(Archived) [Resolved] HELP! My data got overwritten by a BLANK page.

[BannerTeam 0]

Is it possible to restore an earlier version?? I have already opened EN on my ipad and iphone. There may be a way to retrieve it on a land computer but once I open the program won't it sync automatically?? Help! This was data I access and use almost everyday!

[Wern 246]

Hm, use your Internet browser and go to Evernote.com and sign in with your password. See how it looks there. Are your notes there?

If yes, you can sync them down to any device. Also look at the TRASH (lower side of left panel) and see what you can find there.

Good luck.

Wern

[BannerTeam 0]

Wern,

Just logged on and the same blank note is there. There should be a way to restore data from a certain saved point, no??

Wendy

[BannerTeam 0]

FYI, not in the trash either.

Wendy

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

There may be a way to retrieve it on a land computer but once I open the program won't it sync automatically?? Help!

Not if you disconnect your internet connection.

Evernote takes note history about once every eight hours. If you're a premium user & the good note was older than eight hours (give or take), you should be able to pull up the note history on your PC.

[BannerTeam 0]

FYI, not in the trash either.

Wendy

[BannerTeam 0]

Figured it out! I had to join as a premium member, but for $5/mo it was worth it . There are lots of saved points you can go back and retrieve. Phew!! Thanks for your help too.

Wendy

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Great!!! You're welcome!

[idoc 400]

Please note that if you backed up your files with import/exporting of enex files, a lost note would be very easy to retrieve. The process is very simple, you can do it for "all notes" or for seperate notebooks. Simply go to a notebook, right click and select "export notes". This will create an enex file and prompt you where to store it. Now let's say you lost a note that was in your "Home" notebook; you can go to the home.enex file that you previously exported and just import it back to evernote. It will create a seperate notebook for itself so it doesn't interfere with the rest of your stuff. Now find your missing note, copy it back to one of your EN notebooks and delete the rest of that temporary notebook that was created. I know this sounds complicated but it literally takes about 2 minutes once you understand what you're doing. I do my enex backups about once a week and they've saved me a lot of heartache. And yes, I fully agree with you, there is something unreliable about the "trash" folder. I too have lost notes and not found them in the trash.

[D43m0n 0]

Figured it out! I had to join as a premium member, but for $5/mo it was worth it . There are lots of saved points you can go back and retrieve. Phew!! Thanks for your help too.

Wendy

I hope this is not the way Evernote's business model is used to generate income besides adds in the free version... Think about it: you let users start for free, with limited bandwith and adds. Let them fill their Evernote account with a decent amount of notes. After a while, when the user has grown accustomed to using Evernote on a regular basis, choose a note that has quite some text in it and has accumulated that contents over a longer period of time (maybe that note is important somehow?). A few days after the last edit, delete it's contents so users get desperate to get their content back: we (Evernote) offer a great service for that: Premium membership! You only need to pay a few bucks but then you get your content back.

I'm sorry, but that does not sound like a trustworthy company to me. And yes, I might sound a bit suspicious but this is what I see, from my point of view. And yes, I have on one Mac Time Machine and on the other Crashplan, but neither was able to restore the latest additions from 7 days ago. So when a conflict might occur during a sync from Evernote, just delete all local cache and then sync those deletions back to the Evernote cloud. One fine way of luring free users into a paid subscription.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

No. I think this is emphatically not part of Evernote's business model, because they aim to earn your trust, not abuse it. People are being given free upgrades to retrieve their note content, not being asked to pay. And, I have lost data this way as well, and I am a premium user already, so what did they gain from that? This is a bug -- nothing more, nothing less. They take data loss very seriously at Evernote.

As for Time Machine, if you are backing up every day, how could it not have your data? That sounds very odd to me, and you'll want to look into it. I occasionally export my data as HTML, and I have TC, so even if something happens, unless I am on the road or something like that, I should be fine. It sounds like you have the elements in place, but they need some fine tuning.

