Evernote as a storage hub

[ever_coffee 21]

Greetings everyone,

I'm seriously in need of a cloud backup storage and as Premium Evernote user, I was planning to use it as a main hub for keeping and organizing my general files. I'm not willing to pay for another service (I have a 100gb Drive plan and that's my limit), so I wanted to work with I already have.

Here's what I thought, so far:

- Mirror my HD using Notebooks and Notes, maybe even Stacks, in EN. Every note would be a directory with lots of files (documents - texts, PDFs, scans -, mainly).
- Use a Note as index with links (I'm still thinking if I do it or not, maybe it could be the most difficult part, keeping it updated).
- Use Flickr to store photos.
- Put everything that doesn't fit in Google Drive (videos, etc).

I wondered if you have thought of different systems or even have hints on how to set this up. I never read anything about it and wanted to hear opinions and suggestions, if possible.

Thank you.


 

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

Hi. This is unlikely to work out well for you. Evernote isn't a storage locker like Dropbox or Google Drive. I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "mirroring" things either. Evernote is an app with its own database, and you put files into it. There is an upload limit each month, so it might take you a year or so to accomplish an upload of all your stuff. There is a limit on the number of notebooks and notes you can have, and there is very little hierarchical organization, so it won't look much like the folders / sub folders on your HD.

Maybe, if you tell us more about your current system and the problems you are having, we could be of more help.

[ever_coffee 21]

Hello GrumpyMonkey,

Thanks for your reply. My problem is just the need for a safe and searchable cloud, to avoid keeping important files, personal or work related, in my hard drive or pendrive (I had a recent bad experience with the sudden death of my flash drive).

What I mean by mirroring is to name the Notes with Folder names from my hard drive, and upload files to them. So there would be a copy of those folders in Evernote, even if they do not resemble the same structure (I mean specifically to store important personal documents from work and students - I work with education -, some tests scans, projects, articles and PDF books (a lot), for example. I would like to transfer to Evernote and categorize large collections of PDF books in order to be able to search them easily in the future, making it easier to find some topics related to a certain research. That's about 10 to 15gb, at the most.

I'm aware of the limits and I don't mind doing it gradually. I have more than 100gb in pictures, but I believe Flickr could do the trick here.

The Index Note could help in organizing the same structure of the hard drive.

Some files and folders that need a little more of the hierarchical folder/file structure, I would put them in Drive.

Thanks again.

 

 

 

[DTLow 5,736]

1 hour ago, gcg79 said:

I'm seriously in need of a cloud backup storage and as Premium Evernote user, I was planning to use it as a main hub for keeping and organizing my general files.

I confess - I'm also using Evernote for this purpose.

Use as a backup might be a concern.  Be aware that local notebooks don't make it to the cloud.
Also, its a little to easy to delete a note permamently.
You should be having a backup process outside of the Evernote servers.
I do a weekly enex and html export.
I also have time machine backups, but I will probably never use them.

Another concern would be your idea of "Mirroring"
Because of its nature, files are added as attachments to notes, but are removed from the native file system.
If you want to access the file, you have to go into Evernote.
This may not be compatible with other processes.

So far its working well for me, but I would hesitate to advise it unless the person was knowledgeable about the limitations.

[DTLow 5,736]

On 2016-02-13 at 15:56, gcg79 said:

Every note would be a directory with lots of files (documents - texts, PDFs, scans -, mainly).

I don't understand this.
My approach is to keep notes small and individual units of data.

[ever_coffee 21]

Thank you DTLow.

You are right, it sounded like I was going to move whole chunks of files into Notes, and that's not the case.

Think of it as a "smart backup". Nothing like a Time Machine or automatic mirroring, but simply the organized storage of files in a categorized way (thus, Evernote). Only important stuff, reference files, books and every material that I'd like to see in a organized manner.

 

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

1 hour ago, gcg79 said:

Hello GrumpyMonkey,

Thanks for your reply. My problem is just the need for a safe and searchable cloud, to avoid keeping important files, personal or work related, in my hard drive or pendrive (I had a recent bad experience with the sudden death of my flash drive).

What I mean by mirroring is to name the Notes with Folder names from my hard drive, and upload files to them. So there would be a copy of those folders in Evernote, even if they do not resemble the same structure (I mean specifically to store important personal documents from work and students - I work with education -, some tests scans, projects, articles and PDF books (a lot), for example. I would like to transfer to Evernote and categorize large collections of PDF books in order to be able to search them easily in the future, making it easier to find some topics related to a certain research. That's about 10 to 15gb, at the most.

I'm aware of the limits and I don't mind doing it gradually. I have more than 100gb in pictures, but I believe Flickr could do the trick here.

