Can't Take it Any Longer - Migrate Out of Evernote

[worddrawing 4]

Same on the swan song. I'm sorry but I am not a coder, developer or a critic on "nested notebooks." Nor do I have the time to go into EN continuously to discover every upset. If that is what is happening here and I am paying for the service, the problem isn't mine. 

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

I agree that the burden for sorting through bugs should not be on the users. Minor bugs are a fact of life with the release of any software, but I am afraid Evernote has a long tradition of making some radical decisions, or introducing debilitating bugs in hastily released versions. Not every time, of course, but enough to make many of the veterans wary. See, for example, the apology from the former CEO over a debacle that affected an influential tech blogger.

Perhaps the rebranding will also include a commitment to fixing the major bugs and making sure that no release goes out the door again "broken" (unusable in some way due to data loss and so forth). 

As for migrating away, it's really easy, and there are lots of options out there. Nothing is exactly like Evernote, of course, but you'll figure something out. Before saying goodbye, though, Id recommend taking a few hours to step back and get perspective. Not because it's "bad" to leave. It's just a chore to get up and running in a new app, and I've never found anything perfect, so you are also going to be in for more headaches. The question is whether those headaches are worse than these. 

After 10 years, I guess none of Evernote's headaches have been that bad. Yet!

[gazumped 11,664]

On 8/28/2018 at 6:28 AM, GrumpyMonkey said:

...I guess none of Evernote's headaches have been that bad. Yet!

Totally agree.  When I contemplate moving from Evernote (it has happened...) I factor in how much time the latest irritation-of-the-moment is adding to my day,  and compare that to the hassle of installing new software,  learning how to use it effectively,  converting my existing notes into a new format (or running two databases side by side) and settling back into an effective routine - at about which time Evernote will have usually fixed the bug anyway and I could have stayed where I was. 

I'm already committed to this application - unless there's a major security issue,  a massive bug,  or they go out of business (none of which seem likely),  it's a waste of time to consider it.

[OMNIZEN 86]

On 5/28/2018 at 12:12 PM, MRWConnected said:

Anyone have tips on how to get out of Evernote.  I've absolutely hit the wall of tolerance for the tool.  The interface gets worse with every update, and my team is about to explode with frustration.

Any thoughts on how to get out?  I'd like to be able to export into something useful, but the XML and HTML export options aren't exactly easy to work with or useful.  (Thanks Evernote - one more reminder that it's time to get out.)  I might move to Google Drive, or just Dropbox for now, but I want the notebooks in something more useful.  Anyone found an easy path?

 

It depends on what you want to export to I guess. I think at least for Mac there’s a few options / work arounds. It’s sad but I can understand the frustrations. I’m too invested and dependent on Evernote. 

[OMNIZEN 86]

On 8/29/2018 at 8:00 AM, gazumped said:

Totally agree.  When I contemplate moving from Evernote (it has happened...) I factor in how much time the latest irritation-of-the-moment is adding to my day,  and compare that to the hassle of installing new software,  learning how to use it effectively,  converting my existing notes into a new format (or running two databases side by side) and settling back into an effective routine - at about which time Evernote will have usually fixed the bug anyway and I could have stayed where I was. 

I'm already committed to this application - unless there's a major security issue,  a massive bug,  or they go out of business (none of which seem likely),  it's a waste of time to consider it.

Interesting viewpoint and I agree. Evernote has this weird dichotomy that keeps the loyal user base shackled to their platform. There more and more competition but for some reason I stay ???

[DTLow 5,736]

5 hours ago, OMNIZEN said:

Evernote has this weird dichotomy that keeps the loyal user base shackled to their platform.

For myself, Evernote's appeal is that the dichotomy is more straightforward than "weird".

My background is programming which makes me more comfortable with the technology.
My primary platform is a Mac, where every note is a separate folder holding files.
The note contents (content.enml) is close to html, a common format.
The note metadata is stored in an SQLite database, again a common format.
Any attachments are stored in their native format.

Windows platform may be more on the weird side; all the data is squashed into a single .exb file.
You can extract the note files by exporting the note in html format.

[gazumped 11,664]

5 hours ago, OMNIZEN said:

shackled to their platform

I don't feel shackled - it's already pretty easy to find alternative apps with Import Evernote options.  Although Evernote does have its moments it hasn't yet robbed me of two full days' work,  which is what the latest 'update' for Windows is into - so far.  (Long sad story ?)  If Evernote ever does become that hard to work with I'll jump immediately.  But meantime it's less effort to work around any negative features than it would be to get back up to my current 10 years' worth of experience with a completely new product.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

I don't feel shackled, because data is easy to get out, especially if the destination app has a solid migration tool. Even if it doesn't, .html is pretty convenient. There are plenty of irritating bugs and points of friction in the apps (Mac and iOS), but after 10 years of using it, I'd say it's been a good experience overall. In short, neither trapped nor especially bothered by the problems -- I can generally work around any issues that crop up. 

That said, Evernote is only one part of my note-taking, for the simple reason that it lacks sufficient protection for confidential / sensitive data, which is a lot of what I work with, so it just doesn't have a robust enough feature set for my needs. That's OK. It is what it is. But, one of the reasons why most hiccups fail to cause me too much grief is that I'm already working with other things on a daily basis, so I simply shift a bit over into those and I barely skip a beat. Maybe the lesson to take from this (at least, the one I've learned for my use case) is that it's a good idea to have all my data encrypted all the time, and to have multiple avenues for accessing / working with the data (in my case on the Mac, all of the Evernote stuff is accessible through Finder, I've got local backups, and I'm using software that can import things as needed in just a few minutes).

If I were only working with Evernote (as I suppose many folks are), I'd want to at least have local backups, and I'd probably be exporting all of my stuff as .html every few weeks (or before/after any major changes to my note content) just in case -- it's easier to sift through .html stuff stored in Dropbox or some other location, especially if you happen to be on mobile devices when things go bad. 

[gazumped 11,664]

1 hour ago, GrumpyMonkey said:

If I were only working with Evernote

Yeah - I never understood the "I don't want to have to change apps" attitude.  I generally have about 8 icons open on the task bar,  each to an app that does one or more specific task(s) rather well.  Evernote is always one - its actually permanently open on my left-hand screen - and the rest get swapped in and out as necessary.  I don't feel any need to campaign to have Evernote handle all-singing graphics,  or emails,  or calculate my spreadsheets* for me,  because it does what it does well enough to keep me going.

One of Evernote's competitors seems to have tried to profile itself as a one-stop shop,  and the main negative comment it got in a recent review was "tries to do too much..."

KISS applies in software design,  as in life...  ?

* OK I know that's already possible in MacOS,  but <sniff> I use Windows..

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

32 minutes ago, gazumped said:

One of Evernote's competitors seems to have tried to profile itself as a one-stop shop,  and the main negative comment it got in a recent review was "tries to do too much..."

Evernote doesn't do enough of what I want it to do, but does too much of what I don't

 

[dbvirago 502]

Interesting thread. The last time I seriously considered jumping ship, maybe a year ago, I evaluated about 30 apps. At that time, the main problem, as it still is, was the lagging issue. Evernote can sit there in the background all day and do nothing, yet as soon as I click on it to search for or create a note, it says, "Hey, I need to do a bunch of stuff, right now. And this would also be the perfect time to sync, rather than when I was idle."

The only serious contenders for me were Google Drive, OneNote and Nimbus. Nimbus had the most potential, but as some have said, it's a bit buggy too and moving from one buggy app to another doesn't look like a solution. I will keep an eye on it long term, however.

As far as porting to something else, there are the importing tools of Nimbus and OneNote, and as DTLow said, export everything to HTML and go from there is a great solution. All of the import tools, are of the square peg in a round hole variety, so, while they are quick and easy, the results aren't desirable.

Having said all that, I have been ready, willing and able to jump ship for a while. To that end, I keep current backups and am slowly creating parallel systems. One thing that has made that easier is getting away from the Everything in Evernote mentality. For years, all important emails have been forwarded to Evernote. Why? My email system is just as capable of organization, searching and cross-platform ability. So, I have been creating rules and filters in Gmail and stopped sending everything to Evernote. 

Note taking is still done in Evernote, but moving that to any other platform would be quick and easy.

