Gavin Gough

DEVONthink has a dedicated Evernote import feature, so transferring files is as simple as selecting a notebook and importing the notes. Tags and annotations are transferred to DEVONthink intact along with a bookmark to the original Evernote note, just in case. However, this feature only works with Evernote 7.x and won't work with Evernote 10 (where have we heard that before?). I've found the DEVONthink manual easy to follow and a friendly online community forum ready to answer questions. So far, I have encountered no problems and I'm happy with the results. My main issue for me is going to be changing links to Evernote notes in third-party apps in favour of DEVONthink links but at least I *can* create a link to a DEVONthink note, something that's no longer possible in Evernote. To be clear, Evernote 7 worked perfectly well for me and I've been an enthusiastic advocate of Evernote for many years, until this release. It may not be a solution for everybody, but switching has allowed me to get back to work with the minimum of interruption.

I feel a little guilty posting about alternative solutions on an Evernote forum but suspect there are other users who, like me, have joined the Preview and Beta programmes and contributed feedback but are disappointed with the recent releases. I've also been frustrated at what appears to be a rush to release the new versions before they're ready. We've lost a lot of basic functionality and it's often felt like a losing battle trying to maintain a relatively simple workflow. Personally, after 12 years, I've cancelled my Evernote subscription and switched to DEVONthink. It took a couple of days to transfer my notes (about 5,000), which provided an opportunity to review my notes, delete redundant ones and reorganise. DEVONthink seems to be a great solution for document management. It took me a little while to become familiar with the interface but I've discovered a lot of useful document management tools. It feels as if the development focus has been on making a tool that works, rather than looking pretty. I guess an interesting measure of whether switching has been successful or not is that I feel positive about moving forward with DEVONthink whereas Evernote has just become a source of frustration. It may not work for everybody but, for my needs, DEVONthink is getting the job done. And that's what matters.

Hi, thanks for your reply. It's good to know Classic links will be reinstated. Existing links do work, as you say, but not in the same way. Previously, clicking an evernote:// link would open that note in a new window, which was ideal. Now, focus moves to the current note in Evernote, losing focus on the note currently selected. If the Evernote window is full-screen, it's necessary to go and find it. It's a different behaviour and whilst it's not a huge deal, it's another example of something that previously worked simply and effectively is now a lot more awkward. It is possible to create a list of notes, as you described. Thanks for that. But, again, here are several steps to replace a feature that previously took one. Yes, a bulleted list can be reordered. That's handy. Is it better than the previous one-click approach? I'd say that's debatable. For me, no, it's more cumbersome. Finally, I really do appreciate the feedback and can see that some of these issues might be resolved in the future. But they came up in the Beta testing. The issue about internal links certainly did. The lack of tabs too. You and I spoke in the forum about the mess with annotation summaries and I spent some time providing examples and system logs. I'm really struggling to understand why this release has been pushed out before these things were fixed. They're not flourishes I'm looking for, they're basic workflow functions. I can't work with this version so have returned to the previous release. Therefore testing the issues you mentioned requires reinstalling 10.0.10. You're welcome. The iOS release is just as bad. Not relevant to this forum thread, I know, but relevant to the question of why Evernote appears to be pushing out a product before it's ready. It was literally impossible to type the title of a note in the first iOS 10 release. And here's a quick sketch note I just added in the most recent version. It says, "Here is a note that I am writing with the sketch option in Evernote iOS". If you can guess what the last sentence says, I'll give a special prize. I certainly don't know and I wrote it! And that illustrates my bigger point. What was a perfectly usable and productive app has been broken. The cosmetic changes are lovely and I appreciate them. I also understand that you can't please all the people all the time and satisfying all users is impossible. But when it's not possible to write the heading of a note or add handwriting to a note or link to a note or annotate a note or open more than one note... it's no longer a usable notes app. Is it?

