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No Network? No Problem. Offline Notes on iPhone and iPod.

October 28th, 2008

favorites

The latest release of Evernote for iPhone, version 1.4, introduces our most (MOST) requested feature: offline notes. We call them Favorites, and here’s how they work.

When viewing a note on the iPhone or iPod Touch, you’ll see a little gray star in left corner of the note title. Once the note is fully loaded, tap the star and that note instantly becomes a favorite. It’s now quickly accessible any time, even offline. To view your favorites, click on “Favorites” in the tab bar along the bottom of the application.

Great for the iPod Touch

This feature is particularly useful for iPod Touch users. Now you will be able to view selected notes even when outside WiFi range.

Planes, trains, and automobiles

With Favorites, you can access selected notes any time you like, no matter where you find yourself. So, whether you’re heading to the corner deli or to New Delhi, the information you need is always close at hand.

Tips

Tips

To help you get the most out of Evernote, we’ve added a little “Tips” tab into the bottom of the New Note screen. New tips will show up all the time, so be sure to check back.

And whole lot faster, too

In addition to the server-side tweaks that we mentioned in the last blog post, we also put significant effort into speeding up the application. So this version of Evernote for iPhone is faster than ever.

Make sure your iPhone is upgraded to the latest firmware from Apple and, as always, it’s a good idea to restart your iPhone after upgrading an app, especially if you have a lot of other apps installed.

Get the latest version of Evernote for iPhone now.

93 Responses to “No Network? No Problem. Offline Notes on iPhone and iPod.”

  1. Joe says:

    Hey, great.. but when are you gonna give the rest of the world, which does not use an iphone this ability? Most of us use Windows Mobile, not iphones… Those of us who don’t have internet plans on our phones really want this feature.

  2. BF says:

    this is just perfect!
    Number 1 App on my iPhone.
    Keep up the great work!

  3. nesman89 says:

    how about a little windows mobile love. can’t we get the same features or do I have to whine like the Iphone homers.

  4. ScruffyDan says:

    Offline access to notes are is a great feature, but it would be great to have the option to automatically have offline access to all notes.

    Keep up the good work.

  5. Karsten says:

    Great. This is what I was waiting for. Excellent. For me Evernote for iPhone is now “ready” and nothing (no features) is left to be done.

    You may now turn towards something completely different ;-)

    BTW: Can I switch the “tips” off once I feel I known enough? Didn’t bother to find out myself yet.

  6. Josh says:

    How do I tag all my notes as favorites then? So I can easily take them all with me?

  7. Matthew says:

    Cool! I hope that you find a way to allow text editing on the iphone of documents that have minor formatting. I created a note on the desktop, put a couple things in bold (nothing complicated) and discovered that the note was uneditable on the iphone.

    Also, I’m still missing the ability to clip webpages and articles from the iphone. There is no good workaround to get something from safari to evernote. One easy solution would be to allow users to send text and links to user@evernote.com.

  8. karen says:

    This is great news — thank you.

    (And how fun to see my suggestion included in that recipe tip! That Ward Street Bistro post was a lightbulb moment for me.)

  9. Joshua Karjala says:

    Great!

    One step closer to completing one of the most important feature. Though as others I wish to have the option to save “everything” on my iPhone.

    I don’t want to have to log-on to evernote before leaving the house just to remember to favourite some notes.

    @Mathew – If you go to your settings you will see an e-mail adress that you can use to upload to Evernote. But yes in-app editing would be cool.

  10. Andreas Duess says:

    This is awesome. Evernote went from “hmm, not sure what to do with this” to “can’t live without it” application within weeks.

    As a creative guy I am great believer in scrapbooks to keep a journal of ideas. Once I started thinking about Evernote in these terms I was hooked.

  11. Paul Arterburn says:

    Along with Matthew’s comment above, I agree…being able to edit notes w/ formatting would be a plus.

    Perhaps, a box saying “Continue to edit this note and lose any formatting?”. You could also place any inline images at the very end of the note so you wouldn’t lose them, just have them out of place (ie. lose formatting).

  12. Neema Naficy says:

    Finally! I’ve been waiting for this update almost since the Evernote iPhone app first came out.