This leaves document storage. As much as I hate it, the best solution for me is OneDrive. For several reasons, I have an Office365 sub, which gives me a 1TB storage limit. My current storage after 10 years in Evernote is 5Gb. So I am slowly copying PDFs, etc. to OneDrive and creating systems in IFTTT to duplicate things going forward. I don't need OneNote to access any of these files, but if, at some point, I drop Evernote, I could pick up OneNote without a problem. It has some nice features once you learn the way it syncs, etc. And porting things slowly and methodically instead of some  radical, I have to leave right now mentality, allows me to rethink and restructure the whole mess. With OneDrive, I can create the hierarchy that makes sense to me today, and if I go to OneNote, I can rebuild my tag structure rather than just porting everything over. As others have said, if Evernote shut down tomorrow, which most of us don't believe will happen, I have the desktop app and all my data, so I can take as much time as I want porting to another system. Which leaves me with the only problem I see with OneDrive, but one which has an easy solution. It's all in the cloud. I will have to create some system to replicate it locally, along with my external hard-drive and cloud backup systems.

And when I say drop Evernote, I mean stop paying for it. Unless they go out of business or have a security problem, there would be no reason not to maintain the free version as a backup. I don't plan on ever moving everything in Evernote to another system, so having things where I can always find them makes it a no-brainer.

Evernote works for me. I like it. I don't want to leave it and don't have to right now. But the management and direction of the company has been flaky for a long time now. I don't know if they can, or even want, to turn things around. But right now, I have until April to decide whether to pony up another fee.

[Mariano Tello 7]

I'm migrating to Onenote as i'm typing this message. I'm also frustated with this cost vs benefit tier they have reached with the new prices scheme. 

As there is no way for presentation mode in mobile devices, no new kinks or stuff, a 5 seconds refreshing (or note blinking) for me that hasn't been solved in 4 months.. I just canceled my plan and installed the Onenote migration tool.  Here is the link: https://www.onenote.com/import-evernote-to-onenote

I'm note sure if Onenote is the best option, but after 5 years of using Evernote I have seen how their main focus is now money and not client's input.

[Gear64 43]

On 5/29/2018 at 11:58 AM, MRWConnected said:

I'd have to go back a dozen versions because it has just gotten worse with every release.  Your interface/UI team should be fired and replaced.  Do some user testing, or something.  It's horrible.  We're all on Macs and increasingly everyone we work with is complaining about it.  You guys should figure it out before it's too late.  Your software has gone from a business essential to absolute garbage on all platforms.  The mobile apps should be dragged out and shot too.  Sorry, to be harsh, but it's reality.

I have hundreds of notes, and dumping to html isn't exactly easy to manage and import into another system.  

 

I can't speak to how it used to be, and I don't work on a team. Evernote is my personal tool.  Employer uses OneNote.  I share when I need to share using work tools at work, but I hate OneNote for anything but sharing. Even if it's work related, but not shared it goes in Evernote.  As of last time I used them a little over a year ago, OneNote mobile apps were a joke, they don't even compare to Evernote. The mobile apps and cross platform (I use 4), is what sold me on Evernote.   I thought just about every major competitor had an import for enex if you're determined. Just saying from fresh eyes, it may not be what it used to be, but better than anything I've used previously; just picking on OneNote a little since it often appears to be the easy answer for MS users.  For me some type of Linux support is essential.

[FrMike 3]

I've been on the fence for the last few months until about 2 weeks ago, I deemed that I was done. I've been an active user for 5 years now.

I am on a mac, and I heavily use Evernote between all my devices (Premium user,), but there's always some lag, some issue, or something going on. With all the little hiccups, editing hiccups, conflicted copies of notes, a few sync issues, lack of markdown support, formatting issues. 

I ended up creating a parallel system in Devonthink Pro Office, been using it for 2 weeks. I am going to create another parallel system in Onenote since I pay for Office 365 subscription (not by choice). 

This isn't a plug for any software, just wanted to vent my frustration with Evernote, not to mention the disappointing news of the leadership shuffling, along with their "big" update of "colors and branding". I feel like no one listens to the user base. So yea. Will probably downgrade to the basic level soon. 

 

[DTLow 5,736]

2 hours ago, FrMike said:

I ended up creating a parallel system in Devonthink Pro Office, been using it for 2 weeks. I am going to create another parallel system in Onenote

My impression is Devonthink would be for Apple users; OneNote would be for Windows users.
As an Apple fanboy, I'd be looking at Devonthink.

Not clear what occurred 2 weeks ago, but Evernote continues to store and organize my 12k documents.  
I have no reason to switch services at this time.

>>disappointing news of the leadership shuffling

I haven't heard details of the "shuffling". Anyways, I don't concern myself with the leadership stuff.  
I know Evernote's CEO is O'Neill, but that's about it.  I know nothing of the leadership at Devonthink.
Was your disappointment about any specific person?

>>along with their "big" update of "colors and branding".

Likewise, unless there's a direct impact to the use of the service, I don't give much attention to this stuff.

[worddrawing 4]

Thank you for your note and analysis. Like you, I have invested the time and expense in a program (Evernote) and a change of this magnitude is never easy. I have not participated in notifications on the hazards of an app before and it is clear this one is not delivering. It means a lot to know my own decision is supported by others.

As to the leadership, it matters. All policy begins and ends with the individuals in place. To think otherwise is ignorance.

[dbvirago 502]

So, I'm taking another look at OneNote as a possible backup and/or replacement for Evernote should that become necessary. So far, I was liking it fine. Last week, I created a new Notebook in the Android version and a section and page under that. Last night, I went to OneNote for Win10 on the laptop, accessed that Notebook and created several new sections and a page under one of those. Computer was left running all night - not sure if OneNote was or not. This morning, that Notebook was missing. The More Notebooks link showed nothing. I opened OneNote 2016 (still makes no sense re an older non-supported version has to be used for certain functions) and did a File Open to find the missing Notebook. The Notebook was there, but all work done on it last night was gone. No conflicts.

There is a lot I don't like about Evernote, but in 8 years, it has never, not once, lost any data. Since I'm already paying for it, I may use OneDrive for backup documents storage, PDFs and such, but OneNote just bit the big one.

One thing that has come out of all of this, is I am rethinking my overall strategy. Evernote has always been my 'everything in one place,' place, but I've started changing that strategy. I am slowly moving toward documents, notes, and email being treated differently. I'm not sure if this will stick, but it's what I am experimenting with. Email clients are very good at organization and searching, so I'm leaving most of those in place. I'm still waffling on what documents I want in Evernote for easy retrieval, versus in long-term storage like OneDrive or Google Drive.

 

Hopefully, this all becomes a moot point.

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,958]

Very interesting post, @dbvirago, in a couple of ways. First, it makes me think of the folks who have reported on these forums that Evernote did lose data, and they were heading to OneNote for safety. I've never had any data loss in Evernote either; I'm sure it does happen, but good user habits are probably the first line of defense (maybe in OneNote too).

Secondly, this once again intrigues me about the many different ways of using Evernote. You've been using it (I gather) as an "everything in one place" repository for emails, documents to be stored, etc. I do a small amount of that, but I use Evernote mainly to take notes: to jot down ideas, copy pages from books or articles, grab Websites, record information about professional services (from builders to doctors), etc. Much of this is related to specific projects I am working on or want to work on. Being able to do this on my Android phone and on my desktop and laptop Windows PCs allows me to have a brilliant idea over breakfast, and massage it into a useless, overthought lump at my leisure. 

To me, it seems that what are (or perhaps were originally) sidelights or ancillary features to a note-taking app (attachments, emails) have for some users become the central purpose for using Evernote. That seems to me to be the nature of a really great computer program: it gains uses as it gains users. The only downside is that I suspect it can leave the developers scrambling to keep up with their users sometimes!

[dbvirago 502]

Yeah, as I began cleaning up some folders in EN, I realized just how much data was there that I have never looked at, and likely never would. A great deal of that was email,. so that's an easy fix. The document storage decision will be a little tougher, but I may segregate that further into long-term vs short term needs. For example, 2005 tax returns, vs docs I need for a vacation next month.

