Sync non-upgraded Notes between macOS Sierra, Yosemite, and iOS 9?

Question

Sync non-upgraded Notes between macOS Sierra, Yosemite, and iOS 9?

Most of my Apple computers still run Yosemite and will continue to run ONLY Yosemite for some time to come because of professional pro audio software compatibility and some other issues (this will not change any time soon.)

My iPhone 5s does have iOS 9 and I totally rely on being able to sync Notes on my iPhone with Notes on my Macs. I did NOT "upgrade/update" Notes on my iPhone to the newest format. If I had done that, I believe my Notes app on my iPhone would forever only be able to sync with El Capitan (which I've skipped altogether) and later.

My questions are:

1) Can I install macOS Sierra on one of my Macs but still opt to NOT upgrade/update my Notes app so that I can still sync notes with my Macs that are still running Yosemite? Or does Sierra REQUIRE Notes to get updated to the newest version with no option to opt out?

2) Same question for iOS 10 (which I won't be running until I get an iPhone 7 eventually)....Does iOS 10 still allow a user to opt out of this upgrade/updating of Notes to the newest format? Or is the new Notes format a REQUIREMENT of iOS 10?

Thank you for helping!

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5), 32 GB RAM

Posted on Sep 21, 2016 8:37 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

DigitalDuderino Author

Level 1

15 points

Feb 11, 2017 12:02 AM in response to DigitalDuderino

For anyone who is reading this and cares, I finally found out that if you've never upgraded your iCloud notes, you CAN indeed sign into iCloud in Sierra, decide to still NOT upgrade your notes when launching the Notes app on Sierra, and your notes will successfully continue to sync between Sierra and Yosemite. I've done it myself and it works like a charm.

Now I'm wondering if Mail's smart mailboxes are having a sync issue (not syncing at all) between Sierra and Yosemite....but that's fodder for an entirely different thread.

Hope this helps someone out there with the same question!

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Answer 2

Eric Root

Level 10

684,039 points

Sep 22, 2016 10:48 AM in response to DigitalDuderino

I can't answer your questions directly, but have you checked at iCloud.com to see if anything is there and tried to determine which compute/device is syncing to iCloud?

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Answer 3

Sep 22, 2016 5:29 PM in response to Eric Root

While I appreciate your reply, this wouldn't help me. Currently all of my computers and iPhone are syncing with each other and iCloud.com just fine.

My question is about whether Sierra and/or iOS 10 have requirements for upgrading Notes to the new version, with the potential to break Notes syncing with my machines that will remain on Yosemite for some time to come.

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Answer 4

Oct 13, 2016 11:10 AM in response to DigitalDuderino

Hi , I had Yosemite on my Mac and iOS 10 and both were sync properly . i dont think there are any requirements as such unless you turn on any additional features like documents sharing etc. which are not enabled by default. if you just upgrade one of the device ur notes should work fine. i hope this helps

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Answer 5

Oct 19, 2016 1:01 AM in response to deepaklohia

Thanks for the reply. I did figure out that IF you never touched that "Upgrade" button in the Notes app for your iCloud notes in iOS 9 to migrate to the new format, then you can still opt out of upgrading on iOS 10.

However, I spent a very long time on the phone with AppleCare support asking about Sierra.

And while the first senior advisor told me that it would be okay, I ended up in a much longer discussion with a completely different senior advisor at Apple, who hung up with me to research the issue and get back to me later.

And his answer was, despite what the first person told me, he said that if you sign into iCloud and use your iCloud notes on Sierra, the consensus among them was that your iCloud notes would no longer sync any computers running any OS earlier than El Capitan.

So I still have not tested signing into iCloud on Sierra because I'm too worried I'll lose notes syncing with my MANY other macs that still run Yosemite, and will continue to run that version of OS X for the foreseeable future.

I am, however, getting my new iPhone 7 tomorrow with iOS 10, so I'll at least be able to (well I'll be forced to, really) test me hearing that, as long as I never "Upgraded" them, my iOS 10 iCloud notes should supposedly still sync with Yosemite.

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