Q: iOS 9 / iTunes / Outlook Notes sync on Windows

I tried this as well as other Outlook sync apps as I wanted one that didn't sync with the cloud or add any apps to my iPhone. I found AkrutoSync (www.akruto.com) best met my needs and then some. It syncs Outlook calendar, contacts, notes and reminders (tasks on Outlook) automatically and wirelessly. It does not require iTunes. It's not free (you can try it free first), but the price is nothing compared to the time I spent trying to fix iTunes sync every time it broke.

The new iOS Notes functionality no longer adheres to the IMAP standard which is what Apple used to sync iOS Notes with Outlook Notes.

Since it appears Apple will not correct this problem, I went ahead and purchased a 3rd party solution for Windows called "AkrutoSync":

http://www.akruto.com/

You can download the software, set it up and try it for 7 days.  The software costs $34.95 for a one-time license.

AkrutoSync can be used to sync Windows Outlook (I am using Outlook 2016) Calendars, Contacts, Tasks, and Notes.  Synchronization can be setup to perform over the Internet or your local wireless home network.

I am currently using it to only sync Outlook 2016 Notes with two iOS devices (my iPhone 6 and my iPad 3), using my home wireless network.

The setup takes about 5 minutes (they have detailed instructions).

One nice aspect with iOS devices is the sync is automatic and immediate as soon as you open the specific app in the iOS device.  For example, my Outlook Notes will automatically sync with my iPhone when I open the iPhone Notes app.

I too have been affected by this.  For years, I synced my iOS notes to Outlook (it was the only way to get the notes onto the PC and vice-versa).

I even wrote an Outlook VBA script to automatically export all Outlook notes to text files on the PC (preserving the creation date).

When Apple expanded Notes to support rich text and images, I knew the days of syncing with Outlook were numbered, especially when I found myself adding links and images more and more.

One way to automatically access rich text notes from your PC was to associate it with an e-mail address.  The note would be created in the "notes" folder of the mailbox, which you could access from Outlook, if you added the mail account.

The down side was, iOS ignores any edits to notes you make outside of iOS, or any notes you add from say, directly inside the e-mail account.  This was really too bad, because it would be really useful to be able to say, create a rule in gmail, to route certain messages to your "notes" folder, which would then automatically show up in the Notes on your iPhone. You could then e-mail yourself messages with a certain keyword in the subject, or what have you, that would go directly into your Notes (kind of an alternative to EverNote). And for those of us who like using Word as an alternate e-mail editor for Outlook, we could edit our notes outside of iOS on a PC with a real keyboard and mouse inside a real word processor.

Now that iCloud is becoming the home for iOS notes, this further moves us away from being able to edit them as files on our computer.  Inside Notes in iOS, if you click Edit, you see a "Move All" option.  It only lets you move the notes to iCloud or to "On my iPhone".  You don't get the option to move notes to the "Notes" folder of any of your e-mail addresses, further "trapping you inside the ecosystem".

Having rich text, drawings and images in notes is a great feature.  But as a PC user, I want to be able to access my notes on my computer as an RTF or Word file.  I want to be able to do all the things with those files that I can with a word processor on my computer - edit, print, view, etc. - and have the changes automatically mirrored back onto my iOS device.  And any changes I make to the notes in iOS should be mirrored to a *file* on the computer.  I would also like my iOS device to reflect any changes to linked notes from an e-mail address.  So if I e-mail myself a message and have a rule that drops it into the Notes folder, and that e-mail account is linked to notes on my iOS device, that message will show up in notes in iOS.  If I edit that message in Outlook, or from gmail's Webmail, or wherever, I want those changes to show up in the note when I view it in iOS.  For me, these freedoms will make my life much simpler, and my iPhone much more useful.

Thoughts?  Does anyone else agree/disagree?

Excellent product! It solved my Notes sync problem.

I saw it!  It must be nice to just be able to remove functionality from your product at will.

In the end to this saga for me, and a great work around so far.  I purchased CopyTrans Contacts which allows  you to Manage phone Contacts, Calender, sms, notes and move them back and forth import/export without the use of Itunes.

I also checked out the install-able ICloud software and found that it would put EVERYTHING even my running list logins and passwords into the stratosphere.  No Thanks.

I purchased CopyTrans Contacts which allows  you to Manage phone Contacts, Calender, sms, notes and move them back and forth import/export without the use of Itunes.

I also checked out the install-able ICloud software and found that it would put EVERYTHING even my running list logins and passwords into the stratosphere.  No Thanks.