Bill Myers

@Boot17, you're entirely correct! I tried your solution and it worked. You win my "awesomest forum member of the day" award, which literally comes with no prize which is probably why no one cares about it. And it literally just occurred to me that when I search without quotes, Evernote is returning notes that match just one letter because one of the words in my search string is a one-letter word. I win the "idiot of the day" award. Forgive me, I'm tired this morning.

No one is coming up with "excuses," because we're all users and therefore not responsible for the cost of Evernote. And we couldn't change or influence it if we tried. It's just that some of us see the value and are choosing to stay with the service. If you don't agree with us, you're free to leave. There's no point in complaining here, though. If your goal is to get Bending Spoons to lower the prices, have you noticed that there has been a deluge of complaints since the price increases took effect and it hasn't changed a thing? If you're looking for people to agree with you, that might make you feel better temporarily; but then you'll notice you're still paying the same amount and feel PO'd again. And none of this helps you with your search problem. My suggestion: stay with Evernote and try tech support. Or leave Evernote and move on.

I just tried to reproduce the issue on my iPhone, also running iOS 16.1. I think my Evernote app is up to date but I would have to check that later. Anyway, I'm seeing the same issue you are -- or maybe even worse. I tried three words in quotes -- a search string that should only appear in one of my notes. The search returned several notes, some of them because Evernote found literally just one letter in common with the search string. I tried the search again without quotes and got the exact same result. So you're not alone in this. Best I can suggest is tech support, though. None of us can get under the hood and figure out what's wrong because we're not Evernote employees. I'll probably submit a ticket myself later.

YES to this. I sell IT services for a living and I interface with our tech support staff as part of account management. It's important for support staff to set their assumptions aside and follow a specific troubleshooting methodology. It's not always fun for them either, but if they fail to do so they risk missing the true cause of the issue. I've worked with tech support people who don't do that, and it can lead to bad outcomes. Plus, you'd be shocked how many times people call in to tech support and say things like "my printer isn't working" only for the tech support person to uncover that the machine wasn't plugged in or was out of paper. This is not hyperbole.

Over the years I've also had encounters with Evernote support that were unsatisfactory. But I had two fairly recent experiences with Evernote support -- one prior to the acquisition, one after -- that left me feeling quite happy. If this problem is bothering you, it might not hurt to try support again.

I suppose that's possible. But I've always found you to be pleasant, reasonable, knowledgeable and helpful. I'm not really sure how anyone could find your posts offensive.

True. It does mean accepting something I don't like but is out of my control. I feel like "I hate Evernote" commentary crowds out users just helping users, and I wish it was the other way around. But... it doesn't matter what I like or don't like. It just is what it is. I can ignore posts and threads I don't like. I can even stop coming to the forum if that's what's best for me (without announcing my departure from the forum, of course).

No, I daresay everyone here fully understands how angry some of you are. It's coming through loud and clear. Ear-splittingly loud and clear. It's just that some people are trying to point out that the reasoning behind your anger may not be correct. Informing a customer of a price increase 30 days before their subscription renewal date isn't uncommon in the tech world. There is no echo chamber, by the way. At least a couple of the forum members participating in this thread who I think you'd identify as "the same soldiers" have been critical of Evernote over the last few years, both in forum threads and elsewhere. They just don't agree with you in this circumstance. Still, you have a right to feel angry if you wish, and a right to walk away from Evernote. I just don't understand why you have to let us know about it. This forum is mostly frequented by other Evernote users. You leaving isn't of great interest to me.

Speak for yourself, pal. That life-sized fiberglass Superman statue I bought from Sharper Image back in the day was a STEAL at $2,500!

You're so right! I told my wife we wouldn't be eating this week because I need Evernote! Seriously? NOW you tell me? After my wife tells me she's divorcing me?