[D43m0n 0]

Well, I got my data back after Evernote upgraded my account to premium for a week. So thank you for that. Still, I'm anxious in using Evernote again, because I don't see the need to upgrade to a premium account with the way I'm using Evernote. Therefore I do not want to end up in the situation where I can loose content and just for the sake of retrieving the previous version in 5 minutes having to upgrade and pay for that each month. I might just end up paying for what I don't need if data would not get lost. But it does. If you already are a premium member because you do see the need for it, that's fine and you probably won't hesitate as much as I do in using Evernote again after your second data loss, because you can almost instantly retrieve the last version. I don't want to wait a week on when I need it now.

 

Perhaps Evernote should rethink their strategy and include a "3 times per month" retrieval possibility for lost data if you're not a premium user. I'm using Evernote on a weekly/montly basis, but I do use it regularly, not with that much bandwidth I need to upgrade. But having the option of retrieving the previous version like this would make me feel safer in using Evernote again.

 

Why offer a free service (sponsored with ads) and let a few unlucky users spoil you're good intentions by not offering a small change in strategy?

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

Hi. Glad to hear that customer service got you sorted out.

I think your experience is probably uncommon, so a monthly retrieval option is unnecessary, and customer support will step in to assist.

Please consider my suggestions above (time machine) for ensuring that you have backups of your data. If you do this, you should never need note history (though, it is good that the feature is there). In addition, as TM saves more often than Evernote's note history, it will afford you more peace of mind.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Perhaps Evernote should rethink their strategy and include a "3 times per month" retrieval possibility for lost data if you're not a premium user.

I have used EN extensively each day for several years. I have a premium account & have only used the note history once, maybe twice & that's because *I* muffed up my data.

[D43m0n 0]

Well, your experience is a lot better, which is good. But as a minor user, I'd expect that the few times a month I use it, I'd expect it to at least not loose data, twice. Which is in a percentage a lot worse, compared to your mileage. If my car worked like your experience with EN, I'd stick with it. If my car worked like my experience with EN's data loss occurrences, I'd trade it in. I must admit I haven't found a car that can do the same that EN can, on this many platform's. It's like choosing between walking or driving 6 miles/9 kilometers a few days in the month. This is just my experience and this opinion.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Well, your experience is a lot better, which is good. But as a minor user, I'd expect that the few times a month I use it, I'd expect it to at least not loose data, twice. Which is in a percentage a lot worse, compared to your mileage. If my car worked like your experience with EN, I'd stick with it. If my car worked like my experience with EN's data loss occurrences, I'd trade it in. I must admit I haven't found a car that can do the same that EN can, on this many platform's. It's like choosing between walking or driving 6 miles/9 kilometers a few days in the month. This is just my experience and this opinion.

Sorry, but IMO & IME, If you're losing data that often it's most likely user error. Additionally, if you're using multiple devices/computers/clients, it's very easy to lose data if you don't sync changes up/down before trying to modify a note.

http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/20092-not-very-happy-right-now/?p=101095

[D43m0n 0]

Sorry, but IMO & IME, If you're losing data that often it's most likely user error. Additionally, if you're using multiple devices/computers/clients, it's very easy to lose data if you don't sync changes up/down before trying to modify a note.

http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/20092-not-very-happy-right-now/?p=101095

Well, you got it right when you say: "often it's most likely". Indeed, this is not one of those cases. BTW the post you are referring to is followed by someone who seems to have had the exact same experience as I had twice. Except I wasn't using an iPad, but two different computers. I only edit on a computer and use my iPhone on the road for reference.

 

But to assure you, this time it was not a user error. EN's syncing has proven to fail on occasions. Search the web, I'm not the only one. And claiming they're all "most likely" user error is a bit of the truth.

 

Anyway, thank you for effort, I addressed this in an EN support ticket, it's their call to listen and act appropriate.