iCloud Notes not syncing across all devices

Vol24, I tried what you suggested on my iPod Touch 5G. After the 4 steps the Notes app is continuing to work well. So I cannot 'create' the same issue than on my others devices on iOS 10 and MacOS 10.12.

Tim Lorenzen, thank you for your informations. Deleting all the Notes is a little bit annoying for me... but it is the only solution I will copy all of them in Local and try your solution again.

Ok I tried (not on my iPod Touch because it always works, so I shut down the iPod for the rest of the procedure):

1° delete all my Notes (after a local copy in textedit)

2° sync off all Notes in iCloud pref. pane for all devices (iPhone and Mac)

3° delete Notes app on my iPhone, delete the 4 folders on the Mac as suggested by Tim Lorenzen

4° log out iCloud for all devices

5° shut down all devices

6° power on my iPhone, enable iCloud (without Notes sync), then download Notes app from the App Store, open Notes, enable Sync with iCloud

-> at this step, Notes on iPhone seems to exchange informations with the iCloud server (the wheel turns one or two times and finally stop, good point !)

7° power on my Mac, open Notes, enable log in iCloud.

-> here the Notes app has the same issue (the sync-wheel turns, stops, turns, etc... each 2 or 3 seconds, bad point)

I was going on iCloud.com, and tried some tests... finally, the new notes written on the iPhone were sync on iCloud.com, but if I create or modify the notes on iCloud.com, there is no coming back to the iPhone...

I'm very confused, the issue is in the inverted way than previously for me, now, between iCloud.com and the iPhone. And regarding the mac, always the same issue (cannot dialog with iCloud serveur but iCloud can bring notes to the mac)

I'm a little bit lost...

Thank you this worked for my iMac as well!

I think OS X is broken for good until we see an OS Patch.

As for iOS device try the last resort:

1. Connect to iOS device to iTunes
2. You should see iOS update even though there's no new version (more info: iTunes second iOS 10.1.1 version available?)
3. Update to newest build of iOS
4. Try synching and/or other methods now.

Sideoff random rant: I'm getting really tired of Apple products quality, it's the opposite of "it just works". Two build of 10.1.1, not synching notes, my iMassage problems described hereiMessages not syncing consistently between devices… Other than that

1. Listening music on iPhone7 with jack headphones and charging on new MacBook Pro 2016 requires:
   1. USB-C to USB-A
   2. USB-A to lighning (included)
   3. Lightning to 2 lightnings
   4. Lightning to jack (included)
2. Not being able to use headphones from iPhone 7 in new MacBook Pro (now we have to have 2 pairs all the time?)
3. Cooperating with LG to create 5K Ultrafine display that works ONLY with thunderbolt 3 devices, making it MBP2016 exclusive and making same case for… LG4K and make it NOT charge MBP2016…

It feels like Microsoft circa 2010, while Microsoft feels like the new Apple now with their lineup, making Windows 10 POSIX compilant, etc.

Great, thank you for the suggestion. I was not aware of another 10.1.1 update. I have done the update with iTunes, now my iPhone dialogs very well with iCloud.com (in both ways).

Regarding my Mac, I think I will stay in local mode until the new OS version (maybe newt week). Wait and see !

Thank again for your help.

Ok ! So finally in last hope I redo the procedure for the mac -> by removing the folders in Library.

Finally that's good for me too ! The sync of Notes between iPhone, iPod, iCloud.com and Mac is working well.

So really for me the important thing was to update with iTunes from iOS 10.1.1 to iOS 10.1.1 (2nd version) and clear all caches of Notes on the mac.

Thank you all !

Vol24: I'm also tired about Apple in this moment... For me Sierra arrived with some new bugs... with Notes, but also the keyboard light on boot which doesn't work automatically. And also, if I reboot the mac, the boot will take 15 seconds before showing the apple logo on the screen... very strange (reseting NVRAM and SMC don't change anything).

