Can’t share Notes with recent Apple system upgrade

I was running into the same problem trying to share notes with my wife for a number of weeks now. I think it started in early to mid October, 2019. I had shared a number of notes with her in the past, usually by text, and suddenly she could not get them to work. It would go through the process of retrieving the note, but when she tried to open it, she would get the message:

“This note can’t be opened right now. Please try again later.”

I did all kinds of things including closing out all apps, shutting down phones, shutting off my phone (which wasn’t as current of an iOS as my iPad) and even logging her out of her Apple ID and logging back in.

None of that worked.

However, I discovered that when I added her iCloud email address (which she never uses and does not wish to use) to her contact info on my devices that I could email her a shared note invitation through that unused iCloud email address. It still did not allow me to send her shared notes via text, but it worked.

Another workaround I discovered was to take an old shared note that we were no longer using and just completely change the text to be the new shared note. That worked fine as well. I also emailed a couple of blank note templates that, when I choose to change them, will already be available in her Notes.

The problem did not pose itself if she wished to share a note with me. That is why I believe that the issue was because the notes were not going through an iCloud email address. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the system will sort itself out after her iCloud address is in my contacts for a while, so that Messages can also send her shared notes.

I do not know what stupid glitch is causing the problem, but I suspect it has to do with recent updates. Perhaps Apple while sort this out for us in the near future.

So this was bugging me, and weak responses like "make sure everything is up to date" just drives me up the wall, so I went to submit a bug report... but in doing so I decided to try some other avenues. I wanted to share a folder with my girlfriend. We did have several shared notes, but I wanted to un-share them all and put them in the shared folder. But the shared folder would end up presenting that same message. I tried sharing it via iMessage and Airdrop, from a phone, and a mac. My girlfriend has a PC, so I got her to log into iCloud. Then I shared the note over email and got her to log into her webmail client. This didn't work but it didn't present an error. I don't know if doing this had any effect, but I tell it in case it was a crucial step... Then I asked her to open that email on the phone then tap the link. It opened Notes, and this time it shared.

So, it's buggy AF but if you just want to set up a shared folder, try sending it via an email link. If that doesn't work, replicate my steps. Who knows, who cares, as long as you can get it to work, right? Apple may one day sort their crap out. From then on, any notes you want to share with your wife, move them to that shared folder.

Hi Hackettino,

Thanks for using Apple Support Communities! I see you're having an issue with sharing a Note and I'd like to do what I can to help out.

Share your notes on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Mac has the steps, so you can verify that everything is set up correctly on your iPhone. Also make sure that the other iPhone is updated to the latest iOS. Update your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

Make sure that the other iPhone is connected to Wi-Fi or cellular data when trying to view the shared note.

If you're still not able to successfully share that note, try making a new shared note following the steps in that article and see if a new one works.

Cheers!

Hey Hackettino,

Thanks for the reply and for trying all of those steps.

If you're still getting that message, I'd suggest contacting Apple Support, so they can take a look at what's happening.

Thanks!