[DTLow 5,736]

7 hours ago, dbvirago said:

One thing that has come out of all of this, is I am rethinking my overall strategy. Evernote has always been my 'everything in one place,' place, but I've started changing that strategy. I am slowly moving toward documents, notes, and email being treated differently.

For me,  it's "everything in one place".  It's being managed well  in Evernote.

You mentioned email clients, and I've gone though so many, mostly work related; most of that data is lost.  Yes, the email clients handle it better, but to look up a past email I go Evernote.

>>I realized just how much data was there that I have never looked at, and likely never would. 

This doesn't bother me.  Evernote has no max storage  limit, and my devices have free space.
I may have to adjust if there's a performance hit; so far I have no issues.

[DTLow 5,736]

On 9/2/2018 at 5:29 AM, GrumpyMonkey said:

I'd want to at least have local backups, and I'd probably be exporting all of my stuff as .html every few weeks

I have daily incremental and weekly full backups in html format.
I have no problem accessing my data if Evernote goes dark, temporarily or permanently.

>>That said, Evernote is only one part of my note-taking, for the simple reason that it lacks sufficient protection for confidential / sensitive data, which is a lot of what I work with

I use Evernote as storage for everything.  It is annoying to go through the encryption hoops for sensitive data.

[dbvirago 502]

There are two cases when, for me, emails in EN are better than my email system. One, when I use title as a naming/sorting convention, and two, when it is something I absolutely need whether I have an Internet connection or not. That case gets rarer every day, but still happens.

Re backups., I do weekly Enex exports and monthly html. Nightly, there are two backups to external drives, one my primary data files and one a mirror of the C drive. Also have real-time cloud backups of hard drive and both externals. So there are 8 copies of my EN data on 4 devices in 3 physical locations, not counting the two Android copies.

[DTLow 5,736]

2 hours ago, dbvirago said:

There are two cases when, for me, emails in EN are better than my email system. One, when I use title as a naming/sorting convention, and two, when it is something I absolutely need whether I have an Internet connection or not.

As well as storage, some emails enter my task management system which is maintained in Evernote
The email notes are collected in my Inbox notebook and then processed.
If Actionable, I do the tag assignments so the note shows up on my task list.

[CalS 5,280]

5 hours ago, Dave-in-Decatur said:

To me, it seems that what are (or perhaps were originally) sidelights or ancillary features to a note-taking app (attachments, emails) have for some users become the central purpose for using Evernote.

Very true.  I started with EN because I needed a tool to record meeting notes and what to do about them.  Once I got a handle on the capabilities of EN my use case quickly expanded to encompass becoming paperless.  Anything of merit for history, documentation or tasks makes its way into EN.  I use EN least for note taking.  ?

[DTLow 5,736]

7 hours ago, Dave-in-Decatur said:

To me, it seems that what are (or perhaps were originally) sidelights or ancillary features to a note-taking app (attachments, emails) have for some users become the central purpose for using Evernote. 

Same as @CalS, this describes my use, a filing cabinet for all  the "ancillary" stuff.

Note-taking has become a minor point of the product.  I have no problem using dedicated editor apps, then storing the document in Evernote.

[Gear64 43]

12 hours ago, dbvirago said:

So, I'm taking another look at OneNote as a possible backup and/or replacement for Evernote should that become necessary. So far, I was liking it fine. Last week, I created a new Notebook in the Android version and a section and page under that. Last night, I went to OneNote for Win10 on the laptop, accessed that Notebook and created several new sections and a page under one of those. Computer was left running all night - not sure if OneNote was or not. This morning, that Notebook was missing. The More Notebooks link showed nothing. I opened OneNote 2016 (still makes no sense re an older non-supported version has to be used for certain functions) and did a File Open to find the missing Notebook. The Notebook was there, but all work done on it last night was gone. No conflicts.

There is a lot I don't like about Evernote, but in 8 years, it has never, not once, lost any data. Since I'm already paying for it, I may use OneDrive for backup documents storage, PDFs and such, but OneNote just bit the big one.

One thing that has come out of all of this, is I am rethinking my overall strategy. Evernote has always been my 'everything in one place,' place, but I've started changing that strategy. I am slowly moving toward documents, notes, and email being treated differently. I'm not sure if this will stick, but it's what I am experimenting with. Email clients are very good at organization and searching, so I'm leaving most of those in place. I'm still waffling on what documents I want in Evernote for easy retrieval, versus in long-term storage like OneDrive or Google Drive.

 

Hopefully, this all becomes a moot point.

I don't think what you experienced with OneNote is typical, at least of last I was using it.  It's likely just like anything else, sometimes things happen.  Which is why I find so much discontent on these forums interesting.  The grass isn't always greener.  I found OneNote to be reliable enough, but over a 5 year period could never it make it work for me as a process.  I dabbled with EverNote Basic for a bit, and everything fell into place so well I upgraded to Plus; and still feel it's the best all round app I've used.  Maybe there's individual facets that aren't as polished as some other software that focuses on that one facet, but I think EverNote does more across the board, and across more platforms than any other software I've used.

[BrightHomesRE 31]

On 8/27/2018 at 10:01 AM, righteousdork said:

On Mac, it's like second nature to me.  Muscle memory.  Have to look it up. 
https://help.evernote.com/hc/en-us/articles/208313358-Keyboard-shortcuts-in-Evernote-for-Mac

 

@righteousdork, thank you!  I can definitely use this link!  

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

12 hours ago, DTLow said:

I have daily incremental and weekly full backups in html format.
I have no problem accessing my data if Evernote goes dark, temporarily or permanently.

>>That said, Evernote is only one part of my note-taking, for the simple reason that it lacks sufficient protection for confidential / sensitive data, which is a lot of what I work with

I use Evernote as storage for everything.  It is annoying to go through the encryption hoops for sensitive data.

If Evernote disappeared in the next few minutes, it would have no impact on my data, and I think that is probably true for most users. It's all stored locally (in our computers, and for some of us, on our mobile devices). Getting the data out of Evernote only takes a few minutes, and migrating to another app has always been possible, though naturally there are hiccups along the way, because no service is exactly like another one. Your mileage may vary. It seems to me that most apps have pretty much fallen in line with this kind of thinking by making things portable (relatively easy to add or remove from a service). For those of you worried about Evernote's imminent demise (according to some reporting), I'd recommend you don't worry about it (for the reasons just mentioned). For those of you migrating out, I wish you all the best in your new home.

Backups are protection against data corruption. This could be from user error, a problem on Evernote's end, or even some kind of malicious attack. Stuff happens. Backups are easy to make these days (Time Machine on Mac does it all automatically in the background) and they're worth doing for peace of mind. I'd recommend it for any app, so even if you are migrating out, don't forget about backups!

Encryption in Evernote does require you to jump through hoops, and that is why I don't bother, but I also have data that cannot be stored unencrypted on the cloud... So, that's where other applications come into play. I haven't migrated out of Evernote, but I've got to use other apps, because Evernote has always been a poor fit for my needs (in this regard). Over a decade now with the app and I don't expect that to change anytime soon. Fortunately, other apps have seamless encryption (no hoops at all) -- it's all encrypted all the time. 

[catsknit 17]

On 9/24/2018 at 3:17 PM, DTLow said:

I have daily incremental and weekly full backups in html format.
I have no problem accessing my data if Evernote goes dark, temporarily or permanently.

 

Do you do this from EN or just as part of a regular backup? I have tried exporting but it only wants to choose the one note that is open?  How to export the whole database or even as individual notebooks?

edited - OK, now i see how to do notebooks as a whole, but not the whole database unless it's part of a Windows (or Mac) backup in general. Also, from EN, do you choose individual html or one html file? I'm not sure how having one huge html file would be useful?

 

[DTLow 5,736]

13 hours ago, catsknit said:

Do you do this from EN or just as part of a regular backup? I have tried exporting but it only wants to choose the one note that is open?  How to export the whole database or even as individual notebooks?

The export function operates on the selected notes.  To export the whole database, select all the notes.

My backups are automated using a script (Mac).  Backupery is a third party solution.
Both solutions use the Evernote export feature.

>>do you choose individual html or one html file?

On Macs, we have no choice; just a separate html file for for each note.
This is actually my preference.
The native format is one content.enml file for each note.

