Alvin C

Since v10 was launched in September last year, people have different opinions on the new version. Unlike most people I do appreciate the new UI and the note editor. Maybe I didn't engage in many functions in the old version.

But what makes me feel tired is its unreliability.

I downloaded v10.8.2 (the latest version so far) on my iPhone X, downloaded all my notes and tried to use it when offline. The app said I have all my notes downloaded, and that means I can access them without the internet. But some of the images in my notes can't appear, and my phone gets hotter even offline. When I connect my phone, those images can't be shown. And then I tried to look for workaround like clearing notes and redownloading and even reinstalling the app. Sometimes it's successful but sometimes other problems occur. I submit the ticket to the support team. Sometimes they are helpful with steps for me to follow, but sometimes they ask me to repeat the steps again (e.g. clear all my notes and download again).

I illustrate the above example to show that even though the performance and functionality of Evernote v10 is improving, it's still not ready for some users at least. At least I have to "help" them test the app to find out the real root of the issue. I test the app more than I use it, i.e. more than the app helps me.

Workaround is not a new thing on v10. It has been happening for at least nearly 10 years of my using. I can endure because it was acceptable, and there were support team members here to help. After v10, I think why, as a paid user, has to test your app more and more frequently; why it's not Evernote engineers who need to actively finding out all the bugs to fix before the customers report to them. I have spent a lot of time submitting and emailing to them, sending a lot of activity logs. But I'm really frustrated because I still can't see the app is reliable for me. Ranting mode: it seems I pay to work for them.

Actually I have already mitigated all my notes to Bear. But sometimes come back to Evernote and see. Every time I found that I wasted a lot of time. The productivity app does not make me more productive, not because of the design. It can be the team does not have any focus and goals (if I am not wrong, they can't provide a roadmap as required by many users, and they said that they didn't have goals. They sometimes fixed this and that while they introduced some things to the apps. Remember that on v10.3 they said Apple Watch version would be back, but they now don't say anything on this.). I wonder if the team does have some thoughts and ideas on what and how productivity is. Wonder if they don't know and don't want to know. If you are still frequent users, you may find they recently have some pop-ups to show what they have improved and added on the latest update (and they have checklists on the desktop to ensure you to know all the new things first). Do they know these "ads" can interrupt users' workflow? Do they really the app they are making is Evernote but not Facebook or Netflix?

And I think it's time to say the final goodbye to Evernote. The company may be much better in the future, but surely not these coming months. Maybe more than a decade. But I also need to say thanks to Evernote for the past nine years in my life.

18 hours ago, stocky2605 said:

thank you for your feedback @Alvin C - I really don‘t like to re-install because of my offline notebooks 😒

Yes I know, but this is also what Evernote suggested me. Just hope they can fix it in-depth.

You may need to delete the app and install it again. I found the problem does not occur after reinstalling.

On 3/4/2021 at 6:11 AM, chrisyeh said:

客服人員要我試過多種方法, 都不行, 最後要我等windows版10.9. 技術人員應該是回英文, 翻譯成中文, 讀起來有點奇怪, 但還可以理解.

經詢問10.9版要下星期才會釋出, 等待中........, 沒電腦版很麻煩, 一定要聯網才能使用, 覺得付費後出狀況, 有點後悔沒繼續用free版本......

台灣的客服好像一早已被解散。

試試在帳戶設定（網頁）中刪除Mac，然後再登入能否解決問題。

否則只能靠客服處理，甚至準備好撤離和轉移資料到別的筆記app。

12 hours ago, Kolmir said:

LOL! There is a significant difference between stable core plus some temporary functional bugs on the surface, and poor design of a fundamental structures and someway polished surface.

If you are unable to see a difference, I cannot help you…

BTW EvN is reactive not preventive therefor we can't talk about a strategy... They only have tactics and vague goals.

However, if fast-food alike standards of EvN are enough for you, it's OK. My best wishes. EOT.

If you view apps and their companies from their ways of doing, you can't easily have trust on the company who will provide a stable and reliable app in the short and long run. The foundation is the point.

Long-time users have tolerated Evernote for long, and they always created workarounds while those bugs were annoying but acceptable on the whole. Evernote's announcement of rewriting apps gave them hope, but turned out much worse scenario after releasing v10. Some users realise that they have to change.

