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Undo when pasting into a note is broken


Grant Gochnauer

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  • Level 5

I've noticed this too, I never reported it but it's been a problem since at least v4.2 and persists into the latest versions. I'm not 100% sure but I think it relates to the type of content being pasted -- e.g. pasting plaintext seems ok, but if you paste in complex HTML content the undo does nothing.

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  • Level 5*

I noticed something like this also, but thought that I had just not typed the Ctrl+Z correctly. I seem to recall that hitting Ctrl+Z a second time actually performed the undo.

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  • Level 5

We're aware of an issue where if you've just created a note and entered/pasted some text, an auto-save may kick in and cause the note to reload (thus discarding your undo stack). That may be the issue that you're seeing. No ETA on a fix yet, but it's on our radar.

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  • 5 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

Ran across this post after suffering with the same issues. I just accidentally deleted half of a days work in Evernote because I pasted some html into a note when I had most of the text within the note highlighted. Just moving too quickly and didn't notice I had the previous text selected. This action of course replaced the highlighted text with the html content. Normally no big deal... hit ctrl-z a few times and your off and running. However, cntl-z does NOT work after pasting any html content. I think it may be setting the Source URL in the note and after it does this, the undo stack is inaccessible.

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  • 5 months later...
  • 3 months later...

Same bug still existing today.

Accidentally hit Ctrl-V instead of Ctrl-C and erased lots of my data in a new note. It is truly a killer and makes me very much hesitated to use Evernote for production work....

No Undo, really!? How could this be possible in this age?

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  • 4 months later...
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  • Level 5

It's only been a year and a half since this bug was reported. What do you think? The programmers are some kind of miracle workers? Give them some time please. You heard Emerick - it's on their radar. I've recently learned a little more about this top-secret Evernote radar technology. I can't share many details, but I can tell you -- this is an extremely long-range radar (co-developed with NASA and SETI, and also used to search for little greys from the Alpha Centauri system!) The signals it detects can take anywhere from 4 to 5 years to reach Earth. Bugs are fixed according to the same rigorous schedule.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hi, all.

 

FWIW, I'd like to add that this bug is still there and it is potentially disastrous (4.6.2.7927).  As others have mentioned, if you paste something and inadvertently overwrite something else, and that paste cannot be undone, then the overwritten content is gone forever. 

 

I've been a OneNote user for years, but a couple of times a year, I find a reason to look for a replacement.  This time, it was the crappy iPad OneNote app that drove me to look at Evernote again.  I was very excited to see that Evernote has a OneNote import feature now, so I imported a notebook to give it a try.  It looked good, so I continued to experiment.  I found this bug in the first hour, and I lost some important content.  Thankfully, I still have the original OneNote page, so I haven't really lost anything, but I'm putting the brakes on my Evernote transition until this is fixed.

 

I wonder if this bug isn't a priority to fix in the free version because the paid version offers note versioning, so in a weird way, this bug could drive users to the paid version.

 

BTW, is there a way for non-employees to see a ticket?  I'd love to see ticket #5177 (referenced above).


Thanks.

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  • 4 weeks later...
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AAARRGHHH!!!

 

I had a long list of things to do in a Evernote note, then wanted to change them to "to do notes" (tickboxes) - highlighted the list and clicked the tickbox as is normal in all other windows apps, normally it would just change the list to tick boxes but here it DELETED MY WHOLE LIST.

 

This is definitely a show stopper for me!!  I just lost my whole to do list!!!!

 

And I just realize I can hit ctrl-Z and undo the dumb tickbox but it doesn't bring back my list.  This is USELESS. How can a huge bug like this, that has obviously been known and pointed out for a long time just be ignored???

 

Actually after checking some more it seems this is a particular BUG with the tickboxes.  If I highlight a list and tick either ordered or bulleted list, it correctly converts the list, but if I click the tickbox it deletes the list and replaces it with a tickbox.  

 

Also when the tickbox is clicked it should start a list - it doesn't. It just opens a single tickbox. Next line is back to normal list again.  Poor.

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  • 2 weeks later...

This problem exists for 2 years and hasn't been removed.

Apparently, a bug in the undo function that leads to data loss is not a priority for the programmers.

 

Conclusion: these people are not serious.

 

Can anyone recommend a good alternative program?

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  • Level 5

Those are the problems - you nailed it:

1) there is still no real competition to Evernote

2) the company's priorities seem less about data integrity and user experience (bugs like this allowed to persist for years, decades old and long-since-deprecated encryption used on notes, lack of feature parity across platforms, constant UI fiddling to the users' dismay, etc) and instead they are focused on selling Evernote-branded moleskine journals :(

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This bug made me lose a vast amount of research that I have gathered and I am actually quite devastated. Reading this just made it worse...

