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tags are missing in web - be wary of doing a complete database rebuild


lisec

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I just recently rebuilt my windows database (exb file) form the web because I was having that 2 minutes to load and 2 minutes to exit issue others are having.

 

I took screenshots of my existing Notebooks and Tags, and then compared them with the newly created database.

 

Oh my.

 

Tags that were missing from the web and were no longer in my 'new' database:

 

2009 (3)

2012 (89)

2013 (322)

2014 (20)

* for some reason 2010 with 1 note and 2011 with 7 notes were ok

Alfredo (31)

Cannes (11)

This Week (12)

TIFF 2014 (16)

 

tags that are in the wrong place:

 

Country

  Europe

    France was moved out of Europe and put directly under Country

 

Country

  Europe

    Italy was moved out of Europe and put directly under Country

 

Country

  Mediterranean was moved out of Country and placed under 'M'

 

 

I'm providing details to show that we aren't talking about 1 or 2 tags here. Some of these tags were created 1 month ago, some before that and some last week.

 

Also, there does seem to be an issue with tags that refer to dates (relative or otherwise) in some way.

2 weeks ago I was having issues with my "Today" tag. I had to rename it with a dot in front (".Today") and that seemed to resolve the issue at the time, except that now that tag is completely gone. I didn't take screenshots 2 weeks ago so I can't tell when I lost the tag.  Interesting that my "This Week" one is gone now as well. I thought perhaps there might be an issue with dates altogether, given the missing tags for my years, but not all are gone and other tags like Alfredo that are not date related went missing so I can't quite figure out the logic.

 

All to say, if you regenerate your database from the web, keep a copy of the old exb file, and to be safe, take screenshots of all your notebooks and tags before regenerating, then compare them with the new database. If you lost too much info, put the old one back. That's what I had to do.

 

And now I have no clue how to force those tags onto the web.

Does anyone know how to do that? Just rename them to regenerate, I guess?

 

 

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At this late stage I'd suggest you complete a support request (see below) or (if you're premium) start a chat support session on this.  There's a known issue that tags on a desktop note don't always show up in the right place,  or at all,  in the web version or shared notebooks.  I don't know whether that has been addressed by recent updates,  but you (clearly) need to find out.  I don't know if there's any way for you to get your lost or misplaced tags fixed without painstakingly going through and doing it by hand.

 

You're suggesting that anyone who regerates their database should keep a backup of the old version - if you search for the 'rename your database' instructions in the forum,  you'll see that's standard practice.  However it won't cure any problems - the best you'll get is your original database back with all its previous good and bad points.  There's no way to 'force' the web version to update that we're aware of - but there are some 'debug' options in Evernote which might help;  hence the need for a support ticket.

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When I had this issue a ways back, I seem to remember it was related to tags I had created and applied to a local note.  To fix, I created the tag on the web version, I then renamed the tag to a temp name on my EN, synced, renamed it back to the tag and synced again, it was fixed.  Server just didn't want to recognize the tag coming from local for some reason.  After that I only created tags on synced notes.  Not sure this is your issue, just sharing...

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gazumped, yes, of course saving a backup of the old database is essential and should be part of the routine, not so much to revert to if there is a problem, although there is that, but to keep as a benchmark with which to compare. I will never again regenerate from the web without manually going through both databases (the exb being replaced and the newly-generated exb) to ensure they are identical. My new routine after backing up current database and regenerating:

  1. Load new web-generated database and take screenshots of everything (# of notes, expanded notebooks and tags with the number of notes in each).
  2. Load previous database. Compare the screenshots of the web-generated database with this loaded database. Create missing notes, tags, etc on the web. Sync after every change to ensure the web receives the change. Rename tags if necessary to generate them on the web. .
  3. When the web version and this version match perfectly, revert to the newly-created database and sync. Now all three databases (previous and current exb and web) should identical..

 

It would be fantastic if Evernote offered a "compare database" utility.

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It would be fantastic if Evernote offered a "compare database" utility.

 

Would be really nice if we didn't have to worry about it quite so much....   ;)

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I try to maintain a 'big data' approach to my information - there's so much saved that even if I lost a few notes I'd get the main points of any query,  and I'm going to do some new research to confirm the latest position if I need to ask new questions,  so any missing data either won't matter or it will be replaced pretty quickly.  Some notes don't have that degree of redundancy - but they usually involve documentation provided by someone else... who will have records of their own that I can trawl through if necessary. 

