Notes app sync issues after upgrading to iOS 10

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Notes app sync issues after upgrading to iOS 10

Hi All,

I'm hearing on the web a lot of people having the same issue.

After upgrading my iPhone 6s Plus and iPad Pro 9.7", the iPad perfectly kept the notes I saved in the Notes app (as my MBP / iMac did too), while on my iPhone I experienced a lot of sync issues and even lost notes and folders.

1- I tried to switch off and on the Notes sync under iOS' iCloud preferences, with a reboot between the actions. Nope. No sync, and when I switched back on the sync I lost almost all the notes previously saved in my iPhone, so now I've got 15 notes instead of 175. This happens ONLY on my iPhone, while iPad / MBP / iMac still have them all.

2- I tried to create a new folder in my MBP or in my iMac, hoping to "stimulate" a new event to resync through all my devices. Nope for the iPhone, but synced on my iPad / MBP / iMac.

3- Today I made a backup of my iPhone, reinstalled iOS 10, then restored the backup.

Nope.

Any ideas, guys?

Thank you,

Luca

iPhone 6s Plus, iOS 10, null

Posted on Sep 23, 2016 10:24 AM

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Answer 1

Asaki Author

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Sep 26, 2016 6:04 AM in response to Asaki

EDIT: actually the syncronization issues seems to happen exclusively on the iOS side; this includes the iPad too. Fortunately I didn't have the brilliant idea to turn Notes' sync off in iCloud on my iPad, as I did on the iPhone.

I'd certainly lose all the notes currently stored in my iPad too.

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Answer 2

Sep 26, 2016 11:08 AM in response to Asaki

I called Apple Support a couple of days ago and after having me try a few things the representative said to delete the Notes application and then put it back on and it worked… All my notes were there.

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Answer 3

Asaki Author

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Sep 26, 2016 11:24 AM in response to defrazzle

Thanks for your advice, which I tried. Unfortunately with no luck at all on my idevices. Fortunately all the notes are safe and sound on iCloud.

After a long chat Apple opened a ticket, then I received a call from technicians' representative who thoroughly interviewed me about the issues taking place on my iPad and iPhone.

Probably a lot of issues experienced while updating Macs and iOS devices (my AppleID's password repeatedly refused for 3 days in a row, while perfectly accepted on any Apple's web service like iCloud on the browser, appleid.apple.com etc.) didn't help my account's healthyness or whatever is now still unwilling to work on iCloud side.

Cut long things short, the Notes app's broken sync between macos Sierra and iOS 10 is still existing.

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Answer 4

Oct 12, 2016 9:42 PM in response to Asaki

Have you had any luck with a fix?

I have just upgraded to iOS 10 and when I launch the notes app it asks to upgrade the notes and I have NOT done so. The reason is because many people when iOS 9 was released had the same prompt and those that did upgrade had issues syncing iCloud notes with their Mac if the Mac was running and older OS version, older than 10.9. That meant if you were running a Mac older than 10.9, you had to upgrade the Mac OS version for the syncing to work.

When this happened, I knew better not to upgrade the notes. Granted I didn't take advantage of the new notes features, but I have a Mac running OS 10.7, so syncing was and still is far more important to me than features.

So now, I find myself in the same position, but at least in iOS 9 you can skip the upgrade, but in iOS 10, when launching notes, there is only one button forcing you to upgrade and I'm afraid to upgrade which may cause me to then have to upgrade my Mac OS to support syncing.

I'm curious, after upgrading to iOS 10, when you launched notes app for the first time, did it prompt you with the same Upgrade button and if so, did you upgrade the notes?

Thanks.

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Answer 5

Oct 24, 2016 7:46 PM in response to Asaki

Having same issue, currently running iOS 10.0.2 on an iPhone 6S and Mac OS X Yosemite, latest version on a Macbook air and the syncing of the Notes app to My Mac has stopped as of right about the time I upgraded to iOS10. Would prefer not to have to upgrade the Mac if possible right yet.

Any other suggestions or help is appreciated.

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Answer 6

Asaki Author

Level 1

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Oct 24, 2016 11:06 PM in response to Vito Corapi

Unfortunately I don't remember if I got that page prompting me to upgrade Notes.

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Answer 7

Asaki Author

Level 1

10 points

Oct 24, 2016 11:12 PM in response to Nerfherder72

The best advice I've come to is to call Apple Support and authorize them to give help "in the background", as the representative told me. And it's been quite effective: in a couple weeks (I know, be patient...) suddenly the Notes app on all my devices synchronized with iCloud and between them.

No updates or special changes or tricks made from my side, not on macOS nor iOS.

This happened 3-4 days ago, well before applying the latest OS updates (yesterday).

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Answer 8

Oct 25, 2016 9:59 AM in response to Asaki

So this is what I did and did not have to contact Apple and it works. For reference, my Mac OS is 10.7 and running latest iOS 10 version on phone.

Steps I found that helped, not sure if this is the solution, but it worked for me:

1) Quit notes app

2) disable notes iCloud notes syncing in iCloud settings

3) Launch notes app

4) The upgrade notes button will change to Continue button

5) Tap Continue

6) Go back to iCloud settings and enable notes syncing

7) wait a LONG time, and when I launched the app, it populated with all my notes. No need to upgrade Mac OS version

Cheers! 🙂

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Answer 9

Nov 22, 2016 9:38 AM in response to Vito Corapi

This issue resolved once I updated Mac to Sierra, unfortunately has unmasked several other small bugs that I am currently working through. My notes are syncing again though!

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