    Of course, being someone who always wants more, I’m curious if there will be an update to the Mac application to allow marking notes as favorites? This would be a great way to select which notes you want saved locally on your iPhone, and to possibly do so in bulk. Going further with this idea, it would be nice to be able to select which notebooks one wants to mark as favorite.

  13. William Stewart says:

    I second ScruffyDan, it will be perfect when the iPod Touch can be used as a big fat offline Evernote client. That would be perfect (except for the crappy soft keyboard input).

  14. nesman89 says:

    well I just installed my preview release for windows mobile. I must say I feel like an Iphone user getting special treatment. as for the feedback you asked for here goes.

    good
    1. very nice interface
    2. I love the new interface for accessing my online notes looks good and very functional aesthetically.

    not so good(however I’m sure you are working on this)

    1. unable to edit web notes at all.
    2. cannot delete notes from client.
    3. I would like the ability to resize (make bigger) photos from the client. this would make it easier to read OCR photos from my phone.

    nice job glad to feel some love for windows mobile.

    thanks.

  15. Lars says:

    great stuff, really nice improvements

  16. Chris K says:

    Just another voice seconding the request for some Windows Mobile love…

  17. Tanc says:

    I’m not sure what the Windows Mobile users are upset about: http://www.evernote.com/about/download/#a-mobile

    Isn’t that a Windows Mobile version?

  18. Eric says:

    Wow, another iphone update while Evernote for Windows Mobile is still broken .

    I hate how developers have all jumped onto the iphone bandwagon and abandoned WM users that have helped to pay their bills for over 10 years.

  19. kjk says:

    Nice! Would love to have a preference to make this a default-I want everything available offline!

  20. andrew says:

    GREAT!

    nice to se that you guys are listening to the users :)

    saving for offline is something i really need and I appreciate the work guys!
    Of course having all notes for offline would be great but this is a huge step in the right direction

  21. Adam says:

    How about making all notes available offline by default?

  22. rob says:

    You seem to be concentrating on iPhone a lot, I’m still stuggling along with my windows mobile device and getting more fed up with Evernote

  23. ben says:

    This all sounds great in theory but in my experience so far with 1.4 it only partially downloads my notes so it’s unusable.

    Shame really, could be quite handy. I may try it again when it hits v1.5

  24. Steve says:

    PROBLEM:
    Checking a “to do” item as “done” does not carry over. Either this is an error or a missing feature. I’m going to be using offline viewing for all my errands and “to do” lists and will need to “check off” items as they are completed. If these actions aren’t carried over, I have to remember to repeat each action on my “to do” lists when online.

  25. Steve says:

    Another issue I ran into is the Favorite star button is so close to the Notes button (which returns to the list of notes) that I often press the Notes button and return to the list instead of selecting a note as a favorite. And I have small fingers!!!

  26. codegirl says:

    Thank you! Offline access/editing of notes was something i really missed having. With this update, and the new API, I think i can make Evernote on iPod Touch do just about anything.

  27. cloo says:

    Just another vote for this function for WM too please! We have wifi as well.

  28. Jeremie says:

    Yet another request for Offline access to existing notes for Windows Mobile…
    Missing that functionality is the one thing that is keeping me from daily use of Evernote.
    Thanks for the good product, though, and keep the updates coming :-)

  29. satch says:

    I was about to sleep checking facebook notifications in my iPod touch when I read Evernote update. Jumped to my computer to download it, so excited. This is so awesome. Keep on your good work.

  30. Zellenswager says:

    Come on, EVERNOTE!!! There are a gazillion Blackberry users here waiting for this! Get RIM involved so we can EVERNOTE for BLACKBERRY!!!

  31. Mr. Matt says:

    Whoopty doo… what you really need is EVERNOTE FOR BLACKBERRY!

  32. Aymeric says:

    Please, please, please, we need the same update on the windows mobile version

  33. Chris says:

    Is there a timeframe when this comes to Windows Mobile? It’s nice to support the iPhone, but please support the application with the bigger user base first.

  34. dirk says:

    Would it not be easier to select your favourites from the Evernote app on your Mac or PC? I think most clips are created at the main computer, so it would be easier to select at the point of origination if they should show as a Fav or not.