[Stewartdesign 3]

I'm an OG Evernote users and evangelist (I was subscriber number 800-something) so I've been using it personally daily nearly since its inception, and recommended it to dozens of clients. I've also bought a few premium accounts and implemented it as a mission-critical tool in our family business, used to gather and organize incoming orders, invoices, and all paperwork. We scan all incoming papers into it for processing; we route all incoming faxes and orders to it. We have a whole system for Accounts Payable set up around evernote. Each of our databases is in the 30-50gb range, with many thousands of notes going back to 2013. 

One thing that Evernote does that no other note-gathering tool can is allow us to combine multiple notes (each with a PDF attachment) into a single note with multiple attachments. In our process, we scan paperwork to PDF into a watched folder on the network*, create a note for it, and label the note by PO number with a designation for which type of paperwork it is (-I for invoice, -R for receiver, -P for purchase order, -S for statement, etc.). We then hire someone (remotely!) to match up all the matching-numbered notes and combine them into one note to prepare for review and payment. It works better than any tool we've ever had. We rely mostly on a notebook structure to track the flow of paperwork, rather than tags. We have several notebooks shared between departments.

Evernote has been transformative for our document-heavy business: it allows us to instantly locate any order, any contract, any invoice within seconds. All our Customer Service people and Accounting people rely on it. It complements our accounting/inventory system (Sage 300) very well. We've eliminated an entire wall of paper-filled file cabinets. We no longer have a "file clerk"- that person has been replaced with a part-time "note combiner." I always tell vendors and suppliers about how useful Evernote is. What Evernote does really has no equivalent. Even Sage's own document management system pales by comparison and costs many thousands of dollars more. It's criminal how cheap Evernote is for the value it brings. 

My complaints with Evernote are mostly recent, as of this year-- lots of sync/server issues, recent unstable releases on Windows (seem to be mostly fixed now, but really killed our productivity when it was down), and a support department that is essentially worthless and never resolves my problem, even if they do respond. I want NOTHING MORE than to see Evernote fix its funding/management/direction problems and keep on going. Selfishly, I'd be happy to see them eliminate the free version altogether, focus exclusively on enterprise, and charge us whatever it takes to keep them afloat and able to provide a stable and supported product.

I've investigated dozens of other notetaking apps but nothing has the same utility of Evernote for our specific needs. We use Onenote heavily, and I've been moving files up to SharePoint (better than Onedrive), but there is no tool organized quite like Evernote that works as easily as evernote for document organization and retrieval. 

I'm toying with this tool combo as a Plan B:

Joplin (https://joplin.cozic.net/  - opensource evernote clone) - installed on each user's machine. Able to sync with network drives and various cloud services. (I did a test export of some notes, and they came in, attachments and all.)
Egnyte (https://www.egnyte.com/  ) - enterprise level file sharing tool which we currently use (very stable, we like it) that is going to have inbuilt OCR capabilities soon (https://www.egnyte.com/blog/2018/03/streamline-your-workflow-and-increase-productivity-with-document-creation/ )
The plan: scan in PDFS, place in network drive, let Joplin watch the network folder. Somehow use Egnyte's OCR tool (no idea how it will be implemented) to try to replicate the OCR capabilities of Evernote so we can locate text within scanned documents. No idea exactly how that will work and what processes we may need to change to make this new system work for us. 

------------------------------------

Evernote tips I've discovered along the way:

* tip #1: watched network folders:  As you may know, evernote doesn't do watched folders on a network drive. So create a local symbolic link to the watched network folder, then ANOTHER symbolic link to the first symbolic link, and then, tell Evernote to watch that *second* symbolic link. Voila: any documents that get dropped in the network folder will now be imported automatically into Evernote!

** tip #2: we use inQloud (inqloud.com) to route gmail, using mail rules, to specific notebooks in Evernote. Works great.

[skr1107 0]

I'm done with it, too. I'm also looking for tips on migrating my notes to something else, like OneNote or Google Drive.

[gazumped 11,664]

On 9/27/2018 at 9:05 AM, skr1107 said:

I'm done with it, too. I'm also looking for tips on migrating my notes to something else, like OneNote or Google Drive.

If that suits your needs,  then best of luck. Presumably both of those products have discussion pages sharing that sort of information.  I'd think it would be stretching Evernote's charitableness (new word) to provide 'how to import Notes' guides for every competitor...  I'm certainly not familiar with any procedures - I'd rather do my actual work than learn new systems...

[dbvirago 502]

On 9/26/2018 at 11:35 AM, DTLow said:

The export function operates on the selected notes.  To export the whole database, select all the notes.

My backups are automated using a script (Mac).  Backupery is a third party solution.
Both solutions use the Evernote export feature.

>>do you choose individual html or one html file?

On Macs, we have no choice; just a separate html file for for each note.
This is actually my preference.
The native format is one content.enml file for each note.

Are you having any issues with export in the latest release? My enex exports have been working fine, but tried to do my HTML export and it keeps crashing somewhere about halfway through.

[DTLow 5,736]

3 minutes ago, dbvirago said:

Are you having any issues with export in the latest release? My enex exports have been working fine, but tried to do my HTML export and it keeps crashing somewhere about halfway through.

No issues.  HTML export is working fine on my Mac for both incremental and full backups

[dbvirago 502]

May be time for a reboot. Also had a Windows update yesterday.

(When I came back to reply to your note, I hit reply and my previous message was in the text box. Only way I could get it to go away was post it and delete it.

[dbvirago 502]

User error. I was clicking on Single page. I guess a 12,000 note html page exceeded some kind of limit ?

[DTLow 5,736]

29 minutes ago, dbvirago said:

User error. I was clicking on Single page. I guess a 12,000 note html page exceeded some kind of limit ?

Glad you got it worked out.  Single page isn't even an option on Macs; I don't see the benefit. I want direct access to the note.

[dbvirago 502]

Yeah, it would be a mess, but the main reason I am using the html export is easy access to all the PDFs in one place. Once created, I filter on those and copy them all to my OneDrive. After a couple of days, once I'm sure the whole thing has been backed up to my external drives and the cloud, I delete it all. My 1Tb internal is starting to fill up.

[CalS 5,280]

4 hours ago, dbvirago said:

Yeah, it would be a mess, but the main reason I am using the html export is easy access to all the PDFs in one place. Once created, I filter on those and copy them all to my OneDrive. After a couple of days, once I'm sure the whole thing has been backed up to my external drives and the cloud, I delete it all. My 1Tb internal is starting to fill up.

On Windows you can right click on selected notes and choose Save Attachments.  Don't know if this would make the process easier.

[pirate727 25]

Like many of you, I have often strayed to search out other solutions that could compare to EN.  I have never found anything that comes close.  Only lesser, more buggy solutions, or overly-complicated web apps that claim to be simple but baffle expert users--like me.

I switched to a Mac back in 2013 and never looked back.  What I realized immediately is that the Evernote team at that time must definitely all work on Macs.  The interface was much slicker (although less customizable), and the cursor and lag bugs of Windows were gone.  In fact, just this past year, when I booted up my old PC with Windows 10, my Evernote experience was so bad that I literally had to delete the program to prevent that instance from ***** up my data.  First off, the interface still looked clunky and out of date.  The lag--oh the lag--was still there (which their tech people claimed is a problem with the Windows file system on a spinning drive, which I partially agree with).  The jumping cursor was still there.  But the thing that sent me running for Uninstall Programs is the fact that the program just couldn't sync correctly with the mothership and was creating duplicate notes and "note conflicts" which I didn't even spend time trying to resolve.  The solutions on the net were laughable.  Who wants to think about correcting all of that when my Mac version--and all its mobile apps--works seemlessly?  So, I feel for those on PC's.  Evernote has definitely dropped the ball on that platform and the program needs to be rebuilt from the ground up.

People keep talking up Notion.  The problem with Notion is that in their effort to make the app completely simple yet completely powerful, they made it ridiculously complicated.  I could eventually 'get it.'  But to try to get one of my clients on it so their team could share resources and centrally manage projects was like trying to explain how to build a rocket.  Give people too much freedom and some just won't be able to see the vision and build something.  They'll be lost with a blank slate.  That's why programs like Evernote work, because they provide a basic structure that allows organization.  Capture, organize (if you want), recall.  That's where Evernote shines.  

