Select Multiple Notebooks For One Deletion

[joshnelson 1]

I'd like to delete about 100 notebooks. I'm not going to take the time to do this, one-by-one. See several threads on this circa 2013, 2014 that say "no-go, or this functionality does not exist.

Anything changed since then?

Thanks so much.

[gazumped 11,652]

Hmmn.  Looked at a couple of options,  but there doesn't seem to be a way to actually delete notebooks in bulk.  Might be a good reason for this in terms of data protection - it might be possible to delete your whole account in one accidental swoop otherwise...  or it might be a question of resources;  deleting multiple notebooks would mean at least checking for any linked assets and moving those to safety.  Anyhoo - best suggestion so's not to be annoyed by the extra entries - add your notebooks to a 'trash' Stack and ignore them.

[joshnelson 1]

Thanks @gazumped! I appreciate your investigation and input.

Indeed; I created a Notebook stack and dumped them all in there. 

Works just well.

[joshnelson 1]

I don't see any further options, other than liking your post, but let me know if I can-

1. Credit you with anything for taking the time to respond
2. Close this thing out, per forum discipline.

[gazumped 11,652]

1 minute ago, joshnelson said:

I don't see any further options, other than liking your post, but let me know if I can-

1. Credit you with anything for taking the time to respond
2. Close this thing out, per forum discipline.

No problem for responding - I'd suggest leaving the query open - someone else might have a better suggestion!

[joshnelson 1]

Will do. In any event, I don't see where the "close query" function is.

Thanks again Gaz!

[AnywhereAnyBrowser 2]

TLDR:

1) This is most easily solved by a script

2) If (you use Windows 7 or Windows 10) and (Chrome, Opera, or Firefox browsers),

        I'll create a script, and a video to demo it, as it would fit in some other things related to "cognitive assist" tools like Evernote that we are working on.

DETAILS:

This is the kind of thing that is relatively more in the domain of a 3rd party scripting/macro programs like 

  1 Windows: Autohotkey or AutoIt  or others

         https://www.google.com/search?client=opera&q=alternative+to+autohotkey&sourceid=opera&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

  2 Mac: (i'm less familiar with)

         eg: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/153930/autohotkey-equivalent-for-os-x

Another way to think of your request is not: why doesn't Evernote spend developement resources for a relatively rare request,

  and instead Find the JOY of discovering it IS part of a LARGER QUESTION QUITE OFTEN ASKED, and therefore HAS MANY ANSWERS:

How to I do an "industrial strength number" of REPETITIVE on any program using mouse/keyboard, that would be very tedious to have to do manually?

    It MIGHT NOT seem to be worth the effort for just this one thing, but with a little thought you may find that there are you ask that question more often than you think, and the upfront to master the simplest of macro/scripting programs will pay off well over any period of a year or more: 

   My particular tool has been Autohotkey starting ~ 4 to five years starting with one to make some things easier in the browser(s) and automating things from windows 10, windows 7, and even xp [Those systems are airgapped from the internet, so shutup!! :) ].   To this day the value of it has only grown.  WIth mastery of it under my belt now, If I were in your situation, I'd probably create another free account to test it out, even using autohotkey to repeatedly create a bunch of new notes and notebooks, to test my macro first against a test database, and as a best practice probably 

  0) Build one for a browser for ease and more universal application (but definitely test THOROUGHLY on a TEST ACCOUNT FIRST!

       OR,  For, safety, use one of the native clients on eg window, Mac, and test it with the computer OFFLINE with an offline BACKUP copy of the database, and verify no errors before allowing it to sync online.

  1)  Build in some time delays to can see what it is doing and verify that it doesn't get ahead of the browser or native app. 

   2) build in  a default key that would Abort the loop at anytime, 

   3) run smaller batches of maybe 5-20 at a time just for safety.

I can tell you from experience that even with those precautions, you will find it surprisingly quite pleasant and empowering to allow your mind to rest from the tedium of doing all the steps manually, even if you have it go slowly at human speed or slower (eg 10-15/minute).

SO I will leave you with Two things:

  A    ___ If
      1) you can get to a windows machine, either Windows 7, or Windows 10, that I actively use, and 
       2) you Use Chrome, Firefox, or Opera,  Let me know your exact specs OS, browser, including the version number, 
     I'll write an autohotkey script that will allow you (and me too) to do any number of repetitions of deleting notebooks in evernote.  I'll provide the source, well documented so that you could quickly (yourself, or any one of many Autohotkey enthusiasts out there) modify it to do any other relatively simple functions in Evernote Web.  As a matter of fact I might be willing to setup a github project and take requests for other automated functions people often want to do with Evernote and/or do so research to see if there are already some people doing so that have some tools out there.

or 
  B   ___If you want to do it on your own, but are not sure whether it is worth the up front effort you can read below some of the small projects I have accumulated over the years, that now make it feel COMPLETELY WORTH IT TO ME that I took the time to master Autohotkey.  I know that I will use it for the rest of my life. and 

   **** EVEN in the cases I decide that taking the time to automate something is NOT worth the effort, JUST KNOWING I HAVE THE OPTION, has dramatically changed my attitude about all of those "95% the way there" features and products that we always seem to encounter in software. ****

  Ok I'm going to put the list in a reply later, becaue I want the offer to write the script to be available to you right away.

 

SO to Summarize the plan:

1) This is most easily solved by a script

2) If (you use Windows 7 or Windows 10) and (Chrome, Opera, or Firefox browsers),

     {

       I'll Create an Autohotkey script that will do it

       I'll create a script that can "auto create" a bunch of notes and notebooks, to test it on

       I'll post a video of the script working.

       You can create a new test evernote account to test it on

       You can use the "auto create" function to make notes and notebooks

       You can test the script on the you created test account

       You can use the results to decide whether you trust it on your main account

       } 

   If others have ideas of additional tasks we can look at those too.

  With all of the HUGE projects related to this 5 year "Evernote crisis", doing a small, quick and easy win project like this could fun!

 

 

[DTLow 5,736]

1 hour ago, AnywhereAnyBrowser said:

2 Mac: (i'm less familiar with)

Mac Applescript        tell application "Evernote" to delete theNotebookList

[AnywhereAnyBrowser 2]

2 minutes ago, DTLow said:

Applescript

Doh! I forgot!

[Don Dz 165]

  

I agree with the AutoHotkey suggestion, but if you are not familiar with scripting, and this is a one time project, it could be hard going at first.

I wrote a simple Autohotkey script and tested it.  All it does is delete any selected notebook without confirmation, then moves to the next one.

Caveat: having your notebooks to be deleted on a separate stack will not prevent other notebooks from being deleted without warning, if you press the hotkey too quickly, so be careful, there is no undo for notebook deletion! 

(I found that although you can recover individual notes from the trash, tags may get removed from your notes if you try to cancel the process).

#d::
; Deletes any selected notebook without confirmation.
; Dangerous for your data if used carelessly
Send {Del}
Send {tab}
Send {Enter}
return