    Just a future request. Also it is easier to scroll through your clippings on the Mac/PC than it is on the iPhone.

    Thanks

  35. Nubben says:

    Have to agree with “ben” – notes are only partially stored locally when added as Fav. Sent myself a gif image of the London Subway map by e-mail to keep handy and the attachment does not load when viewing the note. This is a great new feature – thanks! – but this release has proven very buggy so far (have had frequent crashes too since upgrading).

    Apart from that, in the beginning I didn’t really understand the purpose of Evernote until I had one of those lightbulb moments mentioned above. Now I use it to collect all my notes and keep an Offline desktop notes library to store heavy PDFs etc as a database.

    Keep up the good work!

  36. morgan says:

    Awesome work on this so expected feature, I will finally be able to use this incredible app.
    It now only miss for me (ipod touch user, sorry windows mobile & blackberry users) the ability to search offline on the mobile device. It’s actually frustrating to now have the notes on the device, but loose a lot of time to drag down to get to the wanted note. With this use the tags are totally useless, what must not be evernote’s policy. But at least congrats on the already hard work done! If by any chance I’m wrong about the offline search, and if the feature actually exists, I would be happy that someone tells me how it works. At the moment I keep on getting the “Error communicating with the Evernote servers” message. Thank you in advance!

  37. Chuck says:

    Why do I have to select EACH note to make it offline? There should be a feature to do MULTIPLE selection for offline notes.

    If I have 50 notes, this will be troublesome.

    Additionally, the new Evernote cannot create tables, etc. like the old version. I had Evernote 2.2 for Windows XP and Windows Mobile and everything transfer correctly and sync the exact notes, be it tables, checkbox, etc. I can even create notes with text formatting on Windows Mobile and it’ll sync back on the desktop version.

    The new Evernote moving to the cloud breaks the BASIC function of note-taking that made the previous version of Evernote famous..

    Another reason why I have not sign up for the pay version….

  38. Charles says:

    I really would love to have all this functionality for the Blackberry!! We are hungry for a response from the company on what the hold up is?
    I love the web version and use it a lot. Thanks for what you do.

  39. jefff says:

    Another request for the blackberry. If you were to do that, it would be the best app for note taking by far.

  40. Steve says:

    I’d recommend a process whereby we can specify “Favorites” from any Evernote tool i.e. A box/star we can check on/off on the web, mobile app and software.

  41. Geert says:

    Great for my iPod Touch but my main device is a Windows Mobile device. As there are more Windows Mobile users than iPhone users, please direct your efforts to that community first or at least treat them as equals.

    Creating notes on Windows Mobile is fine but getting to my notes with the browser is not the way to go. You should extend the application to get to notes in the Evernote mobile app just as on the iPhone.

    Thanks for the soon to be released update :-) and thanks for all the work so far. I really think Evernote is the best!

  42. JellyBeen says:

    This is very convenient, I’m planning on picking up an iPod Touch very soon. I’m definitely looking forward to making use of this app.

  43. gijs says:

    BUG?

    Since this iPhone version, notes consisting of only a jpg only are shown as a thumbnail, but when clicked just show as a large white note….

    (I have many scanned documents, full color, 2400×3500 jpgs)

  44. Roman says:

    I started getting “error communicating with the evernote servers” for every note I’m trying to view.

    3G is enabled and available, I’m able to stream music with simplify and speed tests in safari give me up >600kbit per sec.

    For some reason evernote fetches my note list, but I cant open a single note! – Please help!

  45. Andrew Sinkov says:

    @Roman We’re working on fixing that issue. It seems to be related to non-US mobile carriers. We hope to have it resolved shortly.

  46. Andrew Sinkov says:

    @gijs We performed a server update, which resolves image issues. If you see an image thumbnail, but get a broken image when you open the note, you will need to re-install Evernote on your iPhone/iPod. Remove Evernote and re-install from iTunes.

  47. BrettQ says:

    I find it very frustrating that the iPhone (which I own as a secondary device) is getting update after update while Windows Mobile gets ignored. We use Windows Mobile at my job, and if it had the capabilities of the iPhone client, I could easily talk more people into using it as a notes and collaboration tool. I would not dare recommend a client that forces you to go to the web browser to do everything.

