Aeryon 6 Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 I had a bunch of files in my trash and accidentally clicked "Restore Deleted Notes" instead of "Empty Trash". After the damage was done, I clicked on "all notes" and then "updated" giving me a nice chunk of notes at the top of the list that had just been restored. I sent these bad-boys back to the trash- and being the fool I am... emptied the trash.That took care of most of my problem, but now I find that in my big massive mistake, I deleted files I never meant to. Files which somehow had been updated but weren't ones from the trash. Anyways, 2 questions... 1) Can technical support reverse this? I promise I'll be a good boy from now on.If not, then 2) I have my laptop which has not been synced (thus the files are still there). Can I somehow reverse the damage by altering those files on the unsynced laptop and then syncing?Forever yours,Sleepless in Seattle... I mean Tom Hanks... I mean. Oh, its late here. Link to comment
Level 5* GrumpyMonkey 4,319 Posted July 12, 2012 Level 5* Share Posted July 12, 2012 Hi. Sounds like a stressful evening!Well, I pretty rarely delete things, and only empty the trash a handful of times each year. There is little benefit in doing it, and lots of potential harm. Evernote counts amount of uploads made, not space used.I keep my things backed up at home, just in case. Time Machine on the Mac and Altarp Oops!Backup on the Windows machine. Better safe than sorry!In your case, you are safe. Your [EDIT: notes] are still there! I'd back up your laptop before connecting to the Internet with it, move those files temporarily into a new notebook (this change to the content ought to override your other changes), and for good measure, I'd export a copy of the notes to your desktop. Link to comment
BurgersNFries 2,407 Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 In your case, you are safe. Your files are still there! I'd back up your laptop before connecting to the Internet with it, move those files temporarily into a new notebook (this change to the content ought to override your other changes), and for good measure, I'd export a copy of the notes to your desktop.To clarify, you need to move the notes (not files) to a local/non-sync'd notebook, sync, then move them back to a sync'd notebook. Simply moving a note from one sync'd notebook to another does not generate a new GUID for the note. When you're trying to salvage an accidentally deleted note from another computer (that still has the note in a notebook), the note needs to be assigned a new GUID. If the note is not assigned a new GUID, the next time you sync the 2nd computer (that still has the note that was accidentally deleted from another device), then Evernote will delete that note from the 2nd computer/device, which is exactly what EN should do b/c it doesn't know that the note was accidentally deleted from the first computer/device. EN must "assume" the note was correctly deleted & you want the note deleted from all devices. And since you can completely change a note, the only way EN knows it's the same note is the GUID. (Globally unique identifier.) IOW, if you change a note with GUID 1000 from having a picture of your dog, to having a picture of your car, that's how EN knows it's the same note & to make the appropriate changes of removing the dog picture & adding the car picture. Same thing when moving the note with GUID 1000 from one sync'd notebook to another. The GUID remains the same. So when you delete the note with GUID 1000 on one computer/device, Evernote is going to delete that note from all your devices/computers during the next sync. The way to salvage it is to move the note with GUID 1000 to a local notebook. Then when you move it from the local notebook to a sync'd notebook, a new GUID is generated. IDK if you absolutely MUST sync after moving to a local notebook & before moving back to a sync'd notebook, but I'd do it just to be safe.Of course, having a backup of your local backup is always a good idea, too. For my part, I never empty the trash without having a backup of my local database. Link to comment
Level 5* GrumpyMonkey 4,319 Posted July 12, 2012 Level 5* Share Posted July 12, 2012 In your case, you are safe. Your files are still there! I'd back up your laptop before connecting to the Internet with it, move those files temporarily into a new notebook (this change to the content ought to override your other changes), and for good measure, I'd export a copy of the notes to your desktop.To clarify, you need to move the notes (not files) to a local/non-sync'd notebook, sync, then move them back to a sync'd notebook. Simply moving a note from one sync'd notebook to another does not generate a new GUID for the note. When you're trying to salvage an accidentally deleted note from another computer, the note(s) needs to be assigned a new GUID.Hi BNF. Thanks for catching my poor word choice -- they are notes, not files. I defer to your expertise on these matters, especially in the important case of keeping data safe.However, my understanding was that it wasn't so much a matter of generating a new GUID (the note's unique identifier) but establishing the sync priority (moving from one synced notebook to another would be a more recent change, and would therefore override the trash). Establishing the sync priority will result in a Conflicted Changes notebook being created, and everything will be shifted into that notebook, but you won't lose data. At least, that is what I have done in the past. I just tested the scenario and it worked fine for me. Is there something that I am missing?[EDIT:] It looks like you elaborated on your points, but I don't think that is correct, because I have had the Conflicted Changes notebook created in the past when following the procedure I outlined, and in my test today the same thing happened. Evernote recognizes the notes do not match (an older one is in the trash and a newer one has been updated) so it warns you. I think this is the expected behavior -- at least, this is what I expect. I do agree, however, about the backups. I wouldn't do anything at all until I got a backup of that data. Link to comment
