Limited sign ins?

[regression 6]

So I just received a message on my free plan when signing into a third device. I am told I can only unsung a device two times a month? Guess this is a new way to try and force people to pay.

[gazumped 11,656]

Hi.  You're using a free service.  One of the limitations is that you can only connect to it with two devices at a time.  That's been a restriction for a year or several.

[regression 6]

I understand the two device limit has been in place for a while now. What appears to be new is you can only sign out / into a device two times a month. Has that always been there? Maybe I have over looked it in the past. 

[regression 6]

See the highlighted part of the message I received. 

[gazumped 11,656]

3 minutes ago, regression said:

I understand the two device limit has been in place for a while now. What appears to be new is you can only sign out / into a device two times a month. Has that always been there? Maybe I have over looked it in the past. 

My bad - if there is a restriction that you can only change devices two times in a month that would be new...  there's no mention of it here though - https://help.evernote.com/hc/en-us/articles/218558068

[gazumped 11,656]

Hmmn.  You sure that's Evernote?  Seems very garishly red for a company that specialises in green everything...

[regression 6]

12 minutes ago, gazumped said:

Hmmn.  You sure that's Evernote?  Seems very garishly red for a company that specialises in green everything...

Yes, it is Evernote. They have a red scheme in the sign out / sign in screens instead of green.

[gazumped 11,656]

Guess it could be a new(ish) restriction then - haven't seen any other posts on this (yet).  Evernote cracking down on what they may see as over-use of their free service.  You do still get 720MB of free permanent online storage and all the other bells and whistles of clipping / searching / retrieval...

[regression 6]

10 minutes ago, gazumped said:

Guess it could be a new(ish) restriction then - haven't seen any other posts on this (yet).  Evernote cracking down on what they may see as over-use of their free service.  You do still get 720MB of free permanent online storage and all the other bells and whistles of clipping / searching / retrieval...

 

What is the 720MB of free permanent online storage you mentioned? The last time I looked I had a few gigs of data in Evernote. I thought you were only limited on how much data you can upload in one month, not that total amount of data you can store.

[regression 6]

53 minutes ago, DTLow said:

Which device/platform are you using?

The screen shot was from my iPad. 

[PinkElephant 8,088]

Just checked on the web site, both English and German. No changes to the plans in the overview. The last changes to the legal stuff were done in 2017.

So maybe it is not official yet, maybe they just try stuff, maybe ...

Personally I would not be surprised if they would further restrict the free use of the app. If I look into what you report here, these changes would not restrict sharing notes from a paid account to free ones, but would limit the usage of a free account as a stand alone solution. Test run yes, extended use only with some pain.

EN has a long standing policy of not using their users data for anything - using user data is the way most „free“ offers generate their income. In the end they have running cost just to keep data, not only to support adding new information. I prefer to have a solid service holding my notes that does not touch my data, but charges a buck to be able to do so. Just my opinion, though ...

 

[DTLow 5,736]

54 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

but would limit the usage of a free account as a stand alone solution

I'm seeing the new restriction as continuation of the # of devices limitation

We know Evernote's free account has a 2 device limit (web access not counted)

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,950]

As long as we're speculating, maybe the aim is to make it harder for multiple people to share a single Basic account, swapping devices in and out at will.

But, like @gazumped, I'm still a little puzzled by that "unsync devices" screenshot. On the Evernote Help page about device limits they never refer to unsyncing, only removing devices, nor is there a mention of a twice-a-month limit. However, the Help pages have been known to be a little behind actual practices. Still, on the Devices page of my account (check it at https://www.evernote.com/Devices.action), it refers to revoking access to devices, not unsyncing. If I test revoking one, I get the box shown below. Maybe they have different interfaces for different types of accounts or for iOS vs. Windows. But it is a little odd.

On yet another hand (I'm going to run out of hands; definitely only two of those permitted), a post in another thread also reports the two-revocations-per-month limit:

 

[regression 6]

I assume the posters on this thread have paid accounts. Can someone who has a free account test signing into a third device to see if you get the same message? 

