(Archived) 5MB limit for notes? Wasn't it 50?

[gotofritz 21]

HI

 

I have just created a note on the desktop OS X, 5.0.5 and sync failed.

I exported it and deleted it, all was good.

 

Now when I try to import it back it says

"The content of the note titled XXX is 5.8 MB which is larger then the 5MB limit and could not be improted"

 

What is that all about? I thought the limit was 50MB for premium account users!

 

Thanks in advance

[gotofritz 21]

"Sometimes, closing a ticket does not mean the problem is solved. "

nonsense. we were in the middle of a conversation, and I was waiting for them to say "yes, we are increasing the limit", or "no, we are stubborn and won't provide you with your promised 50 MB"

either way, the problem CAN be solved. 

 

 

 

"If you want to get technical, "the fact that you split the 50MB into 5MB text content and 45MB attachment data wasn't stated in the small print" but it also wasn't stated that it wasn't."

oh great, a wanna be comedian. don't give up the day job.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

Besides, even if I created that bloated note myself - surely Evernote should be able to deal with it. Can I not import a 20MB PDF or a 30MB sound file? (I ask as I have never tried). If so, why the arbitrary 5MB limit on text?

I don't know the answer, but I suspect that it has to do with how the content is handled, because Evernote doesn't open attachments, and it can afford to let those be large. If you attached it as a text file, then I imagine it would be fine. In my experience, it is not uncommon for software to have limits (usually, much smaller), or to be unlimited but freeze / crash the app.

[Jackolicious 808]

Besides, even if I created that bloated note myself - surely Evernote should be able to deal with it. Can I not import a 20MB PDF or a 30MB sound file? (I ask as I have never tried). If so, why the arbitrary 5MB limit on text?

You can absolutely import a 20MB PDF or 30MB audio file. The difference is that those files would be attachments. The 5MB limit is around a note's text content.

 

I tried to clip that URL on my own and it seemed to work fine. Hmm...

[gotofritz 21]

@Jackolicious, I don't know what url is attached to the note, but if you notice this is an article in 10 parts, what I have done is to clip each of the 10 pages separately then merged them using Evernote's Merge Notes functionality. This is what brings it over the 5 MB limits. It probably only keeps the one url in the source field, but it is, in fact, 10.

The same thing happened in the original note that made me open the issue, that time it was only 5 blog posts and I merged them by manually copying and pasting the code from the web browser to the bottom of the note window. Redoing the same thing using Evernote's Merge Notes functionality solved the problem, I must have been quite near the limit somehow.

 

I think the issue is clear - something somewhere inlines the CSS for each HTML element, bloating the text. That's probably OS X, as the same thing happens when I copy text from a web page into a mail program or Word etc. 

So either you find a way to stop that, or increase the limit for text content.

 

The former is probably very complicated (I can't think of another way of mixing fragments from various web pages without losing their formatting to be honest)

The limit is an arbitrary number chosen on the assumption people would only need to clip the ASCII version of the St James Bible, without inline CSS.

So perhaps you should just increase the limit to 20 MB or something?

Or perhaps with a little more work, work out whether a note is plain text or HTML and have different limits accordingly? Just a thought.

 

Thanks

[Jackolicious 808]

You should be able to use the Format -> Simplify Formatting option to remove that unnecessary markup (along with other extraneous styles).

[gotofritz 21]

That won't work for two reasons - first I need to import the note in to be able to reformat it. The issue is that I can't.

 

Second - I want to keep the formatting. A lof o my clips are programming articles, and without formatting the code examples are hard to follow.

 

I am getting a bit frustrated with what looks like stubbornness on your part. You made an arbitrary decision to limit text of a note to 5MB based on the assumption people would only try and clip ASCII text. Now the assumption is proving to be wrong.

Is it really that hard to revisit your limit and increase the limit to 20 MB? If you think this is only an edge case, then no harm will be done, I'll be the only person using the limit to the full.

[gotofritz 21]

Great. I had a support ticket about this (16051-261167) and now the system closed it automatically. Still nobody solved the problem.

