Q: Notes, Multiple iCloud Accounts, and Syncing

Right after ios 9 integration Apple introduced new icloud notes that suppose to support different nice features including some that not everybody needs. Unfortunately it required to move on from normal notes sync using IMAP server. Which means that if you upgraded your primary and secondary accounts to new notes secondary accounts will not sync with iphone either any new features or any notes. Your situation is actually better then I thought, you getting notes, but not formatting. Another "good" news that once upgrade is done it CAN NOT be reversed.

Now that would be my guess on your problem, but I may also be wrong if I misunderstood it, my apologies.

Upgrade your notes with iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan - Apple Support

iCloud: Notes overview

We have also encountered a similarly frustrating issue with Notes.  We use iCloud features for our construction business to communicate between the office mac-mini's and field crew iOS devices (Calendar for scheduling and Notes for job reports/communication).  Many of our field guys have their own personal iphones which would have their personal iCloud account as the primary (settings>iCloud) and they would add our company iCloud account under Settings>Mail, Contacts, Calendars and make sure the "Notes" and "Calendars" were enabled.  Up until recently, they could sync with notes without issue.  The calendars still sync fine in this manner regardless of which iCloud account is used as the primary.

We noticed today that notes created or updated on the mac-mini's or icloud.com/notes are not showing up on the various iOS devices that aren't set up with the company iCloud account under Settings>iCloud, and vice versa.  Any notes created or updated on an iOS device that has the company iCloud account as a secondary (settings>Mail, Contacts, Calendars) can be viewed by all other iOS devices that are set up similarly.

I spoke with an apple customer care rep who confirmed that the only way for the notes to sync is if all devices have the same iCloud account set up as the primary under settings>iCloud.  This is incredibly frustrating, particularly because an iOS device still allows you to add another iCloud account through "Mail, Contacts, Calendars" with an option to enable Notes.  What's the point of having Notes as an option if they aren't going to sync?  I really hope this gets resolved as it has caused a major disconnect in our company's communication.

Original poster posted same question around the same time under similar, but different alias, if you want you can try to search for it. If memory serves me right he received answer that he accepted from one of the community specialists (who seem to represent Apple here). I do not know if answer will work for

you, but OP certainly found it more helpful.

"...because an iOS device still allows you to add another iCloud account through "Mail, Contacts, Calendars" with an option to enable Notes."

This setting visibly exists. Its existence affirmed Notes and my iCloud-based multi-(16+ device)  system setup. A few weeks later, I've mostly spent time troubleshooting, or duplicating the missing Notes data between users. I did not want or consider this to be "impossible" failure. I never had any suspicion of iOS Settings to be misleading, falsely claimed, "officially" non-functional functions.

For all the resulting sentiments, Oneiro-knot put it best: 

"What's the point of having Notes as an option if they aren't going to sync?"

I would suggest that since iCloud and by association Notes, is a personal level service, it may not be suitable for enterprise level use.

There can only be one main iCloud "relationship" While you can add another iCloud email account and toggle its Notes on, without the same primary iCloud account enabled, the syncing will not work.

So, as long as iCloud A is common to all, adding another iCloud email account and its Notes adds that additional account to the sync service of iCloud A. Take out iCloud A, and you have no syncing.

OK, what you are confusing here is Mail and iCloud. You can have multiple @iCloud.com email addresses that you add to your Mail Settings, and you can choose to create Notes for each of them. But you can only have one email address signed in to iCloud, and it is for that Apple/iCloud ID that you will be able to sync notes with.

When you go to the Notes app, you will see these different accounts with their own Notes listed under each:

The only set of these notes that will sync with Notes on another device or a computer are the ones in the first box - the ones that are notes for the iCloud.com account that I have signed in to iCloud on this device. They will only sync to another device or computer that also has that iCloud account signed in to iCloud.

If i changed my iCloud sign in to the second iCloud ID, then those notes would sync with any device or computer that was signed in to that second iCloud account. But you can only sign into one iCloud Account on a given device or computer. So, in order to sync, all devices and computers you want to sync with must also be signed into that same iCloud Account.

