Notes wont sync between Iphone and Mac on Mountain Lion

How many months has it been since Mountain Lion released and they still haven't fixed Notes syncing with IMAP and a path prefix? What a sad joke on loyal Apple customers like myself.

I would like to buy a Air Retina whenever they are released. However, no chance I will do so as long as this problem persists.

Alex Moskwa wrote:

How many months has it been since Mountain Lion released and they still haven't fixed Notes syncing with IMAP and a path prefix? What a sad joke on loyal Apple customers like myself.

I would like to buy a Air Retina whenever they are released. However, no chance I will do so as long as this problem persists.

Notes syncs with all my Macs and any other devices I want it to, no issues, your setup is not working correctly.

Are you using an IMAP server with path prefix? Meaning not gmail and not iCloud? I doubt it because others higher up in this thread have complained of it still not working. My two iOS devices and two Lion macs sync. My one Mountain Lion Mac does not.

If you have a configuration that works with an IMAP server with path prefix I would love to know the procedure you went through to get it to work.

I use an iCloud address. So I do have an Imap account but I do not have a path prefix.

Notes syncs with all my Macs and any other devices I want it to, no issues, your setup is not working correctly.

No, it does not work correctly. You cannot sync Notes on the Mac if you are using an IMAP prefix. This issue definitely has not been fixed. Please go back and read the thread, then duplicate the problem for yourself.

As I said, I do not have a path prefix.

As I said, I do not have a path prefix.

That explains why you do not see the problem. For those of us who sync via IMAP using a path prefix, NOT via iCloud, the problem persists, unfortunately.

The only IMAP mail service with a path prefix that I know works is Fastmail.fm. For some reason if you set the IMAP path prefix to INBOX and use port 992 (not 993), it syncs properly on Macs as well as iOS devices. But I have not been able to get HostGator's IMAP notes to work properly on my Mac. The notes sync just fine between my iPhone and iPad with HostGator, but do not sync with my Mac. Of course this creates the problem that a lot of people have reported - having lots of notes on their iOS devices that they can't move to iCloud to allow proper syncing without copying and pasting each note by hand, which is not very reasonable for anyone who already has a decent amount of notes.

So here is the way I managed to move all my Notes from HostGator to iCloud without copying and pasting them individually. I was able to use my Mail program and the webmail clients for Fastmail and Hostgator to copy the HostGator notes to my iCloud account by going through my Fastmail.fm Notes account which is sycning properly. This solution also takes advantage of the fact that the Notes folder on an IMAP email account is visible in webmail, even though it is hidden in Mac Mail.app.

1) In Webmail for the account that isn't syncing properly, create a new folder called Notes to Move, or whatever you want to call it.

2) Copy all the notes from the Notes folder into the new folder (Notes to Move, in my case). Now you should be able to see this folder, and all of your notes, in Mac Mail.app.

3) In Webmail or Mac Mail for the account that is syncing properly (Fastmail for me, or perhaps gmail in your case), create a new folder. Call it Notes from My Other Account, or whatever you like.

4) In Mac Mail.app you should be able to copy the notes (stored as messages really) from the Notes to Move folder into the Notes from My Other Account folder.

5) In webmail for the account that is syncing properly, copy the messages (i.e. the notes) from the Notes from My Other Account folder into the Notes folder that contains the notes that are syncing correctly between all of your devices. - If you want to keep these notes separate, you can first create a new folder in the Notes.app on your mac, or create a subfolder in the Notes folder using webmail.

6) Finally, you can now use Notes.app on your mac to copy the appropriate notes from the account that is syncing properly into the iCloud Notes folder.

BUt I don't WANT to use iCloud for my sensitive data! I want to use my own host!! That's the problem!

ANd why hasn't Apple fixed this form on iPhone?

IT still capitalizes the first two letters on each line.

Jace Cavacini wrote:

BUt I don't WANT to use iCloud for my sensitive data! I want to use my own host!! That's the problem!

Exactly, this worked before in Lion and continues to work on my iPad and iPhone in iOS 6. Mountain Lion is the only thing that's broken.

I have no desire to switch to iCloud. It's incredibly convenient to have my Notes in the same place as my main e-mail. It also allows me to use the web interface for my e-mail to update or add Notes that then sync to my other devices.

As it seems increasingly unlikely that Apple is going to fix this issue, this sounds like a good opporutnity for an enterprising developer to create a Notes client for the Mac...one that actually works, unlike the one included in Mountain Lion...

...any takers?🙂

As always, the more bug reports Apple receives, the more likely they are to fix something faster.

As to alternatives, uh, there's truckloads. Simplenote and Notational Veloctiy are both pretty well known. Start there.

I posted my advice last July- problem completely solved.

In case you haven't seen it, here it is again ...

It is unnerving to delete the iCloud account and see all my calendar entries and contacts disappear - but that is what I did. They all downloaded successfully when I set up the iCloud account again.

I also managed to sync all the previous notes from my iPhone to my MacAir.

I went through System Preferences >Mail contacts calendars>btinternet (my mail provider) I checked the Notes box and was asked if I wanted to merge the messages from iCloud. All the previous messages then appeared in Notes on my MacAir.

It is not that complicated.

Hi,

Ok. So I just delete my icloud account.Then I set it up again. Then I go online and set up a new account or my old one with the old password?

And it works? Sorry to ask, but I have seen so many threads on this subject and most are way above my head.

Jogin Thakore wrote:

Hi,

Ok. So I just delete my icloud account.Then I set it up again. Then I go online and set up a new account or my old one with the old password?

If you set up a new account you won't have the data from the old one, the new account will be empty.

Sign out of your current account and then sign back in (in System Preferences>iCloud), do not open a new account if you want to use the data in the old account.