EN 6.9.7.6770 Win10 forgetful Focus

[sfmike 4]

On 6/6/2018 at 3:23 AM, Smacs said:

Probably not a panacea, but I found a workaround - at least for the use case I most commonly encounter with this bug.

Firstly, I'm on version "6.11.2.7027 (307027) Public (CE Build ce-43.0.4829)".

Secondly, the issue I encountered is loss of focus when ALT-TABing between an Evernote note and another window. As it turned out, I found this was happening only when I had a search term in the "Search notes" field. Removing the search term eliminated the focus problem. Adding a search term back in the Search field caused the problem to reappear.

Sounds like there are likely other use cases that have a similar issue, but for me, this is the most common and the above workaround should suffice until the underlying bug is addressed.

Hope this helps some others too, as it's a nitty one.

-sm-

Thanks @Smacs! Closing the search window has at least eliminated an obvious cause of this annoying issue.

[MikeGT 1]

My problem is sometimes I have to click 4 keys and click 3 times before I am allowed to copy something in a note.

So frustrating because I do this at least 50 times per day.

Someone posted this on another thread.  It's only been 10 minutes, but I have not had to click on note 3 times, tap ctrl and then attempt to copy something to paste elsewhere.

I also pressed F11 twice, to hide notes then show again.

 

Text from the other thread:

Ahh, just found the issue related to the problem of "click New Note and start typing, typing goes no where".
This occurs if you have never set the option: NOTE - SET NEW NOTE FOCUS ON TITLE.

If you turn the option on, then turn it off again. Focus works correctly when clicking New Note.

 

 

 

[Ralph77 44]

On 6/19/2018 at 3:14 PM, sfmike said:

Thanks @Smacs! Closing the search window has at least eliminated an obvious cause of this annoying issue.

To be clear, unless I've missed something in my reading of this (always a possibility!) it's more than an obvious cause - it's the cause.

If anyone has been able to reproduce this "forgetful focus" bug without a search term being present in the 'Search notes' box, then please post your steps here?

Also - just a note for anyone reaching this thread for the first time - even though the thread is titled "Win10" this issue also affects other operating systems as well.

[MattiasHz 0]

I'm bumping this topic, because I just searched online for an workaround for this very issue and found this thread!

This issue is extremely annoying, and I have to "fight" Evernote many times a day.

Copying and Pasting text just has to work flawlessly in a note taking application.

[opus974 3]

Does anyone have a URL for 6.7.5? Should it simply be installed over the current version, or would I need to delete the current version and then reinstall?

For some reason this site stops at 6.6 -  https://evernote.en.uptodown.com/windows/old

[CalS 5,280]

1 hour ago, opus974 said:

Does anyone have a URL for 6.7.5? Should it simply be installed over the current version, or would I need to delete the current version and then reinstall?

For some reason this site stops at 6.6 -  https://evernote.en.uptodown.com/windows/old

Try filehippo.com

[Ralph77 44]

Yes, filehippo has them all, but I would strongly advise against installing 6.7.5. As discussed earlier in this thread, that version and several more after it contain a much more dangerous bug that could result in loss of data - which on the whole would be far more annoying than loss of focus!

In answer to the second part of your question, you would first need to uninstall the current version.

[KymC 12]

This thread was started on 20 Feb and it is now July ... all too hard for EverDope.

[Eldorado 26]

> I would strongly advise against installing 6.7.5. As discussed earlier in this thread, that version and several more after it contain a much more dangerous bug that could result in loss of data

My feeling is that 6.7.5 was the nearly last version without dangerous and unuseful "features" (less or no cursor jumps, no focus surprises, best PDF integration so far, no sync problems, no boring new-note button, ...). But it lacks of Business features that came up later... :-(

[Ralph77 44]

On 6/7/2018 at 3:15 PM, George Mmm said:

The bug that causes loss of notes appeared in 6.7.5 and lasted through 6.9.7 (support asked me to test it) and was solved in 6.10.2 to my knowledge.

Quoting @George Mmm from the previous page. If you want to try it, be my guest...
Obviously not everyone who ever used that version ended up with scrambled notes; I didn't, for one, but knowing now about the bug, it's not a risk I'd want to take nevertheless.

[Eldorado 26]

> If you want to try it, be my guest...

Sorry, not an option for me :-(
But you're right - I lost some overview during the last months of (beta-)testing new versions. At the end I came back to 6.7.5, was satisfied with its stability but had to move later to a very new version because of the Business features...

