Level 1

74 points

Notes not syncing or uploading to iCloud After iOS 13 Update

I'm having an issue where, after updating my devices to iOS 13, notes from the Apple Notes app are either not syncing, randomly syncing, or syncing only after a prolonged delay (e.g. days) between my iPhone and iPad. I've tried signing out and back in to iCloud and have removed and reinstalled the Notes app on both devices. I've ensured that the OS on both devices has been updated to the current version. Interestingly, If I have the notes app open on my iPhone, I still get the notification in the dock on my iPad that the notes app is open on my phone, but the notes still fail to sync, or at best, some notes randomly sync hours or days later, between the two devices. I noticed that if I create a note in the notes app through the iCloud website, the note downloads to both my devices immediately, but notes created on my devices fail to upload.

Has anyone else had this issue and found a solution? Is this a known bug in iOS 13, similar to one with the Reminders app (which I don't seem to be having)?

Posted on Oct 8, 2019 3:55 AM

Top-ranking reply

newcelica

Level 1

4 points

Posted on Oct 14, 2019 7:44 AM

Update: It works now! It's syncing on all devices and working as normal. The first time to sync across platforms took about an hour, so give it time the first few times when you update notes on a device and are waiting for it to show on another device(s).

All I did was exit/quit my notes on all the devices, shut down (not restart) the devices, turned them back on, and then opened up notes. From here I created a new note on each device and called it "New Note From [device]" to see if it would populate on the other devices. It did. Then I typed in each of the bodies using a different device to see if it would sync in the reverse order. For example, a note created from iPhone was titled "New Note From iPhone" was updated in the body of that note from the MacBook. I just wrote "this sentence is written from the MacBook." Then I saw it update on the iPhone and iPad accordingly. This first update took an hour but now new updates are syncing within minutes.

If the shut down and turn on method described above does not work for you then I suggest logging out of your iCloud accounts on all your devices and then proceed with to exit notes, shut down the device, turn it back on, re-log into iCloud, open up notes, let it populate the notes from the cloud, and then test out the syncing with the method aforementioned.

I hope this works for you too. Good luck!

View in context

Similar questions

537 replies

Oct 27, 2019 11:41 AM in response to Matk82

The test account didn't work for me, too. It even deleted some scanned documents. Luckily they were still in the deleted items folder. I have problems with scanned documents in subfolders. The whole notes issue really needs to be fixed.

Oct 27, 2019 12:07 PM in response to snoone

I can’t take it anymore. Do they really think I am going to spend another 2 hours on the phone trying to fix a problem I can’t possibly correct. This is just embarrassing. Shame on Apple for this whole OS debacle this year.

paulidj

Level 1

8 points

Oct 28, 2019 12:06 AM in response to KasparV

Happy for you.

After this, all notes from iCloud synced back to all your devices, and no push problems anymore?

Just wonder, how long ago did it all start working again for you? I would be very interested to know if (and so, when) your problems return.

My problem is different: no push from iOS to iCloud. Not sure if trashing OS cache would help me.

avand3r

Level 1

8 points

Oct 29, 2019 2:25 AM in response to Matk82

Bad news people... if you expect today's 13.2. update to repair broken sync, bad luck! just updated my iPhone to 13.2. and it is still NOT syncing Notes to other devices :(.

Apple is ignoring this issue... quite shocking I must say. I understand some bugs may find way into the updates, but not fixing such an important feature for people's workflow (if they use it) is unbelievable.

Oct 29, 2019 3:58 AM in response to pi-apple

I agree, even though I've now migrated all of my Apple Notes to MS OneNote (I just had to do this by hand, one at a time) I periodically check with Apple notes, to see if there's any change. No change for me. No syncing. Too bad. I liked this program, but am very VERY happy now with MS OneNote through my Office 365 subscription

Oct 29, 2019 4:56 AM in response to bradchatellier

After signing in and signing out of iCloud, losing notes in the process, and absolutely no resolution from Apple, I switched to MicroSoft One Note.

Shame on Apple for messing up this important and very useful app!!!

I use Duet instead of Sidecar because this app does not work either with my Mac.

smccorkle13 Author

Level 1

74 points

Oct 29, 2019 7:01 AM in response to paulidj

The update did not fix my situation either. Notes are still not syncing, or at very best, only partially syncing.

As I appreciate all of the workarounds using the Mac, I don't use a Mac, so unfortunately none of those solutions will work for me.

Oct 29, 2019 7:07 AM in response to smccorkle13

The updates did NOT work for me either. Looks like this is going to be a long term problem and like the others I may need to find an alternative because I lost confidence in their ability to protect my data. :(

jeffbod

Level 1

9 points

Oct 30, 2019 1:29 AM in response to smccorkle13

Seams that Apple do not realises their simple Notes app is used by thousands of "users" i.e. CLIENTS on a level they have not imagined. Most people use it to take a quick note and discard the note later on. Others as I do, put EVERYTHING there, it is therefore a tool and should be handled properly from Apple. I recently exported all my note from Bear to Notes, this way is easy to do while exporting to Bear is quiet difficult. If it is not settle within the next 10 days I will export all notes as PDF into Bear app. That's it.

pi-apple

Level 1

10 points

Oct 30, 2019 3:01 AM in response to Chengera

Thank you for putting this link here, I’ve given my feedback, others should do the same, because seriously this is a massive issue, and unless you have more time on your hands to effectively re-build the system, the problem will still persist!

avand3r

Level 1

8 points

Oct 30, 2019 5:59 AM in response to Bidule200

I tried to follow the Bidule200 instructions and ended up nowhere... once I turned off Notes on all my devices and I tried to log in into web browser iCloud and open Notes app to delete notes, the app started crashing on me every time I try to delete some notes... so I am not able to delete nor put my notes back, bummer. This seems to be even bigger issue.

GerbenW

Level 1

4 points

Oct 30, 2019 11:58 AM in response to avand3r

Thank you, this last step was what I needed to solve te problem! All my notes seem to sync instantly again, including drawings made on the iPad.

I hope this will solve the problem for other people too.

pg2001

Level 1

19 points

Oct 31, 2019 10:56 PM in response to Chengera

Thinking about each device:

iPhone: Notes was running.
iPad: not sure. I'd updated the OS recently, but I'm not sure if I'd restarted notes.
MBA: Notes was not running and had not been open for a day - and also I have updated the OS so I probably opened Notes for the first time AFTER I cleared out the 2.2GB of mystery files in iCloud.

edwz

Level 1

16 points

Nov 1, 2019 12:41 AM in response to Matk82

To be honest I think this regression, together with the probability related Safari iCloud Tabs not syncing, happened with every single major OS update of the last few years. Fixed after n minor updates. This is my experience anyway.

gregmn

Level 1

8 points

Nov 1, 2019 7:53 AM in response to smccorkle13

I agree! Where are the helpful Gurus from Apple. I have used iPhones since 2013... I guess it is time to try out the competitor's phones. This one cannot even backup and retrieve files. "HELP' files are written by morons! No human engineering!

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

Notes not syncing or uploading to iCloud After iOS 13 Update