To me, OneNote is like putting your info into a Playschool Speak n Spell.  The interface is cartoonish and overbearing.  The notebook motif is cumbersome and just not clean to me.  Search is OK.  My main problem: I don't need a full page of space when I'm typing in a client's birthday I want to remember and instantly recall later with a couple shortcut keys while I'm on the phone.

I left the corporate world and started my own business in 2001.  People always ask me how I do it.  Aside from just "doing it," which is the most important reason, one of my secrets has been Evernote.  The ability to store and recall information at any time has acted like an endless memory for me and has given me an "always-on" advantage that keeps me on top of my game.  Whether it be passwords for websites--or even client email accounts when they forget them, or information about how and where I met a lead that decided to call me after 2 years, that instant information make me better.   Not compared to anyone else--but a better me.  That's the true gold of Evernote.  Being able to scan and store other documents and data is just a bonus.

I believe we're seeing the rebirth of Evernote and nobody should go anywhere.  Definitely continue to ***** about the Windows client until they do something, but in the meantime, use the web interface if you can.  They just made it similar to the Mac's, and I felt right at home with it.  The new Templates feature instantly changed the game for me.  I have already started using the meeting notes feature and have been able to have a great looking recap of the meetings I have to share with the clients.  I know I could have built them on my own, but having that button and the ability to save my own really makes it convenient.  

I think there's more to come.  Spaces for the people would be great.  Like many of you, as a team of one, I'll welcome anything in addition to notebooks that can make organizing these random bits of information more visual...and enjoyable.

[DTLow 5,736]

1 hour ago, pirate727 said:

I believe we're seeing the rebirth of Evernote and nobody should go anywhere. 

My experience is with Macs so I've not become jaded by the Windows experience.
I don't see a "rebirth", just the continued service of processing my data.

I think people look at Evernote as being their editor of choice, and they're disappointed.
I don't have much expectation for the editor or the note format.  I use it for basic notes, but I have an assortment of editors to chose from.

You mentioned the new templates feature.
Templates are a good idea and I've been using them for quite a while.  
My solution is a collection of notes flagged as templates for quick access.  Evernote's duplicate note function works well.  I use the export/import feature, automated with a script.
My point is, I had a requirement and I took care of it.  I wasn't spending the time wishing Evernote would update so I could use templates.

[adorno's gray 18]

For Mac users, there is always the option to use DevonThink.

I've been using EN for 7 or so years and yesterday, I ported everything over to DevonThink Personal. Very easy, no hitches whatsoever with a rather large database.

Only a one-time fee of $49.

More secure; all notes sent to a cloud service of your choice are encrypted by DevonThink. 

I've yet to find any downsides whatsoever. The search function is far superior to Evernote's. The interface is more flexible, with no bugs.

I cannot see any reason to stay with Evernote at this point.

[FrMike 3]

It's been a little over a month for me and I did the same thing that @adorno's gray did. I moved everything to DevonThink Pro Office Edition (One time fee plus I had some coupon codes). 

It has a higher learning curve and I had to really separate "what I think it had to look due to EN influence", but I've practically replicated my EN experience. Are there some issues? Yes, but not as big as my complaints that I had with EN. Will EN be around, will it get better? I still have almost 5-6 months of my subscription remaining, I am keeping a parallel system, just in case as a precaution. 

If things get better with EN, then maybe, but with my new workflow. I am leaning more towards downgrading my Premium account to Free. Then using EN for the non-essentials, the filler stuff, while using DevonThink for the more private notes that need the encryption. 

This isn't a plug for anything, just sharing my experience. I am also a mac user only. I left Windows about 6 years ago after being an adamant Windows only user. 

[adorno's gray 18]

31 minutes ago, FrMike said:

If things get better with EN, then maybe, but with my new workflow. I am leaning more towards downgrading my Premium account to Free. Then using EN for the non-essentials, the filler stuff, while using DevonThink for the more private notes that need the encryption. 

 

Same. I'll never pay for EN again—there's no reason to.

After switching, it's a bit shocking and truly refreshing how stable DevonThink is. So much snappier and nimble, yet much more powerful features.

Am kicking myself for waiting so long.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

Devonthink is amazing for OSX / iOS, and it has been for years now — there are hiccups, as you would expect with any software, but rarely any really itritating bugs. The team there consistently puts out stable, excellent updates to a solid product. I think you’ll enjoy it.

That said, it’s a lot different than Evernote, and I think there’s space put there for both of them. I like that Evernote, for example, handles syncing really well — often nearly instantaneous. I also love the handwriting recognition, excellent search for Asian languages, and ability to quickly add content. 

I use them both  No need to migrate anywhere...

[DTLow 5,736]

2 hours ago, GrumpyMonkey said:

I use them both 

I don't want to use two services.  I want all my data in one central spot, and my focus on one service.

I agree that Devonthink is an amazing product.  I might be using it some day.
There are some features done better in DT, some features done better in EN.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

11 hours ago, DTLow said:

I don't want to use two services.  I want all my data in one central spot, and my focus on one service.

I agree that Devonthink is an amazing product.  I might be using it some day.
There are some features done better in DT, some features done better in EN.

Fair enough. I don't want to use multiple services either.

In my case, it's a hassle, but it is possible to separate sensitive data (particularly data about others that I have an obligation to protect) from regular data that is also private, but can be put onto a third-party server ("the cloud") without encryption. I live with it. And, I use Keynote, PowerPoint, Word, etc. Lots of apps. I think that's where we are right now with things. Or, at least, that's where I am.

At any rate, I rarely "leave" or "migrate" out of things. I tend to let my usage taper off, let my subscription lapse, or just forget to install the app when I upgrade. In general, I've found working in multiple apps saves me from some of the most irritating aspects of the bug-ridden apps we have to work with in so many cases. If an app becomes abandonware or something happens with an update that makes it unusable, I just shift gears.

[Chris_n_Arizona 2]

I'm another long-time user of Evernote that is absolutely done with using EN as my main collector & processor of notes ... moved to Notion.so a few weeks and quickly became premium user. Getting more done now than I ever had with EN. I found myself avoiding EN since it hangs up so bad and search is so slow. Organizing notes is extremely limited and jumping ship of the exec team recently was enough to make the move.

[DTLow 5,736]

1 hour ago, Chris_n_Arizona said:

EN as my main collector & processor of notes

Can you identify the ways Notion is better at "collector & processor"
My impression of Notion is that it's more focused on the editing function than Evernote.

[s2sailor 2,193]

1 hour ago, Chris_n_Arizona said:

I'm another long-time user of Evernote that is absolutely done with using EN as my main collector & processor of notes ... moved to Notion.so a few weeks and quickly became premium user. Getting more done now than I ever had with EN. I found myself avoiding EN since it hangs up so bad and search is so slow. Organizing notes is extremely limited and jumping ship of the exec team recently was enough to make the move.

Different tools for different needs or desires.  I was intrigued with Notion and it looks quite polished.  It seems to be very configurable and for those that want more organization than what Evernote currently provides, I can see this being appealing.  I don't do much organizing within Evernote, though I will be interested to see what spaces provides once that is enabled for premium subscriptions, so Notion looks to require more fiddling than what I do today so there wasn't a strong attraction for me.  I will keep following it to see how it developes.  My current app to migrate to, if ever needed, is Devonthink.  My fairly large database imported pretty well and I liked what I saw during the evaluation time, but I've fortunately not been burdened with some of the EN problems reported so there is no urgency for me to move to another tool.

[enki 33]

I think I've tried it all, but, becouse of my asset, is hard to leave Evernote. I have one windows pc and two ios device.

• I need to have all notes for offline acces
• I need to take and edit notes in offline mode
• Add images to notes
• Add document images to notes
• add tags for tag organisation
• I need to search inside pdf
• adnotate pdf or photos
• I need a universal app

For thats reasons I can't migrate feom Evernote

 

[eric99 980]

On 10/11/2018 at 10:04 PM, s2sailor said:

 I've fortunately not been burdened with some of the EN problems reported so there is no urgency for me to move to another tool.

