Cyroxian

And as a  work around it would be very easy to add a function where the user can unlock the note herself. The problem, as I see it, is that it gets locked and never unlocked. Why not just let the user unlock it, and take responsibility for any possible lost information that an unlock in the wrong situation could mean. You could go even further. This kinds of locks seem to be used only during synchronisation. Why not automatically unlock notes that have a synch lock for a very long time, like hours och days.

I am very pleased to see all the work the engaged people in this forum are doing, sharing experiences and adding to the body of knowledge.

One thing that I highlighted when I started this thread was the fact that the app, when encountering a problem (even if it can be considered a bug), just throws up an undocumented icon, without any extra information. I really do like easy to use apps where I don't have to read the manual. But, when in doubt it is nice to look up what the icon is considered to communicate to me.

A padlock symbol for me, indicates some sort of lock, but since I never seen it in the app before, I get insecure about its meaning. And for every lock operation, there must be a reason. What has triggered it. Here, Evernote gives no clues at all, no information source to turn to.

In such cases, my first priority is not get "support", since I cannot even assess the situation. The app is telling me something, but I don't know what.

This thread was my only way to try to reach out to the developers, trying to give them a hint on how to improve the user experience, and maybe in the long run, get less support cases to deal with. But, they are all hiding behind a formal support procedure, open for paying customers. For good reasons, for sure, but there are more to it than support in the domain of user community interaction. I am a software developer myself, so I know.

I still hope someone from the inside will read this. I am told they do. But I will never know for sure what is being read. I understand that my remarks here is not targeting the developers themselves, but those who write the specification, and those who work with business process improvements. They are more seldom part of the support process. And it of course all comes down to whether they are using agile and/or lean startup whay of working or more traditional ways. How do they align app features with customers demands and expectations.

Hope I did not offend anybody. I just thought this is an important point that should not be lost.

/Conny

@Shane D.

You say the team is currently working on the issue. Which one of them? I see two. The problem that these lock appears, which is a technical problem is one. The problem that the app appears incomprehensible to users, which is a user design issue?, is the other.

Technical problems, bugs and so, are normally solved by the developers given some time. The user being shielded from useful information is trickier, since normally nobody wants to take such a decision. But it might have greater impact on how the product is perceived.

I hope you do not forget the UX issue.

Hi again,

I get no errors at all while syncing. That adds to the confusion about the symbols.

Clicking on the red triangle, just scrolls the list away. Very strange behaviour, but consistent over time. I have to scroll back several pages to try again. Same with slow click.

Clicking on the lock symbol within a note, just makes it disappear, just to come back next time I touch the note. No information disclosed.

That is why I think that things could improve. Don't just cease to work. Please, tell me something. I have similar problems with other modern applications. Skype for business often freeze or does not work, without any information to the user ar all. You get some crazy discussions in the call sometimes.

Dave-in-Decatur,

Thanks for all the information, and thanks for filing it as an issue. Nice to hear that the developers are on to it.

One thing that could improve (except bugs) is the information of what all these symbols mean. Exclamation marks, locks, and other. They are not listed anywhere, what I know. That might mitigate some harsh comments.

Then apparently you get more information from the payed for app than I. That makes it easier to see if it is a bug, or just me being an uninformed user. Most of us want to be good users, but are not given the information we need for that. This is not a bug, but could make good improvement to the value of the app. Clicking on the icon could easily tell me that it is a synch problem, or something else.

Oh, sorry guys-. I really got this wrong. Reading too quickly, and reading the text of persons taking things seriously, fooled me into thinking gazumped actually worked at Evernote, and that he answered to me. I know, I shouldn't assume, but I did. I am sorry for that. gazumped, please disregard the part that was aimed at Evernote. You do not have to cover for them, but nice that you actually did. There seem to be some dedicated users here.

And you are right when you say that they will not fix problems they do not know of. My point is that I cannot make them aware of this. I understand if they cannot afford giving support to non-paying customers. But, as being an old programmer, I know the value of getting feedback from the users and the apps. Maybe they have already built in instrumentation into the app, telling them that I have several locked notes, that I cannot unlock since I do not know why. Maybe they are already working on this. We cannot know.

But regardless of their instrumentation, they cannot know how users perceived the app. This is what I would like to tell them. I know why they hide "technical details". Users do not want to see it. They want working software. But when the user is expected to solve the problem without any information, just chatting with each other, it has gone too far. This is important for any developer to see. Developer want to make great software, we put a pride in it. And agile development is the kind in this complex world. And this requires the users to be involved. You are really involved, and I am sure they see a great value in you.