I've participated in the Preview and the Beta programmes for this release. I've noted bugs when I've seen them, responded to the feedback questionnaires and posted observations to the Preview and Beta forums. I'm really surprised to see this release go live when the most recent beta didn't seem nearly ready. It feels as if this release has been rushed rather too rapidly. Perhaps to catch up with the iOS release? It doesn't even feel like a robust Beta, let alone a full release. I appreciate this is a "journey" and improvements can still be made, etc. etc. but shouldn't the app at least... you know... work? I made a list of some of the basic functionality that I was waiting to see fixed. I say "fixed" because these are all things that already existed in the previous release and have not been implemented in 10.0.10. Tabs! - Imagine using a web browser and the developer removed the ability to open more than one tab at a time. My mother only uses one tab in her web browser but I suspect she might be in the minority. This was highlighted early on in the beta programme and seems to have been ignored. Local links - Again, highlighted early on and seemingly ignored. Not only does it seem impossible to create a local link to a note, existing evernote:// links no longer work. Imagine if you were a paying Evernote customer (I am) who'd created a lot of links in other applications (I have)! No need to imagine, I guess. So all the carefully-crafted links are not honoured. Why take this functionality away? Or why send out a product before it has this basic functionality included? </rhetorical> PDF Annotation Summaries - I annotate documents, research papers etc. Previously, annotations were summarised at the top of the note. Really useful stuff! That's no longer available. Not only that, my existing annotation summaries have lost all recognisable formatting. Highlights in the wrong places, text annotations pointing to the wrong text. Web Clipper - I'm not sure what's happened here but the web clipper, which used to be excellent and so much better than any competitors' solutions, is now formatting clipped content in strange and unexpected ways. What was a predictable behaviour is now a lottery. Creating a Table of Contents from multiple notes - No longer an option. Why not? I could go on (and frequently do). There are a host of curious design choices that other beta users have highlighted. I'm not quite so frustrated with those things. I can live with a quirky new way of doing something as long as it works. Why do I need to click twice on a link to open it? Who knows? It's a behaviour I'm not familiar with and seems like a curious design choice but I'm really only bothered that the link opens. TL;DR? Evernote is broken. At least, it doesn't work in a way that will allow me to keep using it without employing a lot of "workarounds". This is true of the iOS release too. (The issue about offline notebooks is well documented in the relevant forum, for example.) Having been with Evernote for 12 years, I was happy to contribute time to the Preview and Beta programmes. I liked Evernote. I encouraged friends to use it. I pestered work colleagues to download it. I don't expect to be making such encouraging noises in the future! I'm sure a huge amount of work has gone into making this new Evernote release. Perhaps this is simply a bumpy start to an exciting journey but it's not one that I'll be joining. I just want Evernote to be what it used to be, a reliable, robust 'second brain'. This release, sadly, is not a step forward.

I have been a part of the Preview and the Beta programmes. Like many others, I've spent time offering feedback and making suggestions, often for what seem to be really obvious functionality or design considerations. I'm really surprised to see this release because it didn't seem that the last beta release was anywhere close to being ready. I guess my point is that you shouldn't feel frustrated at not being able to influence Evernote's "evolution" as it doesn't seem as if being in the beta programme really made any difference.

I often travel to regions without internet access. Previously, I could be confident that I'd have access to my notes. That's a pretty basic requirement in a note-taking app. If the option to download all notebooks exists, I guess it really ought to work reliably. This thread contains some useful suggestions for how to get around this broken functionality but I don't think well-designed apps demand users find 'workarounds' to access their data. I've been an Evernote user, supporter and advocate for 12 years. Looking at this iOS release and the desktop Beta, I suspect that's about to change.

Recent response from Evernote Support regarding this issue: "I've checked with our developers, we are currently aware of this issue. Here is the workaround: Select one notebook at a time in Evernote Settings > Notebooks > Offline notebooks Open iOS Settings > Display and Brightness > Auto-Lock > press Never Plug the iPhone or iPad to a power source Leave your phone plugged with Evernote open for a few hours Repeat with more notebooks." For users with more than a handful of notebooks, it's not really a solution and I don't think new notes are automatically downloaded for offline viewing. Hopefully, a fix will be implemented sooner rather than later.

I'm guessing that staff read the forum as I sometimes see replies. It would be helpful to hear news about this issue. Currently, Evernote on iOS is not downloading notes for offline viewing. This makes it unusable without an internet connection. I'm increasingly frustrated that using Evernote seems to demand an ongoing battle to retain basic functionality. I understand that development can sometimes be a case of one step back and two forward but it's disappointing when the most basic functions cease to work. The absence of news and updates only makes that sense of disappointment and frustration more pronounced. So, to any Evernote staff reading posts, how about some feedback and reassurance that steps are being taken to quickly fix the things that once worked and are now broken?

I'm wondering if there's been any progress or update with this issue. I've downloaded the latest iOS release today but offline notebooks are still not updating. Having access to notes offline is crucial for me. Currently, Evernote is acting only as a web client, which makes it redundant for my purposes. Any news or an estimate of when this will be fixed?

Please bring Atlas back. It was an essential ingredient that set Evernote apart from other, similar apps. I cannot understand the logic that dictated removing it. Such a simple but highly effective tool.

Yes, please replace the Atlas feature. As another photographer who uses Evernote to geotag notes about specific locations, this was a critical part of my workflow. At the very least, allow geotagged notes to link to Google Maps. The location information is already stored, creating a simple link should be straightforward. Although why remove it in the first place? That's hard to understand.