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EN database file(s) - location and name


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I would like to manually backup my EN database files. I couldn't find them in what I thought was the correct location, so I clicked on Open database folder in About Evernote and this took me to a folder entitled www.evernote.com located in Library/Application Support/com.evernote.Evernote/accounts.

In the www.evernote.com folder there are two folders, one entitled props and the entitled with a number only. The latter one has a bunch of files and folders in it, including some with interesting names like atlas, chunks, purgatory and puppetmaster. 

Do I need to copy all of these or is there a particular file and folder to locate? I was looking for a file that ended with exb but I can't find one...

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On March 6, 2016 at 11:04 AM, DavidD said:

I would like to manually backup my EN database files. I couldn't find them in what I thought was the correct location, so I clicked on Open database folder in About Evernote and this took me to a folder entitled www.evernote.com located in Library/Application Support/com.evernote.Evernote/accounts.

The Open database folder should have taken you to a nnnnnn subfolder within Evernote.
This is the folder you need to backup.
Note: I have never actually tried to do a reload from this backup. I can imagine it would cause extreme sync activity to occur bringing your notes up to date with the server.
I prefer to use an note export backup for lost notes.

>>I was looking for a file that ended with exb but I can't find one...
I was confused about this too; apparently its a windows thing.
In the Mac world, we have the folder which contains various files,

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17 minutes ago, DavidD said:

Do I need to copy all of these or is there a particular file and folder to locate? I was looking for a file that ended with exb but I can't find one...

EN Mac does NOT use a "EXB" file like EN Win.  You need to backup the top-level Evernote folder (and all files and subfolders):
See Location of Evernote Data Folder for EN Mac 

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Thank you to you both.

A semi-related question: If I see "direct" in About Evernote (after the version number) does that mean I am using a directly downloaded version rather than an Apple store version?

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4 minutes ago, DavidD said:

Thank you to you both.

A semi-related question: If I see "direct" in About Evernote (after the version number) does that mean I am using a directly downloaded version rather than an Apple store version?

Yes.

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3 minutes ago, DavidD said:

A semi-related question: If I see "direct" in About Evernote (after the version number) does that mean I am using a directly downloaded version rather than an Apple store version?

Thats what I have ("direct" in About Evernote), and I know its a direct download.

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1 hour ago, DTLow said:
1 hour ago, DavidD said:

I would like to manually backup my EN database files.

 

I added an edit to my postings to let you know that I have never actually done a reload of the Evernote database.
My concern is that the local database would be extremely out of sync with the server database and would trigger sync activity which might mess up.

For lost notes, I rely on a note export that I run periodically (both .enex and .html). 

 

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8 minutes ago, DTLow said:

 

I added an edit to my postings to let you know that I have never actually done a reload of the Evernote database.
My concern is that the local database would be extremely out of sync with the server database and would trigger sync activity which might mess up.

For lost notes, I rely on a note export that I run periodically (both .enex and .html). 

 

Understood. I plan to do both on a monthly basis i.e. export all notebooks in .enex and also backup the database files (and let Time Machine do it all as well).

One thing that I would like is to be able to export all notebooks to individual files that have the notebook's name, rather than having to export each notebook individually.

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On March 6, 2016 at 0:34 PM, DavidD said:

One thing that I would like is to be able to export all notebooks to individual files that have the notebook's name, rather than having to export each notebook individually.

Not a feature in Evernote
I have an applescript triggering the export (delta).  Its launched daily from my morning alarm script.
I do a mass export, but it would be an easy modification to do individual notebooks.

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19 hours ago, DavidD said:

.....

One thing that I would like is to be able to export all notebooks to individual files that have the notebook's name, rather than having to export each notebook individually.

Not possible at this point. You could create an enhancement request if you like in that forum.

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On 3/6/2016 at 2:34 PM, DavidD said:

One thing that I would like is to be able to export all notebooks to individual files that have the notebook's name, rather than having to export each notebook individually.

Since you are using a Mac, your request has already been answered.
Checkout this AppleScript:  Backup Individual Notebooks to Separate ENEX File

Note:  I have NOT personally used this script, so I cannot guarantee its reliability.  But from a quick inspection, it looks OK.
Do your due diligence before running this, or any script, from a 3rd party.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

EDIT:  Mon, Mar 7, 2016 at 5:04:53 PM CST

While the basic code of this script looks OK, after a more careful inspection, I have identified these issues that need to be fixed or resolved before using.  I still have NOT tested the script.

  • Should prompt for output backup folder
  • Remove "with timeout"
  • Use direct test for Backup folder
  • Do NOT need to activate Evernote
  • Do NOT need Repeat Loop looking for Evernote app
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5 hours ago, briancaldwell said:

My $0.02 = I personally rely on Carbon Copy to create a clone of my entire device. This is a much simpler way to ensure that you have a bootable backup.

Yes, maybe this is the simplest approach...

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10 minutes ago, DavidD said:

Yes, maybe this is the simplest approach...

IMO, using Time Machine is the simplest approach.  You spend a few minutes in setup one time, and then it just works.  By default, it backs up everything on your drive, unless you make specific exclusions.
Just be sure you TM backups are to a highly reliable external drive.  I use a NAS drive with RAID 1 (mirror) that has 3TB of usable storage.

Before you start using Carbon Copy, or any online backup system, make sure you fully understand:

  1. How long it actually takes to backup your entire drive
    (it could take days or even weeks, to backup what TM can do in a few hours)
  2. How long it actually takes to restore your entire drive
    (this could be days).
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5 minutes ago, JMichaelTX said:

IMO, using Time Machine is the simplest approach.  You spend a few minutes in setup one time, and then it just works.  By default, it backs up everything on your drive, unless you make specific exclusions.
Just be sure you TM backups are to a highly reliable external drive.  I use a NAS drive with RAID 1 (mirror) that has 3TB of usable storage.