I paid for Premium so I at least could rescue some of the data, but not nearly enough. I am using Evernote on OSX.

 

My research includes visual references (often copied to ram and pasted in to Evernote) and writing notes. If anybody have any alternatives (preferebly desktop apps for osx) I would love to hear about them. I cant believe I lost so much work on a 2 year old bug... (I did an undo when pasting a visual reference in to the wrong note... KAPOOF. Hours of intense work gone )

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  • Level 5

I filed a bug report on this issue YEARS ago when we were still on version 4.x

Does anyone know if those old bugs have been carried forward into whatever new bug reporting system is being used now? (it was Fogbugz then). The old Fogbugz id# was 294465

If this bug is stale maybe we should just open a new one. I don't even know if EN staff are following this thread...

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Someone suggested ditching this POS in favor of MS OneNote.  That suggestion is no longer there so obviously someone is monitoring this topic even though there are no replies forthcoming from EN.  

I expect this post will be deleted as soon as they see it as well.  Would be nice if instead of hiding the problems they'd do something about it.

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  • Level 5*

Someone suggested ditching this POS in favor of MS OneNote.  That suggestion is no longer there so obviously someone is monitoring this topic even though there are no replies forthcoming from EN.

I expect this post will be deleted as soon as they see it as well.  Would be nice if instead of hiding the problems they'd do something about it.

Evernote isn't into censoring people's opinions, and the moderators only delete spam. If in your opinion OneNote is better than Evernote, that's not a problem (there are plenty of posts saying just that -- I'm sure that you could find them if you tried). So go ahead and use OneNote to your heart's content. Other people feel differently.
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My point was that someone suggested that nobody from EN was monitoring this topic, and that obviously doesn't seem to be the case. But go ahead and defend this bug, that seems to be rather simple and that they've had years to fix "to your heart's content".

 

Stop being so defensive. I'm using EN, it has potential to be a great and useful app, but this is an abysmal bug and it's very frustrating that it's being ignored like this.

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  • Level 5*

My point was that someone suggested that nobody from EN was monitoring this topic, and that obviously doesn't seem to be the case. But go ahead and defend this bug, that seems to be rather simple and that they've had years to fix "to your heart's content".

 

Stop being so defensive. I'm using EN, it has potential to be a great and useful app, but this is an abysmal bug and it's very frustrating that it's being ignored like this.

Please go back and read what actually I wrote: I said nothing about the bug. Zero. I am speaking to you as a moderator of these forums, and I can tell you that it is not Evernote's policy to censor posts (outside of the forum rules), even if people want to opine about the superiority of OneNote and the abysmality of Evernote. Claims that "someone said blah-blah-blah" are unprovable either way (unless you have a link to the conversation), but we don't go around censoring posts, and that should be readily apparent, if you care to search for posts on Onenote here.
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Until the bug hasn't been removed I'm using MS notepad and I'm looking for other programs.

 

These are a couple of potential Evernote alternatives (free):

Wunderlist, Springpad, Errands To Do list, Remember The Milk.

 

Has anyone had experience with any of these?

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  • 2 weeks later...

It appears to me that this bug has been fixed!

 

I tried it on version 5.0.2.1392 on Windows XP, and Control-Z after a paste undid the paste! 

 

In a case where I overwrote text with some pasted text, the first Control-Z removed the pasted text, and the second Control-Z brought back the overwritten text.  That's not quite what I was expecting, but acceptable.

 

Thank you!

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@Techster83 are you sure ?
Like you I'm running EN 5.0.2.1392 and the problem continues as usual.
 
The problem only occurs after the source-url field changes from EMPTY to NON-EMPTY.
If the Source URL field is already filled in, then UNDO works now and worked before this new Evernote version.
 
So for @Techster83 and everyone else who want to reproduce the exact problem:
 
1. Create a new note.
2. Write in a few words. Check the source-url filed. You can see that it is still EMPTY.
3. Choose a web page in your browser. Copy some text (with or without hyperlinks) and paste it into the note. Now you can see that Evernote has automatically put the URL of that web page in the source-url field.
4. Try now to Undo. Its not working.
 

The trigger for the Undo failure was first reported 2 years ago (Nov. 2011):

Yep... if the Source URL field is already filled in, then UNDO still works. The problem only occurs if the Source URL field is empty at the time of pasting.

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@Techster83 are you sure ?

 

 

I was wrong, LL2525. 

 

As you pointed out, the URL field (available under Info) was filled in my simple test case.  I tested again using your steps and undo is still broken.

 

I'm sorry for confusing the issue. 

 

Thanks.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 months later...

I too am having issues with undoing text in the Windows 7 desktop app v5.1.2.2387 (270387) Public. It's the most irritating thing!! I have to literally highlight whatever I mean to undo, and retype over it. Then, my favorite part is that it proceeds to KEEP the formatting of the text that was in the pasted text, so when I try to re-type, etc, I have to reset all of my font/size/color stuff. ARGH!

