Q: Issue with New Notes not syncing with many accounts
I have several iCloud accounts for work and my personal one, since I just have one iPhone I tried to sync all accounts and using them on the same device.
I found the following maybe Apple wants to review it, or re-thinking it ...
HomeMac has my personal iCloud account, main on my iPhone, so when new Notes arrived I upgraded like suggested to benefit from the new features, everything went fine.
On my work I have a main iCloud account and others for test and so, my main account on the office it is not the main on the iPhone, is a secondary, and since September last year didn't want to sync Notes, I couldn't find a reason until today when making more test with several accounts. Checking looking for differences between accounts on Mac, iCloud web and iPhone configuration finally I saw the difference. Main account have new Notes interface on Mac, iCloud and iPhone. Secondary accounts has old Notes interface on Mac / iCloud and iPhone, but still sync correctly, so the one on caos is just my main office account, who has "partially upgrade", when used one the office Mac, it works under the new Notes interface, so on iCloud but the moment I check it on a device where is a secondary account it stopped to show me new data or upgrades data, since it can't "mix" information, is like Main account on iPhone benefits from the new Notes upgrade, but secondary accounts can't, don't know why, but I guess is has to do with the same issue, that you only can access info from Pages, Numbers and Keynote, on a device, from your main iCloud accounts, if you have a second account there is no way you can access your information from those Apps on the same iPhone / iPad.
I was happy when Apple decided to let us have a second iCloud account on our devices, and Apps (Mail, Notes, Calendar, Contacts, etc) could manage data separately, that was a hit, al least for me, but now when Apps let you do more, when you try to make / get more from your devices, again we are facing limits that other Apps has resolved nicely like Instagram or Twitter where you can switch between accounts and continue using the App with full capacities.
For me it is not "normal" that if I have upgraded a secondary account to new Notes, and if the iPhone can manage it for the main account, this secondary account could not sync. I agree to upgrade on Mac to be able to take advantage on new features but if so, then what is supposed I have to do with my Notes on secondary account if they don't work anymore....
Please if someone have an advice on this that could help resolve it, I will appreciate it.
Thanks
iCloud, Mac OS X (10.7.2), null
Posted on Jul 7, 2016 7:24 AM
In order to understand you need to also understand how notes use to synchronize. Every IMAP account (most emails) have underlying protocol that is used to make notes sync. Icloud account is IMAP, Google is also (or they both have most components of IMAP, but that is more then just complex). IMAP notes sync would never allow advanced features to be synced, so Apple in order to improve "notes" had to go with different type of server sync (specifics - below) but that server only syncs one account - main. So everyone who upgraded can't go back and use IMAP. So when you add few accounts to the iphone only main account has advanced capability and other accounts sync by using old IMAP.
Specifics are in this apple articles.
Before you upgrade your notes - Apple Support
Upgrade your notes with iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan - Apple Support
Posted on Jul 8, 2016 3:08 AM