alkmai

Q: Notes slow

I'm trying out Apple Notes, migrating a few thousand notes from Evernote and find that the speed is fairly horrific, with multi-second pauses on scrolling whilst using the app on the iPhone 6S or iPad Pro, and still noticeable pauses on a MacBook Pro Retina 2.7GHz machine. Evernote running on all the devices is perfectly acceptable - whether the file is synced locally or not.

 

iPhone 6S Plus has 128GB with tens of GB free.

iPad Pro also has 128GB with tens of GB free.

MacBook Pro Retina 15" has 16GB RAM, 2.7GHz processor and 768GB SDD.

Number of notes ~4,000 including many with PDFs attached.

 

Is it just me experiencing this slowness?

iPhone 6s Plus, iOS 9.3

Posted on Mar 27, 2016 11:37 AM

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Q: Notes slow

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  • by llllloyd,

    llllloyd llllloyd Apr 27, 2016 3:39 PM in response to alkmai
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iPhone
    Apr 27, 2016 3:39 PM in response to alkmai

    Hi,

     

    I have this issue too. Had around 1200 plus notes which I imported from Evernote.

    At first I thought trimming down the notes would help, and reduced them down to 700 notes, but am still getting a slow ecperience, which takes forever to sync and is almost unusable at times.

  • by jmkreiner,Helpful

    jmkreiner jmkreiner May 21, 2016 6:57 AM in response to llllloyd
    Level 1 (9 points)
    iCloud
    May 21, 2016 6:57 AM in response to llllloyd

    Have you fixed your issue yet?  I haven't found a solution, and I haven't been able to use my Notes app in 2 months.   Apple should have never released this feature if they didn't plan on supporting it.  

     

    I haven't found 1 anecdote of someone importing their Evernote notes successfully.   I've only read about people who have rendered their Apple Notes app. useless.

     

    Over the course of years I was slowly migrating to Apple Notes from Evernote.   This feature seemed like the final step in process and it's a massive failure.   I couldn't use Apple Notes if I wanted to at this point.   I'm more thoroughly loyal to Evernote than I ever wanted to be.

  • by alkmai,

    alkmai alkmai May 21, 2016 6:58 AM in response to jmkreiner
    Level 1 (11 points)
    iPhone
    May 21, 2016 6:58 AM in response to jmkreiner

    Unfortunately although I have raised the issue through support, Apple haven't come back to me with a response. Although I now appear to have no Apple Notes, doing a search for text within Notes finds Notes that were officially deleted.

  • by llllloyd,

    llllloyd llllloyd May 23, 2016 12:02 PM in response to jmkreiner
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iPhone
    May 23, 2016 12:02 PM in response to jmkreiner

    I haven't solved it, but I have found a workaround.

     

    Instead of syncing all the notes through my icloud account, I have started syncing them through my gmail account instead.

     

    The notes app works so much more quickly now, so the problem is definitely caused by the icloud sync, rather than the app itself.

  • by Adiel_G,Solvedanswer

    Adiel_G Adiel_G Jun 3, 2016 7:32 AM in response to alkmai
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Jun 3, 2016 7:32 AM in response to alkmai

    I managed to fix the problem. If you go and manage your iCloud storage - either through iOS or OS X - you'll find a Notes folder containing all your notes. Make sure you back up your notes and then continue to delete to the folder.

     

    Turn off Notes in iCloud on all devices, wait a few minutes and turn it back on. Everything, including the Notes webapp should be running without issue now.

     

    Note: on iOS you either have to restore to flush old data or leave Notes app open by preventing the device from going to sleep.

  • by alkmai,

    alkmai alkmai Jun 6, 2016 2:03 AM in response to Adiel_G
    Level 1 (11 points)
    iPhone
    Jun 6, 2016 2:03 AM in response to Adiel_G

    It certainly fixes the problem. Shame it needs to be so drastic.

  • by Adiel_G,

    Adiel_G Adiel_G Jun 6, 2016 5:46 AM in response to alkmai
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Jun 6, 2016 5:46 AM in response to alkmai

    Well I'm glad it fixed it for you as well. After months of troubleshooting I finally can use the app again.

  • by walk0080,

    walk0080 walk0080 Jun 29, 2016 1:21 PM in response to Adiel_G
    Level 1 (29 points)
    Desktops
    Jun 29, 2016 1:21 PM in response to Adiel_G

    Did you simply backup the group.com.apple.notes folder locally on your Mac, delete Notes data via iCloud storage management, etc. and then finally restore the group.com.apple.notes folder again?

     

    Sounds like an iCloud sync issue and you are clearing out the iCloud date before restoring it back.

     

     

    Previous version of Apple Notes:

    ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/Notes/

     

    New version of Apple Notes:

    ~Library/Group%20Containers/group.com.apple.notes/

  • by Adiel_G,

    Adiel_G Adiel_G Jun 29, 2016 1:30 PM in response to walk0080
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Jun 29, 2016 1:30 PM in response to walk0080

    i back-uped my notes using a third pary App(Note2Txt). This solution deletes the entire notes databas. You don't need to delete any folder. Just toggle Notes in iCloud.

  • by walk0080,

    walk0080 walk0080 Jun 29, 2016 1:33 PM in response to Adiel_G
    Level 1 (29 points)
    Desktops
    Jun 29, 2016 1:33 PM in response to Adiel_G

    OK thanks... looks like App(Note2Txt) will strip out all formatting, attachments, etc. so I will look into manual backup of the local notes folder.

  • by jmkreiner,

    jmkreiner jmkreiner Jun 29, 2016 2:18 PM in response to Adiel_G
    Level 1 (9 points)
    iCloud
    Jun 29, 2016 2:18 PM in response to Adiel_G

    I deleted all of the notes data from the icloud manager on ios.   Manually deleted on all devices.   Turned off sync.   Went through all of these steps.   It works like a dream between icloud.com, my iMac and my Macbook Air.