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

I think the "undo" is broken because the change of "link."

 

When you paste something from outside source, the URL automatically changes and probably triggers autosave.

 

Using "Paste as plain text" may help when pasting text, but won't help for others.

 

This is really an annoying bug and I swear to myself if it is not fixed in 3 month, I will quit Evernote and switch to Wiznote.

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I think the "undo" is broken because the change of "link."

 

When you paste something from outside source, the URL automatically changes and probably triggers autosave.

 

Using "Paste as plain text" may help when pasting text, but won't help for others.

 

This is really an annoying bug and I swear to myself if it is not fixed in 3 month, I will quit Evernote and switch to Wiznote.

 

@Uduse, you are correct. It was first posted here 2.5 years ago :(

 

Yep... if the Source URL field is already filled in, then UNDO still works. The problem only occurs if the Source URL field is empty at the time of pasting.

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Insomniac, I havent used Evernote since this annoying bug and I can tell you that paying for this software has left a bitter taste in my mouth.

The software is free. The charge for premium is for additional and upgraded features of the Evernote *service*. If you don't need/want premium service, then cancel your subscription. You can continue to use the software, if you wish.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Everyone please file bug reports on this - EN devs are probably not reading the forums. Especially 3-page long posts like this that are years old. I think only the evangelists read & comment on here and their function is basically to whitewash.

 

It will be a surprise to you that the function of the evangelists is not to whitewash.  (Funny that those complaining about the evangelists rarely (if ever) help others on the message board.)  You have been around long enough that you have seen posts by EN staff stating they read all the posts on the board.  If you feel they are lying & deceitful, then I would think that would be reason enough to look for another app.  I know it would for me.  Sure, file bug reports if that makes you feel better.  But your assertions to Evernote & the evangelists is wrong. 

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I'm just curious, does Evernote have a public page somewhere where they list *confirmed* bugs for each version of each app, and a corresponding "fixed " date or progress status? And maybe also list items that are not actual bugs, but rather concious development choices despite how they might be percieved by some users?

I'm wondering if that would help users to understand that Evernote is not ignoring them?

Everyone please file bug reports on this - EN devs are probably not reading the forums. Especially 3-page long posts like this that are years old. I think only the evangelists read & comment on here and their function is basically to whitewash.

It will be a surprise to you that the function of the evangelists is not to whitewash. (Funny that those complaining about the evangelists rarely (if ever) help others on the message board.) You have been around long enough that you have seen posts by EN staff stating they read all the posts on the board. If you feel they are lying & deceitful, then I would think that would be reason enough to look for another app. I know it would for me. Sure, file bug reports if that makes you feel better. But your assertions to Evernote & the evangelists is wrong.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Dear everyone,

I also have this problem when acidentally paste some text on my notes, then I have to manually remove it. What should I do to undo it?

I am using EN 5.3.1 on Windows 8.1.

 

Thank you in advance!

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  • Level 5*

I'm just curious, does Evernote have a public page somewhere where they list *confirmed* bugs for each version of each app, and a corresponding "fixed " date or progress status? And maybe also list items that are not actual bugs, but rather concious development choices despite how they might be percieved by some users?

No, they don't, as far as I can tell anyways, and I've been around for 5+ years so I'd probably know if there were.

I'm wondering if that would help users to understand that Evernote is not ignoring them?

Clearly some folks think so. Some companies operate like that. Evernote and other companies don't. Vive la difference.
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Thanks Jefito. :)

I'm just curious, does Evernote have a public page somewhere where they list *confirmed* bugs for each version of each app, and a corresponding "fixed " date or progress status? And maybe also list items that are not actual bugs, but rather concious development choices despite how they might be percieved by some users?

No, they don't, as far as I can tell anyways, and I've been around for 5+ years so I'd probably know if there were.

I'm wondering if that would help users to understand that Evernote is not ignoring them?

Clearly some folks think so. Some companies operate like that. Evernote and other companies don't. Vive la difference.
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  • 2 months later...
The bug still persits in Evernote 5.4.1.3962 on Windows 8.1, 64 bit. This is really an annoying issue. As I see it, this issue has been first reported four years ago and still persists. Please do something about it - this bug is really one of the main drawbacks of Evernote.

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  • 4 weeks later...

As this issue has been open a very long time and I have been bitten a couple times by the link url breaking undo changes behavior, I followed the advice in the following post to modify a registry key to swap the action of ctrl+v and ctrl+shift+v: https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/25425-request-paste-as-text-as-default-option/

 

I'd prefer the undo actions to not break, but hopefully changing the default will cause less accidents for me.

