Level 1

49 points

Apple Notes keeps crashing in iOS11

Hope you can help me, I appreciate your input and suggestions. FYI... I usually upgrade my iPhone every two years and upgrade to the most advanced Apple device that Apple offers. I’ve been using my current iPhone 7+ 256gb for almost a year now, with no issues. I have been using Apple Notes for many years with no issues prior to my recent upgrade to iOS11. I just upgraded to iOS 11 the day of the release and have now noticed that Notes is always crashing. I do use Notes quite extensively. After a couple a crashes, I think tried exiting Notes, it often resets itself and then crashes again. I have tried both hard and soft re-boots, but that doesn’t help... Any ideas? Thanks in advance... Rob

Posted on Sep 24, 2017 5:29 AM

Top-ranking reply

davidfromholladay

Level 1

20 points

Posted on Dec 15, 2017 9:12 AM

My problem seems to be solved. I went back and compared my most recent notes on the iPhone against the same notes in iCloud. Found about 15 that were out of sync (the iPhone version was correct since that is where I edit most of them, thus confirming what I knew before: that my sync problem was originating on the iPhone). I then copied each of the notes that were out of sync emailed them to myself, and copied and pasted them into my Mac notes app. They all synced fine through iCloud and onto my iPhone. I then went back a year to verify there were no problems with other notes. All other notes were in sync. I then turned note off on my iPhone, this deleting them from the device. I lastly turned Notes on in my iPhone. All downloaded from iCloud to my iPhone. I tested the sync process by creating a new note on my iPhone. It IMMEDIATELY synced to both iCloud and my Mac. Problem solved!

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292 replies

TheHardt

Level 1

13 points

Nov 1, 2017 3:17 AM in response to robert.burns

I have the exact same issue as Robert. I use notes maybe 30-40 times a day and have never had any issues until I downloaded the newest update (Ibelieve 11.3) and it has basically rendered, by far the most important aspect of the phone (iPhone 7+ 256gb) unusable, and it having a seriously detrimental effect on my business. I have 1,000’s of notes on iCloud and stored locally in my laptop. This issue needs to be resolved, and it’s needs to be resolved quickly. Please advise at your earliest.

Asher Hardt

TheHardt.com

robert.burns Author

Level 1

49 points

Nov 1, 2017 3:49 AM in response to TheHardt

Hi Asher, I feel your pain. I have the identical 7 Plus as you do, and same frustration. Notes also has a significant impact on my day, these issues are also negativity impacting me. I am not happy with Apple these days, and have already put all my planned Apple purchases on hold. I am patiently waiting for the next update “hoping” it will fix my issues... but if not, this may be the new normal, which leaves us with some decisions to make... wait and pray, hesitantly start making plans to change and adapt or status quo, which isn’t viable. I am locked into the Apple tech garden (many many Apple devices including a significant iTunes library and investment and multiple: iPads, iPhones, AppleTV, iMac, MacBook Pro etc etc. etc.), but I was a Sony fan before Apple so I can eventually walk away, if Apple is taking its customers for granted, look what happened to Sony... AppleCare has offered to help with a complete restoration process, which requires a significant investment of time and a complete hassle with no guarantees it will fix the problem. I have little to no confidence in that at all, this all started with iOS 11 and subsequent updates, but I may have to try that restoration rebuild if the future updates don’t resolve these issues... for the time being I am locked in with Apple, but not near as loyal an Apple customer as I once was, all because of this iOS11 update and Notes issue. BTW, wrote this all in Microsoft Word for iOS, not a great solution… but Evernote could be? Let’s hope the next update(s) fix our issues.

robert.burns Author

Level 1

49 points

Nov 2, 2017 6:56 AM in response to scottfillmer

Thanks Scott, Not sure why this Apple says “Solved”, my Notes crashing continues, I upgraded to 11.1 on November 1st, 2017, now Notes has become practically unusable... its worse with 11.1 . I’m Switching over to Evernote as a stopgap until Apple figures this out, its stable enough to get me productive again. I was hoping iOS 11.1 would fix this. Good to know that iPhone 8 Plus has similar issues, in case I was stupid enough to think uohrading my recent iPhone 7 Plus 256GB to the iPhone 8 Plus 256gb. Apple doesnt seem to be listening to its most loyal Apple fans... iOS 11 has practically made my pre- iPhone 8 and X iPhone i’m productive!

