(Archived) Location of Locally Stored Notebooks

[Greg Waddell 14]

I have one notebook that I'm not syncing with the Evernote server. I made it a local notebook. I'm wondering where that notebook is kept on my hard drive and is it kept separate from the other notebooks? I need this information so I can make sure that notebook gets backed up somewhere. Is it possible to keep my synced notebooks in one place on the hard drive while keeping my local notebooks somewhere else?

gsw

PS: I'm runing Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.

[jefito 5,589]

Nope. I believe that local notebooks are stored in the same database (.exb file) as sync'ed notebooks. You can back up the whole thing, if need be.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Jefito is correct. All notebooks, regardless if they are sync'd or not, reside in the same database. You can find/move the location in tools/options/general tab.

[Greg Waddell 14]

That's too bad. Now I wish I had not made that folder an unsynchronized folder.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Just create a new sync'd notebook & move the notes to it. If you want the same notebook name, you will need to assign a temporary name, until you delete the local notebook & then rename the new one. Or... (best option), rename the local one before creating the new one. NBD.

[Greg Waddell 14]

Done. Thanks

[rlguetter 0]

BnF - even though your not affiliated with EN your efforts are much appreciated!

Just so I'm clear regarding backup of Local Notebooks. And I'm only talking about local notebooks here. Its my understanding that the Local Notebooks are also stored in the .exb file so we CAN NOT back them up separately. The proper, and only by my understanding, way to ensure backup and reuse of our Local Notebooks should a catastrophe occur is to:

• backup the Evernote/Databases directory,
  
• Upon restore, should I lose my information, I need to reinstall EN, replace the Evernote/Databases directory with what I have backed up, and then resync with the Server
  

What this should do is rsync with the Server keeping my Local Notebooks in tact?

Is this understanding correct? Seems like a bit of a pain. For me, logically, I think it would be better if the Local Notebooks where keep separately from the rest of the synced information, That directory could then be backed up and should a Restore be required its just a matter of replacing the Local Notebooks directory on the newly installed version with what I have backed up. Just feels like I'm relying on a bit of magic to have the resync after Restore be able to match up a backup with whats on the Server. But I'll do what it takes to sleep better at night.

Local notebooks are a great idea for confidential information if one really wants to become paperless. Next will be comfort with a backup policy that I can be assured is going to work!

Thx!

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

BnF - even though your not affiliated with EN your efforts are much appreciated!

Thank you!

Its my understanding that the Local Notebooks are also stored in the .exb file so we CAN NOT back them up separately.

Correct.

The proper, and only by my understanding, way to ensure backup and reuse of our Local Notebooks should a catastrophe occur is to:

• backup the Evernote/Databases directory,
  
• Upon restore, should I lose my information, I need to reinstall EN, replace the Evernote/Databases directory with what I have backed up, and then resync with the Server
  

What this should do is rsync with the Server keeping my Local Notebooks in tact?

Is this understanding correct? Seems like a bit of a pain. For me, logically, I think it would be better if the Local Notebooks where keep separately from the rest of the synced information, That directory could then be backed up and should a Restore be required its just a matter of replacing the Local Notebooks directory on the newly installed version with what I have backed up. Just feels like I'm relying on a bit of magic to have the resync after Restore be able to match up a backup with whats on the Server. But I'll do what it takes to sleep better at night.

Local notebooks are a great idea for confidential information if one really wants to become paperless. Next will be comfort with a backup policy that I can be assured is going to work!

That's the best (IMO) way to backup not only local notebooks but all your notebooks. This is important to me b/c I don't like the idea of someone else having the only good copy of my information. Plus, IMO, it's the easiest way to insure you have a good backup. In my case, I have a LOT of notes - over 50,000. So if my hard drive takes a dive today, I don't want to have to spend the time re-downloading all my notes from the EN servers. When I used to use my netbook more, I'd often copy the exb file over to the netbook, so I didn't have to sloooooowly sync all the notes I'd added/changed from the last time I'd used the netbook. (B/C even if I don't use my netbook for 3-5 days, there are still a LOT of new notes or changed notes.) Or there was the case (true story) where a user came to the board b/c his girlfriend had access to his computer and/or EN login credentials. After a bad breakup, she logged in, deleted all the notes & sync'd. Since he didn't have a backup, he was out of luck.

