Notes wont sync between Iphone and Mac on Mountain Lion

YES - exactly!

Viper: The Apple engineer only referred to disabling the syncing between iPhone and Mac via iTunes as being the intentional design decision.

Viper: The Apple engineer only referred to disabling the syncing between iPhone and Mac via iTunes as being the intentional design decision.

sildani, thanks for the clarification. That information is indeed correct, but is also irrelevant to this thread, since no one is reporting that problem.

The specific problem we are reporting is that it is no longer possible to sync notes via IMAP, even though it is officially supported by the Notes application. (Yes, iCloud Notes syncing does work, but is again irrelevant since we are not reporting any problems with iCloud Notes sync)

I'm having the same problem. From the sound of this thread it seems like it's not possible yet. Very weird. I'm quite surprised that Apple didn't catch this glitch before rolling out Mountain Lion.

Viper320 wrote:

The specific problem we are reporting is that it is no longer possible to sync notes via IMAP, even though it is officially supported by the Notes application. (Yes, iCloud Notes syncing does work, but is again irrelevant since we are not reporting any problems with iCloud Notes sync)

What IMAP service are you using? I'm using Notes via Google and it syncs between all my iDevices and OS X. And that uses IMAP. So IMAP isn't universally broken. I'm curious about what IMAP service you're using so I can duplicate the problem.

What IMAP service are you using? I'm using Notes via Google and it syncs between all my iDevices and OS X. And that uses IMAP. So IMAP isn't universally broken. I'm curious about what IMAP service you're using so I can duplicate the problem.

My hosting provider is Lunarpages ....though this is largely irrelevant, since IMAP fucntionality should not depend on one's hosting provider in order to work correctly.

That being said, I don't know the details about Google Notes and haven't tried with it, so I couldn't say. I can only ask: are you sure Google Notes is using IMAP?

As for my Notes IMAP settings: When I open Notes and select the "Notes -> Accounts" menu selection from within the Notes app, it leaves Notes and opens up a System Preferences panel for "Mail, Contacts, and Calendars". Clicking on my desired IMAP account from the list on the left, the right side shows that the checkbox next to "Notes" is properly checked ("Mail" is also checked, correctly). Clicking "Advanced" reveals an IMAP Path Prefix of "INBOX", a port of "993" and the "Use SSL" checkbox checked. Note that these are the exact same settings that worked correctly when syncing notes on Snow Leapord and previous versions. Yet these do not work with Mountain Lion and IMAP notes do not show up in the Notes app.

Note, that when opening the Notes app, it is in fact attempting to connect to my IMAP server, yet does not retrieve or display notes. And, my notes sync and update 100% correctly between my iPhone and iPad using IMAP, using the same server settings as on my Mac. It is only Mountain Lion that has the problem.

As a side note, also note that in order to manipulate server settings for IMAP Notes, such as the server name, one has to do it from within the Mail app; it cannot be done from within the "Mail, Contacts and Calendars" System Preferences pane, nor can it be done from within the new Notes app itself. So it appears Apple was sloppy and did not completely separate Notes IMAP configuration functionality from the Mail app after all.

Viper320 wrote:

My hosting provider is Lunarpages...

Could you create a mailbox for me? Send the details to daniel@silvanolte.com. I want to duplicate the problem. And yes, Google (Gmail) uses IMAP much the same for Notes. I validated that just now by configuring a second POP Gmail account, and Notes wasn't an option for that account.

Could you create a mailbox for me? Send the details to daniel@silvanolte.com. I want to duplicate the problem. And yes, Google (Gmail) uses IMAP much the same for Notes. I validated that just now by configuring a second POP Gmail account, and Notes wasn't an option for that account.

...uhhh, do you work for Apple?

Viper320 wrote:

...uhhh, do you work for Apple?

No. Just trying to help. I have a blog where I write about all sorts of topics, inlcuding OS X issues: http://silvanolte.com. I've been working on a draft for this problem to publish soon and want to add this stuff to it too (and help you in the process). A mailbox on a hosting account should be faily innocuous but I would understand if you didn't want to do it.

@sildani

The difference is that Google IMAP stores notes on the top level (no need to set the IMAP Path Prefix). In Mountain Lion the path prefix - even when set - is ignored for notes. It is used though for email settings. Very confusing design (or bug). This is either done on purpose by Apple to limit the IMAP providers to the ones who allow setting up notes in accounts without the use of a prefix or just a big ol' bug not applying the prefix to the notes read/write functions. I have read many threads on this topic and verified the behavior myself by setting up an iCloud account, a Google account and a regular IMAP hosting account. iCloud and Google work fine without prefix. The BlueHost IMAP account I setup requires a prefix and does not work. I have more detail, if you need.

The difference is that Google IMAP stores notes on the top level (no need to set the IMAP Path Prefix). In Mountain Lion the path prefix - even when set - is ignored for notes. It is used though for email settings. Very confusing design (or bug). This is either done on purpose by Apple to limit the IMAP providers to the ones who allow setting up notes in accounts without the use of a prefix or just a big ol' bug not applying the prefix to the notes read/write functions. I have read many threads on this topic and verified the behavior myself by setting up an iCloud account, a Google account and a regular IMAP hosting account. iCloud and Google work fine without prefix. The BlueHost IMAP account I setup requires a prefix and does not work. I have more detail, if you need.

jchwcpa, thank you for this beautiful response. This is significant and useful information that adds to what we know about this problem. You seem like you already have information prepared to share with Apple, particularly logs showing the problem both with and without the IMAP path prefix set?

@jchwcpa: Could you send me more details, please? Also consider creating a mailbox for me on your host provider. You can set the password and the size of the mailbox to 1MB, and apply every other restriction possible. I just want to fire it up and test it out. I have a Network Solutions account I could use, but that particular account is POP only for the mailboxes.

<Email Edited By Host>

I also have the same problem. The notes are still on my iPod Touch but do not synchronize with the macbook pro. I moved them in the macbook from My mac to my gmail account but that made it worst. They appeared in my mail account as mails but do not appear anymore on notes 😟

It was so easy and user friendly before......

I don't want to use the iCloud nor to have a @me account...

pretty good info right here.

I'm in the no-good-IMAP boat, everything was fine under SL and Lion, but M Lion ruined that.

So my solution:

I bit the sour apple and created a gmail-accout for notes use only. That is I added the gmail-acount on my Macbook and my iPhone and only checked Notes, thereby unchecking calendar, emails, messages...

This is working, and though I'll have to copy my notes from one acount to another, I'm pretty sure I won't notice anything gmail-ish in a day or two - I hope you get what I mean......

Viper320 wrote:

What IMAP service are you using? I'm using Notes via Google and it syncs between all my iDevices and OS X. And that uses IMAP. So IMAP isn't universally broken. I'm curious about what IMAP service you're using so I can duplicate the problem.

My hosting provider is Lunarpages ....though this is largely irrelevant, since IMAP fucntionality should not depend on one's hosting provider in order to work correctly.

That being said, I don't know the details about Google Notes and haven't tried with it, so I couldn't say. I can only ask: are you sure Google Notes is using IMAP?

Google uses 2 main protocols, Imap and WebDav, the latter for contacts and calendars, mail and notes are Imap. Providers are not equal, are you sure that Lunarpages has enabled the hooks needed for notes.

I note your use of the word 'should' but I doubt that this is true:

though this is largely irrelevant, since IMAP fucntionality should not depend on one's hosting provider in order to work correctly