Is It Possible To Export All Notes At Once For Complete Backup?

[Ken Nielsen 2]

I can Export, which is a important function for making a backup of notes, but only one chosen set of notes at a time makes the job tedious and time-consuming if I want to back up all notes.

Is there a way to Export all notes at once to make a complete backup of all of my notes?

TIA,

Ken

 

 

[tardis 87]

Click on Notes so you're looking at All Notes. Select all (cmd+A), right click, "Export notes...". Then you can choose whether you want an enex or HTML export.

[DTLow 5,736]

7 minutes ago, Ken Nielsen said:

Is there a way to Export all notes at once to make a complete backup of all of my notes?

It depends on the platform, but on my Mac I can list all my notes and then Edit > Select All

Warning: Notebook info is not maintained on the export.  Some users do separate exports for each notebook

 

[Ken Nielsen 2]

My problem is that Evernote always seems to have one note at least selected, so choosing 'all notes' there is still one note selected in 'all notes.' SELECTING ALL seems to get around that okay. I imagine then that saving notes separately is the surest way to keep information and compatibility in tact?

[DTLow 5,736]

On 2/5/2017 at 9:17 AM, Ken Nielsen said:

I imagine then that saving notes separately is the surest way to keep information and compatibility in tact?

The best way is to try it out and see how it works for you

There are two export formats

1. The .enex format has a single purpose, as an import file
   All notes are consolidated into a single file
   If used in an import; new notes are created in a new Import Notebook
   - the new notes are duplicates of the previous notes; except for Notebook and links
    
2. The .html format creates an separate export file for each note
   It can't be used as a direct import, but the information and compatibility is very close to the note in Evernote  edit: the export can be used as a single note import

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

48 minutes ago, DTLow said:

The .html format creates an export file for each note separately
It can't be used as a direct import, but the information and compatibility is very close to the note in Evernote

I'm glad you made that point.  You have stated repeated that your backup system uses HTML files.

How can this serve as a backup if you can't import the HTML files back into Evernote?

[Ken Nielsen 2]

1 hour ago, DTLow said:

The best way is to try it out and see how it works for you

Thank You DTLow, I appreciate how you have made the critical subject of backing up notes in Evernote much more clear. I'll use both and see how each works. 

[DTLow 5,736]

On 2017-02-05 at 10:15 AM, JMichaelTX said:

You have stated repeated that your backup system uses HTML files.

In addition to syncing to the Evernote servers,
my backup process includes an HTML export of Evernote data 
This is a nightly export of changed notes, so versions of a note are backed up
For one-of fixes, I rely on these backups

1. If Evernote fails for whatever reason, I can access my notes using these backups
2. If I'm missing data in a note, I can go to these backups and copy/paste the data
3. If the entire note is missing, I can drag the note from these backups to Evernote
   For the most part, my data is restored but it will need some cleanup
   - The title is maintained, but no other metadata
   - This will be a new note, any previous links will be invalid

To augment this backup:  

• Each week, I redo my single full backup in enex format.
  I would use this if somehow mass #s of notes got dropped from my Mac, then dropped from the servers in the sync process
• My Mac has time-machine backups of the database folder(s)

>>How can this serve as a backup if you can't import the HTML files back into Evernote?

If Evernote fails to run for whatever reason, this is my backup for access to my notes

[Ken Nielsen 2]

Here is my question then DTLow, to fix my problem with deleted notes that have not yet synced to my iPhone, where I can see the note restored from history in my Evernote on the computer.... How can I get the backup onto my iPhone, or is that not possible? I just tried emailing the note to myself and copy and paste does not work across apps so from email to Evernote does not do this.

I'm guessing all of this good stuff is only accomplished on the computer version of Evernote... I can see on checking it now, that the Evernote version on my devices have no ability to import notes... Just checking with you on this as I am trying to think of all possible options to restore notes on my devices where sync is not doing the job.

 

[DTLow 5,736]

3 hours ago, Ken Nielsen said:

where I can see the note restored from history in my Evernote on the computer

I would rename the note titles, so they are easily identified

Then change the Notebook to your usual notebook

The note should then sync to the web/server and be visible on your phone

 

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

Just to be clear:

 

[DTLow 5,736]

On 2017-02-05 at 5:28 PM, JMichaelTX said:

Just to be clear:

for balance, I created

 

 

[Ken Nielsen 2]

Thank You DTLow, tardis, JMichaelTX, as this puts a real foundation of essential knowledge under the subject of making backups in Evernote. This knowledge increases the value of Evernote by making it possible to recover valuable notes in the event of loss. I would only add the mention of the history which is available in Premium, but if you don't need Premium features, as I do not, making systematic regular backups using BOTH methods that Evernote offers is an essential and complete prevention against the loss of often irreplaceable notes.

