Notes not syncing or uploading to iCloud After iOS 13 Update

To everyone offering convoluted instructions and 'resolutions', I appreciate your efforts to troubleshoot the issue and thank you for sharing your results.

Apple, fix this issue.

I didn't spend many thousands of dollars on your devices to have my 500+ notes become useless to me since any change I make on one device is not reflected on the others.

I am NOT deleting all of my notes on EVERY device, spending hours in the process, in the hopes of returning my devices to the basic functionality I had before your pointless upgrade that I 'had' to do.

Please, for the love of all that is holy, stop coming up with trinkets which you then bundle into updates which break actually useful features.

Before the updates, just opening Notes on iPhone would trigger syncing. That's still happening on macbook, but not on iPhone. A silly way to trigger syncing on the iPhone is to open Notes, open the exact note you want to sync, and type anything, even a space. This will trigger syncing.

To the solver who wrote on Oct 31, pg2001: please clarify that you dumped all your iCloud notes into local storage for notes (On my iPad or other device) BEFORE you wiped. I did not see that step cited before you mentioned erasing all iCloud notes. Yes, it seems obvious but to avoid a big mistake I am asking for clarity (retired CPA, sorry for the detail fuss). Your solution reminds me of "stuck/corrupted" email problems I have experienced, though not since leaving EarthLink if my recall is good. A stuck or corrupted email would cause the mail box to stop accepting email, requiring ELN "expert" intervention costing me an hour or 2 each time.

It would help if Apple and other vendors with apps relying on a cloud, whether google, apple or whomever, would follow the lead of ipad drawing app Nebo and include an Update/synch BUTTON to give certainty.

Thank you for the suggested solution, JH

I tried to migrate from Evernote with 3k+. Figured out that iOS sync doesn't work or work unstable. I see notes in iCloud web interface and within Mac OS app as well. Spent few hours with all levels of support. Activate/deactivate, erase totally and etc. Support tried to convince me that I have unstable internet line. I have 500 mbit sync line both office and home. They asked me to wait few hours to wait till iPhone will sync. Disaster.

If you want migrate from Evernote dont do it.

Syncing with iPhone iOS doesn't work. Proved.

For apple support - case number 101009692716

You know, that’s exactly what I was thinking. Except I already migrated thinking I’ll get the best of both worlds using Notes.

I’m beginning to think I need to migrate back to Evernote - glad *that’s* so easy to do...

I was following one of the recommendations as I was having similar issues. All I did was go into the reminders app, which I don’t use, and get through the welcome stuff, and voila, the cloud folder appeared in my notes, allowing me to sync between devices. Seems like reminders may be the issue.

I also had this issue for many months and it was driving me crazy. I would create or edit a note on my iPhone and the change would not take effect on my Macbook for several days or more. Sometimes it would sync sooner, sometimes later. I tried all of the suggested solutions to force the sync immediately (restarting both devices, signing out of iCloud and signing back in, making sure the note was saved to iCloud and not the device, etc.) and nothing worked. Then I stumbled upon the solution that solved my issue:

I realized one day that the syncing was directly related to which network I was using on any given device- either wifi or cellular data (4G). I realized that if I edited a note on my iPhone while using cellular data, it would not sync to my Macbook which was connected to my at-home wifi network. But then it would sync immediately when I switched my iPhone from cellular data to wifi, and opened both Notes apps (on the phone and the macbook).

So the key for me is having both devices operating on the same network-- then the changes will sync immediately.

Sometimes there is a lag and they don't sync immediately. The way I have solved this is by turning off the wifi on the device I made the change on, then turning the wifi back on. As soon as I turn the wifi back on, the change pushes to the other device.

Problem solved. For me anyway...

Hi I had a similar problem. I tried using software to no avail

Finally I found that if I transfer my iPhone notes to iCloud, it shows up on my ipad

I copied all of my notes that were in a local iPhone folder and pasted them into the iCloud folder. Now the iCloud folder populates on both iPhone and iPad.

I've had this issue in Catalina and none of the answers posted here helped.

Then yesterday, I've resolved my Microphone access issue by following the answer here: https://superuser.com/questions/1441270/apps-dont-show-up-in-camera-and-microphone-privacy-settings-in-macbook

and it resolved the Notes syncing issue!

So basically, just Apply the same permissions (0644) to all files/folders in your user directory, and it might help!

this is an old string but I have bought a 2014MacMini and fresh installed Catalina. Amongst many problems I found this one. I tried the 'reminders upgrade' but my App Store was not loading (that took ages to sort). THEN I SAW a post with five points about unchecking and rechecking the icloud notes tick. I left a few minutes between. Hey presto - it worked and all 813 (with a few images)loaded quickly (I have 200MBps net speeds). Next job is how to download my photos off my ipad......grrrr - it seems not to recognise it.....off to another string

Couldn’t agree more. This forum is like the blind leading the blind. Apple clearly sees no benefit in fixing anything that doesn’t have dollar impact to their bottom line. All these proposed “fixes” are bug work around that have been present for at least two years.

It's really way worse than all of this... Here are the two major issues I've written about at length.

1 - There is no way for people with two different Apple ID's to share notes. Period. "Inviting to share" doesn't count. Contrast with Calendar where it's easy for multiple Apple IDs to share Calendar events.

2 - Notes allows you to create a Google account for note sharing. It used to sync somewhat randomly and never consistently. Now it just simply doesn't work any more.

Fill in your own rant here. This has been ongoing for literally 2-3 years and Apple clearly has other priorities.

I found this sorted my sync issue..

Make sure the notes aren't being stored locally on your iPhone

If you have chosen to store the notes locally on your iPhone, the notes will be uploaded to iCloud neither can you view you the notes on your Mac even with the same iCloud account.

Go to "Settings" on your iPhone > scroll down to find "Notes" > disable "On My iPhone" by toggling switch.

I have the same problem time to time, I'm glad the solution is SOO EASY!!!

I don't want a button to "force sync notes" as this sounds so complicated!! I prefer the solution in this threat

Thanks Apple less is always more (less options = more troubles)

Having the same issue as original poster. What worked for me (at least right now): I closed Apple Notes, then opened Apple Reminders app, then reopened Apple Notes. My latest notes suddenly appeared. Hopefully this will not happen again, but who knows! Good luck!