People have a right to be angry with Evernote, and to cancel their subscription if they feel the solution or customer service isn't to their liking. People have a right to complain to Evernote, for that matter. There's no need for anyone to announce their departure from Evernote in this forum, though. Just cancel, leave, and move on with your life. There's also no need to insult fellow forum members. This isn't the first time I've seen someone take a potshot at @PinkElephant. We all know that ignoring people we don't like is an option, right? While I think it's admirable to set the record straight when the "Bye Evernote!" crowd says things in anger that don't hold up to scrutiny, after a certain point it becomes wasted effort. I don't think these people are coming to the forum because they're in a mood to be reasoned with. A couple of months ago, I started a new job as a salesperson for a small IT solutions provider. And we've actually faced a problem similar to Evernote. For many years, my company held the line on prices for service contracts only to finally have to raise them this year due to economic forces. Some customers reacted negatively to what they perceived to be a steep increase. We've realized we would have been better off raising prices a bit every year. People -- even businesspeople, whom we serve -- are less apt to do the math than to react emotionally. Studies have shown there are many ways in which we consumers act irrationally and against our own interests (and I am not saying I'm immune, BTW). Sometimes we are our own worst enemies.

I'm going to express what I think will be an unpopular opinion: if you're getting something for free, you're not entitled to it. It can be taken away at any time. (I realize paid services can be taken away from you too, either because a company discontinues them or goes belly up. But at least they have a legal obligation to compensate you with a partial refund for your subscription. I'm not saying they will. Just that they're supposed to.) I was wondering when, not if, Bending Spoons would tighten the restrictions on free accounts. It make sense. Evernote isn't ad-supported. As for whether the price for subscription plans is too steep to lure free users to sign up, all debates are moot. This will either be a good move for Bending Spoons, or it won't. Always the broken record, I'll simply say that I find Evernote worth the cost for the moment, but if I change my mind and bail I guarantee you won't know about it. I see no reason to announce if I choose to depart. I'm not Taylor Swift. Nobody cares that much about what I do. I'm good with that.

I think @gazumped's advice is good. I'll follow that up by mentioning some technology providers will advise against individual users submitting multiple tickets for the same issue, warning that it could delay their response. I'm not saying I know that's the case here -- this is a user forum, and I have no inside knowledge about what goes on at Bending Spoons, Evernote's owner -- but I can't imagine submitting multiple tickets could help. I think @gazumped is correct: your best play is to give it a bit more time.

I know this advice has a bit of a "close the barn door after the horses got out" vibe, but I almost ran afoul of this issue when I was on a free account for a month or so earlier this year. Word to the wise: anyone else considering a downgrade to a free account would be well-served to sign out of Evernote on all devices except the two they intend to continue using the application on. And bear in mind that the Web client counts as a device for these purposes. I know it seems annoying but it's also fair. Otherwise, what's to stop someone from just logging out of one device and logging into another ad infinitum to get around the device limit? Unless you're one of those who thinks any limitations on the free account are inherently unfair. We'll just have to agree to disagree in that case.

Yeah, but the inflammatory title lends itself to some entertaining imaginary scenarios on my part. I'm seeing Evernote as some kind of terrorist group holding notes in an account hostage. One of those notes is shared with others and begins, "These are my words and I have written them of my own free will." I know I risk upsetting our OP further. But sometimes I just can't help myself.

I may be off base here -- some of the more technically adept forum members might be able to tell me if I am -- but I seem to recall that notes created prior to the new sync architecture being rolled out had to be converted which might account for some of the slowness in downloading everything. Maybe that's what you experienced? If so it should be a one-time thing. Again -- I could be off-base. I had the same experience with v10 when it was rolled out. It was missing capabilities I liked and in general I was unhappy with it. The problem is that Bending Spoons is moving forward with new sync and other features and eventually the legacy version will be completely unusable. If you want to keep using Evernote, you'll have to make your peace with the new version. If it helps, even though I hated v10 at first I've come to like it. Some features I liked were permanently deprecated, which was a bummer for me. But I've learned to adopt some of the new features and I'm actually enjoying them. The Home screen has become a vital part of my daily workflow, with multiple pinned notes to walk me through some of my daily routines. If there are specific features you feel are missing or you can't find in the new version, I suggest you post what those are specifically. Some of the more experienced users (not me, but others) might be able to help you identify how to accomplish what you need in the new version. Oh, and there is an advantage to the new version -- because they can roll out changes and updates much more quickly now, bugs are squished more rapidly than ever before. Also, it's nice to see them rolling out new features on the regular. At one time, Evernote was stagnating. Love or hate the new changes, you can't claim it's stagnant now.

I would if I were you. If I may be permitted to stray way off-topic, the LastPass data breach was unforgivable and they are no longer worthy of trust.

