I recently started using Evernote to store all of the notes I take on a daily basis across plarforms. Evernote allows me to take notes and sync between numerous computers, my T-Mobile Blackberry Curve, and my iPod Touch. One thing that Evernote lacks is a solid method for accessing my notes when I am out of range of an Internet connection. I was pleased to learn that you can actually access your notes offline via IMAP and even though it is not ideal its good enough for now since every other part of Evernote is top notch.
Follow the directions below to view your notes when the iPhone or iPod Touch device you are accessing Evernote with is offline. We will configure an Evernote Offline IMAP account similar to how we would configure a Gmail account on your iDevice.
- Login to iDevice: Unlock your iPhone or iPod touch.
- Settings: Click on the Settings icon on the home screen to launch the Setting configuration.
- Mail, Contact, Calendars: Now you should see “Mail, Contacts, Calendars near the bottom of the initial Settings window. Click on this line to open the Mail, Contacts, Calendars configuration window.
- Add Account: Now under Mail, Contacts, Calendars you will want to touch “Add Account…” to start the configuration of a new IMAP Account.
- Account Settings: The first screen will require you to choose a type of Account so select “Other”. This will take you to the Other configuration window where at the top under Mail you will select Add Mail Account. Now you will be required to fill in four bits of information including Name, Address, Password, and Description. Some examples of what to fill in here include John Doe for Name, john@example.com for Address, type your Evernote password in the password field, and a description like Evernote Offline. Once all four fields have been filled in properly click the Save button in the top right corner.
- More Account Settings: After the initial Account Settings page you will be sent to a second Account Settings configuration page titled New Account. Make sure IMAP is selected and the first three fields will contain information you filled out in step five. Now add www.evernote.com for Host Name and your Evernote user for the User Name field. The Password should also be filled out from the previous screen. You will need to use another mail accounts Outgoing Mail Server settings. I recommend using Gmail’s SMTP settings if you have a Gmail account set up. The Host Name would be smtp.gmail.com combined with your username and password for your Gmail account. Click the Save button to finish configuring the account and then click the Home button on your iDevice to test the new configuration.
**UPDATE**I forgot to initially include the settings that follow so thanks to Pablo in the comments section below for pointing this out. The settings for IMAP over SSL are required for this to work from your iPhone or iPod Touch. Before clicking the Save button in the above step click on the Advanced link to open the screen shown in the image above this update. Scroll down to Incoming Settings and turn SSL on, make sure authentication is set to password, the IMAP Path Prefix should be /, and the Server Port should be 993.
- Verify Evernote iPhone Offline:Now that the account is configured click the Mail icon on your iPhone or Touch desktop to launch the mail application. Select Evernote Offline or whatever you named the account to drill down into the folders. You should be able to see each one of your Notebooks as a different folder in the mail client.
Please note that you cannot edit these notes directly however you can forward them to your Evernote email address and the additions will be added as a new note in your default notebook. Your Evernote email address can be obtained from your Account Settings page on www.evernote.com.
I will be writing a detailed article about setting up T-Mobile Blackberry 8320 Curve Evernote remote access via IMAP access in the near future.
Hi, I tried this but since I have a “premium” account it’s not working. I get this error message when I press save, “Cannot Connect Using SSL, Do you want to try setting up the account without SSL?” If I press “yes”, then I get this error, “IMAP account verification failed, The IMAP server “www.evernote.com” is not responding. Check your network connection and that you entered the correct information in the “Incoming Mail Server” field.
Hello Pablo,
As you noted in your second comment below it is required that you turn SSL on for the incoming connection and specify port 993. When this comment was posted the IMAP over SSL details were not included in the article but thanks to your feedback I have added them to hopefully make this easier on others.
Thanks.
alex
Okay, went to Settings -> Mail, Contacts, Calendars -> Evernote Offline (the imap account I created) -> Advanced -> Advanced -> and where it says, “Incoming Settings”, Use SSL – “ON”….checked the port is 993
I have to verify this will work, if so I’ll post the result tomorrow…
Hello Pablo,
Yikes! I forgot to add the advanced settings for the iPhone. Thank you for taking the time to post these. I am also going to update the article so there is no confusion in the future. The settings you have specified are the correct settings to sync IMAP over SSL with the http://www.evernote.com host. Thanks again!