[Ralph77 44]

4 minutes ago, Eldorado said:

Sorry, not an option for me ?

It was sarcasm anyway ?

4 minutes ago, Eldorado said:

But you're right - I lost some overview during the last months of (beta-)testing new versions. At the end I came back to 6.7.5, was satisfied with its stability but had to move later to a very new version because of the Business features...

I'm actually in the beta program for the Android version, but tbh I no longer install beta versions - it's just not worth the risk when you have such important data as business notes! Because if even Release versions can potentially scramble your notes (ie. as some users have apparently found in versions 6.7.5 through 6.9.7) then there's just no telling what havoc a beta could potentially wreak.

[George Mmm 5]

On 6/25/2018 at 12:02 PM, Ralph77 said:

To be clear, unless I've missed something in my reading of this (always a possibility!) it's more than an obvious cause - it's the cause.

If anyone has been able to reproduce this "forgetful focus" bug without a search term being present in the 'Search notes' box, then please post your steps here?

Also - just a note for anyone reaching this thread for the first time - even though the thread is titled "Win10" this issue also affects other operating systems as well.

Not at all. I get this problem a lot even when I do not have a search active

[Ralph77 44]

52 minutes ago, George Mmm said:

I get this problem a lot even when I do not have a search active

So that I and others can verify, please post your steps to reproduce, starting with:
1) Press F6 to ensure there is no search term in the 'Search notes' box
2) then your steps to reproduce the issue here...

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,937]

15 hours ago, Ralph77 said:

Yes, filehippo has them all, but I would strongly advise against installing 6.7.5. As discussed earlier in this thread, that version and several more after it contain a much more dangerous bug that could result in loss of data - which on the whole would be far more annoying than loss of focus!

In answer to the second part of your question, you would first need to uninstall the current version.

AFAIK, the venerable (in many senses) v. 6.5.4 does not have the data-losing issues, nor any of the other problems of more recent updates, which is why I stick with it. However, it also does not have the improved table features or the business features.

[TK0047 422]

My nemesis is 6.8 and forward so I am using 6.7.5 and it works fine for me. No data loss at all which happened to me on 6.8 a lot.

I use the 6.13 at home and over the weekend I was exposed to it for longer period which did not sit well with me at all. Happy with 6.7 still.

[Marcus H67 0]

I have exactly the same problem - I have to click repeatedly within a note before I start to edit it otherwise it jumps around in the note randomly and doesn't respond to the text I type.  

This also happens when trying to copy and paste sections of text, where it simply isn't recognised, and even a right click "copy" despite seeming to acknowledge the command, doesn't work. 

This is such an inconvenience that if it doesn't get fixed I will have to reconsider my subscription and whether there are alternatives to Evernote.  

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,937]

18 hours ago, TK0047 said:

I use the 6.13 at home and over the weekend I was exposed to it for longer period which did not sit well with me at all.

Can you be more specific about what didn't sit well? I'm contemplating updating to 6.13, since it does seem to have fixed some issues introduced in intervening updates. What's still problematic?

[TK0047 422]

54 minutes ago, Dave-in-Decatur said:

Can you be more specific about what didn't sit well? I'm contemplating updating to 6.13, since it does seem to have fixed some issues introduced in intervening updates. What's still problematic?

It is super slow compared to 6.7 however my work computer is faster. But that home PC worked just fine with the previous version for sure. If I do a search, I get the Evernote Not Responding for a minute or two. It gets better later on but it does happen which slows my work down a lot.

Hitting ESC to go back to the note list to move around notes does not exist anymore which is something I use a lot. So you have to use the mouse to go the note panel. 

The left panel spacing between shorcuts are too narrow now, which does not sound like a big deal but was uncomfortable after a while if you are looking for a note or a shortcut in the left panel.

The PDF viewer takes a time to get used to since it takes a second to load the information vs. the 6.7 and also I kept getting my mouse stuck on the PDF side so kept scrolling within the PDF even though I wanted to scroll within the note. Again not a big deal, but an inconvenience thing compared to my habits of 6.7.

In short, freezing and the responsiveness would be the biggest issues for me right now.

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,937]

Thanks, @TK0047, that's helpful!

[Ralph77 44]

16 hours ago, Marcus H67 said:

This is such an inconvenience that if it doesn't get fixed I will have to reconsider my subscription and whether there are alternatives to Evernote.

