[Big Update: We were able to get all of these changes into Evernote for iPhone and iPad version 3.3.2, which Apple just approved. This should fix all the high-priority bugs on iPhone and iPad, significantly improve syncing performance and add new a much requested new feature – full screen viewing – to the iPad version. Check for upgrades over the next couple of hours and thanks for your patience!]

While we’re very pleased with the positive reaction to Evernote for iPad over the past week, some people are reporting problems with the latest versions of Evernote on their iPads, iPhones and iPods. These were introduced by the new iPad version, which is a “universal binary,” so the problems affected iPhone and iPod Touch owners, too. We submitted a bugfix release to Apple last week (v3.3.2) that should fix most of the problems. We’re also finishing up development of the next version (v3.3.3), which takes care of the last known outstanding issues, significantly improves sync performance and adds a much-demanded new feature. We hope that 3.3.2 gets through Apple’s approval process in the next day or two, but since pretty much every developer is sending in bugfixes these days, it’s hard to know for sure.

Easy fix

In the meantime, there is an easy fix that solves almost 100% of the problems: Just delete the Evernote app from your device and reinstall it from the AppStore. This will resync all of your notes and clear the problem.

Please note that this resync process may take a little while depending on the number of notes that you have, so we recommend doing this when you’re on a WiFi connection. Also, resynced notes will lose their “Favorite” status. You’ll also lose any notes that have been created on your device but have not yet synced to the service. You can tell how many such notes you have by looking in the “pending synchronization” group in your notes list. Usually, there’ll be either zero or one note there—and that’s the note that’s probably causing problems. We know that deleting-and-reinstalling the app is an inconvenience, but if you can’t wait for the updates to be approved, it will almost certainly solve your problems.

What are the issues

For the technically curious, here are the problems that some users are reporting, as well as when they’ll be fixed:

1. Sync error “u2” — there’s a bug that makes it possible to create a totally empty note (nothing in the note body) on the iPhone and iPad. The app doesn’t know how to sync this note, which causes a sync error. Deleting and reinstalling clears this problem as does finding the offending note and editing it to put some text in the body, or deleting the note. FIXED in Evernote v3.3.2
2. Requires iPhone OS 3.1.3 to run — This isn’t really a bug, but an unintended consequence of building a “universal binary”. Users who haven’t upgraded their devices to OS 3.1.3 cannot run the app. FIXED in Evernote v3.3.2
3. Immediate crash on start — There’s a bug that sometimes puts the client into this state if you quit the app in the middle of editing a note. Deleting and reinstalling clears the problem. FIXED in Evernote v.3.3.3
4. Slow “synchronizing headers” — Some users are reporting that the “synchronizing headers” step takes a very long time, especially on older-generation iPhones and iPod Touches. It will eventually finish if you leave the app running for a few minutes. FIXED in Evernote v3.3.3

Hopefully these bugfixes will be approved by Apple soon. In the meantime, the workaround should solve most problems. We’re sorry for the hassle. Developing for a new platform like the iPad is always tricky at first, but we hope the results are worth it. If you have any other issues, please contact Evernote Support and we’ll be happy to help you.