drmrbrewer

In June 2023 I spent a long time providing screen recordings and activity logs to Evernote Support, along with detailed steps to reproduce. Last message on that support ticket was: Then nothing, nada, and IIRC the support ticket system was completely unavailable for a time. But the problem did eventually seem to go away (see here), so maybe I played my part in whatever fix was made behind the scenes. But then it returned (see here). Any other thoughts about how I should have proceeded in this situation @PinkElephant? For such an experienced problem solver, far more experienced than me because you know me so well, you must have some great suggestions to make?

You know nothing about me! The fact that I'm intensely irritated by this problem, and wasting my time here and with Evernote support talking about it, demonstrates that I am a problem solver... rather than a problem ignorer or even a problem denier? But the issue here is that there appears to be no way to solve the problem... there are only (very impractical) ways to work around the problem, like "just import 50 pdfs files one by one" (no thanks), or "just buy a Mac because the Mac version works" (no thanks), or "just report this to support, don't bother using the forum" (been there, done that, fat lot of good it has done... maybe it did for a time -- see my post of 24 Oct 2023 -- but the issue returned before too long).

You accused me of utterly lacking experience. Did I wrongly assume that you meant experience with Evernote (which clearly I do have)? What exactly did you mean? Experience in jujitsu, or horse riding, or something else?

Right, I've only been using Evernote for 15 years...

Because people like you keep saying silly things like "Import folders are not made for mass import" and "Import Folders work".

I’m not on a Mac. Perhaps you’re now going suggest that I shouldn’t be so dumb and just work around this problem by buying and using a Mac instead?

I'm not a mainstream user, just a user. Whereas you seem to be the chief apologist for Evernote. I don't know what it is that you don't yet understand about this issue, because are you seriously suggesting that it's practical to import e.g. 50 pdfs into Evernote in the way that you suggest? I specifically do not want one note with all 50 pdfs attached, I want 50 separate notes, each with a different pdf. Just like the import folder does it, only just with exactly 50 unique notes/pdfs at the end of it, not 100 or 200 or some random number of messed-up duplicates in between.

So this isn't a viable alternative to the import folder, which seems to be the only sensible way to get more than one pdf file into Evernote. So they just need to make thie import folder work, consistently. I still struggle to see why such a mainstream notes tool cannot seem to get something so basic right.

One note per image (or in my case pdf)?

It’s seriously infuriating. How difficult can it really be to check the name and modification date/time of a file in the folder and not re-import the file again if it is the same as a file you’ve already imported? I reckon I could code something up in no time that doesn’t get fooled like Evernote does. If it’s so complicated then maybe explain to us users why it’s so complicated and maybe we might be more forgiving. And yes I am sure that the modification date/time hasn’t changed for a file that is imported multiple times.

And how else would you suggest importing, say, 50 scanned pdfs, if we can’t rely on the import folder? Add one by one?

@gazumped I already have been in contact with Support about all of this. Seemed to grind to a halt when suddenly they changed the support system, maybe as a result of new ownership.

Yes but my point is that it really should work reliably.

Sorry, I don't buy this argument (or excuse). If auto import works for 2 or 5 or 10 files there is no earthly reason why it shouldn't work for 1000 files.

I also use a Fujitsu scanner to scan and import the bulk of my pdfs, and I scan first into a "holding" folder, and only then move them into the import folder when they're done (and not necessarily the same day or week or even month). So whilst I can see the logic in your suggestion, it's definitely not the cause of my woes over the last year or so.