[gazumped 11,656]

11 hours ago, regression said:

What is the 720MB of free permanent online storage you mentioned?

That was 12 months @ 60MB maximum upload per month.  Should have qualified that as an annual amount too i.e. it's 720MB per year. 

And - as long as Evernote stay in business - it's permanent storage.  You could leave it for 10 years and still find the original data... provided you still have the correct log in details by then!

[CalS 5,280]

@Shane D.

[Shane D. 1,818]

Hey All,

Thanks for reaching out!

Let me do some digging and see what I can find.

I'll follow-up with you all once I have more information.

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,950]

On 11/12/2019 at 8:41 AM, Dave-in-Decatur said:

But, like @gazumped, I'm still a little puzzled by that "unsync devices" screenshot. On the Evernote Help page about device limits they never refer to unsyncing, only removing devices, nor is there a mention of a twice-a-month limit. However, the Help pages have been known to be a little behind actual practices. Still, on the Devices page of my account (check it at https://www.evernote.com/Devices.action), it refers to revoking access to devices, not unsyncing. If I test revoking one, I get the box shown below. Maybe they have different interfaces for different types of accounts or for iOS vs. Windows. But it is a little odd.

My apologies for the above. Yet another thread has appeared, showing the same "unsync" limitation, evidently on an iPhone:

So (A) there are indeed different notices on different devices and/or account types, and (B) the Help article needs serious updating.

[PinkElephant 8,088]

Let us wait what @Shane D. will find out about this inconsistency.

Maybe EN will get more restricted with the Basic accounts, but will open the PLUS-level again ?! Would make sense, IMHO the current gap between Free and Premium is quite large.

[gazumped 11,656]

Hmmn.  Another basic user finding this issue... 

 

[Shane D. 1,818]

Hi everyone,  

 

I understand there's some confusion around the recent changes to the device limit/unsync screen.  

 

We recently updated how the unsyncing-from-the-device-limit screen works to discourage Evernote Basic customers from actively using it to circumvent the limit on devices that can be used for free. Historically, customers were allowed to use this screen to unsync devices whenever they wanted, effectively creating an “honor system.” Unfortunately, we’ve determined that a number of customers have been abusing this system. As a result, we’ve decided to implement a new limit of allowing Evernote Basic customers to unsync from the device limit screen only twice per month.  

 

For customers who consistently use more than two devices, we recommend upgrading to Evernote Premium. Not only does Premium allow you to use unlimited devices, it allows you to search within PDFs and attachments, create custom templates, and more. Customers who wish to remain with Evernote Basic should limit their use to two devices.  

 

Please let me know if you have any other questions.

[DTLow 5,736]

30 minutes ago, Shane D. said:

we’ve decided to implement a new limit

Thanks for following up on this. 
I'm disappointed Evernote made no announcement on this change; it would have avoided the confusion

Also, Evernote has a problem tracking devices; resulting in duplicate entries   
How do users follow up on this? 

[Shane D. 1,818]

Thanks @DTLow, we'll work to improve on the messaging in the future.

As for users reporting a duplicate device issue, please go here:

I've merged the threads regarding this issue into that thread, and will be following up there shortly with next steps.

[CalS 5,280]

3 hours ago, Shane D. said:

Hi everyone,  

 

I understand there's some confusion around the recent changes to the device limit/unsync screen.  

 

We recently updated how the unsyncing-from-the-device-limit screen works to discourage Evernote Basic customers from actively using it to circumvent the limit on devices that can be used for free. Historically, customers were allowed to use this screen to unsync devices whenever they wanted, effectively creating an “honor system.” Unfortunately, we’ve determined that a number of customers have been abusing this system. As a result, we’ve decided to implement a new limit of allowing Evernote Basic customers to unsync from the device limit screen only twice per month.  

 

For customers who consistently use more than two devices, we recommend upgrading to Evernote Premium. Not only does Premium allow you to use unlimited devices, it allows you to search within PDFs and attachments, create custom templates, and more. Customers who wish to remain with Evernote Basic should limit their use to two devices.  