One of the reasons I've preferred the Evernote way. I prefer to be the customer rather than the product.

I don't want to get too deep into this conversation, because it's the "Evernote User Forum" and not the "Bill Myers Capitalism Critique Forum." I'll just say that in an economy like ours it's understandable that the higher up you are in an organization, the greater your compensation. But I think the majority pattern is one where the differential is just too great. I feel that the risk-reward formula has become one where the executives reap nearly all the rewards and the rank-and-file bear most of the risk. But in fairness I let my feelings get the better of me. I have no idea how Small was compensated relative to anyone else. I'll just say, again, I feel bad for the people who lost their jobs. I realize the work world isn't playing bean-bag, and life is tough. But I feel like we could treat the rank-and-file less like cogs than we do, and still have a functioning capitalist society. I'll let my rant rest there, because none of this adds to our understanding of how to use Evernote.

That's fair. We don't know who was paid what, and it's not actually any of our business. My fear is that Small got a much cushier landing than others on the much lower rungs, and there is precedent to support that fear. Feelings are not facts, though. Hopefully everyone who left -- whether voluntarily or not -- will find good fortune elsewhere.

That's fair, and it doesn't pay to worry about things outside of our control. But the potential issue here for customers is not where the staff are located. My concern is that Bending Spoons pretty much fired all "legacy" Evernote employees for "efficiency's" sake. Bending Spoons top brass seems pretty confident they no longer need the knowledge and expertise of those employees. They may be right. But I've seen too many such transitions go awry to feel equally confident. I was actually trying to be optimistic about the acquisition, but Bending Spoons performance out of the starting gate hasn't inspired confidence. Creating bugs that caused some users to lose data doesn't inspire confidence in an application with a raison d'etre of not losing your data. That's very much our business. But complaints and worry do us no good, so I'm creating an exit plan. Everyone has to decide their own risk tolerance, but I'd suggest that anyone else who like me has decided to stay might want to have a Plan B as well.

It's not gonna do any good. Have you seen some of the dumb sh*t I've posted in this forum? Those actually are my best thoughts. Thank God I'm just a user and not a Bending Spoons employee. Wanna see Evernote really go off the rails? Give me the reins. That'd be a total "hold my beer" moment.

No, I'm the one who should apologize. The point had already been made. Sometimes I can be a bit... pedantic (there are other words I could use but I suspect the forum software wouldn't allow them). Long story short, I'm just bummed for the people who have lost their jobs. And selfishly I hope the transition doesn't hurt the quality of service for Evernote. But like many things in life, it's all outside my control.

That may sound like a lot, but four months can go by pretty quickly when trying to find the right fit for a new job. Unemployment by design doesn't pay nearly as much as a good-paying job, and is time-limited. I had a job search a few years ago that took six months. Being laid off can result in having to bleed savings and make other unfortunate sacrifices, no matter how "generous" the severance. Plus there's the emotional impact of being kicked to the curb and having to start over somewhere else. I don't think any of us can know whether any of this was fair, because we don't know how well Small was compensated relative to the rest of the organization. That's why I said I "fear" that Small's rewards may have been outsized compared to others without whom his successful would not have been possible. We can't know for sure, but given what I know of other, similar situations, I have trouble shaking the feeling that the fired employees received a raw deal. As for whether Small did what he was hired to do, I don't want to unjustifiably cast aspersions on him but we're all the heroes of our own stories, aren't we? If he did his job well then I wish him well. But I just wonder if CEOs are truly exposed to as much risk and uncertainty as those much lower in the organization. We're always told rewards should be commensurate with the risks taken, yet I don't always see that being the case. YMMV.

Well, you might feel that way. But I don't. I don't have a lot of notes in Evernote, but it's a big part of my daily workflow. Nevertheless, at $35-$40 a month, I'd drop Evernote like a hot potato. I think the thing about these discussions that is unfortunate is that none of us have the data necessary to know whether Bending Spoons' pricing is too high, too low or just right for market conditions. So why even bother? The market will do what the market will do. Bending Spoons will either succeed or fail with Evernote. All we can do as customers is decide for ourselves whether the current cost is justified. And those of us who choose to stay will have to do our best to assess the risk and our own tolerance for that risk, and act accordingly. We place our bets, and win or lose, life goes on.