The option to add notes to other email accounts that you have is provided for any type of email account that you add - gmail, exchange, yahoo, etc. The fact that you have turned notes on for a second iCloud Mail account does not relate in any way to the syncing of Notes via your iCloud sign in. One is Mail, one is iCloud. The fact that they both end in iCloud.com, does not have anything to do with which one is your actual signed in iCloud account. Your signed in iCloud account could be a gmail account. Two different functions.

In Mail, an email address is just an email address....

GB

Just a couple of other clarifications on this topic:

Rosemina wrote:

 

"...because an iOS device still allows you to add another iCloud account through "Mail, Contacts, Calendars" with an option to enable Notes."

iOS allows you to add another iCloud email account to your MAIL app. It will allow you to add 50 more iCloud email accounts if you wish. These are MAIL accounts on your iOS device. You only have one iCloud account signed into your iOS device, and that is the one signed in under Settings>iCloud. That is the one that will sync.

For all the resulting sentiments, Oneiro-knot put it best: 

"What's the point of having Notes as an option if they aren't going to sync?"

The point of having Notes as an option is to allow you to make Notes that are associated with your eMail address. If the email address is an iCloud.com email address, those notes will sync between the Notes under that secondary icloud email and the Notes in the iCloud.com account of the corresponding iCloud address as the secondary email address. So, you would have the ability to go to iCloud.com on a computer, Sign in with your secondary iCloud email address that you have Notes turned on for on your device, type up a new Note in iCloud, and it will show up in that second iCloud email addresses notes.

You just want to make sure that if you are wanting to sync notes directly via iCloud on one of your devices, to make sure that you have selected the Primary iCloud notes at the top before composing the note you want sync'd

GB

 

 

Gail if, as you describe, signing in a secondary iCloud account is solely intended to create sub-accounts under the "master" iCloud into which the idevice is logged in, could you please help me understand the following:

1. Contacts and calendar for the secondary account sync as expected

2. When I added a secondary notes account as described by the OP, a bunch of notes did indeed sync, but they were old. When I took a closer look, the most recent edit was 9/28/15, two days before El Capitan dropped and we were all prompted to upgrade to the "new" notes. If memory serves, OS 9 dropped sooner than El Capitan, but presumably the notes on my mac continued syncing until the OS upgrade. I'm running 9.3.3 on all idevices now, so anything syncing with the "old"notes (which are apparently still extant on iCloud servers) is unexpected behavior.

It is because of these observations that I kind of suspect that this is just an under-the-hood change that Apple just hasn't gotten to yet.

Clarification question - have you upgraded Notes iCloud on all devices and computers?

Yes.

Hi bigjohn,

I have been doing some experimenting, and I just signed in a secondary iCloud account of mine to Mail and checked Notes. I then created a new "Test Note" in the secondary Notes account.

I then went to my Mac and set up the secondary iCloud account in Mail, and checked the secondary Notes account. Then I opened my secondary Notes account on the Mac, and the "Test Note" was there.

Then I wrote a note on my Mac under the secondary Notes account, and checked it on my phone under the secondary Notes account, and it was there almost as I typed it.

As Eric pointed out, my iPhone has the updated Notes app. I also have an older iPhone that is running iOS 7, and even though I have both iCloud mail accounts signed in, and both with Notes selected, the only place that the test note I created under the secondary Notes account sync'd to was that iCloud account on iCloud.com.

So, to answer your question, I think that Eric is on the right track. The notes that sync'd prior to iOS 9 are the ones that are still showing up because they were there prior to the Notes upgrade. Once you installed El Cap, in order to sync notes, you were required to upgrade your Notes app on your iOS devices, or they would no longer sync anywhere except iCloud.com.

Cheers,

GB

I was still writing my answer when you responded to Eric. If you are still having issues with Notes syncing, I would recommend that you sign out of iCloud on both the Mac and the device(s) and then sign back in again. Oftentimes that can "force" push the iCloud sync items.

Cheers,

GB