Don’t think you need to back up your Evernote notebooks? Think again

How safe do you think your data is when you store them in an Evernote notebook? The surprising answer: Not as safe as you might think. That’s because Evernote isn’t a true backup service. It’s a synching service.

Is it really necessary?

You could very well be asking yourself: Do I have to back up my Evernote notebooks? How-To Geek would answer with an emphatic “yes!” Simply because Evernote isn’t a backup system. It’s a synching system. And in a worst-case scenario, Evernote’s remote file store could be wiped. Then, the local file store can be wiped, too.

Protecting yourself

Thankfully, you can protect yourself fairly easily by backing up your Evernote notebooks. As How-To Geek says, you’ll require an installed copy of Evernote’s desktop application for either Windows or OS X, based on what kind of computer you use.

Exporting

To do this, first right-click on any notebook and choose the “Export Notes” option. In addition, you can export your notes in a variety of formats, including Evernote’s native one. Now, if you lose the notebook or the data it holds, you can simply select the “import” option to bring back the exported notebook as a wholesale replacement for the notebook you lost.