HOWEVER, if you prefer to only backup your local notebooks, you can select the notes & export to enex format. The restore method would be to import the enex file. There are two things to be aware of with this method. First, notebook information is not retained. So you'd want to have an enex file for each notebook and/or tag the notes with the notebook name BEFORE exporting to the enex format. Second, when notes are imported via an enex file, they are imported into a local notebook. This is fine when you're dealing only with local/non-sync'd notebooks. But the reason this method is a bad idea for sync'd notebooks (IMO) is because you then have to move the notes to a sync'd notebook. This generates a new GUID (globally unique identifier) which means it's treated as a brand new note. Which means they go against your upload limit. Whereas when you simply copy the exb file over, the notes retain the same GUID & upon your next sync, will not use any of your upload limit. (Because any changes made to the notes (that are on the EN servers) since the time of the backup you're restoring from, are only downloaded... - downloads don't go against your monthly upload limit - hope this makes sense.)

IOW, if I have this note :

Note 1, line 1

Then I backup my exb file.

Then I change that note to:

Note 1, line 1

Note 1, line 2

Note 1, line 3

And sync those changes up to the EN servers. Then my hard drive takes a dive. So I get my computer back up & running & restore my exb file where I now have the old version of the note:

Note 1, line 1

Then I sync, to update my restored database to what's on the EN servers. When I sync, syncing the changes down do not go against my EN upload limit & I now have the current version of my note, on my new computer/hard drive like this:

Note 1, line 1

Note 1, line 2

Note 1, line 3

When restoring from an old exb file, you have to think of it as having a second computer that used to be sync'd up with Evernote, but that you've not used in a month or eight. You fire it up & sync Evernote so it's current (translate: matches what's on the EN servers.)

FWIW, I have several hundred notes in local/non-sync'd notebooks myself.

[catbert 36]

Thanks BnF, lots of useful information there!

To rlguetter: I don't see any downside to backing up your whole database, nor can I see any backup-related benefit to the idea of having local and synced data in different places. Surely restoring your whole database from a backup is as easy as, and maybe even easier than, restoring a part of it (the "local" part) and then handling the remainder in a different way?

By the way, my understanding is that only the .EXB file needs to be backup up / restored, not the whole directory structure - although that also works - if that makes it easier for you.

And I'll make a guess that the reason that the local and synced notes are kept together is that searches work much better this way; otherwise, every search would need to be executed against two separate databases, which would surely be problematic.

- catbert

[rlguetter 0]

Catbert, based on BnF reply, you are correct there shouldn't be a downside. I still think there might be room for problems, though, if one is not careful. My concern is that EN might get confused based on when a restore and subsequent editing gets done. I am not claiming to understand the algorithm, but I am guessing that order of operations will matter no matter how smart EN is. Correct restore would be

• Restore backup
  
• Force Sync with Server
  
• Make edits
  

As opposed to

• Restore backup
  
• Make edits
  
• Sync with Server
  

I'm guessing EN can get confused if the second set of steps is used. I suppose it depends mostly on the level of detail used by EN to sync. Do you guys know if EN syncs at the whole file level, or is it more clever and behaves like source code repositories that work on line by line basis (we refer to it as a file 'diff'). In the second, the sync can only get in trouble if two people are changing the same line of the same file. Of course if 'whole file' syncing is getting done then everything gets blown away and one file or the other, probably the newest, wins out.

Does this make sense?

[rlguetter 0]

p.s. When the second set of steps is executed, what finally gets posted to the server and thus to the local copy? Does

• File on the server win out because its on the server
  
• Newly edited local version win out because its "newer"
  
• It does a 'diff' as I outline so it trys to use the most current information from both the server and the local copies to come up with a final copy. Obviously more complex but really the right answer because as BnF outlines, someone may have changed the server copy in the interim.
  

[brianpals 1]

I really am confused about all of this.

 

I transferred my Evernote files (including the Database folder etc) from Windows XP to Windows 8 (now Windows 8.1) a month or so back and now realise that I have totally lost my local (Private) notebook.

 

I thought the local notebook was stored separately in the LocalStorage folder and so I've been chasing around through old backups and the File History looking for an old LocalStorage folder that actually holds something, to no avail.  

 

So, how could transferring my full Evernote folder to the newly installed Evernote program in Windows 8 cause just the local notebook to disappear?

 

Please, please, someone help!  Please???

 

Thanks

 

Brian