Nov 5, 2017 1:20 AM in response to robert.burns

I have the same problem that everyone here is describing. It began on all my devices immediately after upgrading to iOS 11, and 11.1 does not fix it.

i have less than 1300 notes, and it doesn’t matter if a note as images or attachments; Apple Notes hangs for around 30 seconds frequently whilst editing notes. I have even seen this behavior in the share sheet of Safari when exporting to a note.

The only troubleshooting I can provide is that the hanging /crashing only seems to occur when editing an existing note, never when actually creating a note for the first time.

I dont want to have to switch away from Apple Notes (haging switched to Notes from Evernote). However as 11.1 did nothing to address this, I’m concerned this may be a major bug in iOS 11 that will just be ignored by Apple.

robert.burns Author

Level 1

49 points

Nov 5, 2017 4:04 AM in response to TheHardt

Don’t succomb. I just took desperate measures and a gamble...I use my Notes for my work... so my lost productivity costs me time and money. My IPhone 7 Plus (which I loved!!!), was crashing with Notes so bad on Friday that rather than throw this perfectly fine iPhone (not the OS) at a wall, I relented and took a chance that a an “Hail Mary” upgrade to an 8 Plus 256 GB may resolve the Notes crashing issues... IT DIDNT!!! The guy at the Apple store wasn't aware of iOS 11 issues (?) listened to me vent about iOS 11 (it want his fault, so I wasnt rude to him, in fact I was quite defeated and despondent about my situation), my issues and my hail mary solution, he even offered to get the Apple store’s tech guys to fix the issue on my iPhone 7 Plus. I knew that trying to resolve onbthe iPhone end was just going to be an unintentional patronizing waste of my time, so I upgraded to the 8 Plus... nice phone and a better phone for value than the iPhone X. I digress, bottom line, the new phone didn’t solve the Notes issues! In line with your sinking ship anology... buying the new phone was like “rearranging deck chairs on the iOS 11 Titanic!!! Apple has to solve this onbthier end.

Nov 5, 2017 5:55 PM in response to robert.burns

Wow... I'm surprised to see so many people has same issue as mine with the Note. Ever since I upgrade to iOS 11, the concept of "easy-to-use" and "stability" were all gone. I have tried so many methods to find a solution but none of them work. I have given up and switch to Notability which is so far very stable and workable for me.

It seems that those concepts that Apple used to have are fading away with Jobs. Now, I really miss him!!!!

Nov 19, 2017 6:19 AM in response to robert.burns

I could not wait for long and started to use Google Keep as a very nice alternative to the lost features of iOS Notes. I now only need to figure out how to transfer my old notes from iPhone to Google Keep

Nov 29, 2017 5:45 AM in response to Xbaz

At this point I think you’re correct it’s a volume of notes issue. I’m going to have to just go back to Evernote for my main storage of notes. I’m a heavy notes user in all different apps, the cross platform app landscape right now is horrible, but as much as I can’t stand the bloated-ness of Evernote it feels like the only viable option for high volume of notes right now until Apple gets this fixed.

robert.burns Author

Level 1

49 points

Nov 29, 2017 6:02 AM in response to Xbaz

I feel your pain... My Notes has gradually degraded since 11 was first released, months ago. Starting with performance issues, Notes shutdowns and freezing to the point of 100% unusable as of a few weeks back. I had over 3000 notes on my iPhone, they’ve all disappeared, but thankfully still reside on my MacOS. It appears that this Notes issues community in this entire string has become an echo chamber. Sadly Apple hasn’t recognized this an issue or an issue they want to prioritize. Which only leaves us with sourcing for other note taking solutions, I have crossed over to Evernote out of necessity. At least it’s stable. I’m an advocate of Apple, but very disappointed with them. In addition to this forum I have talked to Applecare about these issues several times and logged a trouble ticket with Apple engineering weeks ago... no response. Yet, I see Apple worrying about much less important issues with thier recent updates, so time to move on from Apple Notes in my opinion, they appear to have abandoned the platform. Hope it all works out for you.