Now, Evernote apparently have selected to block input from non-paying customers. That is ok. And this forum gets useless for me. I don't expect them to fix anything for me. I am not paying. I just wanted to get through with the message about what is wrong. I think they want that feedback. I would have wanted it. Now I have non-working software, and have to move on.

Again, I do not complain. I provide feedback. In the wrong place. There is no place for me.

Thanks for taking your time in answering me.

Hi gazumped,

So, your suggestion to how to go about this bug, is that all clients that finds i pay you for another version of the product, even if they do not need it. I understand that you do not earn any money on people not paying for an upgrade, but that is part of your selected business model. Accepting that the product contains bug, and refuse to see it, is not consistent with how I would handle the community.

Support for me, is helping me when I cannot do something for some reason. But filing bug reports is not support. You helping me with a specific problem is, but not you getting the information.

But, I get the message. I do not complain. I do not regard Evernote to be a bad product in itself,  but maybe not the right choice for me. I need a simple but smooth experience, and to feel comfortable that problems will be dealt with eventually.

Hi,

Thanks for quick answer. I am using a Samsung Galaxy S7 (SM-G930F) running Android 8.0.

I cannot guarantee that I have had a strong network connection at all times. Have that created problems Before for some?

The notes are viewable, and editable, in the web version. I changed one note from the web. The app then added as a prefix the text "Anteckningskonflik", which is note conflict in Swedish. I changed the name of another note that was also "locked", and that updated the one in the app corretly. But it is still locked. The note with changed name now have another Icon in the upper right corner. It is a green triangle with an upward arrow. What does all these Icons mean? I cannot find a list in the help pages, and not through google either. But some people in the forum seems to be equally uninformed as I.

On the web, I can copy the internals of a note, and create a new one. The "locked" one can be deleted from the app, and disappears from the web too. But then suddenly it is back again. This is consistent with what I see other users experience around this, noted in these forums. All of those have the strange "lock" symbol in the note.

The problems that I see:

1. The app encounters an error, adds a symbol that seems to be undocumented, to the note. The app knows what the problem is, but keep all information away from the user for some reason. This makes it impossible for the user to resolve the issue in a rational way. She or he can only resort to trial and error together with other users guessing around. This is a bug. But we cannot file it as such.
2. There are different symbols appearing on notes in the notes list (I called it that), and sometime on the note itself (like the lock). Nobody here seems to know what they mean. The programmers did know, when they introduced them, but they are hard to find in the manual. This is a documentation problem, which cannot be reported by us.

I hope you can use this feedback to improve the Product and the user experience. It would not only help me, but several others too. An I cannot Always move to Another product, but you on the other side we really like to keep your users. That is why I write this.

After using Evernote on Android for quite some while, suddenly one on my notes was decorated with a lock symbol. It was not possible to edit that note anymore. Now, some months later I have three such notes. There is no information whatsoever on what this lock means, why it is there, or what to do about it.

In the message list, there is a small triangle in the upper right corner, with an exclamation mark. Not information here neither. Obviously the app has detected some problem, but equally apparently it does not want to disclose it to the user. And, of course, nobody else than the user will ever do anything to correct the problem.

The last lock was actually activated while I was editing the note. I added a phrase, switched to another app to read some more, and when back in Evernote it was locked. No information about what has happened.

We users, really appreciate that companies like Evernote, and many more, try to make apps and home pages as user-friendly as possible, taking away all kinds of technical jargon, codes etc. But, when core information is hidden, the information I need to get out of this issue, it is just plain bad. Evernote is not at all alone. This is an illness of many modern applications. Still, it is very, very frustrating, having to spend a lot of searching on the Internet, trying to resolve the issue. If you find any answers, it is most speculations from other users trying to guess what the app already knows. And I have seen a lot of really bad and uninformed suggestions on how to solve different issues. Of course, I have search these forums for a solution, but all users seems equally puzzled as I am.

Since I am not yet paying for the app, I am not qualified to write any message to Evernote support, but I was informed that they are actively monitoring these forums. So, my hope is that this can be resolved in some way by writing here. If not, I need to switch to some other app to fulfill my need for simple notes, hosted on the web, instead of maybe upgrade to premium later. That would be a pity, of course. But, as a user you cannot have the app to randomly (as it appears to us) lock notes without providing any information at all on what, why, and how.