Performance issue - Evernote has become laggy on all platforms

[WDJ 0]

I use Evernote Basic on a couple of Android devices and I access it from a few Windows 7 PC's. Virtually everything i keep on EN is text, with only a little bit of formatting in a few notes. I have a picture or two and one or two handwritten notes. My account only uses 725KB out of 60MB.

Over the past week or so, i've noticed a significant loss in performance - especially on Android but on Windows as well. It's to the point where EN is virtually un-useable on my older Android phone. Anything i do to select or edit text has like a 1 second lag.

Has there been a recent update that might cause this? How might i go about troubleshooting:?

[gazumped 11,652]

Hi.  I run Android and Windows with getting on for 25,000 notes and quite a large database,  but haven't ever had major lag issues.  The only thing I can think might affect both PCs and mobile devices could be your local network connection - what sorts of connection speed do you get?  Are you behind a business firewall?  Does your Android use a wifi connection?  Is there a good signal?

On the mobile device(s) I'd suggest uninstalling and reinstalling Evernote and accessing the Activity Log to see if you can find anything that stands out - same with your desktops.  Are they all connected to the same account?  How many devices do you have logged in and active at the same time?

[eafpres 111]

I run on Windows 10, iPhone 4S, and iPad mini (WiFi / 4G).  On Windows I have a long-standing issue that I get "Not Responding" all the time. Sometimes it is a total crash; have sent several log files over to EN to look at.  I did a complete wipe of my local database and re-synced from the web; that seemed to help for maybe a day, then the same issues.  Honestly I'm not sure it was better, could be me wishing it was.  Had a complete crash this week; sent the log for that.  Tech support has asked me to repair my dB; there is a process for that but I have not had time to try it.  

Otherwise, I don't see lag issues.

When you are on Windows, what do you see when you say it is lagging? I'm not sure what the equivalent of "Not Responding" is in Windows 7.

[Matt Temple 1]

I used to have a lot of slowness and lag in the Mac app when I had a lot of work-related notes (over 10,000) that contained PDF and Word document attachments, however, I had no issues on the Android or iPad apps.

Additionally after leaving my old company and deleting a lot of the notes related to that job I no long have any issues with the speed of the desktop app. I do have a much smaller database now of less than 1,000 notes and very few have attachments.

I have just got myself a Scansnap to start saving my receipts so we will see what happens when my database starts to grow again.

[eafpres 111]

3 hours ago, Matt Temple said:

I used to have a lot of slowness and lag in the Mac app when I had a lot of work-related notes (over 10,000) that contained PDF and Word document attachments, however, I had no issues on the Android or iPad apps.

Additionally after leaving my old company and deleting a lot of the notes related to that job I no long have any issues with the speed of the desktop app. I do have a much smaller database now of less than 1,000 notes and very few have attachments.

I have just got myself a Scansnap to start saving my receipts so we will see what happens when my database starts to grow again.

Thanks, Matt.  I have a modest number of pdf and other attachments.  My dB is about 7700 notes in all, and perhaps 1/3 have PDFs or some other file attached.  That may be the underlying cause of my issues.

[WDJ 0]

Thanks for the input, folks..

99% of my use is across my Win 7 work laptop, a samsung android phone and a samsung android tablet. Virtually all of my notes are text only, with a little bit of formatting (highlight or strikethru).

I don't think that my issues are related to connectivity or multiple devices. Syncing speed varies of course, but it's generally fine and i rarely get errors. My biggest issue occurs when simply editing notes.

It brings my phone to its knees. My tablet is a little better, but barely usable. My work laptop is pretty beefy but still laggy and i've had three 'Not responding' crashes this morning while simply trying to copy/paste stuff around in a text only note with no formatting.

[Matt Temple 1]

1 minute ago, WDJ said:

Thanks for the input, folks..

99% of my use is across my Win 7 work laptop, a samsung android phone and a samsung android tablet. Virtually all of my notes are text only, with a little bit of formatting (highlight or strikethru).

I don't think that my issues are related to connectivity or multiple devices. Syncing speed varies of course, but it's generally fine and i rarely get errors. My biggest issue occurs when simply editing notes.

It brings my phone to its knees. My tablet is a little better, but barely usable. My work laptop is pretty beefy but still laggy and i've had three 'Not responding' crashes this morning while simply trying to copy/paste stuff around in a text only note with no formatting.

Back when I was forced to use a Windows laptop for work I had, all the same, issues with lag in typing and copying for simple text notes. It drove me insane when sat with a client and I couldn't keep up with note taking for the meeting. In the end, I would take notes in Word and then copy them over to Evernote when back at my Mac. 

I never did find a solution to this although the new web version of Evernote is a lot better and might be worth a try if it is only for text based notes.

[Caesar 2]

Honestly i guess most problems are cause by hard disk. I guess SSD disk might provide better performance not only to Evernote, but also to other apps.

[s2sailor 2,183]

6 hours ago, Caesar said:

Honestly i guess most problems are cause by hard disk. I guess SSD disk might provide better performance not only to Evernote, but also to other apps.

I made the switch to an SSD a couple years ago and overall system performance and Evernote (Windows) response improvement was dramatic.  System boot time was also considerably improved and all apps basically respond instantaneously now.  Very little slow downs anywhere.  A very worthwhile upgrade for me.

[CalS 5,280]

7 hours ago, Caesar said:

Honestly i guess most problems are cause by hard disk. I guess SSD disk might provide better performance not only to Evernote, but also to other apps.

Ditto to @s2sailor.  After installing SSD EN is virtually instantaneous.  Until technology changes I won't get another PC without an SSD.

[Brian Willy 0]

Annoying performance on Mac and iPhone. I have less than 1000 notes. Most containing less than 100 lines each. I have a brand new (2017) MBP w/ 16GB RAM. iPhone is 6. On Mac when switching between notes, I get the wait-spinner/beachball quite often. And on the iPhone I have to wait sometimes 5 seconds or more for the cursor to appear. My largest note is 4.5MB and 100k lines. I thought the largest note might be the issue, since I use it as my primary note. So I extracted 5% of it into its own note which is now my primary. Yet I still experience the same wait/lag. Thinking that it is some bad code in Evernote from a recent release. Thoughts?

[gazumped 11,652]

10 hours ago, Brian Willy said:

My largest note is 4.5MB and 100k lines

Is that a typo or do you really have 100,000 lines in one note?  The size suggests it might be true...  Performance issues aside I'd really suggest you embrace shorter notes - they're easier to find stuff in,  occupy less screen space and can be grouped together with tags or ToC notes,  or put into their own notebook for clarity and printing...

In general the app isn't a super-slow performer - large notes may be a factor.  You could consider exporting the 4.5MB note to ENEX and deleting that note to test. (Beware that will change the created date unless you keep a record and and edit the note back to the original date;  it will also affect note links and any history for that note.)

If performance is still an issue it is possible to uninstall and reinstall the app,  recreate the search index,  or delete and rebuild the database to improve matters...