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

Syncing Contacts, Calendars, Reminders etc.is working just fine with a standard @hotmail.com iCloud account.

However, when you try to turn on Notes backup, you get:

"Create a free @icloud.com email address to turn on Notes."

I have two question:

Would you need to switch the entire backup to the @icloud.com iCloud account in order to backup Notes? Will it affect purchased apps etc. if this is done?
If it's not needed to switch my entire backup to the @icloud.com iCloud account, how would you go about keeping Contacts, Calendars, Reminders etc. synced with the @hotmail.com iCloud account and Notes with the @icloud.com iCloud account?

Posted on Sep 17, 2013 12:18 PM

23 replies

Sep 17, 2013 4:30 PM in response to randers4

Mail and Notes are set to off because trying to turn them on caused the same message to appear and I can't find a way to log on to stop the messages appearing.

randers4

Level 9

63,525 points

Sep 17, 2013 4:49 PM in response to Elliot Bridgewater

The way you sing into an existing @icloud.com email address is by turning Mail to On, which you said it won't let you do.

You said earlier that the @icloud.com email account belongs to you. How did you create this email account?

Sep 17, 2013 4:52 PM in response to randers4

When I turn Mail on, it comes up with the same Create and Cancel message.

I don't know how the @icloud.com iCloud account was created (it would have been a while ago) but it's definitely mine, it's unique.

randers4

Level 9

63,525 points

Sep 17, 2013 5:02 PM in response to Elliot Bridgewater

Try going to https://appleid.apple.com, click Manage my account, sign in with your iCloud ID, then select Name, ID, and Email addresses on the left. Do you see your @icloud.com email address listed to the right?

Sep 18, 2013 11:31 AM in response to randers4

Nope, I see an e-mail address as "Apple ID and Primary Email Address" that isn't @hotmail.com or @icloud.com and an @me.com e-mail address as the Alternate Apple ID.

JeffR UK

Level 1

22 points

Apr 28, 2014 10:02 AM in response to Elliot Bridgewater

Did you solve this problem? It's now baffling me too.

Apr 28, 2014 10:06 AM in response to JeffR UK

You need to start a fresh thread, or at least completely describe what issue or problem you are having in detail. We are not going to go back through this thread to try to figure out what your problem might be. It is from last year....things have changed....

Can you tell us what it is you need?

Cheers,

flzach

Level 1

3 points

Apr 28, 2014 10:16 AM in response to Elliot Bridgewater

I found the fix. Since you already have the @icloud.com email registered to you, as I also did, all you have to do is go into Settings>Mail (NOT iCloud), and Add Account. Once you add the @icloud.com email account to both devices (iphone, and MacBook) you will then be able to sync notes with out the notification for to create a new emaill account.

It worked instantly on my laptop, but I had to restart my iphone for the icloud account to show up in Notes.

Looks like the only down side is now we have to copy all the existing notes on the devices over to the icloud note account.

Hope this helps!

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