Recover overwritten note

[Mivan 0]

I'm desperate to recover a note that I accidently overwrote. I checked the forums and it said to purchase a premium account which I've done that is supposed to give me a rollback option on history - after paying this premium I cannot see the history option and I cannot recover the note.

[Frank.dg 1,385]

The Note History feature is available on the desktop client. You need to click on the "i" (information) icon at the header of a note. The option should be there - if there are any previous versions to recover at all.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Note history is taken once about every eight hours. If your note was a new note, there may not be a previous version, yet.

[Mivan 0]

Thanks  Spam Apprentice/Moderator, much appreciated. I am very pleased and even more relieved that I was able to recover the 'lost' note. However a couple of serious concerns have arisen:

 

1. Am I correct in understanding that any changes made to an entry are automatically saved without a 'please confirm' dialogue before such action?  Just about every desktop and android app offers you the fail-safe to confirm before an irrevocable change is made. If this is the case, then this is a serious and dangerous design deficiency I think.  Or have I missed another 'hidden' or non-intuitive button somewhere?

 

2. Why is the "i" (information) icon only on the desktop app?  I very reluctantly installed this app to recover the lost note. Surely this feature should be available on the Android platforms as well. Again, why is this important feature missing from the fastest growing platform segment? As before, is this my oversight or a design weakness?

 

I don't want to appear negative - its just that I'm a relatively new user to this app and want to have confidence that it will be a safe and reliable repository of information in the future. I'm very appreciative of the rapid responses - unlike Evernote's tech support who have still yet not replied to my original ticket - even after paying the premium which I'm rapidly considering cancelling !

[Frank.dg 1,385]

Hi Mivan,

 

We have to distinguish between 2 things here when talking about "saving" and being able to access a previous version of a note. I'm not sure why we would need a "please confirm" dialogue box...

 

For regular note entries, whenever you close a note, the information is "automatically" saved. Also, pretty much like the Ctrl-Z function we have elsewhere, before you close up a document/ note, you should also have some sort of function to roll back changes recently made (even if it is "shake to undo" on iOS). Here, exiting a note in whatever form, should save the note. If, however, you've just created a note, you will need to (on mobile) hit a save button just the first time 'round. The only other option if you wanted to exit a note for the first time would be to hit "Cancel". Thereafter, any time you exit a note, you are knowingly saving whatever changes were made - i.e. you cannot revert to any former state of a note without accessing note history, and remember, as BnF pointed out, Evernote only saves a new version of your note to be accessed through "note history" more or less every 8 hours, which also depends on your Android syncing to the cloud.

 

In this sense, I'm not sure why you would need to confirm "irrevocable changes" - usually, we selectively delete/ edit information in any note before exiting it. You can roll back changes one way or another before you exit a note. If you imagine yourself exiting a Word document, unless it were on auto save, you would have to save a document before exiting (in that case, a dialogue box would come up if you tried to exit without saving). Once saved, and exited, it's pretty much like exiting an Evernote note. How would you then be able to open up the same Word document and revert to previous changes (**notwithstanding the "save as" option in Word - See note below)? Unless you're wanting Evernote to always ask you for confirmation each time you're exiting any note you've made changes to. That may be a valid feature request, and may be a good option to have in settings, but most people would not want it as an extra step in order to move to another note (even when changes have been made). Evernote is set up so that you can seamlessly move from one note to another in a number of scenarios - including in presentation mode after having made any changes, following a note link, hitting the back and forward navigation arrows, etc. There would be a lot of frustrated users if a confirmation dialogue box had to appear when moving between notes and making changes. Evernote does ask for a confirmation when making other significant changes, such as emptying your trash or deleting a notebook, etc.

 

Note history is a totally independent process. Nothing to do with changes made to a note before closing a note down. Well - yes and no. Yes, because a new version for the note history records will only be created if there were actual changes to any note, on a cyclic basis. No, in that one would never think of resorting to note history, unless you might want to access information in a note from a previous day, where one had inadvertently deleted important information within that note today.

 

Also, keep in mind that a note's information is never really "safe" until it has been synced to Evernote's servers... or until a note has been initially saved locally on your device, by  exiting the note for the changes to be saved "automatically". I say this, because if your app on your android device crashes before you have saved or exited a note, that information will be lost. So your information is never really "auto-saved" on your mobile device until you consciously save a note for the first time or else exit it.