The same for me, and what's more, I'm not locked in, I know that I can move my data whenever I like:

1. I can export to HTML, the format that will still be readable in a 100 years. 

2. The .enex file format is very well documented XML, so data can be converted to any file format without data loss (example https://www.exportnote.com/

If evernote would stop, every note taking app will provide importers for 5 billion notes created by 200 million users. And in the worst case, I'll write it myself.

 

[Michael Singer 16]

Notion is enormously versatile and powerful. For me it is now the tool of choice. Evernote content (notebooks, stacks and even a whole workspace) can now be imported with a few mouse clicks.

[DTLow 5,736]

2 hours ago, Michael Singer said:

Notion is enormously versatile and powerful. For me it is now the tool of choice.

I'm leery of the "one tool" solutions.

For myself, I'm using

• Evernote for capture/storage/retrieval
• Evernote editor for basic notes
• Word/Pages for word processing
• Excel/Numbers for spreadsheets
• Notability for note taking on my iPad

As to file formats, I favour PDF and HTML

[s2sailor 2,193]

1 hour ago, Michael Singer said:

Notion is enormously versatile and powerful. For me it is now the tool of choice. Evernote content (notebooks, stacks and even a whole workspace) can now be imported with a few mouse clicks.

I've been watching Notion, but not too closely.  Have they added in the ability to scan or email content in?  I did see they added a web clipper.  How does it compare to EN's?

[Michael Singer 16]

Currently Notion's Web Clipper is only available für Chrome, but it will be also available for Firefox, Safari in the future... At the moment Evernote's web clipper is certainly more powerful, but I have no doubt that the guys at Notion are going to strongly improve that tool very soon. One has to consider that Notion's Web Clipper has been released only in january 2019.

[Marianoz 0]

I was an EN premium user for many years. I love the tagging features, search capabilities...

But I found OneNote much much better in terms of editing the notes. EN editor is so limited and clumsy. Editing features are the minimal ones, tables are horrible, they don´t work as expected... I am really frustrated with it and I am thinking in switching to OneNote...

Anyone with the same feelings?

 

 

[gazumped 11,664]

On 3/3/2019 at 1:44 PM, Marianoz said:

I was an EN premium user for many years. I love the tagging features, search capabilities...

But I found OneNote much much better in terms of editing the notes. EN editor is so limited and clumsy. Editing features are the minimal ones, tables are horrible, they don´t work as expected... I am really frustrated with it and I am thinking in switching to OneNote...

Anyone with the same feelings?

 

 

Not the same feelings,  but if you think OneNote fits your use case better than Evernote,  then you should obviously give it a try at least.  Evernote continues to work for me on a daily basis,  so I'm not going to move anywhere.  Plus I have found (with other apps) that when I move to a 'better' alternative,  it takes some time to get back up to my former comfort level - by which time the original app has introduced new features that I like!  This is a purely personal decision and you (and anyone else in the same position) should go with your gut.

[DTLow 5,736]

On 3/3/2019 at 5:44 AM, Marianoz said:

But I found OneNote much much better in terms of editing the notes. EN editor is so limited and clumsy. Editing features are the minimal ones, tables are horrible, they don´t work as expected... I am really frustrated with it and I am thinking in switching to OneNote...

Agreed, the Evernote editor is limited; also the format (enml/html) is limited.
I find it adequate for basic notes.
However any format file can be included in a note as an attachment.  This allows me to choose from many editors; word processing, spreadsheets, ....

I found Evernote much much better in filing documents.  The OneNote filing system i so limited and clumsy.

[Marianoz 0]

3 hours ago, DTLow said:

Agreed, the Evernote editor is limited; also the format (enml/html) is limited.
I find it adequate for basic notes.
However any format file can be included in a note as an attachment.  This allows me to choose from many editors; word processing, spreadsheets, ....

I found Evernote much much better in filing documents.  The OneNote filing system i so limited and clumsy.

thanks DTLow, I agree is ok for basic notes... and,  on the other hand, I also agree that filing docs worked great in EN, never had an issue there... In the meantime, I will do some pilot work on OneNote, with just a couple of things there, and see how it goes.. 

[Michael Singer 16]

Referring to the title of this threat I just want to note that switching from Evernote to Notion is now just a matter of a few mouse clicks:

https://www.notion.so/evernote

[DTLow 5,736]

19 hours ago, Michael Singer said:

Referring to the title of this threat I just want to note that switching from Evernote to Notion is now just a matter of a few mouse clicks:

It's always been a few mouse clicks to export our data from Evernote.

Can you advise on preservation of file formats and  structure in Notion.  
I need to maintain natve format for file attachments; Word documents, Excel Sppreadsheets, PDFs, Images, ...  
No preference on note contents; the current format is a html fork - ubiquitous, but limited

 

[Michael Singer 16]

5 minutes ago, DTLow said:

It's always been a few mouse clicks to export our data from Evernote.

I'm talking about importing Evernote data into Notion (including all files, images etc.)

[chronistin 187]

7 hours ago, Michael Singer said:

Referring to the title of this threat I just want to note that switching from Evernote to Notion is now just a matter of a few mouse clicks:

https://www.notion.so/evernote

Just tested it, it's working great!

[Michael Singer 16]

33 minutes ago, chronistin said:

Just tested it, it's working great!

Yes, I couldn't believe it at first that all my Evernote notebook stacks could be imported so easily. Notion is a powerful tool with amazing capabilities (calendar, databases...)

[eric99 980]

5 hours ago, Michael Singer said:

Yes, I couldn't believe it at first that all my Evernote notebook stacks could be imported so easily. Notion is a powerful tool with amazing capabilities (calendar, databases...)

Good to know,  this convinces me to stick with evernote because there is always a fallback if needed...

[MRWConnected 18]

Were you able to import both personal and business notebooks without an issue? (Into Notion.)

 

[jefito 5,589]

6 hours ago, Michael Singer said:

Yes, I couldn't believe it at first that all my Evernote notebook stacks could be imported so easily. Notion is a powerful tool with amazing capabilities (calendar, databases...)

Import of note data seems ok (tables are not faithfully imported, though the content is shown in tabular form), and there are some appealing things about the UI/UX, but Notion has a long way to go before it can compete with Evernote for my sage.

First glance (Windows desktop):

* No All Notes view.: you can only view notes in a particular notebook. Also means that you can't view all notes in a stack, either.

* No 3-pane navigation -- notes are viewed as popups on the main page. I want to see the current note while I browse a note list

* Search: Ad-hoc search seems to be missing, tag search isn't great

* No tag tree navigation : if that sort of thing is important to you

* Nothing like Evernote's snippet view, which I use almost exclusively.

* Confgurability is minimal

Not really ready for (my) prime time, I'm sorry to say.

 

[eric99 980]

Do they provide 2 factor authentication?  For me, this is mandatory, considering the recent password breach at some EN users who didn't activate 2FA...

And an even more important question: can you easily export your complete database to a standard file format?

[pirate727 25]

Sorry, I played with Notion a bit. Frankly it’s a mess that you have to make order of to get it to work the way you work. Who has time for that?  Great idea, but like @jefito said, the power and flexibility of search is missing on import. Evernote serves a specific purpose for me. Random bits of info that are at my fingertips when I need them. That’s all I need. Notion tries to be all things, but it’s not great at any of them, unless you put the time in to make it that way.  And like I said....

[gazumped 11,664]

My impression a while back - Notion is very very capable - but too customizable to be practical.  Evernote is sometimes compared to a 'Lego kit' that you have to string together in a certain order to get a working use case going.  I think Notion is the same - but they have a lot more more colors and specialty bricks.  Fine if it works for you - but like @eric99 said;  I'm currently much happier to stick with Evernote and keep Notion as my backstop just in case...  I do not currently need another learning curve...

[RY27 21]

Unless Notion implements a true email integration (as opposed to relying on 3rd party services like Zapier, Workato or IFTTT), I don't see it being a strong contender to Evernote. One should not be paying premium subscription for a service and then require another expensive subscription just to get your data in. 

Until then it will be a fun toy or just a standalone tool that can complement someone's Evernote use but not replace it. 