I agree with the thread starter on the true power of Evernote, and I like some of the UI compared to past version. Over the half of a year Evernote has indeed improved, but doesn't mean the app is ready to use / reliable in some cases. For example, some of the downloaded notes still can't be accessed offline, and the iPhone is very hot especially when NOT connecting to the Internet. I have of course submitted the ticket, and the staff asked me to follow the steps to redownloading the notes, and things seem solved at the moment. However when he handed over my case to senior staff, he/she asked me to clear all the notes and download again. I think it's enough, and I am not here to pay you to become a beta tester. (I have registered to become a beta tester for upcoming version for many times, but the company never invites me.) To a certain extent I insist on the team actively finding bugs before users report.

I also agree with @Kolmir on consistency. For example you still can't adjust the width of column in a table on phones and tablets, and you can only copy web note links (https://www.evernote.com/...) on mobile but can't copy app links (Evernote://...). These differences seem to be out of random rather than having reasons for that. Maybe the codes are still complex that they are not able to achieve consistency at this moment (more issues / bugs may be created as a result).

That's why I switched to Bear. Bear also has some inconsistency (like find in note can't be done on mobile) and bugs, but it is useable, fast and reliable overall. And they did tell users that while being busy on a new editor, they are addressing some of the issues I have just mentioned. Bear may not be as powerful as Evernote, but it doesn't waste my time to test every part of an app.

49 minutes ago, Sophie11 said:

I have the latest update and still cannot copy & paste images INTO my Evernotes. I Cenegage for UNI which has an EN extension but the feature doesn't work for any image. This is extremely frustrating!

Has there been any updates from EN support?

When I try to open the file, it says we do not support this format. But it did 2 weeks ago.

Is that the image used to be in .jpg format? Sometimes I notice some of the jpg can be turned to png and even with a much larger size, e.g. 3MB > 30MB.

1 hour ago, NightStalker said:

I suspect that every complaint in this entire thread is due to the new versions of Evernote being written in Electron.  I've tried alternatives, like Notejoy, Nimbus Note, but they're also written in Electron, and are not really any snappier than Evernote.  So I'm sticking with v7.14 on the Mac, and ignoring the reminder blurbs that keep popping up telling me it's time to upgrade.  No way...!

It's just a pity that there is no downgrade pathway for iOS on my iPhone or iPad - those new versions are terrible, too, especially the clipper!

And to think that while we had v7.14 on the Mac and the previous versions on iOS, they were all working so well...!

The problem with searching for an alternative, and I have tried many, is that at best, they're still not even as good as Evernote has been.  But what they don't seem to realize is that they need to be not just "as good" - they need to be BETTER, so that there is incentive to switch.  If they're only "as good", then where is the incentive to switch?  May as well stick with EN until they get it right...!

 

I think Evernote's code may be more complicated than other apps (app size is 300mb after downloading). I may not be right because I am not an engineer.

But in some cases Evernote is better than Notion. I don't know how Notion is now. In Sept last year, Notion lagged a second or two when opening every note. On Evernote even v10.0.x, it is a bit faster but a bit laggy in some situations like typing in my language.

I just accept the performance now but I don't mean the app is nice compared to other apps especially Bear. My iPhone X feels really hot when editing notes, and sometimes sync does not work when you are back to the phone's Home Screen without returning to note list waiting for sync complete. I prefer they improve more in terms of performance and reliability first before launching Home, Tasks and other entirely new functionality.

10 hours ago, ObviousBob said:

The nice thing about Craft is that it was developed with mobile in mind. Unlike Evernote, all features are available on mobile and the desktop, and you can do editing on iOS with gestures, no more awkward cutting  & pasting. And as you say, it is really a great looking app. Not as feature rich as Evernote, but it is constantly adding features, and at a quicker pace than Evernote.

I also heard that Craft came with 1.0 almost bug-free. iPad is also my concern as I expect the app can function as on Mac. This is very disappointing when the new Evernote for iPad is just an iPhone app with bigger screen.