 

All I know is that I paid to for the premium service, it promised me 50MB notes, and since the 26th of Feb I can't sync Evernote anymore if I have this 10MB note in it. I don't care why - the fact that you split the 50MB into 5MB text content and 45MB attachment data wasn't stated in the small print, and  it is not my problem. Plus, it's a daft idea.

 

If that's your idea of "premium" service I may as well go and look at some of your competitors.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Great. I had a support ticket about this (16051-261167) and now the system closed it automatically. Still nobody solved the problem.

All I know is that I paid to for the premium service, it promised me 50MB notes, and since the 26th of Feb I can't sync Evernote anymore if I have this 10MB note in it. I don't care why - the fact that you split the 50MB into 5MB text content and 45MB attachment data wasn't stated in the small print, and it is not my problem. Plus, it's a daft idea.

If that's your idea of "premium" service I may as well go and look at some of your competitors.

If you want to get technical, "the fact that you split the 50MB into 5MB text content and 45MB attachment data wasn't stated in the small print" but it also wasn't stated that it wasn't.

Sometimes, closing a ticket does not mean the problem is solved. It may mean the devs are aware of the issue & either it's on the priority list or not on the list at all. IE, if I submit a support ticket stating that I want EN to allow me to make sub notebooks, they are going to close out that ticket. Not because they will never ever do that. Not because it's a stupid idea. Not because it's fixed & I can now make sub notebooks. But simply b/c no more action is required on their part. It's a known feature request that may or may not be added. No sense in keeping that ticket open b/c it just makes things more difficult for the support people who need to address issues that (hopefully) *can* be resolved.

[gotofritz 21]

Whatever generated that code did an *incredibly* inefficient job. I can't imagine our users run into this case too often.

Whatever generated that code is the Chrome Web Clipper, running on the the OS X Mountain Lion version of Chrome 25.

Note that all the inline CSS in your pic is not in the original site, so at some stage either OS X, or Chrome, or the Web Clipper decide to add it in.

Given that I am using the latest version of standard tools, I think your users may run into that case at some stage.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

The number 5MB was obviously arbitrary, but the motivation for putting a limit on the text probably arose because of some technical issue they wanted to solve.

There are other unstated limits with the service (shared notebooks sent emails, etc.) and I do hope they spell these out for users. I don't think they are intentionally misleading customers, but it does cause unnecessary confusion to run up against an undocumented limit.

In the meantime, if this is a limit they are not prepared to change (maybe a technical reason rather than stubbornness), you could ask for a refund on your Premium purchase. From what I hear, they are very flexible about this.

[gotofritz 21]

Another "Evernote Evangelist"

 

As you obviously don't know for sure, why don't you let Evernote employees answer the question themselves?

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

Another "Evernote Evangelist"

As you obviously don't know for sure, why don't you let Evernote employees answer the question themselves?

A. It's a user forum. Staff sometimes join the conversation, and sometimes don't. I was only trying to help.

B. A developer has already answered and offered you a solution, which you rejected.

C. This isn't just about you. Other users may come across this thread in the future, and it might help to know that Premium subscriptions are refundable if you are not satisfied.

[Jackolicious 808]

Fritz, any sweeping cross-platform changes like this are not easy to implement, but your issue has been noted. I understand that it must be frustrating and I'm sorry the limitation is there. Either way, the 5MB text limit is in place for the time being. 

 

I really do appreciate hearing your concerns.

 

Jack

Product Manager for Mac

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

"Sometimes, closing a ticket does not mean the problem is solved. "

nonsense. we were in the middle of a conversation, and I was waiting for them to say "yes, we are increasing the limit", or "no, we are stubborn and won't provide you with your promised 50 MB"

either way, the problem CAN be solved. 

 

 

 

"If you want to get technical, "the fact that you split the 50MB into 5MB text content and 45MB attachment data wasn't stated in the small print" but it also wasn't stated that it wasn't."

oh great, a wanna be comedian. don't give up the day job.