I just don't see email going away, regardless of what collaboration features a note-taking or database platform may have. Everyone has access to email no matter what software they actually use. Not everyone can be convinced to take notes or store data or documents under specific constraints that each platform will inevitably impose. Any software developer who doesn't get it will fail eventually and will be relegated to some geeky niche (e.g., Workflowy), and that is why Evernote and OneNote are still around and have significant followings and why people use things like Trello even though it's nothing but an electronic version of post its. . 

[Michael Singer 16]

For those who do not already know why Notion is not for them, here's an article that explains pretty well how Notion actually works. It's from July 2018, and Notion has evolved in the meantime, but I think it conveys very well the basic principle of Notion.

https://madewithlove.be/dont-notion-shine-when-shes-gone/

[tomcal 18]

I imported over 19,000 notes from Evernote into Notion a few days ago.  I was amazed how quickly it worked and I received a $5 credit from Notion for using the new Evernote importer.  However, I'm finding out now that many, many notes did not import.  And it appears to be random, not based on any particular type of Evernote note.  I may try re-importing one notebook at a time.  My largest single notebook in Evernote has 8796 notes and many of those didn't import into Notion.  I want Notion to have a full backup of all of my Evernote notes but if some are missing, it kills that idea.  I'm going to do further research.

[Michael Singer 16]

33 minutes ago, tomcal said:

I imported over 19,000 notes from Evernote into Notion a few days ago.  I was amazed how quickly it worked and I received a $5 credit from Notion for using the new Evernote importer.  However, I'm finding out now that many, many notes did not import.  And it appears to be random, not based on any particular type of Evernote note.  I may try re-importing one notebook at a time.  My largest single notebook in Evernote has 8796 notes and many of those didn't import into Notion.  I want Notion to have a full backup of all of my Evernote notes but if some are missing, it kills that idea.  I'm going to do further research.

Since so many notes including files have to be uploaded in the background, this process can't go fast. Could it be that you haven't waited long enough?

[pirate727 25]

I've decided to take the plunge and see, if indeed, Notion is viable.  I played with it before, but this time, I'm going to dive in, and actively try to use it as a tool in my Daily business.  I'll report back and let you know what I find.  For the purposes of this test, I'm not going to do an Evernote import (I have thousands and thousands of notes).  Instead, at some point, I will import just one of my notebooks (which looks like how you're supposed to do it anyway).  This has alerted me to the fact that I need to go in and clean out/sort my "Inbox Notes" into notebooks and get rid of the junk notes I no longer need. (Like I'm ever going to find time to do that! LOL).  

Wish me luck.  Watch on Sunday for a "First 3 Days Recap."  At that point, I'll decide whether to keep using it or not.  I've downloaded the Apps, so now I'm going to go quickly(?) set things up.

 

[Michael Singer 16]

43 minutes ago, pirate727 said:

I've decided to take the plunge and see, if indeed, Notion is viable.  I played with it before, but this time, I'm going to dive in, and actively try to use it as a tool in my Daily business.  I'll report back and let you know what I find.  For the purposes of this test, I'm not going to do an Evernote import (I have thousands and thousands of notes).  Instead, at some point, I will import just one of my notebooks (which looks like how you're supposed to do it anyway).  This has alerted me to the fact that I need to go in and clean out/sort my "Inbox Notes" into notebooks and get rid of the junk notes I no longer need. (Like I'm ever going to find time to do that! LOL).  

Wish me luck.  Watch on Sunday for a "First 3 Days Recap."  At that point, I'll decide whether to keep using it or not.  I've downloaded the Apps, so now I'm going to go quickly(?) set things up.

 

I think it's important to know that Notion works like a content management system (CMS), it works with blocks and pages. Blocks are content elements of all kinds. Pages contain blocks, each page can contain any number of subpages.

As regards my own daily business - personally I love the calendar block, or the fact that each table block is actually a database (with some calculation functions), that even can be set in relation to other tables... Or the possiblity to embed all kinds of stuff - CodePen, Google Maps, Spotify... Or the code block, that comes with tons of formats...

[MRWConnected 18]

2 hours ago, tomcal said:

I imported over 19,000 notes from Evernote into Notion a few days ago.  I was amazed how quickly it worked and I received a $5 credit from Notion for using the new Evernote importer.  However, I'm finding out now that many, many notes did not import.  And it appears to be random, not based on any particular type of Evernote note.  I may try re-importing one notebook at a time.  My largest single notebook in Evernote has 8796 notes and many of those didn't import into Notion.  I want Notion to have a full backup of all of my Evernote notes but if some are missing, it kills that idea.  I'm going to do further research.

I had tons of problems with exporting from Evernote. It would skip certain notes and throw errors sometimes.  I was gung ho when I started this thread about getting out and just can't because I need all of the data but can't successfully export or move to another platform.  After lots of back and forth with the Evernote support team, it still wasn't resolved. There's something about certain notes that stops them from exporting - a corruption in the file, or something. It's one of the reasons that I'm still unhappily stuck in this junk software. 

[pirate727 25]

@MRWConnected Are you using a desktop version?  If so, is it Windows or Mac?

[MRWConnected 18]

1 minute ago, pirate727 said:

@MRWConnected Are you using a desktop version?  If so, is it Windows or Mac?

Mostly Mac desktop version.  Also use it on iPhone and Android.

[pirate727 25]

That’s  crazy because I have been using the Mac desktop version for years with no issues. Now, don’t get me started about the Windows version.  That is a certified piece of junk.  Have you tried exporting some notes first, or importing to Notion one notebook at a time?  I’m about to try this over the weekend and will report back on my progress. 

[DTLow 5,736]

On 3/6/2019 at 9:55 PM, DTLow said:

Can you advise on preservation of file formats and  structure in Notion.  
I need to maintain natve format for file attachments; Word documents, Excel Sppreadsheets, PDFs, Images, ...  

I tested the Notion import process for this.

PDFs are imported.

It looks like other attachments are discarded; Images, Documents, Spreadsheets, ...
Correction - My attachments were discarded because they were inserted in cells of a table
                      The import process has issues with Evernote tables.
                       I was able to import the attachments by moving them outside the table.

[eric99 980]

31 minutes ago, DTLow said:

I tested the import process for this.

PDFs are preseved.

It looks like other attachments are lost; Images, Documents, Spreadsheets, ...

Thanks for testing, already more info about the export format ? It's good to know about importing from evernote, but can we go back as well?

[Michael Singer 16]

1 hour ago, DTLow said:

I tested the Notion import process for this.

PDFs are imported.

It looks like other attachments are discarded; Images, Documents, Spreadsheets, ...

Sorry, but that's simply not true. I have been able to import all files including images, PDF's, spreadsheets etc. with  Notion's latest import functionality without problems.

You just have to start Notion, click on "Import" at the bottom of the sidebar, select Evernote, grant permission for Evernote to accept connection with Notion and select the notebooks or stacks of notebooks you want to import.

[TheMagicWombat 68]

On 5/28/2018 at 12:12 PM, MRWConnected said:

Anyone have tips on how to get out of Evernote.  I've absolutely hit the wall of tolerance for the tool.  The interface gets worse with every update, and my team is about to explode with frustration.

Any thoughts on how to get out?  I'd like to be able to export into something useful, but the XML and HTML export options aren't exactly easy to work with or useful.  (Thanks Evernote - one more reminder that it's time to get out.)  I might move to Google Drive, or just Dropbox for now, but I want the notebooks in something more useful.  Anyone found an easy path?

 

Notion just got web page clipping.

And it has Nested Notebooks. 

And WAY more power than Evernote.

Upsets me to no end I just re-upped for another year of Evernote. 

On the plus side, you earn money towards a purchase of Notion just by importing stuff from Evernote...

Note: There is a 1,000 block limit for the free version of Notion, but I just pulled in 4 years of Evernote web clips with pictures (over 1,000 records) and it consumed a whopping 2% of that limit...

[eric99 980]

3 hours ago, TheMagicWombat said:

Notion just got web page clipping.

 

Only for google chrome, where is the Firefox implementation ?  Apparently, notion is not concerned about security, still no 2FA either.

[TheMagicWombat 68]

12 hours ago, eric99 said:

Only for google chrome, where is the Firefox implementation ?  Apparently, notion is not concerned about security, still no 2FA either.

Firefox? Is that the browser used by AOL?

