I have a workaround solution to the iCloud Notes/IOS 9 sync issue. Your mileage may vary. Please read the caveats below before you try this.
My setup:
I have multiple Macs (Maverick 10.9.5), iPhone 5S (IOS 9.1), and older iPad (IOS 9.1). My Notes would sync perfectly using iCloud when my iPhone/iPad ran IOS 8.4.1, however, after upgrading my iPhone 5S and iPad to IOS 9, Notes no longer would sync between all my devices. I use Notes a lot, and I was not happy. However, I did not read the warning on my iPhone when I first launched Notes after upgrading to IOS 9, so the fault was my own. I did not want to update my Macs to El Capitan (which would fix the iCloud Notes sync issue) because I would have had to buy a bunch of updated software to work with El Capitan. I could also not downgrade my iPhone to IOS 8.4.1 because Apple quit signing it. Stuck!
After much thought, today I found a workaround solution. This is nothing new, but I just thought of it today. It is to stop using your iCloud Notes account and instead use an IMAP email account for Notes, but on all your devices the IMAP email account must be the SAME account (otherwise Notes won't sync to all devices). This will NOT work for a POP email account, it must be an IMAP email account. Here's how I did it:
First, backup all your iCloud Notes by emailing all iCloud Notes to yourself. Skip this step at your peril!
After backing up iCloud Notes via email method, I went into iPhone Settings/Mail, and selected my main IMAP email account. This IMAP email account I use on ALL my devices. I then turned Notes ON for my main IMAP email account on my iPhone. Next I went to my two Macs, launched Notes, went to Notes>Accounts, and selected the same IMAP email account that is also on my iPhone. I then turned Notes ON for this IMAP email account on both my two Macs. Now I had my iPhone and my two Macs using Notes on the same IMAP email account.
Next, I went back to my iPhone and launched Notes. The Notes app screen now showed both the IMAP email Notes account and my iCloud Notes. I then went to each individual iCloud Note, "Selected All" (meaning copy the entire body copy of the note), then navigated back to my IMAP Notes (< icon in upper left corner) and created a new note, and PASTED the text into the IMAP note. Viola! This IMAP Note now synced to both my Macs and my iPhone. I repeated this for each of my iCould notes until all my iCould notes were copied into new IMAP Notes. I had about 45 Notes, took me about 15 minutes.
So I'm back to using IMAP for Note syncing and so far it works just fine.
Caveats:
- I backed up all my iCloud Notes by emailing them to myself, just in case. I suggest you do the same before trying this.
- When creating a new Note on any of your devices, you must create it using the SAME IMAP email account that is on ALL of your devices, in order for it to sync on ALL your devices. If you mistakenly create it using your iCloud Note account, then you can always copy and paste it into an IMAP Note.
- I have only been doing this for a few days, but once I am satisfied that IMAP Notes is solid, then I will turn iCloud Notes OFF on all my devices. Know that this will permanently DELETE all your iCloud Notes. (But you did back them up and copy them all into fresh new IMAP Notes, didn't you?)
- IMAP Notes is text only, so if you have created any Notes under IOS 9, only the text will copy/paste to an IMAP Note.