Mac OS Sierra Notes App on Mac not syncing to iCloud and/or iOS 10

Finally found a solution for this after months of trying various different things. (Tried pretty much every solution, individually or in combination). What finally worked for me was:

• Making sure that all internet accounts had synching off for notes (including iCloud) in the system preferences
• Going to /users/[name]/Library and doing a search within that folder for any file containing “Notes” in the name.

  matches were found in both /users/[yourname]/Library/Containers AND /users/[yourname]/Library/GroupContainers

• going to /Library/Caches and selecting all and moving to trash
• Selected all such files, threw them in the trash.
• Empty trash
• Reboot
• Open Notes
• Turn on synching for iCloud

Presto! It worked! For the first time since I installed Sierra pretty much, it finally worked on my computer again! So I’m not sure which file it was exactly that I deleted that did the trick, but my best guess is that deleting the notes related files in “containers” is not enough, you must also go after the related files in “group containers”.

There we go! Hope this helps somebody else!

Be careful and DOUBLE no TRIPLE check that you have your notes backed up... I should have tried another account maybe made a copy there too... when I did this, after moving my iCloud notes to "on my Mac" and taking these steps, so far I have been unable to recover my notes... including Time Machine, which the files are greyed out to restore... FML

Hey,

I've got the same exact problem: macos sierra 10.12.2 won't sync any note on my MBP to icloud.

I'd like to try your procedure (I already have debug menu enabled), but I'm scared by the fact that 'Delete Data (Delete from Cloud)' will nuke also the local copy of my notes (which I have copied from the icloud ones).

So, how I'm I going to be able to restore those local copies to eventually move them again into icloud?

I've seen a 'Save Archive...' / 'Load Archive...' pair under notes' debug menu, but I'm not sure that will do, and I'm too afraid of losing everything..

Any proven and safe way to be sure I'll be able to recover all my local notes once i 'Delete Data (Delete from Cloud)' ?

Thanks,

Andrea.

Hi Andrea,

I had to restore a backup to my iPad, disconnected from wifi on restore. Then I moved all my notes from iCloud to My iPad. Then I reconnected to wifi and used AirDrop to move my notes back to my iMac. I had to recreate my folder structure again, but it was worth it just to get Notes working again. It's been great since, and I've noticed that Hsndoff and universal clipboard works faster too. Happy to help further if needed.

Ouch!

Then I'm OOL.

I don't have any iOS backup containing all the notes I have on my MBP.

Also, my MBP is quite old (mid 2010) and doesn't support iOS Airdrop.

To summarize, this is my situation:

I have all my notes on the sierra notes application under the "On My Mac" section.

I don't have any notes neither in iCloud nor in my iPhone/iPad (both iOS10).

I can copy notes on my MBP from "On My Mac" to "iCloud", but they don't really get pushed to iCloud (verified by checking both on the iCloud website and on both my iOS devices, they don't get anything).

So I feel like on a very sharp edge: I have all my important notes in my macbook but I can't get them out in the cloud and if anything happens to the mac it'll be a disaster (yes, I have time machine backups, but I'm not even sure how I can get back my notes from it).

I'd really like to give a shot the "Delete Data (Delete from iCloud)" in notes' debug menu, but I first have to be sure I have a mean to save my "On My Mac" notes and get them back, and I cannot use any iOS device as a "bridge" as you did.

That's why I was wondering about those "Save Archive..."/"Load Archive..." options in notes' debug menu, has anyone tried them and can confirm they work?

Any help is greatly appreciated as I'm completely stuck at the moment.

Andrea.

Hi Andrea,

I just tried Save Archive and it created an archive without deleting anything from my notes stored on my iCloud account. When I opened the archive it prompted me if I wanted to merge with my existing notes. Maybe this is worth trying?

Maybe you could create a new account on your MBP and load the archive to test the process?

John

Thanks for your post Rachael. I've exactly the same issue: iPhone, iPad and iCloud work seamlessly. Macbookpro can only receive updates from the other devices, but adding doesn't sync suddenly.

I've tried signing in and out on all devices lot's of time, also changed my icloud password.
Has no effect on the macbookpro. Apple please listen...

Latest version on all devides (mac: MacOs Sierra 10.12.2)

This made the trick for me... but be very (very) cautious to keep a backup of your notes somewhere. Even after moving them to My Mac, they still got deleted when I did "Delete Data (Delete from Cloud)".

Thank god that I had just made a backup of my iPad! I was able to restore my notes from that:

1. restore backup - don't forget to shut off the wifi

2. activate local notes on ipad (in Notes settings)

3. copy all the notes to the local folder on my ipad and

4. after reactivating the wifi, toggle off then on the notes in iCloud Settings

5. open notes and then copy all the notes back to icloud.

Thanks!

How does one backup notes locally. I can't seen any option to export or archive notes. There is an export as "pdf" option that that only seems to work if you have selected one note. This is hardly a practical solution if one has 1800 notes.

If the notes are "on my mac" where are they kept so one could keep a copy of them.

I am having the same problem as is described in this topic (I haven't tried all the solutions yet but a backup copy would be very useful. I can't understand why apple wouldn't provide a mechanism to do this for all one's notes.

I used a similar solution. I had four recently created notes that weren't appearing on icloud.com or my other devices. I opened Console and could see a repeating "error pushing note" message.

1) Activated the 'on my Mac' account in Notes on my Mac,

2) Moved the four problem notes from my iCloud account to 'on my Mac',

3) went to System Preferences > iCloud and turned off Notes, which removed all the iCloud notes from my Mac, and stopped the "error pushing note" from appearing in the Console

4) Quit Notes

5) went to System Preferences > iCloud and turned on Notes

6) Launched Notes

7) after all the iCloud notes had reloaded, I moved the four problem notes from On My Mac to iCloud -- I had kept Console open, and I could see that the errors were not appearing

8) Checked iCloud.com and confirmed that the notes are now there.

I don't notice any stability issues. You can join the beta program here.

Thanks for using the Apple Support Communities! I understand that you have updated to iOS 10 on your iPhone and updated to macOS Sierra on your mac as well, but now notes are not syncing between your iCloud and your Mac. I'd like to help get your devices syncing seamlessly again and have some steps that can help do that.
1. First, let's uncheck Notes from System Preferences > iCloud > Notes.
2. Restart your MacBook and go back to system preferences and check Notes.
3. With Notes checked, open the Notes app and create a new note.
4. Go into www.icloud.com to check and see if the newly created note appears there.
Let us know if this helps.
Best regards.

I have this same problem on my iMac since recent upgrade to macOS Sierra Version 10.12.1. Used your suggested solution on my iMac and it does not work. I do not have the problem on my MacBook Pro; it syncs just fine with iCloud. Do you have a solution for iMac?

and if it's not appearing in iCloud, what to do then ?