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  • 3 weeks later...
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I have been a premium paying member of Evernote for quite some time now, over two years. I am a huge advocate, I have the desktop application that I use for note taking at work, the phone application and a couple Moleskin notebooks. I moved to Evernote because the OneNote mobile app was not up to par. 

 

However, This BUG or should I say non-functioning function is leading me back to OneNote. Microsoft OneNote desktop app far surpasses Evernote but the mobile app is junk. I use Evernote for the features. The one thing Microsoft does very well is care about their customers data. After all, all the bells and whistles don't mean anything if you are constantly loosing data. 

 

This post was started WAY back in 2011, it is now almost 2015 and Evernote STILL hasn't worked this OUT? PATHETIC. Get this fixed asap before you start loosing paying customers. 

 

I am an IT professional and recommend Evernote to a lot of end users that end up paying for either the Premium or Business version. That will be changing if you don't get your act together and get this big fixed.  

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There is definitely something up with undo on the Windows client.

 

In a note, I highlighted some text I wanted to bold.  Then I accidentally hit ctrl+V instead of ctrl+B.  The highlighted text was replaced with whatever was on my clipboard (it was a URL, if that matters).  I hit ctrl+Z, but instead of undoing, it erased the paragraph containing the text I had highlighted.  I kept hitting ctrl+Z, but nothing worked.  I have no f'ing clue why Evernote decided to erase a whole paragraph of innocent text.

 

To save myself from this, I opened the note from my phone, which still had the original contents of my note; and I copy-pasted the text into an email to myself.

 

Undo in Evernote has never worked as expected.  The version I experienced this particular problem with is 5.7.2.5753.

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  • 1 month later...

I've noticed two specific scenarios where this behavior occurs for me, which is constantly. As pointed out previously (3 1/2 YEARS AGO!), if the app saves or syncs, it wipes out the undo history. Why this is even possible, I can't imagine. Also, when the app becomes unresponsive it also appears to wipe out the undo history. My desktop version is unresponsive more than it is responsive.

I am banging my head against the wall wondering why I still pay money for this, when every time I use it I get irritated. But that part is my fault. Vote with your dollar, as they say. Time to research other candidates.

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  • 1 month later...

Dear Evernote,

 

I can't imagine how you can be adding annoying features (related notes popup) and not fix a show-stopper, severe, major bug that causes data loss.

 

Just installed version 5.8.3 on Windows. Undo after paste into note is still broken.

 

I actually hate you because of this.

 

Tomasz Minkowski,

Premium user.

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  • 2 months later...

I just installed version 5.8.5 of Evernote for Windows and after pasting into a note I can undo with Ctrl-Z. I'm suspecting this has been fixed - FINALLY!? What are you others experiencing?

 

I'm suspecting that the undo being unavailable after sync is an Evernote feature. I'm not sure of course.

Could someone from Evernote development team answer that?

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Just as a sidenote - I´m on a mac. Im not sure if this bug still exists here - after I lost massive amount of work when this happened to me over a year ago, I stopped using Evernote as a repository for rich data and I now just use it for text documents. Anyway, point being - the bug isn't just a windows issue. I personally suspect this is a sync problem. 

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  • 5 weeks later...

Just curious but has anyone ever received actual Evernote Tech Support  feedback for this issue?  I'm a software architect and developer with over 20 years experience.  It shocks me that a company would continually ignore an issue like this for all this time unless they simply never read the boards!? :angry:  

 

Just my two cents which I may be taking my premium subscription elsewhere.

 

Mike

premium subscriber

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Yes, actually I recently contacted Evernote tech support and got a timely reply.  They asked for more information and we exchanged several messages.  Finally, they said:

 

"We have identified that this issue is affecting several of our Users, and I have reported it to our Product Team.

 
While we expect to address this issue within our next few updates, I do not have specifics as to when the issue will be fixed."
 
They gave me some Evernote Points for the trouble.  While it doesn't answer the question of when it will be resolved, at least it appears to be on the radar.  They acknowledged the issue and replied quickly so I was satisfied for now.
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I'm pretty sure I remember reading where they told another user the same thing, only a couple of years ago. If it wasn't this forum, I don't know where it would have been. Regardless, I don't believe it's really a priority. Nor do I think they spend any time on the forums. Honestly, though, if you added up every user who posted on this thread, we are only the smallest fraction of a percent of their user base.

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Confirming @donkey's post above--a fix is in and the issue has been resolved on an internal build, but I don't have a particular ETA on when we'll be getting this out the door.

 

UPDATE: it appears that it's live in our current beta (5.8.7). If you're on the beta track you should already have it available to you. To opt into beta updates automatically, check "enable beta features and updates" inside the tools > options menu, it will automatically pop up with a download prompt as if it were a regular release. Let us know if you run into the undo issue while running the current beta. 

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