It is an inconvenience, and it is taking Evernote a longer than satisfactory time to fix this longstanding bug. But the workaround is very simple: just ensure that you clear the 'Search notes' box every time you've finished using it, by pressing F6. Then place your cursor into the note you wish to edit, and you won't need to click repeatedly or have any issues with copy/paste ?

[KymC 12]

The workaround is not practical for many circumstances.  Let’s say I do a search across all notebooks for past 3 years and get 10 notes returned.  If I want to copy/paste info from a number of these notes, then as soon as F6 is pressed, the specific notes resulting from the search are gone.  I have been highly critical of Evernote’s apathy on this (and also formatting issues with indents & bullet points on another thread) and am currently migrating to OneNote ... will then be an ex-Evernote Premium Subscriber.

[Ralph77 44]

1 hour ago, KymC said:

The workaround is not practical for many circumstances

Agreed. It's a workaround, not a solution.

[n_konig 13]

I know it's disheartening that we should have to come up with workarounds, and the one below is particularly crude, but for me it works. Note that it requires installing AutoHotKey https://autohotkey.com/ (which is in itself a wonderful program that I use for quick formatting - another feature missing in Evernote - among other things). By pressing the left mouse button while holding down the shift button, it basically reclaims focus after it has been lost, and one can start typing regardless of if the search field is empty or not. Again, not pretty, and you'll have to work out the Sleep time so you don't get a double-click, but it works...

#IfWinActive ahk_class ENMainFrame
Shift & LButton::
Sleep 200
Send {LButton}{Ctrl down}{Ctrl up}
Sleep 600
Send {LButton}
return
#IfWinActive

return

 

[CalS 5,280]

8 hours ago, n_konig said:

By pressing the left mouse button while holding down the shift button

I use PhraseExpress for similar things.  I tend to shy away from Shift+LeftMouse as a hotkey since that is a Wndows hot key for multiple item selection, which I use with some frequency.  Just a thought relative to hotkey selection.

[dd_ 0]

What's even more annoying about this is that even after you open the note in a separate window, the problem still persists. This tells me more clearly it's a bug and not a feature. How stupid is it that if we want to edit a note after searching for it, we have to open it, go back, clear the search text and then go back to the note? Makes zero sense

[Ralph77 44]

15 hours ago, dd_ said:

This tells me more clearly it's a bug and not a feature.

Feature, lol. Yes it's definitely a bug, one which Evernote has been aware of for many months, and one which has persisted through many public release versions. What this tells me is that Evernote's development team is evidently stretched beyond its resources and thus unable to attend to technical issues in a reasonable time. A company that is under-resourced financially and/or technically is a company that's doomed to failure, since paying customers will ultimately depart in search of a better product; loss of paying customers means further financial stress, leading to staff layoffs... and thus even more bugs will go unsquashed until the whole thing dies in a squirming digital heap. Sorry, bit of a rant and off topic too, I know, I know.

EDIT: Meanwhile there's a red notice at the top of this page that says "Evernote Service Issues:
"Hi All,
We've received some reports from users indicating that they're experiencing issues with the Evernote Service, and the ability to sync.
We wanted to let you know that we are aware of those issues, and are working diligently to resolve them..."

Maybe the end is even nigher than I thought ?

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,937]

7 hours ago, Ralph77 said:

Meanwhile there's a red notice at the top of this page that says "Evernote Service Issues:
"Hi All,
We've received some reports from users indicating that they're experiencing issues with the Evernote Service, and the ability to sync.
We wanted to let you know that we are aware of those issues, and are working diligently to resolve them..."

Maybe the end is even nigher than I thought ?

I did just randomly look at Evernote's Twitter feed (online, I'm not a twitterer myself), and saw this:

Quote

We know the Evernote service has been bumpy recently, and our team has rolled back a recent software release that we believe contributed to the instability. We continue to have all Evernote teams engaged on fixing the problem.

So hopefully no actual doom in sight.

[Ralph77 44]

7 hours ago, Dave-in-Decatur said:

So hopefully no actual doom in sight.

I hope you're right! I'm a born cynic though, so I can't resist commenting that the perhaps last employees to be shown the door will be the social media team ?
I wonder which release was "rolled bacK" (and what that even means?) - I'm still on 6.11, so should I update to 6.13? Or are they in the process of deprecating 6.13 in favour of 6.12 again? I think that's a rather confusing tweet!

[Eldorado 26]

Overall syncing problems like seen in the last days have not been specific to a client OS or version (my perseption).
But I agree with you and many others: It would be fine to get some more information than is written on http://status.evernote.com/ or here in the forums from officials. 

