UPDATES & RECAP
I. The "Solved" indicator is an error. That comment is not a solution (although it's helpful). If anyone knows how to get rid of that, let me know.
II. What we know so far:
- iWork contacted me to ask for more info on July 19, 2016. They asked, "Does the linked text occur with all text that is pasted? Or only with text from a specific source? Could you send us an example source document that creates linked text in Notes? If the text comes from a website, the URL to the site would be sufficient." I sent them that information. I have not heard back since.
- It's not a bug that can be fixed with a fresh OS. See here.
- The problem can arise without pasting text. See here.
- The most recent reproduction of the problem seems to be around April 24th, 2017.
III. There are three proposed hypotheses/factors:
- The problem is an iOS issue: "The problem seems to be isolated to the iOS app. I just performed a test by creating a new note in the iOS app on my iPhone and added a bunch of links. There appeared a section of that note that became a link (the letters are colored gold like the other links). It has the same target as another link in the same note. If I try to delete the letters that are now highlighted gold, they go away until I type something in their place which also becomes a link. I went to the Notes app on my iMac and the new note had synced. All the standard links appeared but the link that is the text in the IOS app is not a link in the Mac Notes app." (see here).
- The problem is a length-of-note issue: "By the way, I use the Notes app all the time as outlines for presentations I give. I add many links. The problem with random note text become a link seems to not show up until I have quite a bit of text in the note. It happens as I continue creating my outline. I think it's possible that the problem is an issue of note size or complexity." (here)
- The problem is an unintended consequence of fixing a prior hyperlink issue in the Notes app. See here.
IV. To test some of these hypotheses, I just tried to reproduce the problem in a 16,000+ word note by doing some copying and pasting on both (the latest versions of) iOS and macOS. Just a few minutes after the test, the problem has not manifested.
V. REQUEST: if you still have this problem, please indicate whether you do the following by simply including a list of the letters below that apply to your situation (so we can test our hypotheses):
(a) I only type text into notes. I do not paste text into notes.
(b) I paste text into notes, but only on iOS.
(c) I paste text into notes, but only on MacOS.
(d) My notes are longer than 1000 words (Paste the note into Pages to see how many words there are in the note).
(e) The problem occurs in notes that I have never entered a URL into.
