iCloud Notes Not Syncing

I am using Notes with iCloud on my MacBook (10.12.6) and iPhone (iOS 11). However, Notes is no longer syncing to iCloud. Both devices are out of sync and when I open up Notes on my MacBook, it just keeps trying to sync but never does.


I did make sure to login in to iCloud and I tried disabling and enabling iCloud notes but nothing works so far.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015), macOS Sierra (10.12.6)

Posted on Sep 26, 2017 11:21 AM

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Posted on Sep 26, 2017 1:47 PM

Try going to iCloud.com using a computer to see if the items are there and whether they are from the device or the computer. That should show whether the device or the computer isn't syncing. If the computer, try going to System Preferences/iCloud and stop syncing. Wait a couple of minutes, then recheck syncing. If the device, go to Settings/Your Name/iCloud and do the above. You can also try signing out of iCloud and then sign in again.

28 replies

Nov 13, 2017 5:20 AM in response to Eric Root

Hi Eric


The advice is good to localise the problem. iCloud.com and the Mac were in sync so that pointed at the phone.


I can't find the option to stop syncing. I went to Settings (me), iCloud, Notes and turned it off and back on again. That deleted all the notes - both the synced ones and the unsynced ones.


As my notes syncing packs up fairly frequently, can you give me a slightly more detailed pointer to where the option to turn off iCloud syncing is?


d.

Mar 15, 2018 6:06 PM in response to Eric Root

Do NOT follow the instructions in this post without copying all your data out of Notes.


I have this same issue. My laptop and iPad are properly syncing, but my iPhone is not. New notes on the other two devices never show up on the phone and none of the notes on the phone are on the other two devices.


If your device thinks that data is being synced to iCloud and it isn't, then signing out will delete all of your notes. I signed out of iCloud on my iPhone. It asked me if I was ok with deleting the local data on my iPhone for several apps (e.g., calendar, contacts). Notes was not in this list, so I naively felt that I'd be ok. Nope. Sure enough. Every note on the device in the iCloud category is now gone. Now I need to try a restore from my iCloud Backup to see if miraculously I can recover the ~30 notes that were on this device alone.

Mar 23, 2018 9:41 PM in response to Eric Root

I know this is old, but for anyone else searching, I just lost a few hours spent organizing notes imported from Evernote. The notes had stopped syncing from MacBook pro to iCloud, so I stopped the sync, waited awhile, and then turned the sync back on. The notes that were on iCloud overwrote the notes that hadn't synced. Fortunately, I didn't delete the Evernotes, so I could do it all again, but I'm not really sure I want to now. iPad and iPhone are now in between and out of sync too.

Mar 21, 2018 5:40 PM in response to savedadogs

My Notes weren't syncing to my iPad at all after I did a system reset (mac and iphone were syncing well). The following worked for me:


NOTE: DON'T TRY THIS UNLESS YOUR DATA IS BACKED UP, AND/OR YOUR NOTES ARE AT '0' ANYWAY.


on the ios device that isn't syncing: Go to Settings>General>Date and Time and turn off "Set Automatically". Then change the time to some other random time. Wait one minute. Then go back in and turn on "Set Automatically".


That should solve it.

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iCloud Notes Not Syncing

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