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Notes Disappearing!!

Since upgrading to Mountain Lion I have had a recurring problem with Notes disappearing. I use Notes on both my iPhone and my Mac (Google Apps, not iCould) for work. Many of my (new) notes disappear from both devices within a couple days of me writing them.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Aug 20, 2012 2:14 PM

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173 replies

Sep 26, 2012 11:18 PM in response to ohmitmedia

You're not imagining it. I just spent an hour typing up some important text messages I need to shove off by tonight in Notes on my Mac. I figure, I can type them here on a full keyboard, they'll sync to my iPhone, then I just cut and paste them into text messages.


I get done, and open my iPhone. Initially the note isn't there. Then I get the first two words. I make another note called Sync! on the Mac to test the syncing or try to nudge it. Then my long note disappears, irrecoverably, and I have a note that says Sync! on both my Mac and iPhone, which is just...painfully ironic.


Same thing happened last week. So you know, fool me once, fool me twice... I should have learned by now not to trust this.


So for one, it would be super if they could resolve the sync issues. If nothing else, make it sync correct with an err to the side of caution. I'd rather see a dupe than a delete. And for two, where is the function to force a sync manually?


Apple design is better than this...

Aug 21, 2017 8:21 AM in response to ohmitmedia

Same problem here. Even when I'm creating a new note and start typing, it's deleted automatically. I have to add another note (a second one) to keep it.

Nov 7, 2012 3:18 AM in response to ctrl_alt_dileep

Yes, only new notes disappear and sometimes they re-appear after a while, but not always though. So some of my notes are gone forever (they are also missing from iСloud.com).


I am certan that I took a note yesterday - on my Mac (OS X 10.8.2) - and then came back in a few hours to finish the note and it was gone. I am also certain that I could not delete it unintentionnaly. So now I am almost sure this is an iCloud sync bug and has to be fixed.


May be it has also something to do with my iPhone being conected to the same iCloud account at the same time... But anyway, this is not sort of behaviour you would expect from your Mac/iPhone

Nov 7, 2012 8:25 AM in response to ohmitmedia

This is interesting. I don't think this is an iCloud issue. This is a NOTES App issue. I am not using iCloud - I am using Google to sync my notes. I was thinking about moving all of my notes over to iCloud, but it appears you all are having the same problem with iCloud that I am having with Google notes.


I'm still experiencing all of the above - sometimes the note disappears while I am still typing it and if I quit the program and reopen it will come back. Sometimes the note disappears a few minutes after I've typed it and it never comes back.


I'm also having a problem with my iPad since updating to iOS6 - I can see all my notes folders but no notes. (iPhone working fine).


This is too bad. Apple used to have a great tool here. I thought they'd have fixed this by now.

Nov 8, 2012 3:33 AM in response to ohmitmedia

This has happened to me on multiple occasions, the latest today. I've been using a Gmail account to sync the Notes app between multiple devices (MBP, iPad, Mac desktop) with the latest OS versions.


Simple developer etiquette is to avoid at all costs losing user data due to potential edge cases or bugs where it's not 100% clear that the user intended to delete something. E.g., if there's doubt during a sync, store items the system thinks should be removed in a "trash" location for a while. I don't trust Notes anymore. Very sloppy design.

Nov 14, 2012 9:20 AM in response to ohmitmedia

This is absolutely infuriating!! Not being aware of this issue I kept important notes (which sync with iCloud) in Notes. They disappeared for no reason couple of weeks ago. No changes, no new accounts, NOTHING was different to my daily computer use.

I blamed it on a slow internet connection while travelling and insufficient syncing and moved on. BUT just 10 minutes ago I wrote a quick note - 3 lines only. My computer is connected to 20Mbs internet connection in New York. 10 minutes later opened the note to add more info and the only information in there is the first 3 characters I typed to begin the note… the rest is gone!!

This must be a sync issue but I do not see a solution to it anywhere. Did anyone find one? I want to keep using notes but this disappearing act is very worrisome. If apple doesn’t get on this I guess we have Evernote… but so annoying!!!

If anyone has tips/hints on how to prevent these issue, please send – Thanks!

Notes Disappearing!!

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