Syncing Notes 'On My Mac' to iPhone/iPad no longer possible...??

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Syncing Notes 'On My Mac' to iPhone/iPad no longer possible...??

Since moving to Mountain Lion i am no longer able to sync notes that are 'on my mac' to my iphone/ipad. This used to be controlled by iTunes (you simply check the box or don't). This has worked as it should from from the beginning of itunes syncing. Unfortunately now with Mountain Lion the Notes sync option has disappeared from iTunes. Searching online it appears this is not longer possible with iTunes. So my question is can notes now ONLY be synced with iCloud? So any 'on my mac' notes will no longer transfer across devices with itunes or otherwise? I have tried to turn of notes syncing in icloud and unfortunately whether i have iCloud notes syncing on or off the notes the 'on my mac' notes no longer sync (obviously when the icloud notes sync is on the notes from the icloud group/account do sync as they should.

So my question is simply around syncing notes from the 'on my mac' group across devices (this is because there are some notes i do not want to put on icloud but the question is also valid for any users that do not use icloud, as it seems if you do not use icloud you can not longer transfer/sync notes across devices).

Thanks for your help

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion, From MacBook Pro iTunes to iPhone 4

Posted on Aug 5, 2012 3:02 PM

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Answer 1

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PJRives

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85 points

Aug 5, 2012 3:16 PM in response to james.apple

When you have iCloud this is correct.

Go into the Notes app and drag any 'on my mac' notes that you want to have syncing into your icloud account

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Answer 2

james.apple Author

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Aug 5, 2012 3:20 PM in response to PJRives

Thanks for your help PJRives, but maybe i was not so clear in my first post.

I know how to sync notes via icloud. I want to know how to sync notes manually after upgrading to mountain lion ---- with lion and before i used itunes and set the notes feature to sync and all the 'on my mac' notes synced. I now need to know how to sync notes manually -- so not using icloud. I want to know for certain that this is no longer possible, as it seems it is no longer possilbe but i am hoping i just can not find how to do it and someone on here can help.

Thanks

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Answer 3

DJMOBILE

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Aug 6, 2012 9:44 AM in response to james.apple

Hi James did you find out how to sync notes using itunes and with out using icloud in mountain lion?

If you did find out to sync note in itunes with out icloud please let me know thanks.

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Answer 4

Aug 9, 2012 8:36 PM in response to james.apple

I guess you should revise the title of the post. to include - non-icloud users.

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Answer 5

james.apple Author

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Aug 10, 2012 4:46 PM in response to DJMOBILE

Hi DJMOBILE,

No, unfortunately still no solution. As far as i can tell there is no longer a way to sync notes across apple devices aside from using icloud. It does seem a bit aggressive for apple to have removed this functionality but they are very focused on icloud.

Hopefully a solution will come about soon and i will post it here.

Hi David Direk,

I do not see a way to amend the title of a post once it has been created and think i used up all the characters with the existing title anyway. Thanks anyway.

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Answer 6

Aug 11, 2012 5:10 AM in response to james.apple

could someone from Apple confirm if this is a bug or a new strategy to force people using iCloud?

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Answer 7

hhoeksma

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4 points

Aug 30, 2012 5:17 PM in response to james.apple

I would like to make it clear that REQUIRING notes to be synched through an Internet based server is completely unacceptable. Like many people, one of my notes is called "Passwords". I will never allow this file to be uploaded to the Internet.

Hopefully Apple understands this and the lack of Notes synching via a USB cable in Mountain Lion was just an oversight or a postponed feature.

I really need this to be in 10.8.2 or I will have to find some other solution. Since I usually modify my Notes from my iPhone they are currently not being backed up anywhere.

-Henry

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Answer 8

Sep 9, 2012 1:53 PM in response to hhoeksma

Totally agree! I find this really weird. I use Notes all the time and I just upgraded to Mountain Lion. I am very surprised that I cannot sync these between my Macbook Air and my iPhone the simple way, by syncing via USB cable. Anyone who works in any kind of sensitive situation (I work in China frequently where a lot of people are careful not to connect their data to the internet) feels VERY uncomfortable about only being able to sync through the cloud.

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Answer 9

Sep 9, 2012 2:15 PM in response to Paul Duke1

This is very confusing because this Apple support document seems to indicate it is possible to sync Notes through iTunes. But I have not been able to get it to work...

"If you want to sync notes with iTunes instead of using the over-the-air feature, disable Notes sync for the account using Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars or Settings > iCloud."

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4191

UPDATED: Sorry I'm dumb... that comment I quoted above applies to 10.7, not 10.8. It's clearly stated in the support doc that Notes cannot be synced through iTunes under 10.8. Crazy....

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Answer 10

Oct 2, 2012 8:00 AM in response to james.apple

According to http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4191

Syncing Notes with iTunes and OS X Mountain Lion v10.8

You can sync with the Notes app using IMAP or iCloud. Syncing Notes using iTunes is no longer supported on OS X v10.8 and later.

Wierd!!!

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Answer 11

Oct 5, 2012 2:08 PM in response to james.apple

Not only that, but if you do want to sync Notes using iCloud, you have to have an iCloud email address (which I don't want another email address!!).

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Answer 12

Mitja

Level 1

10 points

Oct 20, 2012 3:37 PM in response to james.apple

Likewise. For any sensitive information in Notes, the best solution is to sync locally through iTunes.

Since, unfortunately, at the moment "Syncing Notes using iTunes is no longer supported on OS X v10.8 and later" (according to http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4191), is there any simple 3rd party Notes-like application that would sync through iTunes plain text messages between iOS 6.x devices and Mac OS X 10.8.x systems?

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Answer 13

Oct 23, 2012 7:19 AM in response to james.apple

Thanks james.apple for your clear explanation.

Shouldn't Apple clearly state what are the features that are not supported anymore in a new version of the OS, so every customer understands the consequences of an upgrade? I would have NOT upgraded, if I knew the mess that was going to happen with sync.

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Answer 14

Ivan H

Level 1

62 points

Nov 4, 2012 12:03 AM in response to charliealpha

Anyone interested to try it and feedback?

http://www.notebooksapp.com/ios/import-ios-notes/

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Answer 15

Feb 2, 2013 5:00 PM in response to hhoeksma

I agree. I like to sync manually, even though I have to make a point of doing it. I like to manage my changes and know what changes on my phone.

Sometimes I want or need more music or more photos but my notes (now 493!) are taking up more & more space on my phone. I have been forced to decrease the music & photos on my phone because I haven't been able to bulk move or manually move my notes to my macbook.

Notes can be emailed but at this point it would be a hassle to email every single one to myself.

iCloud is a great idea for anyone who has an iphone but not an apple laptop/computer to backup to. However, I have a macbook & I want to backup to my macbook, not iCloud. (I don't have iCloud, nor am I interested in getting an iCloud account.)

The one thing that I have always thought missing from iTunes was a tab for "Notes" on the sync page. The voice memos sync to music & they can be bulk saved to a folder on my macbook. This is what is needed for Notes; they need to be listed like music and have a visible backup tab & folder.

Message was edited by: ninaahwww

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