christhewiz

Q: iCloud shows up twice in my notes

After upgrading to OS 10.8, iCloud shows up twice on my Mac's notes, doubling all my notes. How can I get rid of the second (identical) account?

MacBook Air, OS X Mountain Lion

Posted on Jul 29, 2012 6:08 AM

Close

Q: iCloud shows up twice in my notes

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

Previous Page 2
  • by BocaBoy,

    BocaBoy BocaBoy May 26, 2013 6:46 AM in response to sberman
    Level 1 (34 points)
    Apple Music
    May 26, 2013 6:46 AM in response to sberman

    I've tried "Captains" and "Sberman's" suggestions but I'm still stuck with the same two accounts in iCloud. Very frustrating. One account is empty and the other actually contains my notes. The one that has content is the one that correctly syncs with my iPad and iPhone.

     

    Anyone else been able to figure out what's going on here?

     

    notes.jpg

  • by Mutedcolors,

    Mutedcolors Mutedcolors May 26, 2013 7:03 AM in response to BocaBoy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 26, 2013 7:03 AM in response to BocaBoy

    Yes, I had this problem and got it resolved. I made a Genius Bar appointment because it was driving me insane. They didn't have an answer so they set me up with a phone call to Apple support, and the first round of techs were also perplexed. They had to escalate me to a supervisor who guided me through specific files to delete sprinkled around the operating system. It solved the problem.

     

    I would suggest trying through support and be extremely descriptive about what's going on. When I was patient with them they were able to figure out I was having a real problem, and I wasn't just confused. It isn't a very common occurrence and probably only has a few victims. They were perplexed and intrigued. 

  • by BocaBoy,

    BocaBoy BocaBoy May 26, 2013 7:17 AM in response to Mutedcolors
    Level 1 (34 points)
    Apple Music
    May 26, 2013 7:17 AM in response to Mutedcolors

    Thanks for the suggestion. I've tried emptying the caches for both the computer and user account as well as signing in and out of iCloud, all to no avail. Talking to a senior person at support may be my only other option.

     

    I don't suppose you remember what files you deleted and from where??

  • by Mutedcolors,

    Mutedcolors Mutedcolors May 26, 2013 7:28 AM in response to BocaBoy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 26, 2013 7:28 AM in response to BocaBoy

    I would caution that if someone doesn't know what they are doing... Take the following lightly, because I'm not an expert:

     

    Make sure your data is backed up before trying anything too.

     

    Here is a list of the steps we did. - Sign out of iCloud. Remove the following items: ~/Library/Application Support/iCloud ~/Library/Caches ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes ~/Library/Preferences/MobileMeAccounts.plist - Restart. Sign into iCloud

  • by BocaBoy,

    BocaBoy BocaBoy May 26, 2013 8:07 AM in response to Mutedcolors
    Level 1 (34 points)
    Apple Music
    May 26, 2013 8:07 AM in response to Mutedcolors

    Thanks for all the info, but unfortunately it still doesn't work. After a reboot, if I start Notes before signing back in to iCloud, I still see the empty account in there.

  • by BocaBoy,

    BocaBoy BocaBoy May 26, 2013 12:44 PM in response to BocaBoy
    Level 1 (34 points)
    Apple Music
    May 26, 2013 12:44 PM in response to BocaBoy

    I found the solution!

     

    I had already tried manually deleting the ~/library/containers/com.apple.Note folder but it made no difference. I still had two iCloud accounts showing in the left-hand pane. After searching on Google, I came across this post buried on the second page of results. It deletes that folder via Terminal, and the problem disappeared instantly! Here are the steps.

     

    1. In System Preferences, disable Notes in your iCloud account;
    2. Quit Notes app;
    3. In Terminal type the following: rm -rf ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/
    4. Start Notes app;
    5. Enable Notes in your iCLoud account.

     

    I want to stress that this worked for me with the problem I was experiencing. If you're not familiar with Terminal, be careful and do a backup first. Also, do the steps in the order they're listed. At first I was going to switch the order of 4 and 5 but stuck with the instructions as written and the problem was solved.

     

    Hope this helps anyone else who trips across this post who has two iCloud accounts listed in Notes.

  • by hipfans.com,

    hipfans.com hipfans.com Jun 26, 2013 7:32 PM in response to BocaBoy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 26, 2013 7:32 PM in response to BocaBoy

    I did steps 1 and 2 as noted above, and then decided to jump to step 5. That solved all of my duplicate notes issues.

  • by volkerho,

    volkerho volkerho Jul 26, 2013 10:50 PM in response to BocaBoy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 26, 2013 10:50 PM in response to BocaBoy

    I just did how bocaboy described above. Works like a charm. Thanks for digging this one out.

     

    Cheers,

    Volker

  • by cocciasik,

    cocciasik cocciasik Dec 30, 2013 1:13 AM in response to scott-p
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 30, 2013 1:13 AM in response to scott-p

    I had the same problem for contacts. That solution worked pretty well for me. Thanks!

  • by goldfilm,

    goldfilm goldfilm Mar 10, 2014 11:26 AM in response to BocaBoy
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 10, 2014 11:26 AM in response to BocaBoy

    I did all the steps and now I have no notes at all! I can see all in my iPhone and the duplicates don't show up anymore, but the Notes app on my Mac is empty. I checked the account again in the icloud settings and even added the account but it's empty.

     

    Help please!

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Mar 10, 2014 11:50 AM in response to goldfilm
    Level 9 (70,011 points)
    iTunes
    Mar 10, 2014 11:50 AM in response to goldfilm

    Go to icloud.com and see if the notes are there. If so, try System Preferences/iCloud and sign out. Log out/in and sign into iCloud again, making sure notes is checked.

  • by goldfilm,

    goldfilm goldfilm Mar 10, 2014 7:40 PM in response to Eric Root
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 10, 2014 7:40 PM in response to Eric Root

    When I want to sign out it asks me if I want to delete from mac or keep contacts... what should I do? I don't want to miss anything... thanks.

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Mar 11, 2014 7:35 AM in response to goldfilm
    Level 9 (70,011 points)
    iTunes
    Mar 11, 2014 7:35 AM in response to goldfilm

    Do a backup. Try un-checking Notes in iCloud Preferences, log out/in, and recheck Notes. Don't sign out of iCloud yet.

  • by Claidheamdanns,

    Claidheamdanns Claidheamdanns Jun 21, 2014 10:39 PM in response to christhewiz
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 21, 2014 10:39 PM in response to christhewiz

    I had a similar problem. Mine was showing 2 iCloud accounts in Notes, and both had identical notes, but were not in sync with each other (i.e. If I added a note in one, it did not show up in the other, but if I added a note on my iPhone, it showed up in both).

     

    I simply opened System Preferences, selected iCloud, and deselected Notes.

     

    It asked me if I wanted to delete the Notes from my Mac. And I said, "Yes". It deselected the Notes check mark and then immediately selected it again, by itself.

     

    When I returned to the Notes app (which was still opened, I never closed it), there was only one iCloud.

     

    Hooray! Problem solved!

Previous Page 2