I just upgraded to El Capitan on my iMac and saw there was a way to create checklists. However, I cannot click the button at the top for checklists. I also cannot click the button that lets you apply style to text. Both buttons are that light shade of gray that basically says, "We will not work for you so don't try it." Why would that be?
iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11.1)
I resolved this by, for myself, doing the following on macOS High Sierra - 10.13.1, go to Menu > Notes > Preferences configured as in the screenshot (previously the "Enable on my account checkbox" was not checked).
Still doesn't work. I tried creating a new note to do it. I still can't click on the "Make a Checklist" link. ;(
I found the solution!
Open up notes > Click Notes on the upper left > Click " On My Mac" Account !
Then you can start a new notes with checklist feature! 🙂
Hope this helps!!
If you are using a non-Apple Notes account (Google, for example) you can use OS X's Notes app to manipulate it, but some features cannot be expected to work.
Read this post: El Capitan - problem with new Notes.
Agreeing with response from mappingman. Note that just one older iPhone (4 or previous) linked to your iCloud account will prevent all other linked devices (including computers) from using checklists and other advanced capabilities of Notes.
mappingman wrote:
You might have a device that is linked to your iCloud account that has either an earlier version of OS X than El Capitan, or an earlier version of iOS than iOS 9. If so, you will need to choose the upgrade version for the Notes you are working with. You should see and 🙂Upgrade button🙂 next to the text iCloud in the left hand menu of Notes in El Capitan. The selection is similar in iOS 9 by selecting the left pointing arrow in the top left hand corner of Notes on the iPhone and then selecting upgrade there.
Here (above) is the SECRET answer everybody is looking for. Thank-you mappingman.
The Apple help pages are Very unclear about this. The explanation only makes sense if you already know exactly what you're looking for. If you have been running El Capitan for months, and now realize that there are feature in Notes that are unavailable to you, the following sentence (found repeatedly in the Apple Help pages) is of no help because we are not opening Notes for the "FIRST TIME". Here is that frustrating sentence, "When you open Notes in iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan for the first time and select Upgrade Now".
To follow up with mappingman's helpful answer, here's a picture of what you're looking for:
If you click your cursor anywhere in the Notes text area, both options should be available. Neither one will be available if you simply select an existing Note from the left or center column.
Try creating a new Note first (the "create a Note" button, to the right of the trash can).
You might have a device that is linked to your iCloud account that has either an earlier version of OS X than El Capitan, or an earlier version of iOS than iOS 9. If so, you will need to choose the upgrade version for the Notes you are working with. You should see and Upgrade button next to the text iCloud in the left hand menu of Notes in El Capitan. The selection is similar in iOS 9 by selecting the left pointing arrow in the top left hand corner of Notes on the iPhone and then selecting upgrade there.
IT actually doesn't have to even be that old. I had an iPhone 5S with iOS 8 running and that prevented it. It only has to be a device running any iOS earlier than 9, or any Mac running any Mac OS earlier than 10.11.x El Capitan.
I'm having this issue and I don't have the upgrade option showing. The three computers linked to this iCloud account are running 10.11.6 or 10.11.5. The iPad and iPhone linked are running 9.3.5. I see the checkbox option on the iMac tool bar, but it is grayed out and inaccessible. The formatting button is also gray.
If I click on the browse attachments button in the toolbar on the Mac, everything becomes grayed out- including all folders- except the option to hide the LH panel, and I can't get back to any notes at all unless I quit notes and restart the application.
Editing a note on the iDevices, I don't see the tools above the text entry area, where the checkbox item used to be. On the Macs, there is a Checklist item under the format menu, but it doesn't appear to do anything.
I'd like to use checkboxes, but I'm stumped as to how to have the option.
I figured out my issue above. I have two iCloud accounts- one my wife and I use as a "joint" account for some email, then we have individual accounts set up as "primary". Somehow my notes were set up to operate under my non-primary iCloud account (I thought in that case they would not synch, but they synched just fine). I was signed in to iCloud on all devices with my primary account, but notes was using the non-primary. The checkbox and list functions were disabled if you are using a non-primary account for notes. Moving the notes to the primary account and turning off synching for the non-primary account seems to have given me full function.
I can't create a checklist in Notes (El Capitan). I can't click the icon. Why is that?