BurgersNFries 2,407 Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 I just did this:[*] Create note in sync'd notebook on computer 1.[*] Sync.[*] Sync 2nd computer/device. Newly created note now appears on 2nd computer/device.[*] delete note from first computer, empty trash & sync.[*] Without sync'ing second computer/device, move the "accidentally" deleted note from one sync'd notebook to another. [*] Sync 2nd computer.[*] Sync first computer.[*] Note is not on either computer, including the trash.Neither computer has a conflicting changes notebook.This is the way it worked on my Windows client on two different computers. IDK if the Mac client functions the same way.AND...OP never stated what client he's using. Link to comment
Level 5* GrumpyMonkey 4,319 Posted July 12, 2012 Level 5* Share Posted July 12, 2012 I just did this:[*] Create note in sync'd notebook on computer 1.[*] Sync.[*] Sync 2nd computer/device. Newly created note now appears on 2nd computer/device.[*] delete note from first computer, empty trash & sync.[*] Without sync'ing second computer/device, move the "accidentally" deleted note from one sync'd notebook to another. [*] Sync 2nd computer.[*] Sync first computer.[*] Note is not on either computer, including the trash.Neither computer has a conflicting notes notebook.This is the way it worked on my Windows client. IDK if the Mac client functions the same way.That is curious. I followed a similar process: deleted note from iPad (completely), synced, moved note on Mac to new synced folder, synced, and ended up with a conflicted change notebook containing the note. I'll see what happens if I do a Mac Windows combination. Link to comment
BurgersNFries 2,407 Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 That is curious. I followed a similar process: deleted note from iPad (completely), synced, moved note on Mac to new synced folder, synced, and ended up with a conflicted change notebook containing the note. I'll see what happens if I do a Mac Windows combination. It may be that when you introduce a mobile app, it behaves differently since the mobile apps do not have local notebooks. (On Windows, the conflicting changes notebook is a local one.) OP doesn't mention what clients he's using. But since he mentioned laptop, I'm "assuming" (unless & until OP mentions the clients he's using) that he's talking about the desktop versions rather than mobile versions. It will be interesting to see what happens between Mac/Windows clients, same scenario. EDIT: Actually, on second thought, I'm getting confused enough that I'm not even sure the lack of local notebooks has any bearing on this topic at all. Link to comment
Level 5* GrumpyMonkey 4,319 Posted July 12, 2012 Level 5* Share Posted July 12, 2012 You learn something new every day!1. For the iPad / Mac combination: putting the note into a notebook after deleting it results in a conflicted change notebook. 2. For the Mac / Windows combination: putting the note into a notebook after deleting it results in loss of the note.3. For the Windows/Mac combination: putting the note into a notebook after deleting it results in a conflicted change notebook. It seems to be a Mac thing, like you guessed. I had no idea. If I had my druthers, I'd say all of the clients ought to act like the Mac. Isn't that the safest?At any rate, it is good to know about this difference in behavior. And, just to reiterate, as we both said, it's always good to backup often, especially in cases like this. Link to comment
BurgersNFries 2,407 Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 If I had my druthers, I'd say all of the clients ought to act like the Mac. Isn't that the safest?It would be the safest option. I think the only reason I knew this (wrt the Windows behaviour) is from a thread a while back where someone kept trying to restore accidentally deleted notes (that had been sync'd to the EN servers) from their Windows backup. They had tried different scenarios (moving the notes to a different notebook, changing the notes by adding a line feed, etc) & EN would regularly delete the notes (again) on the next sync. IIRC, someone (Heather?) then posted about moving to a local notebook & then back to a sync'd notebook & getting a new GUID. Link to comment
Aeryon 6 Posted July 13, 2012 Author Share Posted July 13, 2012 Hi all! Thank you for all the replies! I have not had a chance to try these yet, but will give them a shot tonight! We have a 4 month old here and as soon as I am home from work my real job begins! I will read through these suggestions and get it sorted out tonight!Thanks again and I will hopefully have an update for you all in the morning! Link to comment
Level 5* GrumpyMonkey 4,319 Posted July 13, 2012 Level 5* Share Posted July 13, 2012 Hi all! Thank you for all the replies! I have not had a chance to try these yet, but will give them a shot tonight! We have a 4 month old here and as soon as I am home from work my real job begins! I will read through these suggestions and get it sorted out tonight! Thanks again and I will hopefully have an update for you all in the morning! Congratulations on the newest addition to your family! To summarize: backup first and then do what BNF said. My posts are mainly efforts to understand why the two of us were seeing completely different behavior. It turns out that the Mac does things different than Windows. That's all Link to comment
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