Evernote Version 10 App or Evernote Legacy App. Which one are you using?

Newsletter housekeeping: A new Evernote version is out. 10.56.9 has been released, grab it from the download page. Don’t forget to check out the latest podcast with Evernote user and professional organiser Lucy Milligan Wahl.

Before we start talking about the old Evernote app just a quick note on the new sync and real-time editing feature that came out last week. You may see some slight delay when opening a note for the first time using the new sync. The note needs to be converted on the Evernote back-end so it will work with the live editing.

Sometimes the delay may be a few seconds and this is something Evernote is working on. They’ve had some issues scaling their servers for high usage which has slowed things down. Once everything works smoothly, the conversion, which only happens once, should take less than a second for most notes.

Onto the main topic.

Did you know there are two different versions of the Evernote desktop app for Mac and Windows?

The new shiny one is called Version 10 and this is the main app that’s being developed.

The other one is the old legacy app which is now pretty much end of life and is not being developed.

I hated the old one! I used Evernote from 2008ish until 2017 and then I left. The old app was starting to look really old, other apps had better and more modern features and my notes looked different of different devices because of the formatting and font mess that was old Evernote.

I came back when version 10 arrived and it was a breath of fresh air. Evernote finally did what I wanted it to. I had paragraph headings!

How to check your version

If you’re running the Version 10 app then you can head up to the help menu right at the top and select About Evernote. You’ll see something like this:

The version number should start with a 10.

Its been a long time since I used the old legacy app so I can’t quite remember how to find the version number but lets just say if the above works then you’re on Version 10 and if it doesn’t you’re on the old app.

What’s the difference?

In my opinion, the new Version 10 app that came out in late Summer 2020 is much better. It’s more modern, text formatting between devices is great, paragraph headers finally appeared and I find it much more pleasant to work with each day.

When version 10 launched it was missing a few features from the old legacy app. Over time a few of these features got built back in but there are still a few that are missing.

Here’s an almost complete list of things that the old legacy app had and version 10 doesn’t:

• Local only notebooks - now all notes are stored in the Evernote cloud. You can’t have them ONLY stored locally on your computer.

• Presentation mode

• Some tag sorting views

• Ability to select unlimited notes and bulk process them

• Use of Apple Script code in Macs

• Access to all the operating system fonts

If you think of anything missing from the list, leave a comment.

I doubt if the local only notebook feature will come back. Presentation mode is probably gone forever as well, I never spoke to anyone who used it. I doubt Apple Script integration will come back and it’s unlikely that we’ll have a selection of many fonts.

I can see a future with better tag sorting at some point and better bulk processing features though.

I think we have to remember that these features were removed because hardly anyone used them. One of the videos the previous Evernote CEO did talked about some features being left out because of very low usage.

Will the old legacy app stop working?

Yes. As far as I know, no date has been set but it will stop working.

Evernote thought about depreciating the legacy app when the real-time editing feature launched but decided against it. This was one reason the new feature took a while to launch, they were trying to make things work with both apps.

The legacy app doesn’t get any updates so operating system updates could break it at any time.

One other thing to remember is that the old legacy app doesn’t have the new version 10 productivity features like:

• Tasks

• Google Calendar integration

• Real time editing

• Home screen dashboard

• Upcoming Ai features

The old legacy app won’t use the new updated Evernote sync, it will use the old one and at some point this will be switched off.

If you still use the old app and have your workflows set around it then you may need to change them. I always recommend revisiting workflows at least once a year because work changes, life changes and software changes. There may be a better way of doing things.

If you’re still on the old legacy app, then download the new one. Install it alongside the old version and try it out. I’d recommend not having both open at the same time as they’re using different sync systems and you don’t want to break your notes.

What version are you using? Let me know in the comments.

Are you going to hold onto the legacy app until it finally dies? Why?

Have a great weekend

All the best

Jon