    I really love Evernote, but I’m getting tired waiting for a real Windows Mobile client. My only hope is that you can take what you’ve learned creating the iPhone client and mimic it on Windows Mobile.

    I guess it could be worse…I could be a Blackberry user.

  48. Hugh says:

    Huge Groan!! This FAVORITES feature shows that you don’t even begin to understand what we are wanting when we say we want offline functionality. WE DO NOT WANT TO MARK THINGS AS FAVORITES – WE WANT TO BE ABLE TO JUST CONTINUE WORKING ON ALL OUR NOTES OFFLINE. ALL OUR NOTES. ALL. ALL. ALL. GET IT.

    I find it intensely annoying and irritating that this blog post begins suggesting that Evernote has just implemented the most requested feature. You haven’t at all! If you think that this favorites thing is what we want, you haven’t even begun to understand what is basically a VERY SIMPLE concept: we can do offline what we do online. FAVORITES is NOT, NOT, NOT that.

  49. Jeremy says:

    Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I really appreciate Evernote’s responsiveness. All of the major feature requests I’ve had since I started using Evernote on my iPhone have been addressed. Sure there are still improvements can be made, but Evernote has taken care of all of the big issues.

  50. Barbara says:

    I agree that the this version of offline implementation is barely better than nothing.

    If I could select notes in Windows and mark them as favorites in a big bunch, that would help. But I can only mark them as favorites on the phone,one note at a time!

    But really, the point is that EVERYTHING should be offline, period, and when online access is restored, EVERYTHING should sync. Or make sync manual. Whatever.

    Look at toodledo for the iPhone and do what they did. Simple, clean, works like a charm.

  51. Joe says:

    Great first step toward a full iPhone client!

    This has put Evernote back on my radar for note taking.

    As of version 1.4 the app feels like a quick, slick, downloadable web-interface to Evernote, not a standalone client like on windows or mac. For many users, an offline note taking app that happens to sync with Evernote is much more useful than a web-interface with a native UI and a little bit of caching. The optimum interface, at least for me, would be a completely offline app with access to, editing, searching, tagging, etc. on all my notes. Users with larger note collections than I should be able to have the same, as well as to automatically sync certain notebooks from their evernote account to the device.

    Can’t wait for 1.5! Keep up the good work

  52. nathan colquhoun says:

    need this for the blackberry.

  53. Brian Pirie says:

    It’s great to see that you’re devoted to making this work for us iPod Touch users. I’ve been trying to use it for about a week now.

    The biggest limitation that’s limiting the usefullness of it at this point us that once you edit a note offline, you cannot edit it a second time. What happens is that until it has uploaded your changes to the evernote server, the app on the device still only let’s you loo at the previous version of the note.

  54. James says:

    I also get a bug when using 3G connection on the iphone, that when I try to download some notes, it will come up with a message saying “error communicating with evernote servers” and either only download part of the message or none at all. At first I thought this was just a momentary thing where I may of lost reception, but if I refresh, It wont work! Nothing will work unless I get a wifi connection.

    I am a UK user. Any progress made on this fix?

    Thanks!

  55. Mark McKay says:

    I like that you can add favorites with the latest version, but what would really make this app killer is if you could edit these favorites offline. Like others have said, I want to be able to continue working on my note offline, not just read them.

    Also it would be nice if we could change the color of the screen. I find the yellow of Notes or the black of Text Guru easier on the eyes then the dull grey screen.

    Keep up the good work. Can’t wait to see whats next.

  56. Nancy says:

    Pretty please, Blackberry app! Perhaps in the new upcoming Blackberry download store?

  57. João Coutinho says:

    This is the moust important update you could add to the amazing evernote!

  58. John says:

    I second the need for a feature that allows Favorites to be created en masse, and/or via the web interface, and/or via the Mac app. I’ve got many hundreds of notes, and it’s painful to go through them on the iPhone, one by one. In fact, it’s proving almost impossible, as the app quits spontaneously and randomly before I get even halfway through my collection…

    Still, Favorites is a good feature… just needs some tweaking.

