Q: iOS 9 / iTunes / Outlook Notes sync on Windows

I feel as if I I have found "my people" on this thread...I thought was by myself in not using iCloud (or any cloud) and keeping control of my own data locally.

Luckily, I thought to check the new Notes compatibility out before I upgraded, so I'm still running iOS 8.4.1 on my iPhone 6.

I have upgraded to iTunes 12.3.0.44, but still appear to be able to sync OK and it does display the option "Sync notes with Outlook".

I have a favor / question I'd like to ask someone on this thread who's already on iOS 9 to try...

Does this issue affect the Notes for the Contacts?
Each Contact can have a Note, and many of mine do (birthdays, kids/pets names, etc.).

Do these notes for the contacts still sync correctly?

If so, this may lend itself to a half-baked work around (offhand, I'm thinking maybe create a Contacts Group named "Notes" and move each note into it's own contact). I just have no way to try this and was hoping some of you in this thread could give it a whirl and post your feedback.

Thanks!

I too am waiting until Apple restores this functionality. Other than the helpful suggestion to back up my Outlook notes on my PC, everything else has been too complex, confusing, risky, or too much work. BTW I have an MS and BS in Info Systems Tech and have been using computers for 40 years. What I do not have a degree in is Microsoft Office, Microsoft Word, or Apple iOS.

Ever since the upgrade to iOS 9 on my iPhone 5s and my iPad the Notes on those devices remain static. When I make a change on the PC running Microsoft Windows 7 and Outlook 97, no change occurs on my devices. The option to sync Notes is also gone in iTunes.

Happily, when i activated my new iPhone 6s plus yesterday and restored it from a backup of my old phone on iTunes, all of my Notes were recreated on my new phone, current as of the last backup prior to iOS 9, so about two weeks old.

Until Apple fixes this, when I do make a change to my notes, I'll just email it to myself.

*** THIS IS THE ULTIMATE WORK AROUND ***

Sir,

     You are genius, now I'll just sync through my exchange server.  No need for iTunes' boondoggle. 

V/R

Average Joe

I've been reading through all the postings on this topic thread.  Like many, my use of Outlook notes is extensive.  When I investigated my first smart phone purchase years ago, the number one feature I validated was the ability to sync my outlook notes to my phone.   I ended up purchasing my first Apple product, a 3GS iPhone and then upgraded later to a 6.

Thus far, I've followed the link provided earlier in this thread and logged an issue (classified it as a 'bug') and in it voiced my concerns / displeasure.  I encourage everyone who has an issue with no longer being able to sync Outlook notes do the same....I'm almost sure Apple will take NO action if the masses don't complain - loudly.   Otherwise, I've not  as yet applied any of the various proposed fixes as they appear to have 'mixed results' or sound too risky to me.

Bottom line, I expect Apple to fix this.  If they don't, I'll take my future telecommunications and IT spending dollars elsewhere.  In the meantime, I'll continue to track what notes I update in Outlook, paste the content in an email to myself and copy this into a matching note on my iPhone.   Is this an ideal workaround, no!  But, it will work for me for now.

Lastly, I was relieved and found it interesting to read many other users also don't trust the iCloud and prefer to back up their information locally. 

I have iOS9, PC running Windows 7, Outlook 2010, and the "upgraded" notes.

My contacts in my iPhone 4S, after upgrade to iOS9, do indeed show the comments area of each contact. I can see the birthdays and other commentary I have placed in the notes section of the comment.

I spoke too soon...

On my iPhone 6, I can search for a text string and the correct "non-upgraded" notes are displayed in the search results, but when that note is selected, that note is not displayed.  The search works correctly for Top Hits, Contacts, Calendar, and Mail.

This is terrible. I was very disappointed to find that my Notes on my iPhone became unformatted and the option to sync Notes had been removed from the upgrade to iOS 9.0 and the iTunes upgrade to 12.3.0.44. Like many others, I rely on MS Outlooks Notes as an effective way to store information on my iPhone. I find it especially useful to sort and store many phone numbers that I don't use often enough to create contacts for each. Please return support for Notes and notes sync.

Don't lose sleep like I did.  Just sync them with contacts or tasks.  Then once the issue is fixed, transfer your information back to notes.  

Actually, I copied and pasted them into Word documents and synced them to my iPhone with Documents to Go. Took all of five minutes to do.

Yes, I have had the same experience. The sync still works in both directions as long as you don't Upgrade Notes under iOS9.

I have to ask, is there a way to revert to the previous version of notes after the update?

OK, according to "JBoggie" and "canford", it appears using the notes or comments section of a Contact is a viable work around. If you and maybe a couple of others will confirm, I'm thinking it would be good for me to re-post this as a separate thread so others can more easily find it (as it's buried on page 8 of replies here).

I think the primary drawback is having to do the initial setup of creating the new contacts and copying/pasting the notes. Probably not a huge deal if you only have a few, but some in this thread mentioned having hundreds! There's probably a way to automate/script this, but I don't have a solution to that for now.

Provided this works, I think what I'll do is create a Contact Group call "Notes" and create a Contact in that group for each note.

In Outlook 2007, File > New > Folder ... Name the folder "Notes" and under "Folder contains:" select "Contacts".

If you then create all your Contacts for Notes in this folder, then on your iPhone you should then be able to click/touch the "Groups" link in contacts and filter to see only your Contacts in the "Notes" group when you are looking for a note instead of an actual contact.

Yes, this is a "work around" and not a solution, but it's either going to suffice until Apple resolves this problem, or at least give those of us who need/want this functionality a viable alternative in the long run if they don't.

(Please mark this as "This helped me" if it did so that others can tell.)

Unfortunately, I do not know the answer, as I did not select the Upgrade option in iOS9 Notes after I did the iOS upgrade. I chose the other option (which I think was called Continue).

Great idea 'e_eq_mc2' and I would also like to reconfirm that the move to contacts worked for me.  Tansfer to task/reminders also work, but, I dislike the reminders app   .  I had over 400 notes, so I used a mouse and keyboard robot to move them for me  .

Like probably many others here I am an early adopter and this time we have paid the price for being so.  At this point the first and most important thing we can do is for every single one of us to complain long and loud to Apple's feedback site "http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html".  This is the only way apple MAY listen to us and go back to allowing proper synchronization between our iPhones/iPads and MS Outlook.  I did see on the first or second page of this thread that one individual, purported to be an Apple tech adviser in I think Germany, states that he was told Apple is working on correcting the issue.  I'll believe it when I see it.  To those who have taken the time to come up with work around solutions a big "Thank You"!!  I will try some of the easier ones but for now I'm simply emailing the changes between Outlook and my cloud based notes to myself and manually making the changes via cut and paste.  If this is ever resolved to my liking I will be saying bye, bye to iCloud for everything except "Find My iPhone" as I do not like the idea of putting anything up on anybody's cloud.