Need an @icloud.com account to sync Notes on iPhone?

Adding a @icloud.com email address does not change your iCloud account, ID, or any of your synced data. You won't need to change anything. The only thing you might want to do after adding the account is to go to Settings>Mail,Contacts,Calendars>Default Account (in the Mail section) to be sure it's set to the email account you want to use as your default.

(Adding this email account is necessary because syncing notes with iCloud uses the IMAP service that is added when you add an iCloud email account.)

Also, just so you know, any notes that are already on your phone wiill not be added to iCloud when you turn on notes syncing; only new notes are added to iCloud. If you want to get your existing notes in iCloud, you'll have to open the Notes app, tap Accounts on the top left, tap On My iPhone, then open each of your notes one at a time and copy and paste the text into new notes that you create in the iCloud account.

You don't have to log out. Sign into icloud.com using the iCloud ID you have in Settings>iCloud on your phone, then click on Notes. Turn Notes to On in Settings>iCloud, create your @icloud.com email account when prompted, then create a new note in the Notes app and see if it appears on icloud.com after a brief delay.

You won't have an Accounts button in Notes unless you have notes on your phone that were created before turn Notes to On in Settings>iCloud.

You're confusing an iCloud email account with an iCloud account. Your iCloud account ID is your Hotmail address. All your iCloud data is synced to that account, including your notes. Your iCloud account also now has an @icloud.com email account linked to it, which like any other email account, is only for sending and receiving email.

I'll try to explain it. You have a single iCloud account and this account has an iCloud ID, which in your case, is your Hotmail address. This ID happens to have the same form as an email address (which I think is what's causing the confusion here). Although your iCloud ID looks like an email address, it isn't; it's an iCloud ID.

You are syncing all your iCloud data to this account (calendars, contacts, reminders, notes, and anything else you have set to On in Settings>iCloud). You can view some of this data on icloud.com when you sign in with your iCloud ID (your Hotmail address). Your iCloud backup is also stored in this account.

An iCloud account may or may not have an iCloud email account included with it. The email account is created when you turn Mail to On in Settings>iCloud. And, as you have discovered, you are required to do this in order to sync Notes with your iCloud account.

The iCloud email account (your @icloud.com address) is just like any other email account (Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.). You use it in the Mail app on your phone to send and receive email to your @icloud.com address. Any email stored in this email account is stored in your iCloud account, and can be viewed on icloud.com by signing in with your iCloud ID (your Hotmail address). You don't have to use this email account if you don't want to, but it must be enabled in order to sync notes with your iCloud account.

If you want to sync notes with your current account, go to Settings>iCloud on your iPhone, turn Notes to On, and create your @icloud.com email address when you are prompted. If you don't, you can't sync notes with your Hotmail iCloud account.

All your iCloud data will stay in your Hotmail iCloud account just as it is now. Everything will stay in your Hotmail iCloud account if your phone is lost or stolen (because it's the only iCloud account you have, and your phone is signed into it). Nothing will change except you will have an @icloud.com email address that you can either use for email or not as you wish.

Elliot Bridgewater wrote:

It says I already have an account.

What says that?

Oh, I see. That message indicates that the email address name you have selected is not available because it has already been assigned to someone else. You'll have to enter a different address as the prompt is saying.

Go to Settings>iCloud and turn both notes and mail to Off. The turn Mail to On, wait a minute or so, then turn Notes to On. Do you still get this same prompt?