Q: Notes, Multiple iCloud Accounts, and Syncing
I recently had the mind to start moving from Evernote to using Notes for our business stuff. Since the vast majority of what we need Evernote for is text (with varying degrees of simple formatting and image attachments now & then), moving to Notes just made sense from a financial standpoint. I mean... it's free, essentially. So after a couple of weeks of getting everything moved over, I've noticed a weird hiccup in the way Notes syncs, or rather, how it doesn't sync, if the account you're syncing with isn't your primary account.
I have my own, primary iCloud account that I use for everything. Our business has its own iCloud account, which we've been using for Contacts and Calendars, and now Notes. Across all devices where my personal iCloud account is the primary (an iPhone, an iPad, and two Macs), all of my notes sync exactly as they should, with proper formatting (titles, headings, bodies). On almost all devices, where the business iCloud account is not the primary account, the only formatting options I get are super basic: bold, italics, and underline. No titles, no headings, just body text (with bullet points if needed).
What I've stumbled across, that makes me more than a little bummed, is that if I visit iCloud.com and log in with our business's account, I can edit formatting to my heart's content! Notes can have proper titling! And with proper headings! So I make the changes there, inside iCloud.com, and expect that maybe those changes will get pushed to all the devices where the business iCloud isn't the primary. I dunno, think of it like maybe the system just needed a kick in the pants.
But that's not what happened. None of those formatting changes show up on those devices where the business iCloud account isn't primary. But we do have an iPhone dedicated solely to our business, and on that iPhone 5C, the formatting does get synced, and it appears just as it does on iCloud.com where I made the full formatting changes (titles, headings, etc.).
I've also attached a couple of iPhone screenshots pointing out another weird discrepancy when syncing Notes on a primary and non-primary iCloud account.
So my question/commentary is sort of two-fold, or maybe multi-fold.
- Why is this a thing?
- Is there something I'm doing wrong?
- Do we think that maybe this is a thing that Apple will address or fix?
- This seems silly. This is silly, right?
Thanks for any help or guidance y'all can give! I want to leave Evernote for good, but this is genuinely sort of a deal-breaker!
iPhone 6s, iOS 9.2.1, Involves a number of devices
Posted on Feb 23, 2016 9:46 PM
Community Hosts
Hi Luke Lucas,
So I understand you have two iCloud accounts and the added formatting features of Notes work with either account if it's the primary account but not if it's a secondary account.
It is not something you are doing wrong. This is currently how it works.
See Upgrade your notes with iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan - Apple Support
"Learn more" at the bottom:
- If you’re signed in to more than one iCloud Mail account on your iOS device or Mac and have notes syncing turned on, you can only use the new Notes features with your primary iCloud account. You can see your primary account in Settings > iCloud, or System Preferences > iCloud.
Take care.
Posted on Feb 25, 2016 7:28 AM

