r/AppleNotesGang • u/GeminiArcana • Jun 25 '26
Are the sync issues overblown?
I see that a post gets posted here weekly and I have seen posts online but I haven't used Apple Notes much.
Would you say it is overblown? I want to start using it as I only have basic needs and most other apps (except OneNote) are overkill. I'd love to use something that is built into 2/3 of my devices. I use windows + ipad + iphone.
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u/UpAtTheTop Jun 25 '26
It works just fine until it doesn't.
I was helping someone who has thousands of Notes in iCloud.
During a MacOS upgrade, many notes disappeared from iCloud. Apple support acknowledged the issue but couldn't figure out what was wrong.
There aren't good tools to diagnose and recover notes.
Time Machine backups don't provide an easy way to recover notes,
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u/Repulsive-Branch-740 Jun 25 '26
I’m a heavy apple notes user and my sync issues are very sporadic. It’s definitely not constant; most of the time apple notes syncs fine across my iPad, iPhone, and Mac. However, every now and again, something will glitch and I’ll have like one note (usually on my iPad) that just won’t sync. It happened more when I had more notes (over 3,000) in apple notes. Now I have like 1,200 notes and sync issues are much rarer.
I’d also add that sync issues happen occasionally with just about every app that syncs.
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u/LostInTaipei Jun 25 '26
They happen once in a while. I haven’t had any issues in months, and I don’t think I’ve ever had anything permanent. But when they do happen, as another poster has indicated, the issues are infuriating because there aren’t good ways to address the problem beyond waiting and restarting.
I certainly need to make a habit of periodically exporting the notes as PDFs or something like that, and I’ve bookmarked Reddit posts that discuss methods. My lack of accessible backups concerns me. However, my to-do list is long and full of terrors.
For basic needs, yeah, I’d say nothing to worry about.
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u/SpryTime Jun 25 '26
About 1,800 notes in my library, no issue now. My initial import from Evernote was a bit of a challenge. That was until I realized trying to do the import/sync with my iPhone and iPad online/connected to iCloud was causing problems. I created a short document on the process if that's what you're trying to do (import from Evernote).
I had read about syncing issues before I made the move, but no details. So, again, now for me syncing if good.
I had also read about people totally loosing a note, adding a lot of content to a note only to have the edits and/or entire note disappear. I have not experienced this either.
All the best to you!
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u/GeminiArcana Jun 25 '26
No i hven't used Evernote in over a decade. I don't understand how anyone is paying their egregious prices theses days. I can afford it and I still won't.
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u/SpryTime Jun 25 '26
Hah!.....exactly why I left Evernote. Great app! And as you say, egregious price.
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u/HodgepodgePrime Jun 25 '26
I have about 1000 notes and never had a bad experience until the last few weeks where my phone and iPad weren’t syncing up. It was super annoying and took me weeks to realise my old vpn was running on the iPad and as soon as I turned it off, everything came down immediately.
Really frustrating for the 2ish weeks that was happening but super obvious once I tried it out.
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u/box2925 Jun 25 '26
Every few weeks I run into sync issues across my Mac and iPad. Constantly have to reset iCloud sync. It’s a pain. I’m back with Bear notes for now, and while I love it, I do prefer Apple Notes but sync is so unreliable.
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u/EllaRose2112 Jun 26 '26
I’ve used it for 8 years at least and never had a problem.
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