How to transfer some selected Notes from one iPhone to another ?

Question

Gyruss Author

Level 1

8 points

How to transfer some selected Notes from one iPhone to another ?

I would just like to transfer a few Notes from an iPhone X to an iPhone Y.

I don't want to do a Restore to Y from a Backup of X, as this would transfer everything from X to Y,

and would erase whatever is currently on Y. So the suggestions from http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2109 don't apply.

And is there a way to consult iPhone Notes on the computer (PC) where both iPhones are backed up (with iTunes) ?

Something like extracting them from a read-only backup archive, and opening them with a text editor ?

Thanks in advance.

iPhone 5s, iOS 7

Posted on Dec 18, 2013 7:28 PM

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Answer 1

sberman

Level 10

273,174 points

Dec 18, 2013 7:32 PM in response to Gyruss

If both iPhones are new enough, use AirDrop as described here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5887

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Answer 2

Gyruss Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 19, 2013 12:54 PM in response to sberman

Thanks sberman for the tip. I actually wasn't aware of this AirDrop feature 🙂

I guess I should have read the manual...

It's a nice feature, offered not a moment too soon.

Still, that didn't help, since one of the phones is an iPhone 4, which

I just upgraded to iOS7.0.4, after having just updated iTunes to the latest release

on the PC. And the iOS7 upgrade had some problems, forcing me to do

a Restore... At least, the process finished and I didn't end up with a brick.

To Apple folks: please, give us a streamlined upgrade/update process.

Why does it take so long to update iTunes for Windows anyway ? Not the

download part, but the installation part.

So the iPhone 4 can run iOS7, but not AirDrop... It's 3 years old, which

apparently makes it an antiquated obsolete piece of junk.

Any other ideas, to copy a Note from an iPhone 4 to an iPhone 5S, both under iOS7 ?

I'm trying with iCloud, or with the email associated to Notes (not clear how that works:

is that described somewhere ?). No success so far.

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Answer 3

Gyruss Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 20, 2013 10:33 PM in response to Gyruss

Here's a workaround that solved the problem in my case:

1) make sure you configure the same email address A in both iPhones X and Y (among other email addresses).

This will ensure that Notes can see that same email address A (as an "account") on both devices X and Y.

2) you'll want to transfer old notes from the "From My PC" Notes folder in the old phone X to the new phone Y.

You can do that, one note at a time, all in the old device X, by Copying text from a note in "From My PC"

and by Pasting it to a new note in the Notes folder named after the common email address A.

3) the newly copied notes will now be visible on the new iPhone Y, because they are shared via the

common email address A (check the folder A ("account") in Notes of the new device Y).

These notes, by the way, will also be visible in a web-based email reader (gmail, yahoo, etc.) for that address A.

If you try to "share" a note from Notes to an email address, it will arrive as an email, not as a note. Likewise for Messages. That's why I resorted to the Copy/Paste operation, to ensure a note remains a note.

Of course, it would be easier to just be able to move notes around...

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