Notes not syncing or uploading to iCloud After iOS 13 Update

Thanks for the suggestion and I'm glad it's resolved for you. However I think Apple need to fix this. What you describe above is not easily achievable for many users, e.g. my 76 year old mother and would take way too long. If there's something about the existing folders or notes which is tripping up the Notes sync then in my view Apple need to find it.

Correct. This is too complicated, it takes a lot of time and I only have 300 notes. Apple indeed needs to find what's wrong and solve it. Even with my solution, syncing is slow and sometimes only syncs when the Mac mini Notes app is closed.

I use Notes continuously and I couldn't wait for Apple anymore.

I too cannot get Notes to sync between two MacBook Pros and my iPhone after the Catalina install. Everything else iCloud-related seems OK including iCloud Drive. Repeated tests seem to show that new notes, or modifications to existing notes, on any device do NOT get uploaded to iCloud. Checked by using the iCloud web interface. On the other hand, any changes made in the iCloud web interface sync almost instantaneously to all my devices. So it looks like the upload to iCloud is the point of failure. This has completely broken my workflow, set up over the past several years, of keeping my work logs in Notes and having them sync on all machines. At the moment the only way to work seems to be to keep a folder of TextEdit documents in iCloud Drive and work with those between devices. A return to a work style of the 1990s.

Yes, everyone has the same issue. icloud.com notes post fine and synching notes sometimes happens/sometimes doesn't. No real solution provided by Apple as of yet. They tell you to sign out and sign in to iCloud (doesn't fix) and Apple support gives you the run around. Catalina is the worst Apple OS upgrade. Sidecar doesn't work if you have a slightly older machine (yet third party apps are available that do it just fine). Mac Mail loses email signatures. And the list goes on...

Done! For me, everything is fine now: 400 Notes are in-sync and stay in-sync on my 4 devices (iPad Pro 10.5, iPad Mini4, iPhone SE, MacBook Pro, all OS up-to-date).

To verify, i've created a new note on every device. Immediately the new note appears on all other devices.

Then, i've edited one of these notes on each of the four devices. Immediately, the changes appear on all the other devices.

Finally, it seems to be a question of time. After de-activating and re-activatiing iCloud for Notes all my devices last week, i did nothing but waiting.

Done! For me, everything is fine now: 400 Notes are in-sync and stay in-sync on my 4 devices (iPad Pro 10.5, iPad Mini4, iPhone SE, MacBook Pro, all OS up-to-date).

To verify, i've created a new note on every device. Immediately the new note appears on all other devices.

Then, i've edited one of these notes on each of the four devices. Immediately, the changes appear on all the other devices.

Finally, it seems to be a question of time. After de-activating and re-activatiing iCloud for Notes all my devices last week, i did nothing but waiting.

Anyone else having a problem with Photos? It seems I am having a similar syncing problem with Photos. It also appears that full size jpg files are being downloaded to devices when I have it set to optimize. I am also getting ran out of memory error messages on my new MacBook, which then crashes Photos. Terrible. I waited all summer for Catalina and did not install the beta for fear of these problems. I installed the GM version and then got hit with all the issues. :(

I am beginning to think a prefs file somewhere keeps getting corrupted.

I read about deleting a file on the Mac, but this may not be the (only) problem.

Also, the problem is not restricted to Catalina. Mojave problems are similar to some reported here (iOS not syncing to iCloud).

Possible Solution: I did the same thing as JochenfromKiel, removed iCloud sync from my Mac, iPad and Phone. Took a shower. Came back and re-enabled one at a time. So far, things seem to be working correctly again. Just note that if you have unsynced notes on any of the devices, you will lose them, the notes that sync will be from your online iCloud account, so sign in and check what's there before you do anything.

This seems to be related to the latest update for iOS 13 (13.1.3). If you upgraded to this latest version, your notes will not sync up with iCloud. The only solution I know is to sign out from iCloud in your iPhone, restart your iPhone and log back in into iCloud. No need to sign out / sign back in your Mac. This worked for me.

I am experiencing this issue as well. Notes on my iPhone will sync to iCloud only when they want to (which seems to be random), and same with my Mac. I have lost a few notes that I created after updating to Catalina and iOS 13.1.3 because of the syncing issue. I explained the issue to Apple support and my call was escalated to a senior technician, who ran me through troubleshooting steps that I had already tried. I asked him if this was a known issue/bug, and he told me it was the first time he'd heard of it. I'm currently in the process of moving my notes over to OneNote.

This doesn't work for me. If I use the iCloud browser view, I can update it and it pushes changes to both my phone and Catalina install on my Mac Mini. If I update the other two, the changes aren't pushed back. This happened after unchecking and rechecking sync-to-iCloud on my iPhone Xs Max. It appears that for devices that are syncing, they're only syncing in one direction, so for the moment, I'm only updating notes using the iCloud browser view, under the assumption that the master copy is in the cloud.

Same here, Notes not syncing from iPhone to iCloud after upgrade to iOS 13.1.3. no matter what I do (all the usual restart, reboot, delete, reconnect etc etc.). So unbelievably frustrating when you use notes as part of your daily working routine across several iDevices...

Well, I tried most of the "fixes" that have been suggested in this post. I simply could not go on with nothing working. I then migrated ALL of my Apple Notes to MS OneNote that I have through my Office 365 subscription. Easy syncing between my MacBook Pro, iPad pro and iPhone. Good bye Apple Notes. It was nice while it lasted.

I am having the exact same problem. I have a December 2017 MacBook Pro 15" with Catalina 10.15 (updated version of OS), an iPhone 6 with iOS 12.4.2 and an iPad Pro 12.9" with iOS 13.1.3. All my stuff is syncing except Notes going from the MacBook Pro to the iPhone or iPad, AND not synching from the iPad to the MacBook Pro or iPhone. It works going TO the MacBook and iPad from the iPhone 6, just not FROM the MacBook or iPad . Changes from the iPhone 6 appear on the iPad and MacBook in seconds. Nothing in the other direction. I’ve also done the whole sign out and sign in rodeo (and lost some Notes that were created on my MacBook in iCloud that had not synched).