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

Eighteen pages of forum posts (just in this forum alone!), numerous letters to Apple management and the only response from Apple (beyond removing posts in order to censor the discussion) has been a phone call to one of our posters in response to his letter. I suspect he only received this response because of his position as a respected member of the academic field in the Bay area, and this phone call provided no information or detail on Apple's thinking, and to my knowledge was never followed up with any action or further response. Unless someone from Apple weighs in soon with an explanation of why this disruption to their users makes sense, I think it is safe to assume that it is time to activate Plan B.

I have personally lost my confidence in my iPhone as a business tool and am completely re-thinking how I run my business activities from a mobile perspective. There are other phones out there, but the bigger issue is this push to the Cloud by nearly everyone makes us all vulnerable to data loss due to an unexpected change in direction on the part of these vendors. As the Apple debacle demonstrates, there is virtually no respect for the sanctity of our data and with the mere change in a feature we can be left with a garbled mess to sort out, or as some have experienced, a catastrophic loss of their information.

This is a deal-breaker for me, so my move to mobile is going to be reversed. I believe this is the opposite effect that Apple intends, but it is their misguided decisions that brought this about. I suggest everyone think long and hard about the level of vulnerability they can accept. In my case, I CANNOT put my info at risk because a loss would put me out of business.

The Cloud holds a lot of promise, but the lack of respect and integrity by the providers makes it virtually useless for anything beyond a repository for music and pictures of your cat (and I would recommend these be backed up locally).

Sorry for my gloomy assessment, but I am very disillusioned with Apple. I made a long-term bet on them and now regret it.

+1

Yes, they just removed it without even saying "sorry". They don't care what we want or think. And it would be so easy to leave the old Notes as it was and syncing as before and to make another Notes+ (or call it what you want) that has the graphic format and does not sync w/Outlook. Arrogant behavior on their part if you ask me.

(Nazdar Dávide, ja som z Bratislavy :-)

Since as far as I can tell it was removed some months ago -- well before iOS9 came out -- I think it's not just possible but a done deal. I would be *very* surprised if it were restored, with the emphasis (not just Apple) on cloud-basing everything. (Apple apparently thinks POP mail is also not-worth-bothering-with, as it hasn't worked right since iOS9 came out, and no signs of any fix coming.)

"I despise the way that software companies are now forcing us down the route of storing all of our data in the cloud."

Agree completely.

Their endgame is to 'frog boil" you into an eventual subscription service, in perpetuity, so you in effect have to pay them to "rent back" your own data and content.

That, and ever more intrusive "micro targeting" ads which they hope to somehow monetize.

Adobe went to a "rent back your own data", in effect, with Adobe Creative Cloud a few years ago.  Pay them monthly tribute, or the app won't work and your files are useless.  Hugely unpopular.

I have lost all my Notes on my iPhoneafter upgrading to 9.2- I sync to OUTLOOK on my PC as many people does.

NOTES on iPHONE and my PC is Hastalavista baby!

All the issue is how and what  you SYNC. Apple has blocked any synching that is not icloud.  And if you decide not to synch to icloud it will erase all your notes.

I can copy-paste note by note , which is a job that it can take ages (I have near 1000 notes and meeting notes that are important to me)

Nevertheless:

I could recover my notes from my IPAD using an app called ANYTRANS. Basically you can copy the notes from any iphone/pad to another one. It is free for sometime, and you can transfer notes from one device to another. The drawback is that the new copied notes are seen as new , and the  date record is lost.

----There is another application called TRANScontrol, that eventhough claims it works transfering the notes to your icloud . You have to pay for it and IT DOES NOT SHOW NOTES as an option to be transferred. SO it does not work...

I have the same problem and I am not happy at all.

Notes have disapeared frrom the list of options after upgrading the iphone to OS 9.2. Is there a way to load a previous version of OS ?

I totally agree, this is not good at all, I posted a similar question to Apple Support and received no response at all, I'm guessing you are correct that Apple want to force people away from Outlook

They succeeded for sure as far as I am concerned (in forcing people away). Three weeks ago I bought two Doogee F5 instead of two iPhone 6S+. Wow, they are great... 8core 64bit 13Mpix etc. I saved over 1200 USD in the process. Oh, and not to forget two watches. Saved another 1000. Actually, not a bad thing they did with Notes and especially the way they handled this issue and this thread. The whole thing looks less gloomy now that I look at it.

I'm having this problem too.  I need to be able to sync Outlook notes with my ipod.  It worked before the upgrade to 9.2 and now it doesn't work.  I've been using CompanionLink to sync my Kindle with my PC.  I'll have to see if I can get this to work for the iPads in the house.  If not guess we'll be buying more Kindles instead of iPads when it comes time to upgrade.

Are you talking about a Fire tablet?

The Kindle e-readers don't do notes & syncs (other than syncing w/ your Amazon acct).

I noticed long before iOS9 came out that Notes were no longer syncing from my iPhone.

The new Notes app does sync to iCloud, which you can also access from your PC. That won't sync w/ Outlook, but you can copy notes to Outlook manually. Only you can decide if the CompanionLink cost is worth it vs the trouble of copy/paste. Do you need the notes to be in Outlook itself or are you worried about backup & not losing them?

I use both Notes (w/ the iCloud sync, which provides b/u) and MS OneNote.

I don't need to deal w/ Outlook since it stopped doing Notes.

Kindle fire HDX.  As I mentioned I have CompanionLink to do the sync.  Keeps all my contacts and notes - called memos on my Kindle - in sync with what's on PC.  This used to work on my iPod and after the update it doesn't.  It's terribly disappointing to load an 'update' from Apple and have something suddenly not work like it used to.  Don't need or want my notes on the cloud so not an option for me.

Sometimes it happens that a particular function is no longer supported. *****, but a fact of computer life. Sometimes there's a work-around, sometimes you just have to find another way to get things done.

I'm glad you have a solution that you find satisfactory; I hope it continues to work for you.

I have just read this entire thread with bated breath. I made the mistake of buying an iPhone 6s plus with iOS 9 on it and, as all of you had already discovered, it no longer lets me sync Notes with Outlook. I can't believe this problem existed in September and here it is January and Apple has done nothing to resolve what SHOULD be a straightforward fix on their end. Disgusting, Apple!!!

Yes the whole thing about it's no longer 'Supported'... well list that in the updates notes and I won't do the upgrade!  Really sick of Apple updates that remove features I happen to need.