This may be of interest:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi there,

Thank you for contacting Evernote Support. My name is ..., and I am more than happy to help you.

I understand that you can no longer create new notes in any way. I'm so sorry to hear that.

It is possible that you've already reached the system limit of 100,000 notes. Please know that there is an Evernote system limit that the maximum number of notes in an individual account is 100,000. Please try deleting more notes and make sure to also delete them from the trash.

To learn more about the Evernote system limits, please visit this article - Evernote system limits.
https://help.evernote.com/hc/en-us/articles/209005247

I hope this clears things up. If you have any other concerns, please let me know.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


And there you have it folks.

Cheers,
Alexander

Congratulations! Sounds like a major milestone! :-)

So to create a new memory, you need to choose one to forget.

One in, one out...

I'm impressed that you stuck with them this long!

Dr Andus wrote:

So to create a new memory, you need to choose one to forget.

Well put; and items in the Trash count as much as regular items, so one needs to 'forget' them with no hope of recovery.

I'm impressed that you stuck with them this long!

My oldest notes are from September 2009. It was after I reached several thousand notes that the repository actually became useful, in the sense of bringing up information I didn't remember I had.

I don't think moving 100,000 rich notes to another system soon is realistic, but I do have a kind of workaround so as to be able to keep the current system until I have found a suitable alternative. And I'd be happy to stay with Evernote if their system limits eventually expand.

At least now I know what was wrong, and it was what I suspected. But I find this 'hard wired' limit of 100,000 notes rather surprising given the company's (initial) ambition to become the Memex. It's like electric car manufacturers ignoring the range of autonomy as a factor and not trying to increase it.

Well, that is unexpected – and somewhat mind-boggling!

I'm glad I cancelled my Evernote sub last year... (all imported into UpNote, in my case)

For those still unaware of UpNote, it's an excellent alternative to Evernote, not least because it's totally cross-platform (Windows, Mac, Android, iOS – yes, and Linux).

Cheers,
Bill

Downloadable trial versions also available: https://getupnote.com

No, I don't get a commission for this ;-)

I like UpNote quite a bit, but the absence of a Web version is problematic for those who can't install apps on their work computers. For me, that's the continuing appeal of Evernote.

MadaboutDana wrote:

For those still unaware of UpNote, it's an excellent alternative to
Evernote, not least because it's totally cross-platform (Windows, Mac,
Android, iOS – yes, and Linux).

Cheers,
Bill

Interesting. I can see why they may have had such a limit in the early years, but to continue to keep that limit seems self defeating. My oldest Evernote note dates from April 30, 2008. I imported a long, combined journal entry recounting a car trip in the American southwest in 2003. However, I only have 416 notes total. Most of them are receipts or old registrations. I never warmed up to Evernote's shifting interface (different on my MacBook, Windows PC and Browser -- although I think they eventually did bring them into much closer alignment).

Hitting 100,000 notes is very remarkable, Alexander. Kudos are in order!

Steve

Hi Alexander - I am trying to recall if I was ever aware of a note limit for Evernote. I don't think I was. I wonder why EN has a note limit.

And having a limit, why would EN not warn users say, at the 90,000 note mark and at subsequent intervals, that they were approaching it.

Daly

Alexander Deliyannis wrote:

This may be of interest:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi there,

Thank you for contacting Evernote Support. My name is ..., and I am more
than happy to help you.

I understand that you can no longer create new notes in any way. I'm so
sorry to hear that.

It is possible that you've already reached the system limit of 100,000
notes. Please know that there is an Evernote system limit that the
maximum number of notes in an individual account is 100,000. Please try
deleting more notes and make sure to also delete them from the trash.

To learn more about the Evernote system limits, please visit this
article - Evernote system limits.
https://help.evernote.com/hc/en-us/articles/209005247

I hope this clears things up. If you have any other concerns, please let
me know.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


And there you have it folks.

Cheers,
Alexander

Is it just my tin ear, or does that reply from Evernote sound like AI?

I don't remember whether there was ever such a limit in the early days. Certainly wasn't when everything was local. But equally don't remember it being brought in - not that I have been keeping in touch with Evernote user groups for many years. But they were always very hot about limiting traffic.