  59. Stan Scott says:

    Thanks for the new features! Evernote is just great on my iPhone, and this makes it even better. Because I use a PC at work, a Mac at home, and an iPhone everywhere, Evernote is just perfect for keeping all of my information close at hand. Keep up the good work!

  60. David Brake says:

    As a Touch user you’ve only begun to the offline problem. As others have said I would like to be able to specify that all notes are to be available offline. I would also like to be able to sync when I connect my iPod cable to my Mac rather than having to use wireless and I would like to be able to search my notes without being online.

    PS A minor point – when I go to edit a favorite which contains no body text I am told “you can’t edit this text on the iPhone because it contains images [etc]…”. Then if I tap anyway I can enter text fine.

  61. Brudnod says:

    I had been using the Treo for some years and the Palm software (that I had used since 1996) was just not keeping up with technology. I upgraded to the iPhone since I use AT&T. Finding Evernote was essential to the transition since no other APP was capable of taking all of my valuable memos from Palm and inputting them to iPhone. Then to find that Evernote is such a robust APP was nothing short of wonderful. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

  62. Oliver Thylmann says:

    am I missing something? I marked notes that only have a pdf attached as favorite and I still have to lead the pdf each time.

  63. David Brake says:

    When you create a new note while offline it should appear in the list of notes and of favorites automatically so you don’t have to look in the “pending” queue each time to make sure you didn’t miss something. Also, you must be able to edit notes in the “pending” queue!

    Roll on software version 1.5…

  64. b says:

    Step in the right direction. For the next update, I suggest an option to have all the notes saved locally on the iphone.

  65. Peter Norman says:

    Offline mode for notes on iPhone is a significant new feature for me. Thank-you!

    The OneNote 2007 Import Wizard in the Windows version of Evernote is also an important feature as it allowed me to migrate all my Windows-based OneNote data to my Mac (using Evernote’s premium service to provide sufficient upload/download limits so I could do the Windows-to-EvernoteServer and then the Evernote-Server-to-Mac sync). That really rocks! Hard!

    Are there plans to incorporate a landscape keyboard mode into Evernote for iPhone for text entry?

    Thanks again!

  66. Gary says:

    Sorry, am I missing something, or are there only certain document formats that will allow off line viewing using “favorites”? I cannot read ANY of my PDF formats off line, and some documents appear fine when viewed on my laptop or iMac, but will not open on mu iPhone…please help to clarify of there are only CERTAIN formats which will permit off-line viewing on the iPhone

    Thanks

  67. Gary says:

    Sorry, those “other” documents I referred to above are PNG and JPG documents that open appear fine on my computer but won’t open on the iPhone even though there is a thumb nail image that does appear.

    Thx

  68. Titch says:

    Even after the update to 1.5 I can still only view my notes as thumbnails on my iPhone. The only exception to this is Web clipped notes. This is such a promising app and the Desktop application is streets ahead of any other note app, but I’m becoming increasingly frustrated that it’s next to useless on my phone. I am sure I must be missing something obvious. HELP

  69. Phil Libin says:

    Titch,

    Looks like a few of our European iPhone users are seeing this problem. It has something to do with the networks there. We’re working on a fix now.

  70. Gary says:

    Based on Titch’s observation above, I used the clipping function in Evernote and the resulting document is available to me via “favorites”in off-line use. This is the only method of document capture that I have found that consistently delivers documents off-line on my domestic 1st generation iPhone.

  71. ACG says:

    Hi,
    The application would be good if when you are off-line you can also use the finder. Now when you go to favorites to see the notes off-line you can not search (by tag, words…) as when you are in the notes tap. Is there any way to do so?
    Thanks,

  72. Titch says:

    A massive thanks to all at Evernote. The latest update seems to have cured all european iPhone problems I’ve been experiencing.
    I love it when a plan comes together!

  73. Jon says:

    would also love to see Evernote on Blackberry. Especially now on my new BB Storm. Wow, would that ever look great! Any possibility of this happening?