 

😎

[Berni21965 0]

No gmail discussion thread for Firefox is a mistake, just a pity or such a shame ?

I was asking me to choose a Premium version or not, but if Firefox is not implemented near soon my choice will be simple to do especially because Firefox is near to the Chrome development today.

What does it mean; pay or die ? Be careful this can be a double-edged sword...

[Michael Singer 16]

Of course they will provide a web clipper for Firefox too.

I think instead of indulging in demands, and stylizing the lack of any features as an exclusion criterion, it might be a good idea to look at the already very numerous and extraordinary features that Notion offers. It took me some time to understand the wide range of applications that Notion has to offer.

Also, I think it should be taken into account that Notion Labs Inc, born in 2016, is still a young company. Evernote is a dinosaur in comparison -  bound to an old (if not outdated) concept and accordingly cumbersome in terms of making necessary changes (that is probably the reason why this thread exists at all).

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,958]

Does Notion have its own discussion forums? If so, it seems to me that it's time to take some of this conversation there, e.g., why they do or don't support a particular browser.

[Michael Singer 16]

17 minutes ago, Dave-in-Decatur said:

Does Notion have its own discussion forums? If so, it seems to me that it's time to take some of this conversation there, e.g., why they do or don't support a particular browser.

No, at least I don't know of any official forum. As far as I can see, at the moment there is only communication via Twitter.
https://twitter.com/NotionHQ

For information about development and what's coming up, go to the footer of their website, where you will find under "Products" the menu item "Whats new".
https://www.notion.so

[eric99 980]

1 hour ago, Michael Singer said:

Also, I think it should be taken into account that Notion Labs Inc, born in 2016, is still a young company.

"...The company was incorporated in 2012 and is based in San Francisco, California..." https://www.bloomberg.com/research//stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=531643733

[PinkElephant 8,103]

WOW - this must be one of the longest threads here in the forum.

What I am thinking about: When everybody is leaving, why are there so many people here posting ? I would rather look in a forum for OneNote, DevonThink, Notion, .... for help than here. There should be the tough iron(wo)men who successfully jumped boat - here are only the loosers that stay on, putting one toe in the water to check the temperature once in a while.

For me there is no reason to leave, but many to stay and (!) continuously try to reach improvement for the money we pay. If the same number of users puts themself behind this „getting better“ as behind „leaving“, we could probably close this thread for good.

[chronistin 187]

21 hours ago, PinkElephant said:

WOW - this must be one of the longest threads here in the forum.

What I am thinking about: When everybody is leaving, why are there so many people here posting ? I would rather look in a forum for OneNote, DevonThink, Notion, .... for help than here. There should be the tough iron(wo)men who successfully jumped boat - here are only the loosers that stay on, putting one toe in the water to check the temperature once in a while.

For me there is no reason to leave, but many to stay and (!) continuously try to reach improvement for the money we pay. If the same number of users puts themself behind this „getting better“ as behind „leaving“, we could probably close this thread for good.

I watch this thread because people who know and love(d) EN can talk more thoroughly about real alternatives. Notion is almost there, still missing image OCR and a good solution for emails (webclipper does not clip intelligently from gmail, nor can I send mails into notion). Bear* Nimbus seems to do everything, but it is ugly and a blatant rippoff.

EN, in spite of some  other Bugs, would still be my first choice if they could get the speed issues under control. Every single search causes a 15 to 30 seconds freeze on my system. I can't work efficiently this way. 

* Don't know how Bear got into my mind, I am a non-Mac-Person and wouldn't know anything about that.

[PinkElephant 8,103]

Sometimes I wonder whether I still do not have a critical mass of notes (2.700 at last count) - so far no performance issue.

On the iOS app I had a freezing effect this weekend. But it was sorted out with EN support in a matter of hours; somehow the last update went wrong.

And I had a severe performance issue about 1 month ago, caused by a Win10-update, sorted out through the official Windows user forum. The EN app was fine, just a victim of the Win-issue that was wasting all CPU-power it could  get on some multicore nonsense. If it would hot have stopped, I would have regarded myself now part of a serious bitcoin mining effort, or similar.

But maybe I just live on lucky island, not aware that the flood is rising.

 

P.S. Tried OneNote, did not like the interface and structure. Typically Microsoft...

Tried iOS Notes, not enough functionality, no search in docs.

Have not yet tried Notion, Bear and the Note Station build into my Synology NAS.

For handwritten notes, I use and stick with Goodnotes. If needed, I export via pdf into EN

For tasks, I use Things, if related to an EN note by sending a link from EN to Things, managing it there

For pdf editing, I use pdf Expert, and send it into EN after finishing

and so on ...

For most weaknesses of EN, there is a solution. What I like is the effortless organisation  of a huge amount of information that I want to have available when I might need it. So yes, 10-30 sec of non response all the time, every time would make me think as well.

[DTLow 5,736]

1 minute ago, PinkElephant said:

Sometimes I wonder whether I still do not have a critical mass of notes (2.700 at last count) - so far no performance issue.

I have 10,000 notes and no significant performance problems (Mac/IOS)

Database searches are quite efficient, and can handle these volumes.

[Sayre Ambrosio 520]

2 minutes ago, DTLow said:

I have 10,000 notes and no significant performance problems (Mac/IOS)

Database searches are quite efficient, and can handle these volumes.

I’m finding the same thing with my account. Nothing handles my 14,000 notes as well as Evernote. 😊

[PinkElephant 8,103]

Yes, I don’t have and don’t expect to run into performance issues. I just wonder why some other users seem to have them - and I have no doubt that this is their user experience. Somewhere between the performant and the non-performant Systems should be the explanation.

[TheMagicWombat 68]

Evernote is a good concept in many ways. The only thing I HATE (DESPISE!!!!) about it is the lack of nested notebooks, and the fact that the owners of the software are convinced that their way of doing things is better, so I need to re-structure my ENTIRE thinking and organizing process to suit THEIR view on how I should be doing it.

Guess what--an abacus is better than a slide rule for doing math. Or maybe it is the other way around and a slide rule is better than an abacus.I don't know which it is, but here is what I do know--the people who really work well on a slide rule do NOT want to learn how to use an abacus and the people who are lightning fast on an abacus have zero desire to learn a slide rule. Same thing can be said about hierarchical storage versus  tags and Boolean searches. One works better than the other for some people, and the other works better than the other for other people. 

Evernote is everything I want--except for nested notebooks. To me, doing a Boolean/tag search to find my records every time I want to find them just doesn't work. My information is not stored in a logical fashion, it cannot be stored in a logical fashion, and as a result, I actually hesitate to use Evernote. It is almost what I want. Yes, it is 95% there. But that last 5% matters.

The tags people don't get it, and they never will. They think their way is superior. 

It isn't. 

It simply works better for them. 

If tags are so great, why even have flat-later notebooks? If organizing data into various categories for storage wasn't important. then why did Evernote permit the creation of more than a single collection box notebook? My not just tag the Hell out of everything and skip the whole multiple flat-layer notebooks?

We know that Evernote will never have nested notebooks. Never. The owners are religious fanatics about nested folders being the Devil's work. And so we wait for a competitor that will come along and do most of what Evernote does, and has nested folders, and we will migrate over. It is happening. The consensus right now is that the only thing Evernote has that most of us want and Notion does not is a good web clipper. That is an important feature in today's world. If you read in the Notion forums, a lot of people have a solution--clip into Evernote and then import the data to Notion. Not that bad a solution. Further, we know that the clipper in Notion will get better, while we know the nested folders in Evernote never will. 

So, my paid up subscription to Evernote is good for 11 more months. Maybe in 11 months Notion will have good web clipper and I won't renew Evernote. Maybe it won't, and I will renew Evernote. Who knows. 

What we do know is that while Evernote is a closed company, the outwards signs are that it has always been limping along financially. I've seen when companies go belly-up--sometimes you get plenty of advanced warning, and sometimes you panic because access is down now. My plan is to use Evente to collect records. I will tage them, import ten to notion, and then move them around over there as needed to work with effectively.

If Notion goes OOB tomorrow, I am safe. If Evernote goes OOB tomorrow, I am safe. 

Hard to argue with using Notion as a plan B for the possibility of Evernote going south, isn't it?