I use Bear because the functions and interfaces are almost the same on iPhone, iPad and Mac. You can also export and import notes on iPhone and iPad as well. On Evernote, I need to waste more time on Mac when, for example, you add an internal note link (web link on iPhone/iPad vs app link on Mac), create and edit a table (still 3X2 on iPhone), rename an attachment (only on Mac), no Home (although it's understandable that widget will be much better on iPhone)... more importantly functions are working in different ways in different devices (like tagging).

Just don't understand (when they stress unifying codes) why don't they unify interfaces and functions in all devices and OS (with some exceptions). 

10 hours ago, bigtelco said:

You might also check out Craft Notes. Although it lacks tags, the iOS interface is amazing, it has far superior Apple Pencil support and they just rolled out Toggle Outlines.   I have found the platform to be extremely stable and the notes are, well, beautiful.  Still, none of these options replace the storage capability of Evernote... provided of course that your note is actually stored.  Maybe Devonthink and a tag system in iCloud, or search in Google Drive are the only alternatives.  Ugh....

Is it like Notion while it's not an Electron app? I tried Notion before but I just realised it's a sense of control (with various dashboard). I like Evernote just because I can add some colours and formats in my note which helps me think something better.

Bear is great as well because of the link function (wiki link and generation of link through searching in note editor). Although text cannot be coloured and there is only one colour in highlight. Not to mention the latest widgets for iOS 14, reliability and speed (2s to open on Mac vs 12s for Evernote), as well as their upcoming new editor supporting tables / hiding Markdowns / scanning documents / advanced Apple Pencil support.

Meanwhile I am using more and more GoodNotes, especially when I am reading.

Although I already left Evernote for Bear, I keep trying it when it is updated. But every time I have to delete it again and again.

This time:

• A note added on desktop web version was synced successfully on iPad... after 9 minutes.
• Notes (>30) downloaded successfully after installing. However when I update some notes, notes need to be redownloading and the process is never completed.
• Scanned document is still incomplete. The camera does capture the whole area, but I am only allowed to crop within, say 60% of the area. I cannot crop the shape I like as before (just like now what Apple Notes can do that Evernote/Scannable used to be able to)
• The phone is still hot even when not in use. Battery drain is serious in my case.
• App link still cannot be copied on iPhone and iPad, but the external website link. (So you will open a note in a browser when you are using Mac or Windows.)

The overall performance does improve, but will let you frustrate in some cases. If you are lucky, okay. If you are not, sorry. That's why people even opt for Apple Notes, for stability and reliability. It's not strange why Evernote users rather choose something simpler, and simplicity can bring productivity.

To be honest Evernote has improved faster than I think. But it's already five months since launching the new iOS version. For users it's long time although for the team they are moving quite fast.

or you can email a copy and copy and paste from the copy. Should be a better than nothing solution at this moment.

The only way to copy the image is to save it first and upload it to the place you want. Yes, not a good user experience at all.

There were users discussing this issue almost half a year ago, but Evernote officials did not address it.

I understand they are working hard in fixing the app, but stilling not usable for some people is reality which can't be ignored.

And I don't think users are ranting as they are explaining how that happens in detail. Empathy with and understanding different kinds of customers is a very important and basic process in designing/rewriting an app.

5 hours ago, Shane D. said:

Coming Soon:

- Table editing
- Apple Watch support
- Search in PDF files
- iOS Widget

These has been mentioned since v10.2. They say coming soon but we may end up waiting for at least half a year, so in v10.4, 10.5, 10.6, 10.7... we may see the same coming soon statement. Such a big liar to customers.

1 hour ago, Angry said:

Whaaat?

Can you please write this in the iOS section of the forum?

 

Yes, they really need to bring search to whatever situations.

Now on Mac you can search online with instant suggestions, and offline without suggestions ('enter' needed after typing keywords). While on iOS you can only search online with instant suggestions, and offline search is impossible even you have all your notes downloaded.

They think you can pay for a wifi if you want to search inflight haha!

5 hours ago, s2sailor said:

Have you selected the notebooks that you want available offline within the app?  The iOS default is to not download notebooks.  That said, there are some problems with this with larger notebooks.

How about editing your post title to something less offensive?

I downloaded all the notes and search is not possible. I submitted the ticket and the official admits the search is online only. They are considering having this for offline.