I add one other level, for reference notes, where I want absolute assurance of backup, I export a PDF, so I have the text in a form where I can format the result in a page layout program for hard-copy reference. This is important where I only need Evernote to 'gather' the information and where I need a hard copy print out formatted in the way I want for convenient reference (Note contents formatted in alphabetical order and in columns on a single page.) But this is for my specialized use.

[Mesoman 20]

Is there a way to backup all notebooks and retain the notebook structure, other than backing up every notebook manually? I'm an old IT guy, and I'd like to have secure backups. I'm sure Evernote has a lot of smart people, but still... I've lost too much data in the past.

[DTLow 5,736]

1 hour ago, Mesoman said:

Is there a way to backup all notebooks and retain the notebook structure, other than backing up every notebook manually?

Separate backups for each notebook can be automated via scripting or third party products like Backupery

You can also do a full database backup; for example TimeMachine

[CalS 5,280]

17 hours ago, Mesoman said:

Is there a way to backup all notebooks and retain the notebook structure, other than backing up every notebook manually? I'm an old IT guy, and I'd like to have secure backups. I'm sure Evernote has a lot of smart people, but still... I've lost too much data in the past.

Not built into EN.  PITA, but you can tag notes with notebook name and then do a full backup.  Juice not the squeeze in my opinion.

[Eduardo Estefano 89]

Does anyone have a individual notebook backup script they would be willing to share?

[DTLow 5,736]

1 hour ago, Eduardo Estefano said:

Does anyone have a individual notebook backup script they would be willing to share?

tell application "Evernote"

   set allNotebooks to every notebook
    repeat with currentNotebook in allNotebooks
        set notebookName to (the name of currentNotebook)
        set fileBackupenex to "/Users/david/Desktop/@Evernote/Evernote_Backup/Notebook-" & notebookName & ".enex"
        set fileBackupenex to POSIX path of fileBackupenex

        set theNotes to every note in notebook notebookName
        if theNotes is not {} then
            try 
               with timeout of (60 * 60) seconds
                   export theNotes to fileBackupenex format ENEX with tags
                   do shell script "/usr/bin/gzip -f " & quoted form of fileBackupenex
               end timeout
               on error errorMessage
                  return errorMessage
            end try
        end if

    end repeat
end tell

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

1 hour ago, DTLow said:

do shell script "/usr/bin/gzip -f " & quoted form of fileBackupenex

@DTLow, nice script.  May I ask why you chose to use gzip instead of zip to compress the file?

[DTLow 5,736]

1 hour ago, JMichaelTX said:

May I ask why you chose to use gzip instead of zip to compress the file?

No preference    http://www.differencebetween.net/technology/difference-between-zip-and-gzip/

[Eduardo Estefano 89]

8 horas atrás, DTLow disse:

tell application "Evernote"

   set allNotebooks to every notebook
    repeat with currentNotebook in allNotebooks
        set notebookName to (the name of currentNotebook)
        set fileBackupenex to "/Users/david/Desktop/@Evernote/Evernote_Backup/Notebook-" & notebookName & ".enex"
        set fileBackupenex to POSIX path of fileBackupenex

        set theNotes to every note in notebook notebookName
        if theNotes is not {} then
            try 
               with timeout of (60 * 60) seconds
                   export theNotes to fileBackupenex format ENEX with tags
                   do shell script "/usr/bin/gzip -f " & quoted form of fileBackupenex
               end timeout
               on error errorMessage
                  return errorMessage
            end try
        end if

    end repeat
end tell

Thanks @DTLow

[Eduardo Estefano 89]

@DTLow Will this script override the files the next time it runs?

[Eduardo Estefano 89]

@DTLow One more question. I noticed I have a notebook someone shared with me that is 1.5 GB and I don't need to back this up. How would I skip a specific notebook using this script?

[DTLow 5,736]

2 hours ago, Eduardo Estefano said:

@DTLow Will this script override the files the next time it runs?

Yes the export files are overwritten; same filename.

In another script for Note History I prevent overriding by appending the date to the export filename.

2 hours ago, Eduardo Estefano said:

@DTLow One more question. I noticed I have a notebook someone shared with me that is 1.5 GB and I don't need to back this up. How would I skip a specific notebook using this script?

You'll see the script bypasses the export for empty notebooks (if theNotes is not {})

 You can add other criteria like notebookName = ...

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

On 5/14/2018 at 6:28 AM, Eduardo Estefano said:

How would I skip a specific notebook using this script?

@DTLow gave you the basic solution.  In case you are not familiar with AppleScript, just add two lines:

    repeat with currentNotebook in allNotebooks
        set notebookName to (the name of currentNotebook)
        if (notebookName ≠ "NameOfNBToSkip") then  -- ADD this line
        -- all other statements as they are
        end if  -- ADD this line
     end repeat

Make sense?

[Eduardo Estefano 89]

Excelent! Thanks!!

[bourne 1]

@DTLow: thanks for the script!

