[UPDATE] This blog post was updated on March 19 to reflect that the new decommissioning date for legacy versions of the Evernote app is now March 26, 2024.
The situation discussed in this post impacts only the 1% of Evernote users who are still running legacy software on macOS, Windows, and Android.
If you’re not sure whether you’re currently using a legacy version of the app, you can check in just a few seconds by following this short guide. If the version currently installed begins with the number 9 or below, it’s a legacy version and what follows applies to you.
On March 26, 2024, we’ll be saying goodbye to the Evernote’s legacy apps. On that date, all versions of Evernote released prior to v10 on macOS, Windows, and Android will stop working. The iOS version has already been decommissioned.
To continue using your Evernote account after March 26, 2024, you'll need to install the latest version of Evernote (v10).
We strongly encourage you to update well before the cutoff date. If you don’t update in time, your legacy app will stop working, and you won’t be able to log in again until you install v10 or use Evernote Web. To update to the latest version of Evernote, go to the relevant app store or evernote.com/download.
Why are legacy versions being decommissioned?
First and foremost, legacy versions of the app present a security risk to Evernote as a whole.
As they stopped being maintained when Evernote v10 was introduced in 2020, legacy apps are several years behind on crucial vulnerability fixes and the current best practices for data protection and abuse prevention. Furthermore, many legacy apps use older APIs that can be exploited for nefarious purposes—these are a liability for the entire product. Fortunately, we can eliminate this security vulnerability when all the legacy versions have been decommissioned. Therefore, to ensure Evernote is as safe and secure for everyone as possible, we must make sure that the small segment of the customer base still running a legacy version of Evernote updates to a recent version.
Secondly, decommissioning legacy versions of the app means we can remove the large parts of the backend code base that power them. This will make it far easier to introduce improvements, as we’ll no longer need to ensure backward compatibility with legacy versions. By unifying Evernote under v10, we can free up valuable resources for other tasks that have a direct, positive impact on the current version of Evernote—and, as such, on all Evernote users.
v10 is getting better and better
Evernote v10 has come a long way since it was launched in 2020. In the past year alone, we introduced a new note format and instant sync process, greatly increased reliability and security, and invested significantly in developing the product’s backend infrastructure.
Today, v10’s performance and functionality greatly outpace those of the legacy apps, and the progress is only accelerating. We’re releasing updates every week to deliver improvements faster than ever, and we recently introduced a beautiful new user interface—now available to all Desktop and Web users in version 10.73 and higher.
Going forward, we have ambitious plans for new features and backend improvements that will make the Evernote experience smoother and more powerful than ever.
❗How to prepare for legacy decommissioning
As you prepare to update your legacy Evernote app to v10, please consider the following to ensure a seamless transition:
- Check your notes are synced. Make sure that any notes you created or edited while offline have synced correctly.
- Upsync your local notes. Evernote v10 does not support local notes. When you first open v10, you’ll be prompted to upload your local notebooks to the Cloud via the Convert local notebooks tool. However, we strongly encourage you to upsync your local notes before updating to the latest version.
- Back up your notes. Consider backing up all your notes as ENEX files before updating. As a best practice, we recommend exporting notes on a per notebook basis: it’s faster than going note-by-note, yet ensures that you can easily re-upload any content back into Evernote without exceeding the monthly upload limits (which might happen if you used a bulk exporter plug-in to export one massive file).
- Expect a slower experience the first time you open a note in v10. Legacy versions of Evernote use a different note format than v10. As such, each note must be converted to the new format. This action takes place when the note is opened for the first time in v10 and can last a couple of seconds. Going forward, it’ll load and update at lightning speed.
- Don’t wait until the last minute. The update process should be quick and easy, but in the unlikely event that you do experience any difficulties, it’s important to make sure there’s time to address them. After March 26, there will be no way to access the legacy apps, so you’re strongly encouraged to avoid waiting till the last minute.
We’re excited to close this chapter in Evernote’s story so that we can focus all our attention on the future. For those who will be impacted, we greatly appreciate your cooperation and wholeheartedly believe you’ll come to love v10 as much as we do. 💚