Although this is my first official review of Evernote, it is not my first experience with it. Over the summer I used it for one class. It didn’t go well.

I liked the format, the Elephant logo, and the organization of notes. On that one fateful day, however, I almost gave up on Evernote for good.

Evernote Take One

I was typing notes in class, paused to listen to a classmates question and my iPad fell asleep. This is completely understandable, as the question was superficial and stupid. Had I not been sitting in the front, in the clear chalk-throwing-radius of my vengeful professor, I would have fallen asleep too.

Now, when my attention snapped back to the task at hand, I gently prodded my iPad to wake up. Wake up it did, but it also forgot everything I had told it. All the notes I had taken for the class were gone, destroyed, and untraceable. Evernote crashed upon being woken up and I lost everything.

I was crushed and wrote a scathing review in the app store. That outburst of frustration did nothing to bring my notes back from the grave.

Fast forward to last week when I saw that Evernote is still very popular in the App Store. I was still looking for a note taking app, and thought I would give it another try in the name of sportsmanship. I figured, if it still failed me then I could write a justifiably angry article and perhaps get some changes made.

What I didn’t count on, was what happened next.

Evernote Take Two

I was typing my notes in a new class with a new, less intense, professor, and in an effort to test the limits, waited until my iPad fell asleep. I held my breath as I woke my iPad up.

Nothing.

Nothing, as in nothing was missing!! All my notes were still on the page, Evernote did not crash. I was saved!! My one problem with the app had been fixed!! The Gods of App developers must have answered my prayers!!

I grinned unapologetically around the room, although no one knew of my personal victory, and typed for the rest of the class in a manner that can only be described as bouncy!

The end of class neared and I confidently hit “Save” on the top right of my screen. This brought me back to the main page of notebooks I had set up for every class. I touched the notebook for Film Studies, the class I had just been in, to confirm my happy results.

Nothing.

Nothing, as in my Film Studies notebook had no notes in it. None. All the ideas and thoughts I had typed up over the length of the three hour seminar were gone.

“How could this happen?” I cursed toward the heavens. I had checked and double checked and triple checked the notes and they had remained intact. They had remained intact throughout all sleeping modes, and all the times I pressed the home button and left the app accidentally.

Why now, when I hit “Save” did they all disappear?! What had I done to deserve to be struck down in this way? I gave Evernote another chance, and it led me on. It led me to believe everything would be okay, and then it stomped on my dreams, much like I imagine an angry elephant would.

Suddenly a thought jumped out at me. I had named the note with the current date, but had I changed the default notebook it saved to?

I hurried into the Sociology notebook, and low and behold, there were my Film Studies notes! I had mislabeled them and nearly given up hope of ever finding a note taking app I liked.

Thank goodness I didn’t let my “once burned, twice shy” fears prevent me from using this app!

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