  74. haider_up32 says:

    We want evernote for the linux and the symbian

  75. daniel says:

    i want all my notes on my iphone – not just a selection. the main feature of this program to me is, that i can look trough al my notes when searching for something. i mean what use is it to know that you have a note and then go “aaahhhhh, i didn’t flag it as a favorite”

  76. Martine says:

    The “Favorites” solution for offline viewing was working perfectly for me until very recently. Now I can’t see my favorite notes when my iPhone is offline. I think this coincided with my installing the latest version of the Evernote Desktop client for the Mac (1.2.1/41192). My iPhone is running the latest version as well (1.5.1)

    Any idea how I can fix this? Evernote is useless for me if I can’t access my notes when I’m offline.

  77. toby says:

    Blackberry user sadly pass by

  78. Paul says:

    Yep just another shout out to say Evernote would be perfect for me if i could have all my notes offline and sync’d onto my windows mobile device.

    failing that being able to add note on my windows mobile device offline and then sync with my account when i’m back in wifi coverage.

    pleeeeeeese.
    thanks very much for a great app.

  79. ivana says:

    I don’t know if it’s a bug or it was done intentionally, but I discovered that I cannot see starred note when I go offline if I didn’t reopen it (obviously while still online) after checking the star. Maybe my discovery will suit somebody, as relaying on a note you think you have, just to discover that you don’t can be really annoying.

  80. Vickie says:

    It is difficult to write a new note and view it when not connected to the internet. It has to be uploaded then it can be saved as a favorite. If you could please allow pending to be seen.

  81. NickM says:

    Is there a Blackberry client in the works? I love the Evernote program and have this installed on all of my computers and my Ipod Touch

    The mobile page is nice and can be used from the Blackberry, but an actual client would be awesome…

  82. Sherry says:

    I cannot sync between iPhone, Mac and the Evernote website. My Mac and the Evernote website sync just fine, but anything that originates on the iPhone won’t sync with the other two. Help!

  83. snoopbaron says:

    There needs to be a way to make entire notebooks available offline or all notes available offline we want, my iTouch isn’t always online.

  84. Alex says:

    Offline search?

    I’m dealing with the fact that I can’t make multiple notes (or simply a notebook?) offline favorites for whatever reason. But I don’t know whether the servers happen to be congested while I try to access it or a bug, but it seems that almost every time I try to do a search (on an otherwise healthy wifi network or over Edge) it just hangs.

    Evernote’s a big reason why I gave up my Treo 650 for an iPhone, though every day I teeter between upgrading to premium and finding a more useful solution. Can you please make this more useful as an offline application? Thanks.

  85. melaos says:

    Hi there,
    great work so far, and i second that to have this on windows mobile too!!!

    plus can you make it editable like the normal windows version? it would be very convenient if we have that too, and you can just sync it back when we go online. that would truly make the evernote mobile awesome!! :)

    thanks!

  86. Michael says:

    Is it possible to make ALL notes Offline by default within he iPhone app, perhaps via the iPhone Preferences? Or can this be done via the Mac OS X version of Evernote?

    Thanks!

  87. Brian Miller says:

    Great program. You guys have a great thing going. For this feature, please introduce some automatic feature that by default favorites all of my notes. I use this feature everyday on my touch and forget on occasion to favorite notes. Thanks,
    Brian

  88. Abhijeet Pathak says:

    Guys, the Windows Mobile version is useless unless it can store notes offline too… Please add this feature…!!!

  89. Paul Nancarrow says:

    Here’s one more Windows Mobile user begging, *begging* for offline capability for the WM Evernote app. I’ve been trying to use calendar entries and task notes and all sorts of weird things to get notes cross-platform and in the cloud. I thought Evernote would solve that. But without offline note access on my phone, it’s a worse option than my previous kludges.

  90. Daniel Jeon says:

    I need usable Windows Mobile version for offline environment Today, I wanna this~!!

  91. Ashish says:

    Evernote is crashing on update to 1.4.4 version. How can it be fixed? Any help is appreciated.

  92. yo says:

    I want to manage many favorites from desktop application.
    It’s a real hassle to have to tap the star of many notes!

  93. Kai says:

    Another voice for Windows Mobile users, we need the offline notes function! I have been a user of evernote for years & even paid for a license for version 2.2. I just felt that WM users are being treated as second class users that we have to beg a simple implementation that was on Iphone for months! I am really fed up…

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