Notes not syncing or uploading to iCloud After iOS 13 Update

No, new supplemental update does not solve the Notes issue. I upgraded my Mac mini, iPhone and iPad. Still not properly syncing. The 'Reminders' trick works for one sync, after that it stops syncing again. I still have an old iMac, not yet upgraded to Catalina, and a MacBook, which I can't access until end of this week. Maybe both of those also need to be upgraded to Catalina. Anyhow I won't update my iMac, it's the only Mac which allows me to scan on my Xerox Workcenter 6605. Scanning on that scanner is also broken on Catalina.

I've had all of above happen. Notes not syncing, almost all my pinned notes became unpinned, few notes somehow got moved to "recently deleted" folder...

I know Apple is trying to make things slick and simple, but this failure again shows up that we're not there yet. I'm talking about ability to manually backup notes as files -- there is no such function at all. We're at the mercy of apple to retain our notes. We can't import, we can't manually trigger a sync (which, by the way, is a huge irritant in Photos -- waiting around for sync to happen at some seemingly random moment is infuriating).

Apple, take a step back. These things are not as reliable as you imagine them to be. Give us old-school "Save/Import/Open" interface to file system. Introduce an option to manually trigger sync (preferably with ability to see what's happening in the process). Those of us who were born before smartphone era would really appreciate that.

By air-dropping notes back and forth, you're creating multiple copies of them every single time. When (and if) sync is ever going to come back to life, you'll be inundated by multiple versions of the same note on your devices.

I'm currently not using notes anymore, just to avoid creating more confusion in them, but they keep deteriorating by themselves. I'd love to be able to make a local backup copy of all my notes, but hey -- apple didn't provide such functionality! That's too advanced! Ugh...

Currently doesn't work. Try handing over a note which is not synced and see what happens -- nothing. It opens notes, but doesn't find/open the note you were working on on another device. Tried that too.

Some weird stuff going on. Since applying all three updates today I was able to sync notes but now Notes is erratic again:

1. Notes not syncing to all devices

2. Words dropped from Titles

And, wait for it, Apple's community forum has now broken. I've received the same reply by a community member, by email, from like over a dozen times! 

Google Keep,  here I come. You may have invaded my privacy, but you never let me down :)

I see different results on my Mac Mini (Catalina) than I do on iCloud and my iPhone Xs Max (iOS13). Each one has a different version of the same note -- this could scramble my data when it starts working again!

Which 13 are you on I think I’m on 13.3, and you’re right, I’m having a lot of the same issues, more than that, something is bogging down my processor., “Spinning wheel of death” So I actually haven’t updated to 13.3 I’m kind of nervous about it. but as of now I can’t send a group text via SMS.

I’m having the same issue. Uploading note from ipad to cloud is the problem. Especially new note that contain some photos. It takes days to upload to cloud.

but from iphone to cloud has no problem at all. Once notes are in cloud. Downloading to any devices do not seem to be a problem.

Unfortunately, this trick didn't help me.

MacBook Pro @ 383 notes

iPad Pro @ 378 notes

iPhone Pro @ 379 notes

iCloud @ ??? notes (doesn't seem to provide a count)

Apple really screwed this one up. Worse, my handwritten notes prior to iOS13 are GONE. I called Apple about this and they self-escalated me to support management and engineering. This is a fiasco.

I lament the notion of going to Microsoft OneNote, which our company mandates we use. At this point I think I need to find another note taking tool.

Apple Note is, simply put, unable at this time.

I'm sorry to say, but it does'nt for me (read my previous posts).

Glad it seems to work for you.

Others have posted this and other solutions that did not seem to work for some. This is a multi-headed beast, at least it seems to be affecting iCloud/OS differently across the globe.

This worked! Surely Apple with fix this major issue soon but thanks for the workaround, at least we can now force a back up of notes taken on the Mac manually using this method. Can't believe how disfunctional Apple software updates have been this year 😥

Ha, same experience here - have unfollowed several times, and it keeps re-following me and sending me email updates. Yet another Apple server issue I guess!

I’m in the process of switching over to Google products as a result of this mess. Never thought I’d go back, but at the end of the day, I think a cloud-first platform is the way to go and the way the future is headed. To me, Apple is breaking now precisely because they’ve tied their technologies to their products so much that as the products and platforms become more complex, they begin to fall apart. I want to be able to share folders, notes, photos, etc with my wife and Apple’s just not cutting it at this point. Notes is just one part of the issue.

Are others feeling the same? For example, Google Photos gives me the option of seeing and auto-adding all of my wife’s photos to my own library...Apple doesn’t offer anything close!

I tried this and it works indeed. Notes are syncing immediately now on all devices.

However, I must admit I only have a few notes in Notes as I use Evernote for the thousands of notes I have.

For someone with many notes in Notes it's not workeable.

I’m tempted to give this a try, given yours and others success, although what happens with shared notes? I guess you would have to keep track of which ones were shared and reshare them, but then what happens with them on the other person’s device?

It seems super complicated, so maybe in the meantime I’ll just make new notes locally (I mostly only create them on the iPad), and hope that Apple gets this straightened out sooner rather than later.

I am having the same problem. Notes and Photos not syncing properly. I called Apple support but got nowhere. They had me try everything I already had tried, including rolling back iOS. It seemed to start after I installed Catalina GM on my MacBook. Very frustrating! Destroys my productivity. :(