 

Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Good to clear this up, thanks for that.  Though the above would have been helpful back in, what was it, 2016 when the restriction was added.  Advice was dispensed in the forums back then re just sign off and on to whatever devices were used by a basic account.  It was not clear then that the intent was two quasi specific devices. 

No horse in the race as a premium subscriber since forever plus this change makes all the sense in the world to me, just seems a bit disingenuous from a communications basis.  Not you @Shane D., EN.

[gazumped 11,656]

Have to agree with the general sentiments expressed here...  if you're using a 'free' app so much that you want to frequently swap between multiple devices,  then it really is time to consider paying for it - particularly if it's being used for critical work or study topics.  Other apps cut users off dead after a couple of weeks unless they pay,  and although there are truly 'free' note taking apps out there,  they aren't (yet) as comprehensive as Evernote. 

On the other hand if there is a limit on usage it should be spelled out in advance so everyone is clear.  I particularly hate those apps that advertise a 'free' service,  then any time you click a feature like 'print' or 'save' they trot out the "would you like to upgrade now?" screen.  I'm very sad to see Evernote shade toward that sort of activity. 

C'mon Evernote folks play nice - update the help screens and the website and make the limitations clear. 

It makes me feel bad for the folks I happily advised to just sign off one device and sign up on another.  I'm also concerned that actual device recognition doesn't seem that great.  There are some issues around that - I already reported a problem to support where an IP address in India was shown as accessing my account... which was the IP address I was currently using in the UK.  If IP addresses are related to device recognition a lot of innocent Basic users are likely to have some issues...

[igobythisname 1]

this is ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE! if this is how they want to move forward, then they need to improve on how they detect devices. I restore my iPhone about once a month, and each time I sign into Evernote on my iPhone after restoring, it thinks it's a new device, even though it's NOT, I've just restored the iOS software on it. This is terribly unfair! 

[DTLow 5,736]

8 minutes ago, igobythisname said:

they need to improve on how they detect devices

As posted above, switch to this discussion

 

[PinkElephant 8,088]

The detection of devices probably rests on some sort of cookie-type snippet of text they drop somewhere on your phone to identify it. This is standard procedure for login IDs. For privacy reasons (to avoid tracking) Apple does not allow the device ID to be read out by 3rd party apps.

When you say you restore your phone it is 1) your own action that deletes this identifier and 2) pretty unusual for a normal iPhone user to make a monthly restore. I did not do one since I switched my iPhones last year.

So you are doing something that sets the ID back - nothing wrong with EN here. The issue can be solved at your end: Stop this restore routine, or go for a Premium account.

[glyko 0]

Really do not like how this solution was implemented, I had to RMA a new laptop I purchased and now I am locked out of Evernote on the replacement. Thankfully the month is over soon, but I wish Evernote would find a better solution to this. Or at least provide a third unsync, two can be problematic in certain situations. 

And I have to say that this frustrating experience probably made me less likely to buy a premium subscription one day. 

[gazumped 11,656]

5 minutes ago, glyko said:

this frustrating experience probably made me less likely to buy a premium subscription one day. 

Not sure I follow your logic,  since a Premium subscription would avoid all this anyway.

Meantime I'm sure you are aware that the Web client isn't counted,  so at least you can use that on the new laptop.  As for better solutions - I think the majority of Evernote's 225M+ users are still just 'trying out' the software - some of them have yet to make a decision to subscribe after several years of 'testing'.  There has to be a limit to how many free resources any one company can commit for non-paying users.  I'm sorry this unusual situation caught you out,  but I'm glad that they're keeping free use within limits...

[DTLow 5,736]

1 hour ago, glyko said:

Or at least provide a third unsync, two can be problematic in certain situations. 

I don"t see how three unsyncs is much less "problematic" than two.   
Assuming Evernote correctly tracks devices, how often would a user honestly need this feature?

>>now I am locked out of Evernote on the replacement

As @gazumped points out, you have access to your data via the web at www.evernote.com