Notes app: All iCloud vs Notes folder sync issue

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Notes app: All iCloud vs Notes folder sync issue

Question regarding the Notes app folders: "ALL ICLOUD" vs. "Notes"

Background: I've used iCloud for as long as it has been available (and prior to that - whatever syncing service was available, I forget the name). And I've used the notes app since 2008. At some point I recall there being a need to specify where notes get saved by default...this is years ago and I don't remember the details of that but I vaguely remember that the discrepancy that these two folders began around that time. I have verified in settings that I do save Notes to iCloud and the item count there is 1840.

Current state on MacBook: 1,833 notes in the ALL ICLOUD folder and 1,067 in the Notes folder.

Current state on iPhone: 1,829 in ALL ICLOUD folder and 1,063 in Notes folder. iCloud sync is ON and Fetch is OFF. Default account is iCloud. "On My iPhone" Account is OFF.

Of note: the smart sorting in each of these folders looks quite different. For example, one folder shows only 4 notes in the 'previous 7 days' and the other has 13. Similar discrepancies in the 'previous 30 days'. When I look at the exact notes that are in each of those categories, the previous 7 days in the All iCloud folder does contain the 4 notes from the other folder.

Primary Question: How does one determine which notes are NOT saved to iCloud?

Secondary: What is the purpose of the "Notes" folder - and what should be done with it to avoid discrepancies?

I'm not concerned about a small discrepancy as I realize my sync cycle might be off by a few minutes and I use notes constantly. But...if a note that's really important to me happens to be one that's either not synced with the MacBook or worse yet, the cloud...then I have a problem. I'd like to sort this out without spending hours comparing and analyzing the content of notes. If someone knows that the "notes" folder only holds unsynced notes, then is it safe to copy them into "all iCloud"?

MBA M1, 2020 running Sequoia 15.6.1

iPhone 16Pro running 26.3.1 (a)

Many thanks!

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 15.6

Posted on Apr 15, 2026 7:54 AM

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Answer 1

Sep 5, 2026 11:49 AM in response to nf207

I had started to write that I had the same question too, but then I figured out what was going on with my Notes app.

The "Notes" folder holds the uncategorized notes I have not put into self-created sub-folders. The "All iCloud" folder is all the notes from all the folders together (I have disabled the "On My Mac" folder). In other words, the sum of the notes in "Notes" plus the self-created sub-folders, "Recently Deleted", and "Math Notes" equals the number of notes in "All iCloud". There are no missing or un-synced notes like I originally feared.

You didn't mention if you had created folders, so this may have helped me more than it will help you. I hope you've got it sorted out now anyway.

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