Notes not syncing or uploading to iCloud After iOS 13 Update

I am beginning to think a prefs file somewhere keeps getting corrupted.

I read about deleting a file on the Mac, but this may not be the (only) problem.

Also, the problem is not restricted to Catalina. Mojave problems are similar to some reported here (iOS not syncing to iCloud).

This doesn't work for me. If I use the iCloud browser view, I can update it and it pushes changes to both my phone and Catalina install on my Mac Mini. If I update the other two, the changes aren't pushed back. This happened after unchecking and rechecking sync-to-iCloud on my iPhone Xs Max. It appears that for devices that are syncing, they're only syncing in one direction, so for the moment, I'm only updating notes using the iCloud browser view, under the assumption that the master copy is in the cloud.

Sorry to say the issue started before. I experienced iOS not syncing up to iCloud at 13.2 and not syncing from Mojave to iCloud/iOS.

Some suggest it started with Catalina/iOS13, others say it went away after updating to Catalina.

For me, it began with iOS13, and only restarting iPhone works. For a while.

There is little awareness, and no recognition that I can find on Apple support site other than standard things to try:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203521

Are you sure this icon is not just telling you that this particular note has an attachment of some type, rather than being pure text?

In general, for me, my situation has removed the same - since the Catalina update (and not the iOS 13 update) modification to notes, or new notes, in 'Notes' on my two MacBook Pros and on my iPhone do not get uploaded to iCloud. But things work the other way. So I am now trying to working always from Notes in the iCloud interface. Any changes I make in the web interface DO sync, virtually immediately, to my MacBook Pros and my iPhone. But it is irritating to have to work like this.

Same issue for me for more than a week.

Just spent 1,5 hours on the phone with Apple support team: solution found!

• I had to create a new user on the MacBook (just call it "test"), connect to iCloud, and sync the notes.
• It reenables the lost connection from the MacBook.
• Once it works you can go back to your normal user and try again. And you can delete the "test" user.

Hope it works for you too.

This turned out working for me, for now: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7720480?page=4

Finally found a solution for this after months of trying various different things. (Tried pretty much every solution, individually or in combination). What finally worked for me was:

Making sure that all internet accounts had synching off for notes (including iCloud) in the system preferences

Going to /users/[name]/Library and doing a search within that folder for any file containing “Notes” in the name.

matches were found in both /users/[yourname]/Library/Containers AND /users/[yourname]/Library/GroupContainers

going to /Library/Caches and selecting all and moving to trash

Selected all such files, threw them in the trash.

Empty trash

Reboot

Open Notes

Turn on synching for iCloud

Presto! It worked! For the first time since I installed Sierra pretty much, it finally worked on my computer again! So I’m not sure which file it was exactly that I deleted that did the trick, but my best guess is that deleting the notes related files in “containers” is not enough, you must also go after the related files in “group containers”.

There we go! Hope this helps somebody else!

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.

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.

Looks like data integrity issue...

No need to switch-off iCloud accounts completely, just Notes...

1. Enable Notes on My Mac (Notes-Preferences-Enable on My Mac) to save locally first.
2. Select All iCloud notes (Command-A), click (keep clicked) and slowly drag into On My Mac, Notes will freeze for a while till transfer complete, so all notes will be in On My Mac (To preserve folders, must create same folders in On My Mac and drag folder by folder.)
3. Disable Notes switch in iCloud on Mac and all devices so iCloud records disappear from Notes
4. Then in Apple-ID -> iCloud -> Manage Storage -> Notes ...Delete all data
5. Then enable iCloud Notes switch on Mac
6. Then repeat drag back into iCloud (must be empty = 0)
7. Then enable iCloud Notes switch on all devices so all notes become in sync again

As of today, it appears that Apple has done something to fix the problem of Notes not uploading to iCloud/not synching with other devices. It worked perfectly this morning and worked late this afternoon, which is the best it has been since the problem arose. Apparently it was a glitch with iCloud, because as far as I can tell there was no fix to iPad OS, ios 13, or Catalina.

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.

Hi everyone, I had the same issue and I was on the phone with a senior apple customer service employee. Here is the solution that took 2 minutes:

Root cause: Problem with the local keychain files that created a bug which blocked the syncing of notes and several more components from icloud to macbook.

Downside: Your saved passwords in the keychain will be deleted (you can make a local copy though)

Solution:

0 Log out of Icloud (System Preferences > Apple Id > Overview > Sign out (bottom left)

1 Go to main desktop

2 Next to apple sign at the top left you will see Finder | File | Edit | View | Go | ..

3 Press "Alt key" and Click on "Go" at the same time (This enables viewing extra sections)

4 Click on "Library" (After "Home" before "Computer")

5 From Library Folder Find "Keychains" Folder (After "Keyboard Services" before "Language Modelling")

6 Select everything within this folder (1 folder with a funny id, 2 or 3 login.keychain files)

7 Right click and selected items and choose "New folder with Selection" (This is where you are creating a local copy for backup)

8 Name the file however you want and save it where ever you want

9 Delete the selected items (not the newly created copy folder)

10 Shut Down your computer

11 Turn your computer on again

12 Sign into icloud from system preferences

And thats it!

I asked if I should move back the backup folder that I created back to the keychains folder and he advised me not to do it. Which makes sense right, that was the root cause of the problem.

I had my passwords saved on google cloud as well, so I was able to get them back easily.

I hope this helps!

Best of luck

I think keychain is embedded in the mac os, maybe you arent using the keychains icloud services.

In any case, I would suggest you to call the customer service, your mac still has warranty and maybe your issue can be solved with an easier solution. There were many other things we tried with the customer service before reaching to this last resort.

Best of luck!

Same here. Still waiting Apple to fix it.