Rabbit704

Searching on shared notes in Evernote for Mac v7.14 works but not on iOS v8.24.6. For me at least. PITA. 

I now have this issue. I had it many years ago and now it's propped up again. The CEO's may change but the bugs don't ... so much for all that platform rebuilding that Evernote allege to have been working since Dec 2018.

+1

While this issue is a PITA it's easily overcome by just using another browser. I'm pretty sure most of the people complaining here already have another browser installed given how many organisations can't seem to write code that works with Safari anyway. It's not exactly the best browser in town, IMO.

With that said. I expect a good portion of the rage here is tied up with this being yet another example of the type or inexcusable BS that Evernote users are constantly having to endure ... just another straw breaking the camel's back after it's already been broken countless times before. How many workarounds should Evernote users have to implement for a product that many of us are paying a fairly decent subscription price for? .... NOT THIS MANY. 

It's really hard to imagine any legitimate excuse that two long established organisations like Apple and Evernote can't get their act together to prevent this type of stuff. It's not like this is the first upgrade to a browser. I simply do not buy the App Store is a "black box" line. If that is the case, then get on the job sooner and build some contingency into the timeline - It's called Project Management 101. I am now wondering what Evernote surprises are lurking in MacOS Catalina for me.

@Ian Small you've been at Evernote now coming on a year I think. I can see that you are genuinely trying to get the house in order there and I really appreciate your approach of being much more open with us than your predecessors who were, frankly, MIA when issues like this occurred .... As far as challenges go, you have taken on a biggie ... I really hope this type of stuff ends soon ... and I really hope that much talked about major upgrade to Evernote is also not far away because I think the wagons are circling judging by the angst in this thread. 

11 hours ago, PinkElephant said:

For me it is as well only a shot into the dark.

I do not have any of the problem described on my MacBook Pro, and this is how far I can assist here. If nobody else joins in, probably the best next step would be to float a support ticket, and look where it will take you.

Thanks for your help @PinkElephant. 👍Given that I am the only one seeing this behaviour I am more inclined to believe that it is something to do with something I am doing (e.g. the KM macro) rather than a server side sync issue. I'll report back if I solve the mystery. Cheers. 😀

I can’t see how the macro would effect the title given that the change I mentioned happens long after the macro has finished executing. I’ve also been using this macro for years without any issue. There is nothing to turn off as such but I simply won’t execute the macro and see if the behaviour continues. The issue seems to be somehow be associated with the sync process as the change to the title only appears after the note has synced. I’ll see if I can produce the exact steps to replicate the issue (without the macro being used).

Yes @PinkElephant, I have set up some Keyboard Maestro text expansion macros set up and I use one in particular with almost every Evernote, inserting the reverse date at the start of the title (yyyy-mm-dd). It was most certainly used on the notes that had their titles altered. Do you think that is messing things up somehow? 

Hi folks,

In the last 2 months or so, I have noticed that, occasionally, hypens are inserted into the titles of new notes. These hypens not only replace the spaces between the title words but always insert a hyphen before the "ion" of any word containing those letters.

For example:

Titled entered:   This is a title caption

Becomes:  This-is-a-title-capt-ion

This only occurs with notes created in Evernote for Mac and appears to also relate to notes created by duplicating an existing note, rather than creating a new blank note.

This has become quite annoying as I have to keep edited the titles after creating the new note. I am wondering if anyone has experienced this bug and/or can offer any solution (other than wait for the alleged new version of Evernote for Mac).

Thanks.

Two releases later and we are now up to Release 7.9 with no fix in sight. The new CEO, who was all guns blazing with enthusiasm for helping us "fall in love again" with Evernote is now MIA and has failed to follow up on his promises to look into this matter. Not even as much a rough idea as to when resources will be allocated.

So, I bit the bullet, again, and went the double nuclear option and not only uninstalled and revoked all my Evernote clients (Mac, iOS) but also for those of family members who I had shared notes with. After hours of work uninstalling, re-installing and reconfiguring 8 client apps over three accounts I can finally report that the troublesome tags that have been polluting my tag list have finally disappeared. After 24 hours they have not reappeared.

So, while I have managed to work around this issue at a significant loss of productivity, the underlying issue is still present - sharing notes with tags can lead to them becoming undeletable (is that a word!?). Clearly the client side database is not designed properly and it would appear from the ongoing apathy to this issue, including from Ian Small, that this is never going to be fixed.

