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jparker402

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 7, 2016
556
54
Bellevue, NE
Have a MacBook Air running El Capitan and an iPhone 5C running 10.2.1. Have had some notes in Notes on my iPhone for quite awhile, and thought that they would automatically synch on to the MacBook Air. Discovered tonight that they have not. So I called the Apple Rep to find out how to do that. She said that first I would have to upgrade the MacBook to Sierra (which I am not keen on doing) and upgrade the iPhone to IOS 10.10.3.2 (which I am also not keen on doing). My lack of "keenness" is that my MacBook came with El Capitan. I believe I have read on MacRumors that whatever a clean upgrade is might be necessary; this scares me. My iPhone 5C keeps getting slower with every new IOS upgrade, so I am loath to upgrading that.

Can anyone (1) tell me if/how it is possible to synch Notes between my Mac and my iPhone without these updates, or (2) allay my fears about making these updates?

Thanks!
 

Boyd01

Moderator
Staff member
Feb 21, 2012
7,947
4,879
New Jersey Pine Barrens
That is odd, I have been using notes on my MacBook Air and they have always synced with my iPhone across multiple upgrades. My 2013 MBA is still running 10.8.5 and iPhone 6s Plus is on 10.2. Have not done anything special when upgrading the phone.
 

960design

macrumors 68040
Apr 17, 2012
3,793
1,670
Destin, FL
Have a MacBook Air running El Capitan and an iPhone 5C running 10.2.1. Have had some notes in Notes on my iPhone for quite awhile, and thought that they would automatically synch on to the MacBook Air. Discovered tonight that they have not. So I called the Apple Rep to find out how to do that. She said that first I would have to upgrade the MacBook to Sierra (which I am not keen on doing) and upgrade the iPhone to IOS 10.10.3.2 (which I am also not keen on doing). My lack of "keenness" is that my MacBook came with El Capitan. I believe I have read on MacRumors that whatever a clean upgrade is might be necessary; this scares me. My iPhone 5C keeps getting slower with every new IOS upgrade, so I am loath to upgrading that.

Can anyone (1) tell me if/how it is possible to synch Notes between my Mac and my iPhone without these updates, or (2) allay my fears about making these updates?

Thanks!
Keep your tech up to date, this protects you and your bank accounts. If the physical tech is having issues with the latest software, then it is time to start looking at upgrading. Definitely not want you want to read.

Forget about the edge use cases. Just update your software like most of us and you should be fine.

FWIW: The 5c is almost four years old and initially came out as a lower end device. Technology currently has about a three year lifespan, so it is time to start looking at updating. Cars, running shoes, ect; they all have a predictable lifespans. Using something beyond this, you must expect possible injury at worst or time wasted at best.
 

BrianBaughn

macrumors G3
Feb 13, 2011
9,821
2,493
Baltimore, Maryland
I'm with Boyd1 on this. Your notes should sync if they're associated with the same iCloud account and Notes syncing is "ON" for both devices. If they're in "iCloud" or in a "Folder" under iCloud on both devices then you should see syncing. If they're only on the device and not in the account or even in a different account they won't sync.

If you're not sure about what's in iCloud you can log in at the web portal to see.
 
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colodane

macrumors 65816
Nov 11, 2012
1,046
482
Colorado
I have no problem with Notes syncing. I'm running El Capitan on my Mac and whatever the latest iOS version is on my mobile devices.
 

jparker402

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 7, 2016
556
54
Bellevue, NE
Update. Yesterday I updated my iPhone, and updated my MacBook Air from El Capitan to Sierra. Along with the Sierra upgrade I updated Numbers, Pages and a couple other apps. Don't have much comment yet, except that the internet seems to run terribly slow at times. Not sure why.

The Apple Rep who helped me (Justin) also found out that Notes was not set up on the iPhone to save to iCloud. That was the problem with lack of synching with the MacBook. They were never able to get to it! That is all fixed now, and working quite well.
 
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