Backup?

[Breid 3]

Hello,

I've used Evernote for years but recently realized how perfect it would be for projects other than saving recipes and so I'm considering purchasing premium EXCEPT I've run into issues. For instance, if I use the Mac app, it'll store everything locally without giving me an option of using an external drive instead. My HD is on the small size and used only for apps and not for storage. So then I thought I could use the web client. Seems fine but it looks like there's no way to back up, download or save your notes through the web-client. Have I missed something?

Thank you for your time,

Bonni

[gazumped 11,665]

Hi.  For the moment,  you're right.  Unless you have the desktop client installed and save a copy database to your desktop,  there's no current access to your data other than via the web client.  You can open your account on any computer with an internet connection so if there's another device you can use occasionally for your backup purposes,  it would be possible to

1. log in to your account
2. sync the device to download the latest notes (which might take a while to complete)
3. backup your notes from that device

- you could even uninstall Evernote from that device until you need to log in again for a backup.

I'm not a Mac user,  but I assume you don't have the option we Windows users do to specify the location of our database folder.  Saving to a removable/ external drive is not recommended or supported by Evernote,  but it would be a possibility.  There is a portable Evernote version too (also unsupported!) but sadly Windows only... https://www.thinstallsoft.com/evernote/

It would be interesting to hear what other Mac users do for backups...

 

[DTLow 5,736]

14 hours ago, Breid said:

Seems fine but it looks like there's no way to back up, download or save your notes through the web-client.

Third party cloudHQ can be used to backup your Evernote data. 

As a cloud service, there is no device requirement.

[Breid 3]

Thank you for your replies and both sound like a reasonable workaround. I'll ask check out cloudHQ. It's really is a shame we can't choose where our files are stored but it doesn't sound like this will ever be an option judging how long people have been asking for this. I was hoping to keep this as simple as possible seeing as the whole reason why I want to use Evernote is to simplify my life!

Cheers

[jefito 5,589]

16 hours ago, Breid said:

I've used Evernote for years but recently realized how perfect it would be for projects other than saving recipes and so I'm considering purchasing premium EXCEPT I've run into issues. For instance, if I use the Mac app, it'll store everything locally without giving me an option of using an external drive instead. My HD is on the small size and used only for apps and not for storage. So then I thought I could use the web client. Seems fine but it looks like there's no way to back up, download or save your notes through the web-client. Have I missed something?

This is along the lines of a related feature request: selective synchronization. The idea is that you could choose which notebooks to store on your local machine, and which must be accessed via the cloud. This is similar to the case for Android and iOS devices, where storage is limited, and this is implemented in this case. On the Windows desktop (and I presume on the Mac), there is no such facility as yet; however, on the Windows client, you can configure it for "On demand sync", where recently used notes are cached locally, without storing your whole database. I don't know whether that's implemented for the Mac.

Another alternative is to maintain two accounts, a master account  that maintains all of the notebooks, and a slave account  to which you share notebooks from the master account. You'd run the slave account on your  local Mac, so you'd only be storing the notes from the notebooks that you explicitly share to it locally. There are some drawbacks to this approach, notable tag creation, since you cannot create tags in a notebook that's shared to you; you need to be the notebook owner; you'd need to create them on the web or something. This is generally feasible (I use something like it for my work and personal accounts), but not perfect. It might work for you, though.

[Breid 3]

Interesting idea Jefito! I'll have to wrap my head around how one might share notebooks between two accounts. Do you mean just upload to both accounts or import the enex? I have two free accounts now, as I'm trying to see if Evernote could possible work for me. Perhaps the slave account could exist on my laptop which isn't used as much for Adobe CC. I just would hate to turn it into a really expensive Evernote storage device!

I'm also testing with Alternote which is nicer to use than the web client browser on my iMac (the machine I use the most) and it works a bit like the Mac app. Maybe between this and a slave account on my macbook I can possible make it work. 

Once a notebook project is complete, is it possible to download a pdf of it from the Mac app? This would further cut down on space possible being eaten up.

*Edit* doesn't look like you can save to .pdf, only .enex

[Breid 3]

I just had a complete *duh* moment. On a Mac you can save a .pdf from your browser or app with command-p (print) then save a .pdf file from the dropdown menu. Of course this would be much, MUCH better if you could do this with notebooks.

[DTLow 5,736]

1 hour ago, Breid said:

you can save a .pdf from your browser

Print to pdf works with simple notes, and notes including images.

The majority of my notes include file attachments; PDFs, word processing documents, spreadsheets, ...

[Breid 3]

3 minutes ago, DTLow said:

This works with simple notes, and notes including images.

The majority of my notes include file attachments; PDFs, word processing documents, spreadsheets, ...

Yikes, mine will too. I'm also back in school and would probably use it for my classes as well as project planning. CloudHQ looks interesting; can you get by with the free version? 

I just hoped Evernote could do it all. Maybe I'll go back to Scrivener if this starts to get too complicated.