Notes iCloud Sync Now Broken in Yosemite

[larryleveen]

Nice, helpful guy from Apple Support tried to help me with a problem that recently showed up where Notes on Yosemite/OSX 10.10.5 no longer syncs to iCloud. Calendars still does, however (as does Notes on my iPhone 5s iOS10.1.1). My settings are correct as far as we could determine. Something either has changed with a recent OSX update on my aging 2011 Macbook Air 11", or some change happened in Sierra/iCloud that has left Notes under Yosemite in the lurch. Support Guy offered upgrading to El Capitan -- but that didn't work, because 10.10.5 can't upgrade to the current verison of El Cap! Instead, I have to upgrade to Sierra, which is a bummer. I fear OS bloat will choke my veteran Air, though supposedly all my main apps will be fine from the research I have done.

Any other Yosemite-adherents notice Notes not syncing anymore? Maybe there is a third-party Notes-like app that I could still use to sync between my Air and iPhone? Advice appreciated.

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

Support Guy offered upgrading to El Capitan -- but that didn't work, because 10.10.5 can't upgrade to the current verison of El Cap!

Of course it can, you just need access to an El Capitan installer. Just find someone who has it, and have them create a USB stick installer for you. Or have them log in on the App store on your MBA, and download it directly.

Regarding a replacement app, there's quite a few. Evernote or OneNote comes to mind immediately.

 

[larryleveen]

The support article he referred me to is: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206886. The link in the first bullet under "How to get El Capitan" triggers the App Store, but when when I click the GET button, a message pops up that says "We could not complete your purchase. This version of OS X 10.11 cannot be installed on this computer."

 

[steve62388]

I don't speak with specific knowledge but I would be surprised if Apple had deprecated Notes iCloud syncing in Yosemite, it's not that old. Have you tried signing out and back into iCloud on all your devices at the same time? Make sure you keep one local copy on a device, you will need this copy to sync back through to your other devices.

 

[larryleveen]

Thanks for your reply. I did just sign out on all devices (laptop & phone) AND restarted them. No luck. Sync between laptop and iCloud/iPhone isn't working for Notes. The other iCloud apps are fine, though.

Notes has undergone some changes. The support guy thought that upgrading to a newer OS on my laptop would bring the two "into alignment again."

I welcome any other suggestions to help fix this problem. I'm on a trip right now and can't backup and upgrade the OS.

 

[GerritV]

Last week, my Notes app on my iPad got "isolated". No matter what I did, it wasn't showing on my iPhone nor my MBP.
Whatever I did on my iPhone or MBP never made it to my iPad.

I ended up exporting ALL of my notes as text files, deleting my Notes documents in the cloud, and finally put everything back by copy/paste. From there on, things work again (fingers-crossed-touching-wood-doing-raindance).

I never trusted iCloud, nor ever will. Better step out of my "Going with the stock apps" crusade and use some professional ones instead.

 

[steve62388]

I never trusted iCloud, nor ever will. Better step out of my "Going with the stock apps" crusade and use some professional ones instead.

The grass isn't always greener.

https://techcrunch.com/2016/10/13/e...ious-bug-caused-data-loss-for-some-mac-users/

 

[larryleveen]

Last week, my Notes app on my iPad got "isolated". No matter what I did, it wasn't showing on my iPhone nor my MBP.
Whatever I did on my iPhone or MBP never made it to my iPad.

I ended up exporting ALL of my notes as text files, deleting my Notes documents in the cloud, and finally put everything back by copy/paste. From there on, things work again (fingers-crossed-touching-wood-doing-raindance).

I never trusted iCloud, nor ever will. Better step out of my "Going with the stock apps" crusade and use some professional ones instead.

I wonder if you left out something in your description of what you did to reassociate your iPad with Notes. I don't understand (and maybe you don't either) how just deleting all the notes and then making new ones fixed things. Were there any other steps? Did you also sign out of iCloud on all devices, did you delete and your Notes app on the iPad and download it again (assuming that's even possible, I don't know)?

Maybe our two problems are/were totally different. Sorry to kind of restate my OP, but:

• I can make and edit Notes on my iPhone iOS 10.1.1 and they show up on iCloud fine.
• I can make and edit Notes on iCloud and they show up on my iPhone fine.
  
• I can make and edit Notes on my Yosemite 10.10.5 MacBook Air, but they don't sync with iCloud or iPhone at all.
• No notes made on my iPhone or iCloud will sync with my MacBook Air.

I really welcome any suggestions folks have. I rely on Notes a lot, and though I have Evernote, I find it too complicated and annoying, except as a place to back up my Skitch activities.
[doublepost=1478977764][/doublepost]Oh, I've finally found another instance of this problem -- check it out: http://bit.ly/2fmx2K7

 

[GerritV]

Let's just say I'm tired of logging out-back-in my iCloud account to try and fix things all the time.
To me, it's a constant worry. GoodNotes sync is even worse to keep going.

Perhaps iCloud has it's roots in MobileMe - ain't that a joke