Before you start using Carbon Copy, or any online backup system, make sure you fully understand:

  1. How long it actually takes to backup your entire drive
    (it could take days or even weeks, to backup what TM can do in a few hours)
  2. How long it actually takes to restore your entire drive
    (this could be days).

I actually do use Time Machine with a Time Capsule. A RAID would be better, I know. The reason for my original wish to back up the files in addition was just as an extra layer of security.

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4 minutes ago, DavidD said:

The reason for my original wish to back up the files in addition was just as an extra layer of security.

I think Cloud Backup systems are great for recovery from catastrophic losses.
I was just responding to the "simplest approach" comment. ;)

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2 minutes ago, JMichaelTX said:

I think Cloud Backup systems are great for recovery from catastrophic losses.
I was just responding to the "simplest approach" comment. ;)

No misunderstanding... Do you do anything in addition to the Time Machine backup?

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On March 8, 2016 at 5:34 PM, DavidD said:

Do you do anything in addition to the Time Machine backup? (cloud backup)

As part of my backup strategy, I  include the Evernote web servers and the copy of notes on my Ipad.
There is a flaw in that; if there's an error and something gets deleted - it will be replicated to the cloud and my devices.
This is the only offsite strategy I have.

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@DavidD:

For Mac users, I suggest the following backup strategy:

  1. Use Time Machine for the primary backup
  2. If you have Local Notebooks, backup to ENEX using a good backup strategy (full vs incremental)
  3. For irreplaceable, or hard-to-replace, notes/documents, backup to ENEX shortly after they are created.
  4. Use a Cloud Backup service like Crash Plan for recovery from catastrophic losses.
  5. For an extra layer of protection/comfort, export, and archive, all notes to ENEX every N months (1, 3, 6, or 12).
    • "Archive" here means permanent storage that you will never delete, perhaps moving to DVDs at some point.

I have EN Mac installed on 3 Macs, so there is some backup there.

I don't feel the need for anything like a daily, or even weekly, backup of all of my notes to ENEX.  Virtually all of my notes are in sync'd NBs, so if I have a local drive (SSD) crash (which almost never happens), a simple install of EN Mac on a new drive will recover all of my notes via download from the EN Cloud.

The worst case scenario, for me, would be deleting a irreplaceable note, then emptying the EN Trash, and then syncing.  So the note is now totally gone from Evernote, and not available elsewhere.  In that case, I would bite the bullet of doing a temp restore from TM of my entire EN Mac database, export the note in question to ENEX, and then put the current database back in place.

Although that is a bit laborious, I feel it is less effort than maintaining routine ENEX backups, especially considering that I expect that worst case scenario to be a very rare event.  In 6 years of using Evernote, I have NOT needed to recover a deleted note.

However, an even worst worst-case (does that make sense?), is deleting an irreplaceable note, and not discovering it is gone until years later.  At that point, I would not have an TM backups.  So that's where #5 above comes in.

Having said all that, I consider the backup strategy each person picks is like buying insurance -- each of us have a different risk tolerance and budget.  Choose that which best fits your needs.

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To clarify, I use Time Machine and Carbon Copy. Frankly I also think Evernote Note History is also a great feature to invest in. All serve specific, unique purposes. 

Mainly I was concerned about you trying to get a clean copy of just the database files. It's possible to do, but this could lead to false assumptions and bad outcomes that are beyond the scope of what I can talk to in this thread.

Personally I just like to avoid possible bad outcomes, and a bootable clone seems like a great way to create peace of mind, especially when bolstered by a Time Machine incremental backup.

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4 hours ago, briancaldwell said:

Frankly I also think Evernote Note History is also a great feature to invest in

I agree that Note History is an important part of backup strategy.

I don't count on the EverNote history completely.  For some reason, Evernote decided to drop the history data if you move the note to the trash (or any other notebook).  You've also lost the note history if you restore from a .enex export.

Instead, I maintain my own note history.  An export scheduled each morning of all notes updated the previous day.

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2 hours ago, briancaldwell said:

Mainly I was concerned about you trying to get a clean copy of just the database files. It's possible to do, but this could lead to false assumptions and bad outcomes that are beyond the scope of what I can talk to in this thread.

Brian, thanks for jumping in here.

However, you statement greatly concerns me.  Why should there be an issue of getting a "clean copy of just the database files"?

The "About Evernote" window tells us where the database is, correct?  Or is there some issue with that?

I certainly don't want to make any "false assumptions", or even "true" assumptions (whatever that means).  I don't want to make any assumptions at all (true or false).  I would much rather for Evernote to provide us with the facts necessary to make a good TM backup of the Evernote database.

Can you (or someone at Evernote) please provide us with the correct details?

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1 hour ago, briancaldwell said:

All I'm saying is that a clone of your drive is far superior to trying to ensure you copy all the correct files with a manual, file by file backup

Sorry Brian, but this does not make sense to me.  If all I want is to backup my EN Mac database, so I can restore later, it is way overkill to backup or clone my entire drive.  With Time Machine, I do NOT have to specify "file by file" what I want to backup.  

I see that you avoided answering my direct question:

21 hours ago, JMichaelTX said:

I would much rather for Evernote to provide us with the facts necessary to make a good TM backup of the Evernote database.

Can you (or someone at Evernote) please provide us with the correct details?

 

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4 minutes ago, msgvb said:

It looks like the Open Database Folder has been removed for version 6.10 (direct)

Anyone now how/where to find all the Evernote stuff for this version?

I still see the linkUntitled.jpeg.74e9757bd40350a69177a9577d14adc4.jpeg
Evernote > About Evernote and press the option key

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