Apple Notes.app on iMac not syncing with iCloud but iPad okay

Thanks again for your insights. My problem at this time appears to be solved.

I failed to mention above that I had already reached out to Apple Support and received basically the same troubleshooting guidance.

I know each machine has unique characteristics, but what I think finally fixed my situation was all of the steps mentioned above. I can't pinpoint one item over the other, but the combination finally forced the machine to begin the update of the Notes.app.

KEY TAKEAWAY: After researching why the Notes.app might crash or fail to respond, clearing NVRAM and SEC plus the shutdowns and restarts helped. For those experiencing Notes.app "syncing" problems, the reset of NVRAM and SEC are rarely mentioned in lists of potential fixes.

While I'm no expert, the dates on the notes data along with my recall of when the folder and sub-folder structures were created suggested (to me) that the way macOS updates as compared to iPadOS somehow differs. That is, while Notes on macOS does not show the update progress, iPadOS gives a sense of the progress by refreshing the window. For example, a recently created a folder and contents would be the last thing to show up in macOS. And that can lead to hours of not seeing anything but a spinning disk in the Notes.app window.

Even with high-speed Internet, it took nearly seven hours on a 3.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5 to finally update all of the 3,200 notes. The same restoration after an off/on reset of the Notes Account was accomplished on my iPad Pro in two hours. Both devices were connected to the same router.

At this point, I'm missing two notes on the iMac as compared to the record count shown on the iPad, which makes me wonder why there are no error messages on either machine.

As products go, I hope Apple will make the Notes.app more of a priority. When it's working and fully synced, what a great tool!

Your efforts to help me and others are appreciated!

GPF

Thank you for the timely reply!

This is an interesting dilemma. Everything on my 27" iMac synced with iCloud except the Notes.app.

My iPhone, iPad Mini, and 21" iMac are NOT set to synch with Notes, only my iMac 27" and iPad Pro. This configuration worked fine BEFORE the macOS 11.2.1 upgrade.

I've done the "remove and add of accounts" as well as logging in and out of all devices. I've turned Notes account sync on iMac 27" and iPad Pro.

Because Notes.app crashed or stopped responding many times, reset NVRAM as well as SEC on the iMac, requiring multiple shutdowns and restarts.

At this time, the Notes.app on the iMac 27" is laboring to update, which I take as a positive sign!

I can see in the %CPU in Activity Monitor as the system chugs back and forth between Notes.app and iCloud; however, after running for five hours, only 28 of the 3,200 notes have shown up in the notes window.

Because I've logged in and out of iCloud notes on my iPad Pro, I'm aware that it takes time to populate after a reset. but unlike the iCloud Drive, I see no way of verifying how much of my data has actually transferred to the iMac except what I can see in the Notes.app window.

I use a folder and sub-folder structure within the Notes.app, and all that currently shows is the single "Notes" folder. Until the Notes.app updates the folder structure, I can't see how much of my data has been restored. I know from the reset of the iPad Pro, the folder structure doesn't take place until near the end of the synch.

=> Is there some way for me to monitor how much of the Notes data has already moved to the iMac?

I don't mind waiting, but I'm concerned this might be another fruitless exercise if the data is not coming across.

My best!