Common Errors

And how to avoid them


Creating empty notes

The Evernote Cloud API allows users to create notes with nothing in the body (which is controlled using the content attribute of the Note object). If you’re trying to create a blank note with only a title and you receive a EDAMUserException with the BAD_DATA_FORMAT error code, know that you need to have the essential elements of the body of the note present, even if there isn’t any actual content included.

Each instance of Note.content must contain, at minimum, the following:

Note the empty set of <en-note> tags; even if the note itself contains no content, those tags—along with the XML declaration and Doctype Definition seen in the preceding two lines—must be present when a note is sent to the Evernote API.

Permission denied on findNote, getNote

When an API key is created, the developer has the opportunity to choose between two permission levels: Basic Access and Full Access. Keys with Basic Access may perform a limited number of actions not including searching for and retrieving whole notes. Integrations requiring the ability to read and modify existing notes in a user’s account will need an API key with Full Access. Attempting to perform an action requiring Full Access with a Basic Access token will result in an EDAMUserException with the PERMISSION_DENIED error code. If this type of exception is frequently generated by your application, your key may have insufficient permissions for what you’re trying to do.

If you already have an API key with Basic Access and you need a Full Access key, you can simply create a new key using this form. If you have an API key with Basic Access that has already been activated on production, you’ll need to contact us.

Expired or revoked authentication token

Third-party integrations that authenticate with OAuth are issued an authentication token after the user authorizes the application to access his/her account. These authentication tokens are valid until one year after the date and time they are issued, but they can be revoked by the user at any time.

If a token is revoked or expires and a call is made to the Evernote Cloud API with the invalid authentication token, an instance of EDAMUserException is returned with the AUTH_EXPIRED error code. The user must then re-authorize your integration and a new authorization token must be issued before subsequent requests can be made.

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