert.io to backup to Dropbox https://revert.io

5. You can export everything as .html 

 

What exactly are you looking for that would qualify as a "true backup"?

 

Other

1. What exactly was "slow" about Evernote? I don't think that is an issue right now.

2. No pre-sales team that I know of

3. No easy way to compare prices across regions -- try a VPN to see

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Just to add to Grump's post. Revert.io are ending their free service this weekend, they do have some paid offerings though.

Find out where your data is stored (depending on your platform) and point your normal backup solution there.

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True backups are automated, as I've already said many times. It's also important to add as much versioning and redundancy as possible, locally and remotely, but this is indeed secondary. In short, true backups are backups that work when you need it. Manual won't work, export is even worse (even while they may add to redundancy and versioning).

 

Now that I come back to my senses, it's probably a much better idea to use google docs, with either insync, crosscloud or some similar replicating service (ifttt won't cut for this, as it's never two ways).

 

I'll keep trying to use evernote just as an extra backup with ifttt and maybe when I need to OCR another huge image again. ;)

 

@Metrodon looks like the (new to me) Revert still offers "free for always" plans: https://revert.io/pricing

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True backups are automated, as I've already said many times. It's also important to add as much versioning and redundancy as possible, locally and remotely, but this is indeed secondary. In short, true backups are backups that work when you need it. Manual won't work, export is even worse (even while they may add to redundancy and versioning).

Now that I come back to my senses, it's probably a much better idea to use google docs, with either insync, crosscloud or some similar replicating service (ifttt won't cut for this, as it's never two ways).

I'll keep trying to use evernote just as an extra backup with ifttt and maybe when I need to OCR another huge image again. ;)

@Metrodon looks like the (new to me) Revert still offers "free for always" plans: https://revert.io/pricing

Glad to hear that you found a solution for your problem! However, to respond to your points in the interest of helping out future users who come across this thread, I'd like to post my thoughts.

True Backups

I don't agree with your assertion that the only "true" backup is an automatic one, because it suggests (to me) that all of the other backup methods are somehow lesser, or "false" ones. In fact, I think one of the great things about Evernote, especially on a Mac, are the backup options available, ranging from manual to automatic. They're all backups. They just work differently. The backup you want may be automatic, but the backup options that exist fit a number of different workflows. As for working when you need them, I don't see anything with Evernote that doesn't work. Perhaps you could elaborate.

Automatic Backups

(1) Within Evernote, there are note histories, which are snapshots of notes taken every few hours. The feature is one form of backup that meets your criteria: automatic and it works fine.

(2) Syncing Evernote with another computer creates a backup, because everything in the account is downloaded there. Again, this meets your criteria.

(3) Time Machine. Same thing: automatic and works fine. I've actually found this most useful for recovering individual notes. Restoring an entire database might not be as easy, so I could see this one being less desirable.

(4) Revert.io. The pricing may be the same on the site, but I think it is already game over for them, and that is a relic. I don't know. I don't use the service.

https://thisdata.com/blog/revert-shutting-down-october-31-but-a-new-door-has-opened/

Manual Backups

(1) Exporting everything as .html. This has been a huge help to me in the past. It only takes a few seconds and you have everything available for import into other apps or in a convenient format for archiving. All of the other automated solutions above make it somewhat difficult to move from Evernote into something else with your backup. It's cool that Evernote makes sure everything is portable.

One thing I would like to stress is that it is a good idea to have local control over at least one version of your backup (this goes for any app, not just Evernote). Time Machine does this nicely, of course, but in the link I posted above, there are other ways. I don't think it is a good idea to put all of your eggs in one basket, especially when that basket is the cloud, where data is easily hacked, lost, and corrupted (documented cases of all of these for Evernote and other services). An automated cloud backup is, in my opinion, only one part of a robust backup strategy, and I would urge users not to leave their data only in the hands of a third party.

On that note, the trade-off with Google (besides various feature differences between Evernote and Google) is that they provide you with a wonderful free service in exchange for mining your data. For some people, this is fine. And, who doesn't have a gmail account these days, or correspond with folks who have one? It is difficult to completely avoid giving up control over our data, but I recommend that users who have data they would like to keep private avoid entering into this Faustian bargain and, instead, pay for services like Evernote (no data mining) with their money instead of their digital souls.

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True backups are automated, as I've already said many times. It's also important to add as much versioning and redundancy as possible, locally and remotely, but this is indeed secondary. In short, true backups are backups that work when you need it. Manual won't work, export is even worse (even while they may add to redundancy and versioning).

 

Now that I come back to my senses, it's probably a much better idea to use google docs, with either insync, crosscloud or some similar replicating service (ifttt won't cut for this, as it's never two ways).

 

I'll keep trying to use evernote just as an extra backup with ifttt and maybe when I need to OCR another huge image again. ;)

 

@Metrodon looks like the (new to me) Revert still offers "free for always" plans: https://revert.io/pricing

 

There are loads of very simple automated backup solutions.

 

Revert have written to all their customers explaining that the service is going away. That page probably shouldn't still be up.

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