 

I'm not the one dredging up "small print" to claim that I've been somehow deceived or at the very least, wronged. 

 

Your argument is invalid.

[gotofritz 21]

Fritz, any sweeping cross-platform changes like this are not easy to implement, but your issue has been noted. I understand that it must be frustrating and I'm sorry the limitation is there. Either way, the 5MB text limit is in place for the time being. 

 

I really do appreciate hearing your concerns.

 

Jack

Product Manager for Mac

 

@Jackalicious, could you guys at least put a warning when someone tries to merge notes, saying "merging those notest will result in a note too large too sync, do you want to continue?"

at least I can continue merging smaller notes without fear of them becoming unsyncable and hence dead

 

Thanks

[Jackolicious 808]

Good suggestion. Thanks!

[gotofritz 21]

Besides, even if I created that bloated note myself - surely Evernote should be able to deal with it. Can I not import a 20MB PDF or a 30MB sound file? (I ask as I have never tried). If so, why the arbitrary 5MB limit on text?

[Jackolicious 808]

I had a look at the content of that note.

 

Your note: 110 printed pages - 10+MB

King James Bible: 1,800 printed pages - 4.4MB

 

Whatever generated that code did an *incredibly* inefficient job. I can't imagine our users run into this case too often.

 

For reference: https://www.evernote.com/shard/s3/sh/186cacbe-4502-42b3-8f1d-2343acffd28f/3e0ad1b42ee82d83f4f580c618069a06

[gotofritz 21]

I have recreated the note by creating individual notes for each web pages and then merged them in Evernote - that solved the problem.

 

However, then the problem occurred again with a new note (it's the one linked to above). And now even merging them in evernote doesn't help.

 

It looks to me this 5MB limit for text content is too small, or it's not counting it correctly

[Jackolicious 808]

Thanks. Looking into it.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

I am happy to share... but there is a limit of 362.02K on this forum... what do you suggest?

 

Alternatively, you can attach files when submitting a support ticket.

[gotofritz 21]

Oh, yes, Dropbox.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/49jqpcfxzg07t7f/My%20Notes.enex

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

I am happy to share... but there is a limit of 362.02K on this forum... what do you suggest?

 

Hi. Dropbox?

[gotofritz 21]

I am happy to share... but there is a limit of 362.02K on this forum... what do you suggest?

[Jackolicious 808]

Got some clarification. The 5MB limit is imposed on note content, not note attachments (like images). Is it possible that your clipping somehow has more than 5MB of text in it? Would you mind sharing it with us?

 

Edit: 5MB should handle multiple versions of the King James bible with room to spare. 

[Jackolicious 808]

Thanks. Noted and bugged.

[gotofritz 21]

Version is 5.0.5

 

The file size of the note is 6134181 bytes.

 

The note was created in Evernote from the webclipper, it synced ok, then I appended to the bottom extra content I copied from the other web pages using the Chrome web browser. It refused to sync it saying there was an error, nothing more.

 

Then I exported it and deleted it from Evernote, did a sync, and now I am trying to import it back.

 

Thanks.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

Thanks for reporting this. I will flag it for the developers. Could you tell us what client / version number you are using?

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Here

 

 

Ah, so it was not a note you had created but one you are trying to import.  (Sorry, overlooked that in the initial post.)  Yeah, it sounds like the error message is just wrong & the file you're trying to import is larger than the true note size limit.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

HI

 

I have just created a note on the desktop OS X, 5.0.5 and sync failed.

I exported it and deleted it, all was good.

 

Now when I try to import it back it says

"The content of the note titled XXX is 5.8 MB which is larger then the 5MB limit and could not be improted"

 

What is that all about? I thought the limit was 50MB for premium account users!

 

Thanks in advance

IME, EN doesn't let you even create a note larger than the note size limit you're allowed.  So it may be that the note you created was munged in some way.

 

WRT the error message, it may be a typo & the (possibly) munged note you created exceeded the 50 MB note size limit.

[gotofritz 21]

Here

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

Hi. Could you post a screenshot? Thanks!