 

As to the note history only being accessible on the Desktop app, you will find many other significant features there that are not accessible elsewhere. The desktop client is considered to be more robust by far in terms of capabilities. So the possibility is there for premium users to access previous versions of a note, and Evernote has determined that it be on desktop, since the overwhelming majority of Evernote users also use the desktop client at some point. You might just warm to using the desktop client, at least on occasion. In fact, the more you use Evernote, you're going to thank your lucky stars that a desktop app exists. Also, in the same light, if you're limiting your use of Evernote to Android, I imagine you do not use the Evernote Web clipper in your desktop browser. Web clipping through the browser extension, for many people, is a huge part of Evernote's worth/ appeal.

 

** As a side note, some people are used to using the "Save as" feature when working with a Word document. That way you can still revert back to the original document if you chose. You can create a duplicate note on your device for any note that you want to work on and may want to "revert back to" later. You should do that right at the beginning, because although changes to any note are not synced until you exit it, if you were to create a duplicate note as an afterthought, upon doing so, the original note automatically closes and you shift to the copy, which is identical to the last state, including updates, of the original note. So that could be your own "fail-safe" in lieu of exiting a note while forgetting that the note will for all intents and purposes be saved upon exit. 

[Wordsgood 526]

Okay, it's probably 'cause I'm tired and maybe missed something in your post, Frank, but as far as I know Save is not the same as Sync. Save is useful when working on a long note, or when taking more than a minute or two to work on a note so it doesn't get messed up in the event of power failure or some other issue, but you must Sync to ensure it's on the Evernote Servers.

Mivan be aware that if you cancel your Premium status, Note History will no longer be available to you, nor will Tech Support.

When did you submit your Support Ticket. It's well known on the forum that many people are not recieving a response in the advertised 24 hours for Premium members. I can only assume they are working to rectify that.

But you also have to remember that if you sent submitted your ticket on the weekend or late Friday, that they only respond during business hours, which for EN is Monday to Friday, Pacific Standard time.

If you haven't yet cancelled your Premium status and still want to speak with Support, then I suggest you do two things:

1) Post your Support Ticket number here, with details of what client(s) you're using - Windows Desktop, Windows Touch, Mac, Android, etc. - and state exactly what happened, when it happened, and what, if anything you've done to try resolving issue yourself. And...

2) Try support again on Tuesday during business hours and this time pick the Live Chat Option.

Good luck!

[Frank.dg 1,385]

...but as far as I know Save is not the same as Sync. Save is useful when working on a long note, or when taking more than a minute or two to work on a note so it doesn't get messed up in the event of power failure or some other issue, but you must Sync to ensure it's on the Evernote Servers.

 

 

I'm with you on that one Wordsgood. Perhaps is might have been a little ambiguous when I mentioned in the mix that [...Also, keep in mind that a note's information is never really "safe" until it has been synced to Evernote's servers... or until a note has been initially saved locally on your device, by  exiting the note for the changes to be saved "automatically".] 

I was more getting at the unfortunate occurrence of  losing information when either the app crashes before one exits the app... added to the fact that any un-synced data would most likely be lost if one had to install an update, as has happened to many people recently. I know this can be confusing. I talked about "safe" and "saved" in the same sentence. They are both different issues, but in a general sense I was trying to get at preventing data loss in general. 

[Mivan 0]

Frank/Wordsgood - I am very impressed by the speed and clarity of your excellent responses - thank you both!

 

First point on the subscription and timing of tech support - the initial ticket received confirmation details:

 

From: support-webform@evernote.com [mailto:support-webform@evernote.com]
Sent: 25 November 2014 22:33
To: xxxxxx
Subject: Ticket# 839057 - Recover data

 

So you can see it is almost exactly a week since the ticket was raised and so far, no reply - you would have to agree that really isn't good enough. However, the speed of the support from the Forum has been outstanding - but I can get that for free!

 

I'm still willing to perserver with EN but I do believe there is a need to harmonise the user experience and features on the desktop app with other user portable platforms such as mobiles & tablets.