Thanks.
alex
I was able to get the account setup and can see my notes, but can’t open the PDF inside it. It gives me a blue box with a question mark in it. Have I configured something incorrectly?
What type of phone is it? Do you have other mail accounts configured? If so can you open PDF’s from the mail client for those accounts? I have an iPhone and hadn’t tried until just now but I am unable to open PDF’s that are sent through email on either the Evernote account or a Gmail account I have configured.
Side Note: It must be the encoding that the sending server is using. I was able to fix being able to open PDF’s in my Gmail account by setting the outgoing format of my Outlook to send as text instead of HTML.
Thanks.
alex
Thanks, alex. Very useful info!
Hello Megan,
No problem. Thanks for taking the time to comment.
Thanks.
alex
Thank you for sharing!
Short list of pros and cons about the iPod touch
Pros:
-Slick,small and light device
-Great touch screen
-The BEST web browser on a portable device
-Amazing video/music playback
-App Store (Too many cool applications for Free)
-Display screen is clear and bright
-No bugs and annoying stuff a very reliable hardware
-64GB Flash based mp3 player
Hello Melissa,
No problem. Thanks for taking the time to leave feedback and your thoughts on the iPod Touch.
Thanks.
alex
Hi, i’m using iPod Touch with iOS4.1. Aside from Evernote, i’ve got Gmail and Yahoo mail configured to my iPod. I tried your method but it doesn’t work. The mailbox is not fetching any of my notes in. =( Any solution to this? Many thanks.
Hello Ian,
This process has changed since there is now an iPhone App available from the iTunes App Store and developed by Evernote. Simply download the Evernote app and you can access your Evernote stored notes.
Thanks.
alex
Thanks! I’m aware of the new iPhone Evernote App and have been using it for a while already. I’m not a premium account user hence am looking for ways to get my notes accessible offline. Hitting the “Favourite” button on every note isn’t really convenient, so am looking for other alternatives to do it.
Awesome note is a nice app but it doesn’t retain the formatting that was made on Evernote on Mac. Do you have any solution to this? Thanks again. =)
Hello ian,
Not sure then. Evernote is such a bargain I pay for the premium account personally and I also have access to the Internet from pretty much everywhere that I go on my phone. If you find a good solution let us know.
Thanks.
alex
When using Premium Evernote, where exactly is the data stored?
On my iPhone or iPad?
I will be in Europe for three weeks without internet service most of the time. Will I be able to access and read my Evernote folders and documents?
Hello Lee,
This article was written over two years ago and I don’t use Evernote in this manner anymore. I would say contacting Evernote support would provide the best answer. Let us know what they say so others can find the answer here.
Thanks.
alex
I am really annoyed by advertising that masquerades as “information”. I have been reading all about the great things Evernote is good for – on Evernote’s advertising, help pages, and general searches – but very little about HOW to accomplish tasks. Just sent a question to Evernote asking how to save pages manually, and got a response saying “yes, you can use Web Clipper”.
Well, that’s nice. What is Web Clipper? Where is it? Is it a separate download? I do not see it on the Evernote pages or on Evernote Help pages. It’s so simple to give 1-2-3 how-to explanations, I’m wondering why they fail to do so.
Hello Lee,
If you pay a fairly small fee for Evernote you can disable the ads. As for howtos and other information I have seen other companies do a much worse job than evernote. The Web Clipper is simply a way to clip items from web pages.
Thanks.
alex
Well, no matter how many nor how few albums are checked for sync, the photos that actually make it from my computer flash drive to my iPhone is totally random. Some albums sync in part, some totally, some not at all. C’mon, Apple, fix this bug!
Hello Lee,
Maybe user error? Just a hunch by the fact that you are posting comments on the incorrect forums. :) Honestly though I hope you were able to get your issues with Evernote/Apple resolved.
Thanks.
alex
Oh, that was supposed to go on the Apple forum, sorry!
Hello Lee,
No problem…
Thanks.
alex