Notes not syncing or uploading to iCloud After iOS 13 Update

In my case, it was the other way around, meaning: no sync from iOS to iCloud until I changed something.

Maybe the order in which devices have been added to iCloud?

Or maybe the way iOS has been updated, including other apps, like Reminders, and which OS runs on the Mac?

Edit: I see that somehow this issue had been marked as 'Solved' with a green tick. I wonder how that happened.

I have read through a large portion of some very creative solutions. They are similar but not exactly the same. I even spent time attempting to implement some of them myself. To no avail.

Some of us rely on Apple to run our businesses, and need to have a certain level of confidence in the software tools provided to us.

Why should people have to go through such gyrations in order to fix an issue that clearly resides with Apple and shoddy coding?

Shame on you Apple for not stepping up to the plate and admitting to the issue. Please do so, and provide a timeline for a fix.

☹️

Yes it sure is solved for Apple. They're not bothered. It is at times like these that I consider reverting MS and Android. I'm guessing the Apple execs must be using Android and PCs otherwise they'd get this problem sorted

I finally hit the point. I'm done. I will no longer use iCloud for note synchronization. Stuff I just created on my MacBookAir are not showing up on iPhone, iPad nor the iCloud web Notes app. I just went back to Evernote.

It was fun, Apple, evangelizing your stuff for years, defending you along the way, getting criticized by people at work for not using Microsoft of Google products for things like calendaring, reminders, photos and notes. While I can take the attacks from co-workers and friends, I cannot take data loss or data integrity problems. That's a deal breaker.

Hard to disagree with you. This has been a MAJOR disappointment. For me, it's personal and business stuff that got messed up. This is a known problem with Apple ... and the lack of immediate attention is nuts. You think Tim Cook does not sync his Notes from his iPhone to his Mac?? How can not this be raising alarms all over? In any case, Apple does NOT read these forums here so these musings and others (including mine here) are a total, complete waste of time. The measures outlined by others (and I give you credit for trying, believe me) are NOT fixes: they are hacks. Hacks do not address the fundamental--or underlying--problem. As a result, any of these add notes, delete notes, save to Mac, move back and on and on with all that do zilch to fix the core problem. Only Apple can do that at the server and software levels. Fingers crossed someone gets thru to someone in Cupertino. If not, as you said, Google does a fine job.

I feel your pain. I've lost a stack of Notes also. Stupid me for trusting Apple's products and not bothering to back-up my data, something that I have done now, but it won't bring back my lost notes.

I hear that Tim Cook actually reads some of his customer emails early in the mornings. I've just sent an email to. Hopefully he hears us out.

Like many people, I use Notes to collect my thoughts and stories of loved ones etc. I hope Tim can see the value in this and add some pressure to his lieutenants to resolve this issue and more importantly, bring back the "It just works" mantra, something that I feel has been de-grading as Apple continuously expands on its products and services in search for bigger profits.

[Personal Information Edited by Moderator]

Bizarrely, since posting Notes seems to be (mostly) syncing again between my MacBook and iPhone 7 . For the third time, I deleted/turned off Notes and Reminders from Settings/iCloud on the iphone, waited a good minute and then switched them back on - meantime quitting Notes on the MacBook - and since then they are syncing - both ways - albeit sometimes with a little delay .

PS I'm sure Tim Cook uses Android, so don't hold your breath for a quick fix . Notes was a wonderful tool for business before they wrecked it in the last updates .

Totally agree with you. Stopped using apple notes and started using onenote and google keep. I can not rely on notes that have syncing notes. Now im afraid if anything happens on contacts ,if they have syncing problems on icloud in general. I use icloud contacts. I have a back up on gmail thankfully.

OK. I went to their feedback page and pasted this URL in there.

I too wrote to Tim Cook, for what that's worth. I've never been one to write to executive management, but in this case I did. Loss of data is not OK.

I'm paying for 1TB of iCloud storage, iCloud family sharing, etc. Maybe I didn't read the Terms of Service closely enough. If I were using their free storage I'd think that Apple has no claims to protect my data; I better do something to back this up. But, given they are taking money for storage, that, to me, seems to imply my data should be protected. But it's not.

Example: the $1,200 iPad Pro with the Apple Pencil that creates BLOBs of data stored in their cloud is just gone. None of the apple clients can render these hand written notes (iPhone Notes, iPad Notes, Mac OS X notes, iCloud web app Notes). Gone.

Does this mean that iPad Pro with Pencil purchases should have a warning label "don't store you data on iCloud only. Consider storing your Notes in another online service or backup you notes on local storage media ... or use a third-party pencil-driven note taking application." ???

Does Evernote and do other note taking companies ask the user to download a local copy of their data before upgrading their software?

And this isn't just about lost data. Data isn't synchronizing between devices either. Salt on the wound.

It is sorta working for me now after this bug deleted all my notes and I started over. Called customer support, level 2 - "We have heard of no problems with Notes." Strange, one note on my Mac updated with a change in the text from the iPhone but not the pinned status, that is, text agrees, but one is pinned and one unpinned. I am using 13.2.2 and 10.15.1.

Negative+

Wrote New Note on iPad Pro using Apple Pencil ... "NOTE 13.2.2".

NOT on iCloud Notes

1/2 ON iPhone Notes (the OCR "Note 13.2.2" appears in the thumbnail but the media (hand drawn note) is missing.

1/2 ON MacBookPro Notes (the OCR "Note 13.2.2" appears in the thumbnail but the media (hand drawn note) is missing.

Hi all!

Yesterday asked for help via Apple-Russia support.

It seems like they didn't even hear about this issue...

They told me try to reinstall the system ))) Well, at least they didn't advice me to buy a new Mac )

I begin to think that, if it is an iCloud server problem, being on different servers may change the game for some of us (we have different servers w/ different software versions/updates, with different setups, leftover settings from previous versions of apps on our side, etc.) so only a clean start with Notes seems to work for now.

I am suggesting nothing, just trying to keep my wits about this issue, and I hope for a real solution. But I am convinced somehow that such a solution may not arrive for all of us at the same time, a bit like a rolling out of server updates, out of our reach/command.

I followed all the steps - used your tip at the end which was use local iMac storage vs. Phone. Easier to deal with. I had the same thing. About 1GB of data left in iCloud Notes storage after removing everything. I even had some Phantom note counts that were shouldering up in the Folder list, but there were no visible notes. Something cleary stuck.

Thanks for the tip! this has been SUPER frustrating.

If you drag/move/copy/backup/ your notes to a local machine by activating the ‘on my Mac’ feature then go to the settings and clear all data from notes and then them back to iCloud etc. That seems to fix everything. Also with the search as good as it is now you barely need a bunch of folders. You could even just hashtag your notes if you wanted moving forward. . This way moving noted and not having to recreate all the folders can be less daunting. That was the only thing about this fix, was it was difficult and cumbersome to maintain directory structure. the fix posted earlier in the forum worked. Notes updates again in seconds. I suspect older version notes that were not compatible with newer version of Notes caused some sort of phantom data in the cloud that would cause the sync to hang. Don’t know if Apple can fix this and if that’s the case they should at least officially post the fix and distribute to its support staff. If someone started using Notes today from scratch with new version of notes, I doubt they would have the sync problem.