Dec 2, 2017 4:46 AM in response to robert.burns

I've basically given up at this point. I've tried every single option and suggestion that's come up and nothing has worked at all. My only option now is I'm going to delete off all the major folders that have 500-700 notes in them (notes I've tried to save over to Evernote) and get the Notes app down to under 1,000 notes. I'm doing all this from my MacBook so it will just transfer to my iOS devices. I can work with notes within my MacBook right now, barely, but iOS notes is beyond a work around, I think the only solution is for Apple to bug fix it.

I would love to hear why the apple rep early on in this thread marked this as "resolved" and hasn't chimed back in at all just so we could have some hope for this issue, but right now it feels like a dead issue to Apple from my point of view. Hopefully not.

Dec 2, 2017 4:49 AM in response to Alexm87

@alexm87 this issue has obviously not been resolved at all, not even close, can you address this issue with all these people who are struggling with the same problem, it's obviously a bug in Apple Notes that has something to do with iCloud when you get over a certain number of notes in Apple Notes. Please un-resolve this and address the growing crowd of people who are trying to desperately fix this issue. thanks.

robert.burns Author

Level 1

49 points

Dec 3, 2017 3:16 AM in response to scottfromminnesota

Hi Scott,

Sadly, I have to report that the issues have resurfaced again, freezing, locking up, crashes, have to re-boot etc.. Notes unusable again.

Not the first time this has happened though, finding a resolution that appears to work then once I start using Notes, it returns to iOS Notes Fail ground zero. This has happened now several occasions since the advent and release of iOS 11 months ago.

I’m not sure what to make of this because there are so many people with these Notes crashing issues, yet some solutions work in some instances, like yours for example, this solution works for you. I still think that these issues are iCloud related and on the Apple side and not the individual users... It appears systemic. When a solution is found that resolves the Notes issues, it eventually reverts back to the orginal issues again. Almost like Apple iCloud for Notes has a very low tolerance.

Prior to your detailed solution, I had resigned myself to accept the Evernote platform, not perfect but its mostly stable, and just wait it out until Apple finally releases an iOS 11 update that specifically addresses the Notes issue. Which could be awhile, Apple hasn’t recognized or admitted to the Notes issue and are focusing on iPhone 10/X issues.

I really appreciate your effort, suggestions and interest in my issue. Thanks again, I thought this was finally resolved, but appreciate your kind efforts nonetheless.

Rob

micraman

Level 1

8 points

Dec 4, 2017 2:24 PM in response to michaelfromcrystal beach

This sounded ridiculous to me, as you can replicate the action of turning backround refreshes off by General/Background App Refresh. I tried this and within a few seconds of using Notes, it locked up as per the usual.

Then I tried your idea of Battery/Low Power Mode. In the few minutes that I have been moving around in Notes, it has not locked-up. This is far too early for me to get my hopes up, thinking that this is actually the answer to the crashing Notes issues.... Nope, lock-up!

Okay, so this helped Notes run lock-up free for a few minutes but then locked up again. However, it does seem to have far less issues, so you still may very well be onto something here. In fact, My iPhone 6 has been running painfully slowly for some months now, even after restoring to factory settings. About 10 minutes after making this setting change has dramatically altered the speed of my phone, making it much, much faster.

This is still far to early to conclude anything with any certainty, but so far, this has made a dramatic effect on not only my Notes app but my whole phone.

Thanks for your input!

Dec 5, 2017 3:00 PM in response to michaelfromcrystal beach

Well it finally locked up a few minutes ago. As I have done in the past, I closed the mail app, and notes unlocked. Apple is supposed to call me tomorrow, but I’m leaning toward Microsoft Notes. The program is slow with 1500 notes so I can’t imagine how it will act with 4000. Even if they solve the locking problem, it will probably still be too slow for my liking.

robert.burns Author

Level 1

49 points

Dec 5, 2017 3:56 PM in response to AppleGuyAZ

Thanks for this. I’m now using Evernote in light of Apple Notes current freezing/shutdowns/reboots, the fact that I can no longer use it and no acknowledgement from Apple. Evernote is far from perfect. I’m a Mac Office user, so perhaps I should reconsider MS OneNote. Hope we all find alternatives that work for us and we become accustomed to...

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Apple Notes keeps crashing in iOS11