The Index Note could help in organizing the same structure of the hard drive.

Some files and folders that need a little more of the hierarchical folder/file structure, I would put them in Drive.

Thanks again.

 

 

 

I think I have a better idea about what you are doing. You are wanting to have access to stuff, and you don't necessarily need everything to be "mirrored" showing up exactly the same on every device (how I understood it in this case). 

I am an educator myself and have some concerns about Evernote as an appropriate place to store data related to my students in an unencrypted format.

http://www.christopher-mayo.com/?p=1605

Leaving that aside for now, I think Evernote can be an amazing tool for research. I used to store a lot of PDFs in it. I then switched to text versions of the PDF files. I suppose what you choose to do depends a lot on what you have. If it is only 10 or 15GB, that shouldn't be a big deal (bearing in mind individual note size limits).

http://www.christopher-mayo.com/?p=551

The index note can be pretty helpfu. It is something I've done in the past.

http://www.christopher-mayo.com/?p=1724

 

 

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

1 hour ago, gcg79 said:

My problem is just the need for a safe and searchable cloud, to avoid keeping important files, personal or work related, in my hard drive or pendrive (I had a recent bad experience with the sudden death of my flash drive).

While Evernote is a great PIM (Personal Information Manager), it is a very poor file manager, and a terrible backup system.  In fact, the Evernote Terms of Use forbids using it as a backup system, and they have been known to restrict uploads if their system detects this type of usage.

If you want a cloud-based backup system, then you should consider systems designed for that purpose.  CrashPlan is an excellent candidate.

If you want to store files in the Cloud, but not on your computer, then you can consider systems like

• DropBox
• SpiderOak
• Wuala
• Tresorit
• (and others)

[ever_coffee 21]

Great, thank you all.

I'll definitely have folders/subfolders structure in another service and use the Evernote "backup" to store only the important files and documents that I need for quick search (books, projects, personal docs, etc).


 

[seaspray 7]

This is what I do - it may reflect my 'unique' work flow .. but you may find it useful.

Typically EN is a note I make based on a document

Some times that document is an academic paper, sometimes it is a graphical representation of some data that I set up in (e.g.) 'Numbers'

I insert a line under the body of my note.

I use 'finder' to "get info" regarding the original document on my machine its easy to copy and paste ~/Documents/Work/Esoteric Academic Papers/Rare Thing.pdf ... six months later when I need to revisit the file; copy the path and use finder 'go to folder' and paste it ...  you are there - read the original or modify it (but if the graph changes you need to copy and paste as an image into EN

Sometimes I just save the original pdf into EN (use a folder 'originals' or better a tag 'originals' and use "note link" again at the bottom of my personal note.  Nowif you right click the pdf in EN and say open in Preview,  annotations are nice and saved back to EN.  Some times the original has a 'doi' or a reliable web address - similarly just paste the value.

I never save anything 'secret' in EN.  My computers all back up and synchronise via SpiderOak.

[DTLow 5,736]

44 minutes ago, seaspray said:

I use 'finder' to "get info" regarding the original document on my machine its easy to copy and paste ~/Documents/Work/Esoteric Academic Papers/Rare Thing.pdf 

If the file has to remain in the native file system a file link is a good idea
but I often store files in Evernote as an attachment, and do my updates there.  
For example, my budget spreadsheet is filed in an Evernote note, and doesn't exist elsewhere.

[DeLub 0]

On 2/14/2016 at 5:30 PM, DTLow said:

If the file has to remain in the native file system a file link is a good idea
but I often store files in Evernote as an attachment, and do my updates there.  
For example, my budget spreadsheet is filed in an Evernote note, and doesn't exist elsewhere.

I use it in a similar way, so that I'm able to work on a budget spreadsheet on several devices. ... execpt iOS. It is not possible to directly edit an attachment on iOS. It would be possible if Evernote on iOS provides a document provider presenting your notes / notebooks and attachments in the way the initial poster suggests.

[TroyC 24]

As many GDrives as you want and https://www.insynchq.com/.  You can now insert GDrive files in Evernote where the broader context of a note is needed to organize ideas around a theme.

[DeLub 0]

1 hour ago, TroyC said:

As many GDrives as you want and https://www.insynchq.com/.  You can now insert GDrive files in Evernote where the broader context of a note is needed to organize ideas around a theme.

When I heard the announcement, I was hoping that inserting files from Google Drive would be the solution. However, it isn't. It is only inserting a link that does not allow you to open the file, but always lead to Google Drive in a browser... So, it does not provide editing capabilities on iOS, nor on the Mac or Windows.