Notes won't sync between iPhone & MacBook Pro.

I'm running macOS Sierra 10.12.4 Beta on my maxed out iMac. I'm running iOS 10.3 on my iPhone 7.

This problem STILL exists for me for a LONG time, since 10.9 timeframe. My notes will sync from my iPhone to my iPad to iCloud, my MacBook Pro, and even shared with my wife's iPhone ... BUT, they will not sync to my iMac.er

I'm an Apple Developer with 30+ years programming experience (and the Apple "IT guy" for our family!), and have tried EVERYTHING I know ... but to no avail. Notes will NOT sync to my iMac.

Any other suggestions that HAVEN'T been mentioned in this thread?

2 Thoughts:-

On the Phone.

Check on your phone at the top of your notes. If it says Local Notes, click 'back' arrow and choose iCloud Notes. You may have been creating your notes just on your phone 'locally'.

On the Mac.

I THOUGHT I had this issue but I was being dumb. I was using 'Text Edit' on my mac and 'Notes' on my phone. 'Text Edit' on the mac is very similar but not the same. Find Notes in your applicaltions and use this.

After much frustration I think I have figured it out. Sync ONLY works from iCloud account to iCloud account on web and/or device e.g. iPhone iPad iMac. If you enter something on you "on my iPhone" section it will NOT sync. So first move all your notes to iCloud section on your device section (open folder, at bottom a "move all" option appears at bottom and then where to move it to shows up - select iCloud and you can create folder if needed), it will then show 0 on iPhone section. Next in settings - select Notes app then make default account iCloud and toggle off "on my iPhone Account" it should be empty due you previous move. Now select Notes app icon and you will see iCloud section with folders below it - same on Notes in iPhone iCloud section etc. The iPhone section will not be there. The good news is if you enter any notes they will now sync and if you enter a note with no cell or wifi connectivity it will be there on your device and as soon as you have connectivity it will sync. I hope this makes sense if not please feel free to contact me with any questions

I still haven't gotten this to work. I have tried everything in this thread up to this point. All my notes are under iCloud on both my Macbook and my iPhone. My Macbook is separated somehow. Notes on my iPhone show up when logged into iCloud in a web browser. No amount of toggling Notes off and on in iCloud settings on both devices seems to help. I even deleted all the notes on my Macbook to no avail. My OSes are updated. Argh!

Not sure what else to recommend. I just got a new macbookpro and signed onto iCloud and selected notes to sync - and there were my notes. To make sure it was not cloud based only I closed notes app & then turned off wifi and then relaunched notes app and all my notes were there.

Log in to the iCloud website. Which set of notes is showing there?

I have the same issue. My phone notes show in icloud, my mac only has one note on it.

Then ensure iCloud is enabled on the Mac, and that Notes are checked and set to store in iCloud.

It is, I'm getting the message 'notes cant be enabled at this time, try again'

There are more than 5 different discussions on the site about this subject.

None of them have a clear solution to this issue. Some of them have aweseomely esoteric techniques and no one agrees on any of them.

Some of the threads go back to March 2012. So, the only solution to this is stop using notes it seems.

Thanks apple!

Didn't want to or need to install Evernote until now.

Hmmm... Setup a standard test account

Log in and setup icloud notes

sync

see if it is the same as on icloud.com in Safari

If this works you may have some notes under your current account on your Mac locally instead of the icloud account. If so. Drag them and drop them over to your icloud account.

If the above steps don't work please let us know what the result is.

If you still need help, sometimes iCloud needs a jump start.

On your Mac open System Preferences. Deselect the box next to Notes then re select it.

On your iPhone, tap Settings > iCloud

Switch Notes off then back on.

Give iCloud a few minutes to re sync the data.

Thank you for a simple but effective solution! 🙂

Thank you SO much. I just bought a new MacBook Pro and have spent the last hour trying to get my notes to appear and sync; they were totally blank. Your solution was so easy and simple - within minutes all my notes appeared for the first time on my MacBook!!