I'd expect that since they have lost new users, and many old users, they have been left with a large number of users who have a considerable number of notes on the system by now. I'm still there with a, now, free account. I don't use it, but there's nothing worth deleting.

I can remember thinking a few years ago, "What happened to all the note apps? They've all died (TreeDBnotes, Rightnote etc), not extinct maybe but not vigorously expanding either; and Evernote was in that number as the fallen Mighty. All changed now of course. New big thing. Again.

It looks like there's no actual source except "a friend", but apparently Evernote has another round of layoffs?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36609641

Might be good timing to investigate alternatives.

It might. But this kind of sterilised corporate Newspeak boilerplate replies have been the standard in many an IT helpdesk for as lond as I can remember. I expect AI tools will use these as reference, reproducing the same result (including the frustration on the customer's side).

Amontillado wrote:

Is it just my tin ear, or does that reply from Evernote sound like AI?

Thanks for the tips on UpNote. Being the CRIMPer I am, I already have it installed of course, but have only marginally used it in specific types of notes. I'll give it an EN notebook to chew on; let's see how it scales.

MadaboutDana wrote: For those still unaware of UpNote, it's an excellent alternative to

Evernote, not least because it's totally cross-platform (Windows, Mac,
Android, iOS – yes, and Linux).

Stephen Zeoli wrote:

Interesting. I can see why they may have had such a limit in the early
years, but to continue to keep that limit seems self defeating.

Quite so. I can only think that it is deeply embeded in their infrastructure since the time the product was squarely aimed at the personal information management market. The relatively recent Team version can reach 500,000 notes, but this number is for all users together, so I find it even more limiting. And, no, I am not going to fork out 16+ EUR a month to have 500,000 notes.

Hitting 100,000 notes is very remarkable, Alexander. Kudos are in order!

Thanks. Actually, most are from the last few years, since I started systemically following several news sources. I quickly go through the news items and simply forward anything interesting to EN. Then, whenever I am working on a topic and remember that "I've seen something on that somehere" (or even if I don't) I'll do a quiick search in EN; 8 out of 10, I will find the relevant stuff very soon.

As noted earlier, the system became really useful once it scaled.

Alexander Deliyannis wrote:

I quickly go through the
news items and simply forward anything interesting to EN. Then, whenever
I am working on a topic and remember that "I've seen something on that
somehere" (or even if I don't) I'll do a quiick search in EN; 8 out of
10, I will find the relevant stuff very soon.

As noted earlier, the system became really useful once it scaled.

That's where DEVONthink Pro really shines, more so than Evernote, I suspect. It not only has strong and flexible search/filtering, it does semantic and associative processing, uses fuzzy logic in searches, and can create automatic cross-references. By default, search results are ranked by relevance, and each item has a col- ored bar that graphically indicates its score. Any occurrences of your search term are bolded in the results list and highlighted in the docu- ments themselves. It has smart searches which are saveable for reuse with a click. You can search documents or an entire database by concordance too. Really powerful. (Too much for my needs, which is why I didn't upgrade to the current v.3x when it came out a couple of years ago, instead switching to a similar, less full-featured shoebox-style app.)

DEVONthink Pro doesn't have a web version so you'd be using local or your own cloud storage (and only be able to access, add and edit in macOS or iOS).

The Server edition of Devonthink Pro has a web interface - for a price

Thanks; DevonThink is indeed one of the programmes I would like to be able to use. Still, I will not be switching to the Apple ecosystem anytime soon.

Update:

It seems that the maximum number of notes for Evernote Personal (the cheapest paid plan) has now been pushed from 100,000 to 150,000:
https://evernote.com/compare-plans

This should keep me going for a couple of years more...

Plus, some news:
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/15/24242764/evernote-future-productivity-app-vergecast


Alexander Deliyannis wrote:

It is possible that you've already reached the system limit of 100,000
notes. Please know that there is an Evernote system limit that the
maximum number of notes in an individual account is 100,000. Please try
deleting more notes and make sure to also delete them from the trash.