Notes Not Syncing Across Devices

Ensure Custom Password is active for locked Notes, not Touch ID or similar.

If Touch ID is active on Notes on iPhone, Notes on iCloud and iPhone will sync, but Notes on iCloud won't sync to Notes on Mac, and you'll be unable to open locked Notes on iCloud.

This worked for me. Took a few minutes to re-sync on iCloud, iPhone and Mac. All Notes now appear on all devices can can be opened using same Custom Password on all.

Strange problem. I would sign out of iCloud on all your devices. I know you've restarted them all before, but I would actually sign out of iCloud. Then, sign back in, one device at a time, checking along the way to see if things are syncing.

Good luck!

Anyone having these problems? I fixed it. Basically I copied and pasted all my text notes and then permanently deleted all notes data from iCloud …. it deleted absolutely everything everywhere! Then i turned notes off and on, pasted all my text notes back and oilá, everything synced!

My Notes Not Syncing issue most often occurs when the Note is edited on my Mac and fails to push out to iOS devices. It often works properly when only one edit is made, but after a few more edits to the same Note on macOS, the sync often fails to go to the iOS devices. This bug has been around for a long time and it is frustrating that Apple can't seem to fix it. Until they fix it, they could at least add a command in Notes to force an update to iCloud for the Notes app (similar to the push command in the old MobileMe cloud sync).

Although I have never received a "no network" message like some of the posts report, that gave me an idea since nothing else has worked to fix this problem, I'd disconnect my Mac from both the Wi-Fi and Ethernet networks for a minute, then reconnect it. As soon as my Mac reconnected to the network, the updates were pushed out to my iOS devices. Disconnecting-reconnecting the Mac that is failing to push out updated Notes may be a work-around for some of you who are having the same issue.

Create a new admin account Change Users & Groups settings on Mac - Apple Support in users and groups of your Mac , and again configure notes Add or remove accounts in Notes on Mac - Apple Support

My notes were not syncing but I eventually figured out that I was creating them on the device and not in the cloud. Here’s how I fixed mine. On the home page of notes click the circle in the upper right. One of your choices will be to select notes. Click that. Then click each note you’d like to sync. At the bottom of the page you have the choice to move the notes. Click move. You will then get a of choices including iCloud. Click that. Lastly make sure you create all new notes in the iCloud folder by clicking the folder tab at the top of the page for a new note and selecting the iCloud folder. I don’t have a Mac but this worked for syncing my iPad and iPhone. (Now I have to delete all the duplicated I created by entering my notes on both devices before I figured this out 🤔).

Hope this helps at least some folks.

I found an inconsistent workaround: Click "Share Note" (e.g. via mail) a particular file, say on your macbook, which seems to force sync the file sometimes to one or more of my other devices, i.e. my ipad and/or iphone. This works inconsistently but it's better than despair.

This is the kludge-iest of kludges that ever did kludge:

Quit the Notes apps on your devices (for example, iPhone and Macbook) in an apparently random order until they sync.

I have tried quitting the one last edited first and vice versa.

I have tried quitting just one and not the other, and quitting both.

Eventually they sync, but it is seemingly random, and may require more than one quit of one or the other.

Did the Sonoma 14.5 update for MacBook create Schröedinger's Cat for the Notes app?

November 21 2023. Updated to iOS 17 the other day and just now noticing my sync problem has been solved. I hope this has solved this issue for many on this discussion!

RicanHavoc787 Said:

"Notes Not Syncing Across Devices: For some time now I've noticed that my Notes app does not sync my notes across devices.[...]"

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Thank you for the photo.

Note:

Log In Issues Going About:

I am seeing lots of iCloud login issues being reported. So, keep an eye on where things stand: System Status - Apple Support

Troubleshooting Notes:

I. Re-Enable Notes in iCloud Settings:

Look in iCloud settings in each device, and make sure that Notes is clicked. If it is, then unclick it, and then click it again.

II. New iCloud Sessions:

Log out of iCloud on all of your devices, and then log back in, one-device-at-a-time. Perhaps it all needs to resync?

III. Recovering Lost Notes:

If you have lost the notes, then here is what to try...

A. Start Here: If you're Missing Notes on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

B. Restore from a Backup:

Did your ever back up your iPhone with these installed? If so, back up you could back up your iPhone, and then restore it from the backup.

C. iCloud in Settings: Look in iCloud settings in each device, and make sure that Notes is clicked. If it is, then unclick it, and then click it again.

I find text created notes sync ok. But the Apple Pencil written notes on my iPad just don't sync across to the Mac. They seem to show up on my iPhone. All very unreliable to tbh. Software need to work. I feel I've made a mistake trying to rely on Apples native notes app for important notes. I may just have to accept my stupidity and slowly begin to migrate to another app. Notability App which is used by a lot students is cheap and loaded with features. It may lack the design elements of Apple Notes, but what's the use of that if you can't access your notes when you need them. Apple software team need to get a basic grip on things and ensure things work as they should - that's the main reason people use Apple products.

upgrade your Mac Update macOS on Mac - Apple Support

I'm not sure what I'm doing half the time, but I've had issues with duplicate Notes and Notes not syncing. Also, I do not know the difference between Notes and Quick Notes. My iPhone did not sync with my iPad or Mac. I learned how to move Notes in the above replies. Thank you because when I moved a Quick Note to Notes everything synced instantly. So now I have 307 Quick Notes and 309 Notes on iCloud on all three devices. Hopefully the issue is solved.

If notes says it has no internet reset your network connections. General, transfer or reset iPhone, reset, reset network settings. You’ll have to sign into any WiFi connections that you normally use but it will fix the “no internet connection” on notes

I find text created notes sync ok. But the Apple Pencil written notes on my iPad just don't sync across to the Mac consistently - sometimes show up, other times only in the thumbnail, but displays a blank page. Even on the iPads when I open a handwritten note, it can fail to load. The notes seem to show up on my iPhone fine. All very unreliable to tbh. Software needs to just work. I feel I've made a mistake trying to rely on Apples native notes app for important notes. I may just have to accept my stupidity and slowly begin to migrate to another app. Notability App which is used by a lot students is cheap and loaded with features. It may lack the design elements of Apple Notes, but what's the use of that if you can't access your notes when you need them. Apple software teams need to get a basic grip on things and ensure things work as they should - that's the main reason people use Apple products.

If this all comes down to it being a MacOS vs iOS issue, then honestly, Apple needs to just accept they are going to merge the code and get on with it rather than denying and then doing it as a grand feature update in future when most of it's user will have moved on.