Notes not syncing or uploading to iCloud After iOS 13 Update

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.

Thanks @pg2001! You legend. I owe you a beer or two mate!

Your suggestion to delete Notes from Accounts/iCloud/iCloud/Manage Storage has fixed the iCloud sync issue on my MBP.

Notes are syncing instantly now.

Prior to the purge, Notes was showing 2.3gb of iCloud usage. After purging the Notes iCloud data and re-syncing it with my notes backup on my MBP, iCloud usage is now showing 1.1gb utilisation.

So it seems like my Notes in iCloud was clogged up with 1.2gb of crap and a good 'ole dump has fixed it (for now...)

Jokes aside, Apple should still fix the underlying root cause of this problem.

I've also noticed Voice Memo app has a similar iCloud sync issue. I wonder what other iCloud apps may be caused by the same underlying iCloud root problem?

Insightful article we can all relate to at the moment. It’s not iCloud though it’s the actual software. With notes you can use a gmail or google account to store apple notes, I tested it with a separate google account and the same sync problem occurred. I also used notability on iCloud and it synced perfectly so it seems to be specific to the New version on Notes on all platforms.

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!

All - After going thru many steps and after talking with Apple a couple of times (with "senior advisors"), this is without doubt and Apple iCloud + software issue. Period. And the fixes you see here (and I give you guys much credit for all your effort) are not fixes ... they are hacks. They do NOT fix the fundamental problem about which Apple is familiar. It's like a bad engine in a car. You can take the spark plugs out, put them back in, put them back in a different order and so on and maybe the engine might turn over. But the engine is bad so it's futile in the end. Our only hope is that Apple gets on it. It is remarkable that this has not been fixed yet. The only thing you / we / all of us can do is to keep calling Apple and escalating the calls to higher up. Do not waste your time resetting Notes, powering on and off, moving Notes and on and on. Tell Apple you have done all that. And then we hope someone there on the engineering team fixes this. Apple does not read these posts, it is clear. Only way to get a message in to them is to call. Twitter seems to be a great way to share thoughts too. Have a good weekend, all!

Agree with DashIsCrazy. Apple has provided no resolution yet for this issue.

I moved to One Note. works fine. synch's fine.

The fact that Apple has not stated this is an issue, and has not fixed this issue is truly shameful!

Not the way to treat dedicated Mac and iPhone users.

The same action did not work before iOS 13.2 and Catalina 10.15.1

But cleaning all the old notes from iCloud storage did resolve my notes sync too.

A few seconds delay between notes sync.

I had all notes copied local on my iPad and now could sync back to iCloud in a few minutes. The same process did not finish the previous attempt even after 48 hours and 20 reboots or restarts of notes app. All attachments and media seem to be synched this time. No missing objects or notes for now.

It is some kind of miracle, because Apple say they didn't fix it (they say it wasn't broken).

So I must be a believer now ;-)

I am noticing a decline in the quality of Apple's software release lately. Notes not syncing consistently is an example. I moved all my hardware from widows and android to apple. I guess I am late to the party. Microsoft seems to be more attentive to quality these days. One Note syncs flawlessly across all my apple devices.

I followed your instructions and I thought I had solved the problem, but after a couple of days, I still have to force quit and relaunch iOS app both iPad and iPhone to get refresh. It's better than not nothing I guess...

pg2001 - Thanks for the great tip. This seems to have worked for me, at least for the time being.

Tip: Dragging your notes en masse to the "On my Mac" section works, but does not bring the folders along. I had to create each folder I had, then drag the notes from folder to folder. Had to do the same thing going back.

it’s working now.

I‘ve had the same issue. Notes were not syncing, esp. uploading on my iPhone as well as my iPadPro after updating to iOS 13.

The issue was, that on another one of my eMail accounts notes syncing was enabled beside mail.

Check under “Password and accounts” that none of your email accounts (beside your iCloud account) has notes sync activated.

After deactivating the notes sync in one of my other accounts everything went well as before.

pg2001 -- your suggestions fixed my syncing problem between 2 iPhones, an iPad, and a MBP, all with the most current OS. I have a feeling the key step was "Then I did this (this is what I think resolved the issue). I went to Settings/Passwords & Accounts/iCloud/iCloud/Manage Storage - and I looked down the list to see how much data Notes had stored in iCloud (obviously it should be zero as I had deleted all Notes out of iCloud). It was 2.2GB - ranked 5th after iCloud Drive, Photos, Messages, Backups. Obviously something was jammed in there."

Thanks a bunch!

For my - so far as I can see - the storing all Notes local, deleting the iCloud Notes and reload them back to the cloud has done the trick.

It is not the way it should be but all devices are responsive and fast now again.

In the console there are for now no error-entries.

Hope it stays that way.

Spangle B

They will indeed disappear if you clear icloud. What you need to do is go to the setting in the notes app and enable the 'On My Mac Account'. Drag your notes to that account (you may have to create individual folders to transfer them into if you use folders, I don't think you can drag them.). You can then follow all the clear icloud notes, and recover the notes space from icloud as others have suggested here.

Also, if you have some other account syncing notes, like gmail, remove that first as it may solve the problem.

Wolff, Cabaleiro, Corkle, Bidule, Matk ea

Seems that you have located at least part of the iCloud problem. Ideally, this should be implemented in all app versions as a cleaning option (similar to 'migrate' at the OS level).

But my only question is: will it last? Or could whatever caused this junk to be collected cause trouble in the future?

Please let us know if your problems return, but let's hope not.