6 hours ago, tavor said:

The bolded part cannot be emphasized enough for those who prioritize privacy and security. To be fair to EN, they are not alone in this approach. Many note apps are not offering either:

(1) local-only notes that are not uploaded to app provider's cloud, OR

(2) E2E encryption that does not leave the encryption key in the app provider's hands

And with a full cloud model, good luck accessing your notes if there is an outage (at EN, at their cloud provider, or at your broadband provider) or if you lose power at your home and cannot power your broadband equipment.

I hope they reconsider, as they are best in class in the note space, but after listening to the CEO in a few different conversations, it's clear to me they are full steam ahead (though if enough users opt out, well, the business doesn't exist without the users, so it remains to be seen what proportion of users draws the line vs goes along).

I've been looking at alternatives, and like @NorcalScottI'm testing out Joplin. 

Now we can still have an offline access because Evernote allows, but cloud default, sending to cloud first, no local. But for some services like Notion, they totally depend on internet connection.

After version 10, it seems Evernote is more dependent on cloud because of cancelling local notes and the new search. I found that I can't search on iOS while I can search (without immediate so called smart search suggestions showing you related tags, notebooks ...) on macOS. Even when there is perfect internet connection I need to wait for the server to update my database. I contact the support and they admit the search is for online only, and they are considering releasing the offline one.

My database used to be corrupted before as my deleted note information was shown on search results, and I had to contact support to fix the issue. Now the problem is almost solved as I still find those notes when I search "checkboxes". Cloud dependent services can make a problem more complicated because you don't know whether the root on my end or the server end, and I am concerned about my data cannot be totally deleted in this case.

I prefer local default note taking apps like Joplin, Apple Notes and Bear. I am using Bear now and the search result is instantaneous. Bear doesn't have their own cloud, although the app only allows the iCloud option depending on our own Apple account to sync.

Google had an outage a few days ago and Evernote is using the Google resources. Dunno if there was an interruption on EN during that period.

I find it occur when deleting a tag every time.

On v10.5.7, macOS v11.1, MacBook Air (2018)

6 hours ago, tavor said:

Right. And what they should have done was noted that in the update notification. Most people don't read release notes anymore as we've all gotten used to the numerous and frequent updates of nearly all the apps we use on our desktops/laptops and mobile devices. MANY users thought they were getting a "regular"/minor update, and didn't realize that instead they were getting a gut renovated new version. If they had made that clear in the update notification, they would have saved themselves and many of their users a lot of grief and wasted time.

Just another data point that demonstrates that power users are not their priority (I'm not angry, I understand it, as described in earlier posts).

I heard some users said they were notified in their old version to update, which means they were encouraged to download the new version to the old one. Which contradicts what the release note implies that "thinking twice before updating".

"Please be aware that..." is just an escape clause that Evernote has NO responsibility when you get this buggy product. This is you who CHOOSE to download the product not ME (EN) who didn't force you to do that.

Power users are not their priority, and I don't know who are really their priority. As everyone gets this garbage now.

Late to admit mistakes but better than nothing.

However he didn't mention when users were working hard to report bugs and provide feedbacks.

As a writer (sorry I forget who) said trust is like a China plate. When it is broken you can't go back to the state before breaking. Even you glue the pieces together.

Yes, better update. But why can't app link be copied in iOS? I can only copy web internal link on iPhone/iPad and so on Mac I open the note link in a browser.

Simple markdown has been supported as well.

52 minutes ago, MrIllustrator said:

We care about your data, the actual users of Evernote classic, but new Evernote have proven by their total lack of feedback to this shocking terrible “upgrade” they don’t care one jot for your or my data. We are just tiny numbers in their bigger picture that count for literally nothing. I feel betrayed and de-valued, stupid of me I suppose to think for one second I was important as one of their long term paying customers. 
Their silence is deafening. Version 10 is unusable and they glibly say they will no longer support the classic version any time soon, then what will we do?

You are not alone. Actually Evernote has ignored ALL kinds of users since no users can have a stable and usable app to use. The recent limiting devices has pissed off many free users to Notion as you can see their voices on Twitter.

More than four weeks not updating. Seems they have no ideas in fixing. Signs of giving up.