I tried to run it from Script Editor and Evernote gets activated, then the script quits with "The operation couldn’t be completed. No such file or directory".

Yes, I did change the path to exactly what Terminal / pwd displays:

set fileBackupenex to "/Users/markus/Desktop/@Evernote/Evernote_Backup/Notebook-" & notebookName & ".enex"

Markuss-MacBook-Pro:Desktop markus$ pwd
/Users/markus/Desktop

I also have gzip:

Markuss-MacBook-Pro:bin markus$ /usr/bin/gzip
gzip: standard output is a terminal -- ignoring

 

Any hints what to check for?

[DTLow 5,736]

25 minutes ago, bourne said:

I tried to run it from Script Editor and Evernote gets activated, then the script quits with "The operation couldn’t be completed. No such file or directory".

Can you post the exact script you're running.

>>set fileBackupenex to "/Users/markus/Desktop/@Evernote/Evernote_Backup/Notebook-" & notebookName & ".enex"

Just confirming that you actually have folder @Evernote/Evernote_Backup
on your desktop.

[bourne 1]

I found the problem – Notebooks containing "/" crash the script. 

If someone else has problems: log the notebook that is currently processed:

Quote

repeat with currentNotebook in allNotebooks

set notebookName to (the name of currentNotebook)

log notebookName

 

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

1 hour ago, bourne said:

I found the problem – Notebooks containing "/" crash the script. 

You should also check for, and remove, any colons (":") in the NB Name.  If you ever use the Note Title, then you need to do the same with it.

[Oliver Stewart 0]

I tried to run the script posted above (thanks, DTLow!) and was getting "operation not permitted" errors running it against Evernote from the App Store. It looks like there's a sandboxing issue in recent macOS versions such as Mojave where Evernote can't access the files you're asking it to write. I managed to get it to work by moving creation of the file objects outside the tell block. Here's my modified script:

set pathList to {}
set fileList to {}

tell application "Evernote"
	set allNotebooks to every notebook
	repeat with currentNotebook in allNotebooks
		set notebookName to (the name of currentNotebook)
		set fileBackupenex to "/Users/oliver/Documents/Evernote/Evernote_Backup/Notebook-" & notebookName & ".enex"
		set fileBackupenex to POSIX path of fileBackupenex
		copy fileBackupenex to the end of pathList
	end repeat
end tell

repeat with filePath in pathList
	copy (POSIX file filePath) to the end of fileList
end repeat

tell application "Evernote"
	repeat with i from 1 to number of items in allNotebooks
		set destFile to (item i of fileList)
		set currentNotebook to (item i of allNotebooks)
		
		set theNotes to every note in notebook (the name of currentNotebook)
		if theNotes is not {} then
			try
				with timeout of (60 * 60) seconds
					export theNotes to destFile format ENEX with tags
					do shell script "/usr/bin/gzip -f " & quoted form of fileBackupenex
				end timeout
			on error errorMessage
				return errorMessage
			end try
		end if
	end repeat
end tell

 

[tokeriis 8]

On 8/3/2019 at 8:24 PM, Oliver Stewart said:

I tried to run the script posted above (thanks, DTLow!) and was getting "operation not permitted" errors running it against Evernote from the App Store. It looks like there's a sandboxing issue in recent macOS versions such as Mojave where Evernote can't access the files you're asking it to write. I managed to get it to work by moving creation of the file objects outside the tell block. Here's my modified script:

set pathList to {}
set fileList to {}

tell application "Evernote"
	set allNotebooks to every notebook
	repeat with currentNotebook in allNotebooks
		set notebookName to (the name of currentNotebook)
		set fileBackupenex to "/Users/oliver/Documents/Evernote/Evernote_Backup/Notebook-" & notebookName & ".enex"
		set fileBackupenex to POSIX path of fileBackupenex
		copy fileBackupenex to the end of pathList
	end repeat
end tell

repeat with filePath in pathList
	copy (POSIX file filePath) to the end of fileList
end repeat

tell application "Evernote"
	repeat with i from 1 to number of items in allNotebooks
		set destFile to (item i of fileList)
		set currentNotebook to (item i of allNotebooks)
		
		set theNotes to every note in notebook (the name of currentNotebook)
		if theNotes is not {} then
			try
				with timeout of (60 * 60) seconds
					export theNotes to destFile format ENEX with tags
					do shell script "/usr/bin/gzip -f " & quoted form of fileBackupenex
				end timeout
			on error errorMessage
				return errorMessage
			end try
		end if
	end repeat
end tell

 

One enex files is produced, but the script end with this error:

"gzip: can't stat: /Users/tre/Desktop/@Evernote/Evernotebackup/Blandede kilder.enex (/Users/tre/Desktop/@Evernote/Evernotebackup/Blandede kilder.enex): No such file or directory"

I am sure the path to the directory is set correctly – I dragged and dropped the folder onto Terminal and copied into the script.