[logandb 227]

9 hours ago, Ralph77 said:

I hope you're right! I'm a born cynic though, so I can't resist commenting that the perhaps last employees to be shown the door will be the social media team ?
I wonder which release was "rolled bacK" (and what that even means?) - I'm still on 6.11, so should I update to 6.13? Or are they in the process of deprecating 6.13 in favour of 6.12 again? I think that's a rather confusing tweet!

I suspect they are referring to the behind the scenes software that drives the server syncing rather than the Evernote clients. It has been a worrying couple of days though – I've been suffering from 'Evernote anxiety'!

[sherpacurt 10]

I just upgraded to the latest release 6.13.14.7474... problem is still there

[rct 3]

Because of the focus issues, I'm finding the windows desktop more and more unusable.   It's hard to believe this is considered an acceptable user experience for anyone who actually uses the product. 

I really need to find an alternative.  I use maybe 10% of the basic functionality.

I don't spend much time on this forum.  Is there a place to vote on issues or other ways to be productive about this?

I do appreciate the work around to close the search box, though I know I won't remember to use that.

[n_konig 13]

With very careful optimism, I'd like to report that the bug seems to be resolved as of the last beta update (pre-release 6.14 I think). Let's see if it holds..

[jshanker 30]

30 minutes ago, n_konig said:

With very careful optimism, I'd like to report that the bug seems to be resolved as of the last beta update (pre-release 6.14 I think). Let's see if it holds..

Thanks for the heads-up. Very exciting news if it turns out to be the case. Curious, did they mention it in the release notes or is it just under the category of "general bug fixes"?

[Chaseme 15]

1 minute ago, jshanker said:

Thanks for the heads-up. Very exciting news if it turns out to be the case. Curious, did they mention it in the release notes or is it just under the category of "general bug fixes"?

Here is the post about this Beta (copied from this thread):

 

Quote

Hi Folks - 

We're releasing version 6.14 Beta 1. You can download it here, or check for updates if you have beta features turned on. 

This release brings a number of fixes with some notable editing tweaks noted below. In addition, we've enabled the "Notebooks" view in this Beta with improved performance. Please give this a go and let us know what you think. 

Thanks,

Chantal and the rest of the Windows team

 

Release Notes for Version 6.14

Note: Versions 6.14 is supported in Windows OS versions 7 and up.

Fixed:

- Losing of indent for ordered list after switching notes

- Note changes aren't saved when quickly navigating away from the note

- Cannot delete via right click menu -> delete on inline PDF.

- Unable to invoke Assign Tags dialog in single note view in joined notebook/space with view permission by Ctrl+Alt+T hotkey

New:

- We've introduced a Notebooks view to Evernote for Windows making it easier to view and manage your notebooks from one place

2

 

[Eldorado 26]

So it is NOT mentioned. A bug with that an attention value should be mentioned if it is fixed. I will not go the beta testing torture to figure it out, sorry.

[jshanker 30]

Has anyone else tried the beta and found it resolved their forgetful focus issue?

[TheBenson 6]

Heyho Evernotees! 
 It works (likely).... let's get ready to note again!!  ?

I'm on beta version 6.14.2.7587 (307587) Prerelease (CE Build ce-48.0.5483) and everything works like a charm now. 
Didn't test it for long, but copy & pasting works as usual even with a search text lingering in the search filter. 

A wonderful day to all of you and the Evernote Devs! 

[Marky D. 1]

It's Finally Fixed!

I can confirm that the latest stable release of Evernote for Windows v6.14.5.7671 (307671) Public (CE Build ce-48.0.5483), installed on Windows 10 Pro version 1803, seems to have fixed this long-standing focus problem.  In a chain of previous versions (for over a year now) this focus problem has consistently manifested itself by losing window focus on the first key press after the first time entering the note contents field while there is an active search in the note list pane.  All of my notes are relatively plain text, with a few rich text elements thrown in.  I do not use embedded images, documents, drawings or attachments anywhere; so I cannot speak to how those features may impact others. 

Let's hope this fix sticks and I may actually consider renewing my Evernote subscription.

[jshanker 30]

As someone who's experienced this issue with 100% repeatability for many many months I can also confirm that the current build 307671 is currently free of this issue for me.

I can F6 search, click on a resulting note and begin typing with no need to either F6 again to clear the search box, click "X" to clear the search box, press ctrl repeatedly, etc.

