Cannot searched scanned pdf's

[Gaesbeek 0]

Dear all,

 

I am experiencing a problem with scanned pdf's added to Evernote. I use my evernote account both on a Mac and a Windows machine. While I can search my scanned pdf's on my Mac (so the OCR worked), I cannot on my windows. When I click 'info' in my note, I see that the attachment was not indexed. Not a single scanned pdf can be searched, although my pdf's meet the conditions to be indexed.

I tried to reinstall Evernote, but still the search function does not work.

 

Any tips or suggestions?

 

 

Thank you very much in advance!

 

PS. I am a Premium user.

[gazumped 11,652]

Hi.  Although Evernote will OCR and index PDFs for you,  it's better to do that yourself,  if and where you can,  before attaching a PDF to a note.  At the very least the content can be added to Evernote's index without any delay,  and if there are any problems you know about them in advance.

 

If you don't have too many notes you could try forcing Evernote to recreate your Windows index.  In all cases complete a full sync,  File > Exit Evernote and copy your existing databases folder (Evernote > Tools > Options > General for the location) to your desktop for safekeeping.

 

Level 1

Ctrl-click Evernote help for an extended menu including "Recreate Full Text Search Index"

Make coffee (or beverage of choice) - could be a while.

 

If that doesn't work,  go to Level 2

Exit Evernote again,  rename the databases folder to "Databases.old" and restart Evernote.

You'll get the database folder being recreated from the server - again,  could take a while.

 

Beware that if you have any local notebooks you'll need to export them to ENEX files before the rebuild.

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

While I can search my scanned pdf's on my Mac (so the OCR worked), I cannot on my windows. When I click 'info' in my note, I see that the attachment was not indexed. Not a single scanned pdf can be searched, although my pdf's meet the conditions to be indexed.

I tried to reinstall Evernote, but still the search function does not work.

 

PS. I am a Premium user.

 

Obviously you should be able to search the OCR'd PDF on both EN Mac and EN Win.

The indexing info in the EN Info panel does not seem to be reliable.  This has been reported by a number of other users.

There have also been numerous reports about searching issues with PDFs.

But there has not been any clear reason identified, nor a specific fix other than the usual uninstall/reinstall, which does not always work.

 

Since you are a Premium user, you are entitled to EN Support by both email and chat.  Chat is usually the quickest way to get things started and talk (chat) with a live person.

 

See Evernote Chat Support., available business days 7am-7pm US CST. 

(Chat option appears AFTER you click “Continue” on initial “Evernote Support” page.)

[Gaesbeek 0]

Thank you for your quick reactions (and sorry for my strange writing mistake in the title!).

 

I have tried gazumped's suggestions, and I have done a reinstall, yet searching still doesn't work. I will contact support.

 

As for OCR-ing myself: what is the best way to do this, apart from buying expensive scanners?

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

As for OCR-ing myself: what is the best way to do this, apart from buying expensive scanners?

 

There are a number of OCR apps (for Windows and Mac) that will process the scanned image from your current scanner.

I'd suggest that you do a google search on "ocr app reviews" and review the reviews. 

Once you have narrowed down your candidate selection, you can go to sites like Amazon.com to see user reviews.

 

I use Adobe Acrobat XI Pro to OCR all my docs, but it is expensive, and I use it for a variety of other tasks.