 

I don't say it doesn't matter if I lose data,  but once I've backed up the database (with several versions already in the can) and made sure everything has synced,  any further worry is pointless.  I could spend hours scanning past databases to make sure no note has been forgotten - but that requires time that I don't have and worse would be a zero return on investment,. Chances are the notes I painstakingly recover will be the least relevant and valuable in my collection.

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I can see that.

I just recently committed to Evernote for all my important stuff as well as the other stuff, and I can't lose that data.

 

I'm not sure why Evernote can't pop-up a window after a sync when there is a discrepancy between the web and the exb file. Surely the sync process knows at least how many notes there are (and where they are, ie which notebook) and how many notes are tagged with any given tag. A pop-up like that could be useful, even if it is only to tell you that 1 notebook has 1 less note somewhere, then if you want to investigate you can.

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Gazumped,

 

My point was less the pain of the loss of data, but more the fact that it can occur.  Heaven knows I have added some notes that if they disappeared I probably would not even know it.  And that is kind of the point of the process, I add them just in case even if just in case never happens.  That being said though, I think Evernote should take it personally should any one lose any data of the applications accord, do a root cause on it, and fix it.  There is more than one example in these forums of errors, not just preferences, that have existed for some time.  Sure they need to be prioritized by impact on users, but end of the day, they are all examples of a product not performing to its own specs.  To me, that is not how a product should be maintained.  Particularly if the error is related to something like data loss, since Evernote is one's second brain.

.

To be clear, I am an ardent user and supporter of Evernote.  It's just that good is the enemy of great, and good seems to be Evernote's target at the moment.

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Gazumped,

 

My point was less the pain of the loss of data, but more the fact that it can occur.  Heaven knows I have added some notes that if they disappeared I probably would not even know it.  And that is kind of the point of the process, I add them just in case even if just in case never happens.  That being said though, I think Evernote should take it personally should any one lose any data of the applications accord, do a root cause on it, and fix it.  There is more than one example in these forums of errors, not just preferences, that have existed for some time.  Sure they need to be prioritized by impact on users, but end of the day, they are all examples of a product not performing to its own specs.  To me, that is not how a product should be maintained.  Particularly if the error is related to something like data loss, since Evernote is one's second brain.

.

To be clear, I am an ardent user and supporter of Evernote.  It's just that good is the enemy of great, and good seems to be Evernote's target at the moment.

 

I totally agree - I was counselling against being too invested in checking that each day's data is the same as it was previously;  if you find in normal operations that something is missing however - that's an issue!!

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I try to maintain a 'big data' approach to my information - there's so much saved that even if I lost a few notes I'd get the main points of any query,  and I'm going to do some new research to confirm the latest position if I need to ask new questions,  so any missing data either won't matter or it will be replaced pretty quickly.  Some notes don't have that degree of redundancy - but they usually involve documentation provided by someone else... who will have records of their own that I can trawl through if necessary. 

 

IMO, this "big data" approach is very dangerous.  Perhaps it works for you, but I think for many, if not most, users any loss of data could be catastrophic.  Many users, including me, regularly archive PDFs of my transactions and then destroy all other copies (electronic and paper) after some time.  If you don't have any alert of loss of the data, you could go for years without realizing the loss.  And even then, you may never realize you had the loss if you don't remember it and don't have some other info pointing to it.

 

Bottom line -- we can NOT tolerate ANY loss of data from Evernote.  

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  • Level 5*

 

I try to maintain a 'big data' approach to my information - there's so much saved that even if I lost a few notes I'd get the main points of any query,  and I'm going to do some new research to confirm the latest position if I need to ask new questions,  so any missing data either won't matter or it will be replaced pretty quickly.  Some notes don't have that degree of redundancy - but they usually involve documentation provided by someone else... who will have records of their own that I can trawl through if necessary. 

 

IMO, this "big data" approach is very dangerous.  Perhaps it works for you, but I think for many, if not most, users any loss of data could be catastrophic.  Many users, including me, regularly archive PDFs of my transactions and then destroy all other copies (electronic and paper) after some time.  If you don't have any alert of loss of the data, you could go for years without realizing the loss.  And even then, you may never realize you had the loss if you don't remember it and don't have some other info pointing to it.

 

Bottom line -- we can NOT tolerate ANY loss of data from Evernote.  

 

 

I agree with this, and I think Evernote takes data loss pretty seriously as well. In my opinion, "Big Data" is also trying to carefully maintain its data. After all, the data is their business, and corrupted data impacts their performance, and ultimately their bottom line. 

 

Whatever our viewpoints on what is or is not Big Data's approach, I would strongly recommend (for any service) lots of backups and redundancy wherever possible. Even the loss of a single record can be a problem, especially if it is exactly the one you are trying to find!

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