 

To explain my 'loss of data' - I inadvertently overwrote my lengthy entry by applying the 'tick-box' icon which I (not unreasonably) assumed was the spell checker as the tick symbol is universally adopted in just about all desktop apps as a spell checker. This was on an Android powered tablet. So instead of checking spelling, it wiped out my text leaving me with a useless tick box and no means to undelete (no ctrl-z) and no button to offer this either. Worse still, I had no obvious user button to revert to the original text and then the system 'saved' the changes without me making an affirmative action. Again, most apps offer a hover hint to reveal what the icon does - unhelpfully EN doesn't do that (although, granted the bullets and paperclip are familiar).

 

Sure, this wouldn't be a problem for an experienced power user, but for a newbie it is enough to frighten them off the app forever (and I'm no IT Troglodite).

 

I would like to strongly recommend the following feature enhancements please:

 

1. Keep the same user interface/experience on the desktop and tablet/mobile apps

2. Employ a 'save' or equivalent button/icon to allow the user to affirmately confirm the changes/deletions are actually wanted

3. Icons to provide a hover-reveal text to help newbies identify what it is they are clicking

4. Offer an intuitive 'undo' feature via a button - not hidden under an (i) info button which is non standard and unfamiliar in the desktop world

 

I know EN are trying to pioneer and promote a new experience, but smart software design should encourage simplicity and familiarity with common apps.  Very few people like Microsoft, but no organisation will abandon it for that very reason - just about everyone on the planet has invested so much in being familiar with a common user experience and desktop layout - no matter what the application is.

 

I hope the suggestions above coming from a fresh pair of bloodshot eyes are received in the constructive spirit intended.

 

 

[Frank.dg 1,385]

Hi Mivan,

 

I can't speak for Android, but, for example, the iPad has an "undo" button at the top of the keyboard. The iPhone doesn't. Instead, once upon a time, I learned that the only way to undo changes in a note on iPhone was to "shake to undo". I occasionally have to do that still. That's an iPhone peculiarity. I'm not sure what features Android offers, but there must be a way to undo on your Evernote Android client. I'm sure there must be. Even if it is not apparently intuitive. Perhaps connected to your Android's feature set.

 

I perfectly understand the frustration at having to sign up for a premium account as a very roundabout way of salvaging your lost information. I also understand exactly what lead up to the information being overwritten with a check box. Very stressful. However, I just wanted to point out one little thing about the "Note History" feature. It is not intended to, nor does it function as an "undo" feature as such. Let's say you just wrote a lengthy note on your app... you do exactly what you did a second time and lose/ overwrite the content of your note... the "Note History" feature will not necessarily help you retrieve that information again - unless Evernote happened to save a copy/version at the opportune time. All we know is that:

 

"Several times each day, Evernote makes a copy of any notes in your account that have changed since the last time the system checked."

 

In other words you may not have had significant portions of your work saved, depending on when the copy was made. I don't know if that makes sense. But the thing is that this is a far cry from being able to backtrack step by step with an "undo" feature.

 

Any number of slips could happen with data, unintentionally deleting info - especially tapping small icons on a small screen. It's just a matter of time before something similar happens - and one may not be able to count on a previous version of a note accessed under Note History, especially if Evernote saves new copies hours apart. My advice would be to get some advice here in the forums on how to "undo" on your Android. 

[Wordsgood 526]

I definitely agree, you've waited too long for a response. I do know, having spoken with an EN staffer today that Support is swamped and was assured they are doing their level best to get back on track.

Us Android users also have the ability to Undo and Redo the last action taken. I realize it won't help you this time, but for future reference, when you have a note open, look at the lower left side of your screen. There you should see two circular arrows. One is Redo and the other is Undo. I have found them, along with the Save button (remember, it's NOT Sync) to be quite handy!

I'm afraid I don't have much else to offer, but now that you have posted your ticket number and the details, I expect you will likely hear from someone from EN tomorrow. (Though I fear your note may well be toast at this point.)

Good luck!

[T-Tyme702 0]

On 11/29/2014 at 2:14 AM, Frank.dg said:

The Note History feature is available on the desktop client. You need to click on the "i" (information) icon at the header of a note. The option should be there - if there are any previous versions to recover at all.