I'll post back here if it returns but for now I'd encourage anyone experiencing this issue to try the update, especially if you've had to downgrade to an older version to avoid it.

-Jason

[Carl-L-ND 56]

Fixed here as well.  Thank your Evernote!

.

[jshanker 30]

2 minutes ago, Carl-L-ND said:

Fixed here as well.  Thank your Evernote!

.

You're a lot nicer than me.  Making software that I pay for finally functional after a year-long debilitating bug doesn't get a "thank you".  ?  But I'm glad it finally works.

[Ralph77 44]

It's now working well for me too in that respect, but... off topic I know (so no need to reply unless you also have the issue)...  just wondering if anyone else is experiencing the same: After each reboot, the first time I open this latest EN version 6.14.5.7671 (307671) it's throwing up an exception, inviting me to submit the log file for review.

[jshanker 30]

I've not rebooted since installing but I'd try a full uninstall, reboot and reinstall. Sounds like something that EN loads got messed up and it's throwing the error each time it loads the first time.

[Ralph77 44]

Thanks @jshanker, good idea. It didn't actually work... but I've found a workaround - I selected the option to 'Launch Evernote at Windows login' (which I'd never selected before) and now it starts up just fine ?

EDIT: this workaround doesn't work all the time

[Christian Jacobsen 9]

Also finally working here

[dconnet 529]

21 hours ago, Ralph77 said:

It's now working well for me too in that respect, but... off topic I know (so no need to reply unless you also have the issue)...  just wondering if anyone else is experiencing the same: After each reboot, the first time I open this latest EN version 6.14.5.7671 (307671) it's throwing up an exception, inviting me to submit the log file for review.

We know about this... What happens is EN doesn't close down quickly enough for Windows - so Windows kills us. When we start up, we see a lock file left over from the previous session and assume we faulted. We're trying to figure out a better way...

[Ralph77 44]

1 hour ago, dconnet said:

We know about this

Thanks @dconnet, appreciate your feedback on the issue. Plus, I can live with it, as it's only a small price to pay (as the error can be dismissed with Esc key) for having had the Forgetful Focus issue finally resolved!

[jshanker 30]

I hate to once again sound like the ungrateful curmudgeon, but a quick scan of this 7 month old thread with dozens of users experiencing this debilitating bug and the first participation by an Evernote employee is after the problem is solved?  I assumed that nobody from Evernote read these forums. It's even more annoying to know that they do and still nobody addressed this.

Again, I'm glad the problem is solved but I'm an IT consultant who's spent years recommending this product to hundreds of my clients and all my positive experience was completely undone by the failure to address this glaring and serious flaw. Some acknowledgment of the problem and an update of what was being done would have gone a long way and I might still be recommending the product today.

[Ron Bauerle 31]

15 hours ago, jshanker said:

I hate to once again sound like the ungrateful curmudgeon, but a quick scan of this 7 month old thread with dozens of users experiencing this debilitating bug and the first participation by an Evernote employee is after the problem is solved?  I assumed that nobody from Evernote read these forums. It's even more annoying to know that they do and still nobody addressed this.

Again, I'm glad the problem is solved but I'm an IT consultant who's spent years recommending this product to hundreds of my clients and all my positive experience was completely undone by the failure to address this glaring and serious flaw. Some acknowledgment of the problem and an update of what was being done would have gone a long way and I might still be recommending the product today.

We do read the forums, but we usually aren't the ones with direct control or knowledge of when/how bugs will be fixed. Mostly, we try and take what users on the forum are saying and get it seen by people in the company who can affect change, help when we can, and bridge gaps between the forums and our customer support teams. We usually have nothing to offer other than "We hear you, we're working on it" and often even that message doesn't get out (something we are trying to change). Evernote employees posting here are largely volunteering their own limited time to try and help out, they aren't controlling the direction of the company, or tech wizards who can shoot down any bug the second it appears on their radar, but they are listening, and they're here because they care about Evernote users, not because someone told them to be.

Also FYI the Evernote employee in this thread was responding to a user who was posting about an entirely different bug, so the situation isn't quite as you described... Although I'm not sure if it makes us look better or worse that this thread about a fixed bug thread got derailed by a post about a different bug ?

[Shane D. 1,818]

Hey folks,

This specific issue has been fixed in recent updates to Evernote for Windows.

For that reason, I am locking this thread from further commentary.

If you're experiencing other Evernote-Windows issues, please post it in an already existing thread, or create a new thread.

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to myself, or our Support Staff!