     

    Still no dice with any iOS products.

     

    Really ***** cause Evernote announced a new pricing plan today.

     

    I don't even care about preserving my old notes anymore.   I just want a working app so I can take notes and sync going forward.

     

    Everything was a dream before I attempted that stupid import from Evernote feature, I haven't found one person who used that feature and ended up with a useable product.

     

    What are my options at this point?   Do I need to nuke my iPhone and iPad and do a fresh install?

  • by Adiel_G,

    Adiel_G Adiel_G Jun 29, 2016 4:45 PM in response to jmkreiner
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Jun 29, 2016 4:45 PM in response to jmkreiner

    As I said in my original post:

     

    on iOS you either have to restore to flush old data or leave Notes app open by preventing the device from going to sleep.

     

    The way I did it was by preventing the iPhone from going to sleep(temporarily set in to never). Then I opened the Notes app and let it work out the data. The iPhone will run hot(so take it out of the case) and the Notes app will be very unresponsive for awhile. After the initial freeze it should have flushed the old data and replaced it new a new one. You don't have to do a total restore of the iOS device.

  • by walk0080,

    walk0080 walk0080 Jun 29, 2016 7:25 PM in response to jmkreiner
    Level 1 (29 points)
    Desktops
    Jun 29, 2016 7:25 PM in response to jmkreiner

    Did you export from Evernote as XML and then imported to Apple Notes via XML?

  • by walk0080,

    walk0080 walk0080 Jun 30, 2016 6:20 AM in response to Adiel_G
    Level 1 (29 points)
    Desktops
    Jun 30, 2016 6:20 AM in response to Adiel_G

    Everyone please be very careful when deleting data from the iCloud in Settings! If you make a local back up like I did, trying to restore it later will result in Notes synching with an empty iCloud causing all your data to be lost. There doesn't appear to be a way to easily backup your Notes, delete iCloud Notes data and then simply restore the Notes locally.

     

     

    Here is the laborious process I took yesterday to remove 1,500 Notes (1.4GB) from iCloud and then restore them back again. These were complex Notes with documents, photos, drawings, etc. contained within. Most of the Notes were exported from Evernote and then imported into Notes a few weeks ago (via XML export/import).

     

     

    So far YES, the lag and slowness of Notes has almost completely gone from my iMac and two IOS devices. There is sometimes a slight stutter upon first launching Notes when iCloud sync starts up.

     

     

    ---- OPTION A ----

    Some steps may not be required… this is just how I ended up completing everything while also turning my hair grey from stress. See Option “B” further below for my alternate suggestion. Follow these directions at your own risk (!):

     

    1. Backup both Notes local folders on Mac:

     

      Previous version of Notes (probably not needed but I did it anyways…):

      ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/Notes/

     

      New version of Notes:

      ~/Library/Group%20Containers/group.com.apple.notes/

     

    2. Settings -> iCloud -> Manage —> Notes -> Delete Documents and Data

    3. Turn off Notes in iCloud on Mac & IOS devices

    4. Wait few minutes

    5. Turn on Notes in iCloud on all devices

    6. Allow devices to sync w/ empty data

    7. On Mac, disable network/Internet connection. This will prevent iCloud from deleting your local Notes immediately after trying to restore it.

    8. Restore notes backup folders using backups made in step 1.

    9. You may need to enable showing your local Mac notes. In Notes, go to menu bar -> Notes -> “On My Mac” Account

    10. Drag all your Notes folders/notes from "iCloud" to “On My Mac”

    11. This will be a slow process (even on an iMac5K w/ i7 and SSD) and Notes may appear to hang multiple times for every folder moved around. You will see the spinning beach ball a lot.

    12. Enable network/Internet connection

    13. Allow iCloud to sync again. Will take a few minutes even though there is nothing to sync.

    14. Now start moving you Notes and folders back from “On My Mac” to “iCloud”. Again this will be a slow process with Notes hanging at times.

    15. Once all folders are moved, allow iCloud to finish synchronization.

    16. Go to your other Macs & IOS devices and allow them to sync as well. I have a 180Meg down / 10 up Internet connection so the sync was fairly quick.

     

     

    ---- OPTION B ----

    Now based on hindsight, I think the following steps would be improved instructions for anyone trying it out. Follow these directions at your own risk (!):

     

    1. Just in case, backup both Notes local folders on Mac:

     

    Previous version of Notes (probably not needed but I did it anyways…):

      ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/Notes/

     

      New version of Notes:

      ~/Library/Group%20Containers/group.com.apple.notes/

     

    2. You may need to enable showing your local Mac notes. In Notes, go to menu bar -> Notes -> “On My Mac” Account

    3. Drag all your Notes folders/notes from "iCloud" to “On My Mac”. This will be a slow process (even on an iMac5K w/ i7 and SSD) and Notes may appear to hang multiple times for every folder moved around. You will see the spinning beach ball a lot.

    4. Settings -> iCloud -> Manage -> Notes -> Delete Documents and Data

    5. Allow all other Macs and IOS devices to sync with empty data.

    6. Turn off Notes in iCloud on Mac & IOS devices

    7. Wait few minutes

    8. Turn on Notes in iCloud on all devices

    9. Now start moving you Notes and folders back from “On My Mac” to “iCloud”. Again this will be a slow process with Notes hanging at times.

    10. Once all folders are moved, allow iCloud to finish synchronization.

    11. Go to your other Macs & IOS devices and allow them to sync as well. I have a 180Meg down / 10 up Internet connection so the sync was fairly quick.

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