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Need to restore notes in a new MacOS


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I installed a fresh copy of MacOS on another SSD.

I had some local notebooks and some synchronized notebooks in my old MacOS Evernote. I took a .enex backup hoping that it'll restore all my notes into their respective notebooks in the new MacOS Evernote.

I signed in to Evernote in my new MacOS and it downloaded a lot of synchronized notebooks. Since I couldn't have my local notebooks restored from my server version so I did an *Import All notes* from a .enex backup file. It restored all the notebook, local and synchronized, in a newly created notebook.

I needed a quick way to organize local notebooks of my old Mac in the new MacOS, so I started deleting the notebooks from my new MacOS Evernote. After that I cleared that Trash hoping that I'll have a copy on the server. When I pressed sync button, ... guess what... it deleted all my notebooks in the server.

Now I have an .enex file to restore and I'd like to restore it nicely in their respective notebooks.

Any help is appreciated.

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1 hour ago, 5iM said:

Since I couldn't have my local notebooks restored from my server version so I did an *Import All notes* from a .enex backup file. It restored all the notebook, local and synchronized, in a newly created notebook.

You found out the limitation of the .enex export - notebook information is not maintained
There are work arounds

  1. add the notebook name to the notes in the form of a tag
  2. a separate export for each notebook (my backup solution)

I don't see a solution for you if the only backup you have is the .enex export
Import the notes, and try to indentify the notebooks for each note

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I did sign out from old MacOS EN before going ahead with new MacOS EN ordeal. I can see old MacOS EN files at:
`~/Library/Containers/com.evernote.Evernote/Data/Library/CoreData/com.evernote.Evernote/`

Can this data be used to restore the EN to the original state in old or new MacOS EN?

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Hi.  As you already found out,  any changes you make to notes on one device connected to the account are synced to the server and will be replicated on any other device that is also connected (apart from the local notebooks which are -were- solely on this device).  If you do have another device that hasn't yet synced,  you might want to keep it offline for the moment,  just in case you need notes that are stored on it.

If you have any system backups that might include your account files,  you might want to try a restore from there,  but keep the device offline,  because otherwise if you restore your original notes,  the server will then overwrite the notes with the 'newer' empty notebooks and you'll lose everything again.

If you have restored all your notes from the ENEX file(s) you could also re-create the old synced and offline notebook structure and move the restored files across.  Unless there's a compelling reason otherwise,  I'd be tempted to leave the mass of files notes in one notebook and only restore individual notebooks as and when I needed to.  No need to spend lots of time on window dressing if you don't have to...

...and catching up with posts as I write,  the old data you found may not be complete and probably would be overwritten from the server if you re-added it to your account and could get a new installation to recognise the content.  Keep the files by all means,  and get a second opinion from a Mac user (I'm not) or from Support (user forum here) before you tinker too far.

Good luck,  regardless...

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8 minutes ago, 5iM said:

I did sign out from old MacOS EN before going ahead with new MacOS EN ordeal. I can see old MacOS EN files at:
`~/Library/Containers/com.evernote.Evernote/Data/Library/CoreData/com.evernote.Evernote/`

Can this data be used to restore the EN to the original state in old or new MacOS EN?

If you have the old database files, it is possible to access them.  Its not the recommended method

My software is downloaded from Evernote, and my database files are at If you have the database files, you can work with them
I have the direct-download software and my database is stored at /Users/david/Library/Application Support/com.evernote.Evernote/accounts/www.evernote.com/1156250

If I wanted to restore the database to an earlier version, I would follow these steps

  1. Shut down evernote and syncing and/or disconnect from the internet
  2. save the current database folder, for example move it to your desktop
  3. move the old database folder to the current location
  4. Start Evernote
  5. Export your data so the notebook information is retained
  6. Shutdown Evernote and restore your database to the current database
  7. Import your data
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2 hours ago, 5iM said:

I did sign out from old MacOS EN before going ahead with new MacOS EN ordeal. I can see old MacOS EN files at:
`~/Library/Containers/com.evernote.Evernote/Data/Library/CoreData/com.evernote.Evernote/`

Can this data be used to restore the EN to the original state in old or new MacOS EN?

I don't really understand what you mean by new and old "MacOS".  Are these different physical Macs?

If you still have your original ("old") Mac where you did the ENEX export, then you can do this:
Using your OLD (original) Mac:

  1. Make absolutely sure the old Mac is disconnected from the Internet.  This is VERY important.
  2. Open Evernote Mac.  It should NOT be able to sync since it is disconnected from the Internet.
  3. Export all of the Notes in each Notebook to a separate ENEX file for that Notebook.  Name the ENEX file to indicated the NB Name.

Using your NEW Mac:

  1. Import the ENEX files from Step #3 above, each file into a separate Local Notebook.  
    1. Again, name the Local NB for the original NB
    2. I would use a naming convention of "L_OrigNBName".  So, for example, if the original NB Name was "Project1", name the Local NB "L_Project1"
  2. Once you have imported all of the ENEX files into Local NBs, then you can create new Sync'd Notebooks, using the original NB Name
  3. Slowly Move the Notes from the "L_" notebooks to the corresponding Sync'd Notebook
    1. If you have more Notes than your account monthly upload limit will allow, you may have to spread out the upload over time.

If you have any doubts or questions about the above process, ask before you proceed.

 

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Thanks all. I have a App Store downloaded app. I managed to offline restore my data from `~/Library/Containers/com.evernote.Evernote/Data/Library/Application\ Support/com.evernote.Evernote/accounts/www.evernote.com/`

Then I exported each and every notebook separately. Later on, I went online and imported each an every notebook.

Wish this was a straight forward export/import process.

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20 minutes ago, 5iM said:

Wish this was a straight forward export/import process.

Good to hear you got it restored

Evernote provides the basic export function
On Macs, we have the option to script this - I've automated a weekly backup to separate notebook files
There are also third party solutions - for example Backupery

I urge you to implement a backup process for your Local Notebooks
By definition, these are not synced to the Evernote Servers.  You have only a single copy on your device

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