Syncing Notebooks for Offline Use

[TechBarber 100]

I left Evernote for about 4 days to explore other possibilities after the price hike (I'm a premium subscriber), but for various reasons I've decided I just love this app too much, and I've come back.

One of the things that I've decided to implement upon my return - and now that I have a 64GB phone - is offline notes. I have about 1500 notes consisting of about, oh, 3GB maybe. 

Last night when I got home from work I went into the EN settings and selected "Offline Notebooks" and "Download all notes". I checked on the progress throughout the evening by viewing my notebooks - it shows a little progress bar under each one. I know it's 3GB which is a decent size and it'll take a while, but after leaving it overnight it's still only about 1/4 the way finished. 

My internet connection is pretty fast, and just last night I updated an Xbox game in about 5 minutes - the download was 650MB. 

I also noticed that when I unlock my phone or go back into the EN app, it appears to be starting a sync each time as it says "Looking for files to download". It's almost as if it only syncs when I have the EN app open.

I have enabled background refresh thinking that might help but no. Still slow. 

Just wondering if anyone has any ideas to speed this along.

 

[DTLow 5,736]

7 minutes ago, TechBarber said:

I left Evernote for about 4 days to explore other possibilities after the price hike (I'm a premium subscriber), but for various reasons I've decided I just love this app too much, and I've come back.

One of the things that I've decided to implement upon my return - and now that I have a 64GB phone - is offline notes.

Just curious as to your reasoning.  I use offline notebooks to ensure I have access to my notes if I don't have an internet connection.  The data seems inaccessible for any other purpose

I have no advice on speeding up the process.  I have double the size and it downloaded in a couple of days

[TechBarber 100]

My reasoning for trying other services or for wanting offline notebooks?

I think you're referring to offline notebooks....

I tend to overdo things in the tech world. My desktop is backed up to an external drive and to Crashplan, with important files duplicated yet again on services like Flickr and GoogleDrive. I'm thinking that for a relatively small amount of storage space on my phone that these notes will take, it's worth it in the event I'm ever lost without a data connection. I use EN a lot to store event tickets and other such documents so I'm terrified of that moment where I need something and for some reason I have no cell connection. 

By setting up offline notes I know that I have everything all the time, even if I'm stranded in the middle of the Sahara. Hey - it could happen.

[CalS 5,280]

2 hours ago, TechBarber said:

I left Evernote for about 4 days to explore other possibilities after the price hike (I'm a premium subscriber), but for various reasons I've decided I just love this app too much, and I've come back.

One of the things that I've decided to implement upon my return - and now that I have a 64GB phone - is offline notes. I have about 1500 notes consisting of about, oh, 3GB maybe. 

Last night when I got home from work I went into the EN settings and selected "Offline Notebooks" and "Download all notes". I checked on the progress throughout the evening by viewing my notebooks - it shows a little progress bar under each one. I know it's 3GB which is a decent size and it'll take a while, but after leaving it overnight it's still only about 1/4 the way finished. 

My internet connection is pretty fast, and just last night I updated an Xbox game in about 5 minutes - the download was 650MB. 

I also noticed that when I unlock my phone or go back into the EN app, it appears to be starting a sync each time as it says "Looking for files to download". It's almost as if it only syncs when I have the EN app open.

I have enabled background refresh thinking that might help but no. Still slow. 

Just wondering if anyone has any ideas to speed this along.

 

Try Turning auto lock off until the sync is complete.  Worked for me.  But keep an eye on your iCloud storage.  For some reason my EN data got included in the iCloud backup and blew up that size.  I have since modified my process to one small notebook for offline notes where I move notes in and out based upon need.  There's a thread in the forum somewhere relative to that.  

[gazumped 11,652]

Hi.  No experience to help here - like Cal I use a small notebook for current meetings and info and swop notes in and out of that notebook as necessary (and when I remember!).  Just a suggestion - do you have 'sync only on wifi' on or off?  I'd toggle that and switch off mobile data to see whether there's a limiter in the system somewhere to look after your mobile bandwidth.

[TechBarber 100]

44 minutes ago, csihilling said:

Try Turning auto lock off until the sync is complete.  Worked for me.  But keep an eye on your iCloud storage.  For some reason my EN data got included in the iCloud backup and blew up that size.  I have since modified my process to one small notebook for offline notes where I move notes in and out based upon need.  There's a thread in the forum somewhere relative to that.  

I'm at work right now and we have painfully slow Wi-Fi here. I'll give this a shot when I get home tonight, thanks.

@gazumped - that's an idea too, just move everything into a single, offline notebook. My fear in doing that is that my memory....well, it's no elephant. 

[gazumped 11,652]

Not sure I was advocating one huge notebook - and it depends where you have your database stored.  My main storage is a 64GB SD card but I can't move Evernote there - I assume the system uses it for temporary memory,  but Android (as you probably know) don't give users much control over what goes there unless it's media files.

[CalS 5,280]

You are welcome.  Hope it works.

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

10 hours ago, csihilling said:

But keep an eye on your iCloud storage.  For some reason my EN data got included in the iCloud backup and blew up that size.

There is a difference between iCloud Storage and iCloud Backup.  I have turned ICloud Backup OFF, and I have not seen any impact to my ICloud Storage due to Evernote Offline Notebooks in my iOS devices.

@TechBarber, see this post for more info:

 

[DTLow 5,736]

On July 14, 2016 at 3:57 AM, TechBarber said:

Just wondering if anyone has any ideas to speed this along.

No ideas; just letting you know that I duplicated your problem

8000 notes and the download is incredibly slow

Completed July 17 5pm

[NewUser201509 1]

On 7/14/2016 at 9:11 AM, gazumped said:

Not sure I was advocating one huge notebook - and it depends where you have your database stored.  My main storage is a 64GB SD card but I can't move Evernote there - I assume the system uses it for temporary memory,  but Android (as you probably know) don't give users much control over what goes there unless it's media files.

1. TechBarber may have been refering to his memory, eg. to remembering to anticipate and swoop file to/from the designated "offline notebook". My brain also does not have the memory of an elephant ;-)

2. Word of caution regarding storing on SD card on phones, at least based experiences both my girlfriend and I have had. 

    2a. SD cards can and have failed, blocking or corrupting access to or syncing of content on that card.

        2a.1 (On a related note, I'm not a techy, but if EN was syncing to an SD card when you have online acces and that card blows-up, might that corrupt the logs and data needed for EN to compete the first sync after the storage directories are lost or replaced. E.g. If EN compares file name, save date, size or other data to logged data from previous sync or the Master version of a file to determine if either file has changed and if or how to back sync, could it get fatally confused if either file or destination is corrupted? ) (I'm a bit like TechBarb

         2a.2  I'm a bit like Techbarber, in that I am freakishly over-zealous about data integrity, control and security (not to suggest Techbarber as extreme as I am). Therefore, I don't trust most sync software and prefer to manually create my own back-ups, in multiple locations and in father-grandfather-greatgrandfather structures. I also hate to need to access something and not be able to do so, especially since that tends to happen when you need it most.

2b. I believe most auto-back-ups of mobile devices (e.g. verizon cloud, icloud?, Samsung cloud, etc.) may only back-up device storage (and perhaps only certain folders) and nothing on the SD card.