Another update. Release 7.7 for Mac has been made and it contains those very critical updates to Dark Mode that we all, apparently, have been waiting for. However, IT  STILL DOES NOT CONTAIN A FIX FOR THIS BUG. Here is some of the feedback I have received to my further enquiries as to why this latest release again neglected this bug .. can you see a trend here?

"I reviewed the ticket and confirm that there hasn't been any updates" > No ship Sherlock. Thanks for telling me what I already know.

"The referenced ticket hasn't been closed. Our tech support will provide you an update when there are any changes to the status of this issue. Our development team is now working on this problem and trying identify the root cause to implement a fix for a future update."  > This is not the first time they have said that they are actively working on it, only to find out later that it was a complete lie. Perhaps I am just being too demanding, the bug has ONLY been around 4 years after all. 

"thanks for your honest feedback. I'm happy to pass this along to our product team" > That old chestnut. I think this is called "passing the buck". I've lost count for the amount of times I have received this entirely meaningless, and utterly unhelpful comment from Evernote Support. It is Evernote code for "I'm shifting this from my responsibilities to a part of the organisation you can't interact with directly so that hopefully you just give up".

HOWEVER ... I have been advised an ETA will be sent to me. Any Dev team worth their salt wouldn't take long to give such an estimate (particularly given the amount of times they say they have been actively working on this) so let's see if something is provided in the next week. Fair to say that if it takes any longer than a week then it was just another lie, consistent with Evernote's culture of being more concerned with how they look instead of how they actually are.

Yet another update to advise that the latest version of Evernote for Mac (v7.6) STILL does not fix this issue.

The underlying bug in the code still exists that allows tags to be created that cannot be subsequently deleted (refer above replication procedure).

Evernote support were again asked for an update with the usual boilerplate reply. Here are some edited highlights ...

"I hear your frustration and I've discussed with our product manager again today to see if it can be resolved soon."  >  I've lost count how many times this has been said.

"I'll keep you posted on any changes to the status of this issue."  >  In other words, "you'll never hear from me again unless you follow me up".

"Again, my apologies that it's taken so long!" > It speaks volumes about Evernote's lack of commitment to a quality that after all these years they aren't utterly embarrassed to keep repeating such meaningless apologies.

So while the core functionality continues to fall apart, Evernote continue to focus on meaningless non functional UI changes like Dark Mode and transparent side bars * sigh * ... It is little wonder that the Evernote business is going down the toilet.

3 hours ago, sasilk said:

There's a suggestion further up about a forced sync which has worked for some, but of course it won't work if the tags are on the server and on the client. But it might be worth a try - all you have to lose is some time and bandwidth.

Thanks for the suggestion but that was tried long ago without success. Even Evernote have conceded they don't have any workarounds or further things to try which is all the more reason it galls me that they won't prioritise a fix. 

For kicks I'd suggest following my bug replication procedure above so you can see the exact issue I have experienced BUT PLEASE DON'T or you will have introduced some tags that you won't be able to delete also.

17 minutes ago, sasilk said:

Fortunately I no longer have the problem, having bought a new Mac and needing to download my database again

It seems this bug has many forms because I have tried multiple database rebuilds across different computers and accounts. The troublesome tags just keep coming back and cannot be deleted which is why I have suggested it must be something server side. Deleting the troublesome tags via the web version gives the appearance of success but they aren't actually deleted on the Mac client app. Sync it up and the web version shows them again ... arrrgh.

I could live with the old tags if they were only just visual polluting of my tag list. The real frustration is that they keep showing up in the tag autocompletion which is very annoying and disruptive. ?

An update for anyone that is still experiencing this issue, as I am. 

I opened Ticket# 2537317 on this issue on 27 May 2018 (~4 months ago) even though this thread was started almost 2.5 years ago (As is typical of Evernote, development effort is put into developing new buggy and, often not requested, features while the existing functionality remains infested with bugs). After performing all manner of technical gymnastics, including two complete deletions (right through the bowels of MacOS) and rebuilds of Evernote on multiple Macs and different Evernote accounts, with the issue returning every time, I pleaded with Evernote to concede the issue MUST be in their application and/or server code and not something client or account related as they were so desperately trying to convince me. At this point I was so hoping that they might finally show some care factor and get onto investigating the root cause starting with some serious troubleshooting of the gazillion log files that I so kindly provided them. After countless hours of apathy and resistance from Evernote who claimed they could not replicate the issue (I doubt they even tried to be frank), I bit the bullet and did their job for them. I wrote up the following procedure to replicate the issue and sent them a narrated video so there could be no crack for them to slip out of:

