Q: Duplicate notes? Notes not syncing?

Just because it's 2012, doesn't mean we should automatically expect syncing to work. After installing Mountain Lion syncing notes actually did work over iTunes, but of cause this was only just to show me that it's technically possible, because a week later it suddenly stopped working. No more syncing of notes between my Mac and iPod touch over iTunes. Didn't "touch" anything at all, just stopped working.

Now after 2 weeks of trying I still cannot for the life of me get my notes to sync again.

Just because it's 2012, doesn't mean we should automatically expect something as complicated as syncing, to actually work.

I'll be back in 2020 to see if they figured it out ... till then.

What a complete Apple-induced mess. What about the users like myself who don't use iCloud whatsoever and have no desire to? Why remove the ability to sync via iTunes, either over WiFi or USB? Apple boasts "over 200 new features" in Mountain Lion, but what they don't tell you are the features they pointlessly remove.

And please don't tell me that's progress, things get left behind. There is no need to remove one function to add another. Notes worked fine between my MB Pro, iPhone 4 and iPad 3 synced through iTunes. My internet here in Dubai can be sketchy, not to mention I'm away from networks a lot of the time with my job as an airline pilot. The bigger worry is they move Calendars and Contacts exclusively into the "cloud". (God I hate that term.)

There isn't any logic or consistency. You can sync Calendars and Contacts locally...butttt...not Notes and Reminders?

But now I have to register a new email adress, configure three devices, and depend on a remote server...just to have the same notes on my devices? And hopefully, not have an even bigger mess of dupicated/missing notes, as five pages of this thread detail?

No thanks.

I had tried almost everything else ... without success but iacas' solution did work for me!

Thanks!

Have the same problem with corporate IMAP server after installing ML - syncing worked stable before for 2 years with iPhone, iPad, SM.

Tried all solutions discussed here, nothing solves the bug: every single edit on Notes Mac OS ML creates a new iOS. One of the most annoying bugs I ever had with Apple.

Winglet,

winglet wrote:

 

What a complete Apple-induced mess. What about the users like myself who don't use iCloud whatsoever and have no desire to? Why remove the ability to sync via iTunes, either over WiFi or USB? Apple boasts "over 200 new features" in Mountain Lion, but what they don't tell you are the features they pointlessly remove.

 

And please don't tell me that's progress, things get left behind. There is no need to remove one function to add another. Notes worked fine between my MB Pro, iPhone 4 and iPad 3 synced through iTunes. My internet here in Dubai can be sketchy, not to mention I'm away from networks a lot of the time with my job as an airline pilot. The bigger worry is they move Calendars and Contacts exclusively into the "cloud". (God I hate that term.)

 

There isn't any logic or consistency. You can sync Calendars and Contacts locally...butttt...not Notes and Reminders?

 

But now I have to register a new email adress, configure three devices, and depend on a remote server...just to have the same notes on my devices? And hopefully, not have an even bigger mess of dupicated/missing notes, as five pages of this thread detail?

 

No thanks.

I couldn't agree with you more. I just upgrade to ML a week ago only to find the disaster with Notes and Reminders. These two applications are the sole reason I upgraded. Since the time I began to use Palm devices I always enjoyed its Tasks application. It was a simple To Do list application, easy to use and easy to sync. I used Entourage as my PIM (Personal Information Manager) and Microsoft had an application available that could be downloaded from its website to sync Entourage with Palm devices. I can't believe Apple just introduced the 6th iteration of the iPhone today and we still don't have a reasonably good task management / to do list application that can sync its computers with its mobile devices. Really amazing !!!

On top of the fact that I can't sync Reminders I have in addition lost the ability to sync Notes. Notes was a part of Mail and I had no problem synchronizing it before. Now I can't sync either one of the two apps. I have invested money, a considerable amount of time to perform the upgrade and found in the end that data can no longer be synchronized with my iPhone and iPad. These are important data that I am used to sync with my mobile devices every single morning at the beginning of my business day.

Many users such as myself can't use cloud services because they are required by law to maintain their data as private and confidential. The least I would expect from Apple is to allow users to choose between two or three different sync options (cable, Wi-Fi and iCloud). In doing so they would be addressing the needs of their entire user base and not just a percentage of it. Instead they have chosen to force their iCloud solution down everyone's throats with total disregard for users preferences. I hate to think that this is a forceful sales approach to push consumers to subscribe and pay for yet another service/product but at the end of the day this is probably what it is.

I just found I have a useless system I can't rely on for something as simple as the daily management of my business data and tasks.

Apple has to decide where it wishes to stand in terms of the products it provides. Does it want to build little gizmos consumers like to use for their entertainment or does it wish to build 'professional' computers that businesses can use for truly professional purposes.

There's a button on the ipad that says Accounts. Hit that button and you'll notice that Notes can store files on the ipad alone or on iCloud. Any notes made in or transfered to iCloud Notes will sync between devices.

I was just able to get rid of the problem. I also got the duplicate accounts problem and did the following:

- close Notes.app

- deactivate iCloud-Syncing for Notes

- started the terminal

- typed in "rm -rf ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/Notes

- start Notes.app (folder will be recreated)

- reactivate iCloud-Syncing for Notes

That worked for me

Cheers,

Pablo

I had the same problem, too. After the update 10.8.2 my notes did not sync at all. Deleting those files solved the problem once and for all! Thanks!

Simply using the finder to delete the files works fine. Just option click on "go" in the menu bar to reach the library folder. No need to use terminal. Unless you want to.

Thanks again for the solution!

Worked like a charm for me. Thanks!

Merci beaucoup ! ça fonctionne très bien. vous m'avez sauvé car je cherche depuis des jours pour trouver la solution.

Thanks !

Was hoping the recent upgrade to ML might have resolved this for me but no such luck. Still got two icloud accounts in notes. I've tried following the instructions outlined above but I don't seem to have a 'containers' folder. Am I looking in the right place?

Please help, this is driving me nuts!

Great to hear that it helps at least some of you!

Using the Finder is only possible if the Library folder is unhidden, which is not the default setting since 10.7 if i remember correct.

@RMW123

please remember to use it as i have posted as OSX is case sensitive on the command line. It's the only hint i can give you as i only have two machines (one running 10.7.4 and the other one on 10.8.2) to control the path.

Cheers,
Pablo

Thanks Pablo. Did as you suggested re case sensitive but still no luck. Maybe its just me and my machine.

Cheers

Richard

This was perfect and worked like a charm.  I think this problem was due to a bad converter when Notes was a part of Mail in Lion and prior.  I notices that initially after the upgrade I had 2 accounts, an iCloud and a MobileMe account.  Deleting the MobileMe took care of the duplicate mail but it was too late for Notes since the app was already split from Mail and duplicate iCloud accounts were already created.

All I had to do was the following:

Go to Mailbox and rebuild

Close Mail

Go under my username

Select (hidden folder) Library

Select Containers

Drag com.apple.notes to the trash

Restart computer (this is important because some files are in use and you can't get rid of them unless your restart)

Empty trash

Start Notes (came up with blank sheet)

Go to Accounts

Select iCloud

Notes is unchecked at that time, check Notes and it says "Setting up..."  In 5 seconds, all the notes from iCloud show up

Thanks everyone for your help.

Library folder is hidden by default. That is why you have to "option-klick", i.e. holding down the option key while klicking "Go" in the finder menu bar, in order to reveal the option to go to the hidden library folder. To make this dead clear: you have to hold down the option key, while in the menu. Releasing the option key will drop the option to go to library. Toggling the option key will reveal/hide the library...