EDIT: and I don't speak about printer compatibility... I work in a laboratory which uses Toshiba printers... this is a disaster because the latest Toshiba drivers were published in May 2015...

"And also, if I reboot the mac, the boot (…)" Been there, found the solution:

System Preferences -> Startup Disc -> Choose your hard drive (even if you have only one) and choose "reboot from this drive".

Did you need only update iOS or did you redo all the steps from iOS devices after upgrading iOS?

System Preferences -> Startup Disc -> Choose your hard drive: yes it works for this boot, but if I don't use this procedure and if I restart the mac, sometime the boot takes 15s more. Maybe due to my Nifty mini drive in the SD card slot, maybe the soft searches a MacOS copy on the mini drive, found nothing and finally boots on the SSD.

For your question: I only updated with iTunes, just after the sync was good between iPhone and iCloud. Then I have done the complete procedure regarding the mac only and finally it works also now between the Mac and iCloud (and of course with iPhone too).

I actually got Nifty, 128GB SD card, got your problem and my solution fixed it permanently, so it's not due to SD card. Also I reproduced the issue without nifty when I had this problem.

The culprit is if you often hold "alt button" and boot from other drives from USB (I assume you do). Once you unplug the USB drives often, UEFI is getting confused and takes long to search for drives, even if there's only one

Drive need to be selected like that after reboot.

If you use Bootcamp: check bootcamp driver in lower right corner of Windows if the drives are chosen correctly to boot/reboot.

Ok thank you for your information about the UEFI. I don't use Bootcamp since a few years but indeed, I sometimes hold Alt button at startup to boot on USB devices. So I have done your procedure after the reboot. All is ok now.

Thanks !

No problem. Relived to see I'm not the only one who doesn't have a "it just works" experience, when using Apple products for something more than "expensive Facebook machine".

I'm a perfectionist and my 8 hours workday is now 6 hours of a troubleshooting Apple products and 2 hours of work itself. It beats the purpose of paying premium for being able to focus on a work and not on tools…

'my 8 hours workday is now 6 hours of a troubleshooting Apple products and 2 hours of work itself': the same for me.

Just for comparison (because I have seen that your Mac works also with 10.12.1), do you have also a little troubleshooting with the keyboard light at startup ?

I mean... until El Capitan, after the boot and when the log screen appears, the keyboard light automatically comes (at the same 'level/brightness' than before the last shut down).

Since the 1st update to Sierra, at startup the keyboard stays without light on log screen, and even after I enter into my session. Each time I need to set the light manually. It sounds like the system don't keep in memory the light state, or cannot read/apply automatically the previous state during the boot.

Did you have the same kind of behavior ? (in the case of having, in the Keyboard Pref. Pane, the box 'Automatically illuminate keyboard in low light' unchecked)

EDIT: as I said previously, reseting NVRAM and/or SMC don't change anything.

It worked, finally. Thanks!

First of all: Be aware that between some OS updates you could change the behaviour of your HDD. Was it encrypted before? Is it encrypted now? That can be your culprit. I think somewhere between El Capitan and Sierra update Apple set encryption by default which is actually a good thing for the sake of your data protection.

For not encrypted hard drive, OS X is loaded first and than you enter credentials.

For encrytpted HDD login screen is not really OS X but "UEFI system". This small system will decrypt your disk based on your credentials entered correctly. Once you will provide password it will decrypt OS X itself and start booting it. Once the OS X is running, drivers for keyboard lights are loaded and starts to work. This is by design. Once the drivers are loaded keyboard should light with the brightness set last time.

Before update:

I didn't notice how it behaved, so don't have any comparison.

Right now:

1. I've set lightning to '4' bars

2. Turned off computer

3. Turned on computer

4. Disk encrypted, UEFI Login screen appears. Keyboard lights are OFF

5. I enter credentials, disc decrypted, OS X starting to boot

6. After couple of seconds, keyboard's lights are ON with '4' bars.