------

1. Person A creates tag <Test Tag A>
2. Person A adds <Test Tag A> to a note in a notebook they created and have shared TO Person B
3. Allow note to sync
4. Person A deletes <Test Tag A> from their account
5. Sync note again and confirm that <Test Tag A> remains in Person B's account even though it has been deleted from the shared note.
6. The orphaned <Test Tag A> in Person B's account correctly shows a "0" count but Person B cannot delete this tag.

1. Person A creates tag <Test Tag B>
2. Person A adds <Test Tag B> to note in a notebook shared TO Person B
3. Allow note to sync
4. Person B moves note into a notebook that Person B created and has shared TO Person A
5. Allow note to sync
6. Person A deletes the <Test Tag B> from their account (and receives warning that the tag is in a shared account).
7. <Test Tag B> is removed from the note in Person A's account that Person B shared with them HOWEVER, the note is not deleted from Person A's account. <Test Tag B> is now showing in Person A's account with "0" count (i.e. it is orphaned).
8. Person A again attempts to delete this orphaned <Test Tag B> but is unable to do so with the message appearing again that the tag is in a shared note (even though it is not in the shared note in Person A's account.
9. Person A now has no way of deleting this orphaned tag <Test Tag B>
10. Person B is also unable to delete <Text Tag B> from their account with the same experience as outlined in steps 6-9

------

After passing through the various internal hoops and hurdles I was delighted to hear back that they were able to replicate the issue and had scheduled it to be fixed in the next development sprint.

The next release came. No fix, Then the next. Still no fix. What's going on I asked .... and then it came. The apology and the confession that, in fact, it was not being worked on AND the "product director" had bumped it in favor of "other priorities". There was now no commitment to fixing it, at all. THIS BUG HAS BEEN AROUND FOR AT LEAST 2.5 YEARS, HAS NO MANUAL FIX OR WORK AROUND, IS A RIGHT PITA AND IT GOT BUMPED IN FAVOR OF UPDATING THE SHAPE OF MADS' TRUNK AND THE SHADE OF GREEN IN THE EVERNOTE BRANDING. Way to go Evernote!!! Leading by example by showing all of us long term loyal customers "How to Focus on what really matters" - NOT .

To add salt into the wound, and the prompter for me to write this post, I checked on the status of the ticket in my account yesterday to discover that IT HAS BEEN MARKED AS "RESOLVED" EVEN THOUGH IT ISN'T - I STILL CANNOT DELETE THE EFFECTED TAGS. I cannot fathom what corporate culture/performance management/software dev process promotes this as the right thing to do.

This whole saga demonstrates EXACTLY why the Evernote business is failing. There are some very good people at Evernote (such as my contact in the support team who is diligent and professional at all times) but they are sadly let down by a management team that simply don't get it. The recent departure of the Evernote's executive team is a welcome sign but I wonder why the person that hired them, and managed their performance (or lack thereof), hasn't left with them. Doesn't the buck stop with them? Doesn't the fish rot from the head?

I've given up hoping Evernote will improve. Right now I am just hoping that it gets acquired ... by Atlassian. Evernote's existing customers and staff deserve that class of management. It's nice to dream.

I cannot tell you how infuriating it is to have yet another UI focussed release when there are significant outstanding functional bugs (e.g. inability to delete random empty tags that were at one time shared via a shared notebook) and ongoing stability issues with each release because Evernote are utterly clueless on how to test.

If anyone can offer some alternatives to Evernote that preserve the considerable investment I have made in configuring my 34,000+ notes (e.g. note linking) I'd be very grateful. OneNote looks promising but note links get destroyed on import from Evernote (the last time I checked). Synology Notes also looks promising but the same issue of links breaking on import.

Adding my strong support for this. My MacBook Air is running out of space and I'm facing the option of having to delete the Evernote application entirely and rely on the web version. That is a going to be right PITA, and not a long term solution since I don't always have access to decent internet when travelling (and I am not going to even attempt to fumble around with the iOS apps for content creation).

Given that selective notebook syncing is available on the iOS app, I don't see why this has not been implemented on the Evernote Mac App. It's not a technical issue. Get on with it guys. Please.