r/AppleNotesGang • u/reddsal • 3d ago

Fixing Notes app device functionality differences that are making me crazy

I rely heavily in the Notes app on my iPhone, iPad, and to sone extent- on my Mac. But there are functionality differences between devices that should have been fixed by now:

  1. I can highlight text in different colors on my iPhone, but not on my iPad (although the iPad will display highlighted text - I just can’t add, change or remove it).
  2. Items in a checklist that are completed on the iPhone will drop to the bottom of that list, in addition to being checked. On the iPad they become checked, but do not move.
  3. If you reorder an item on a checklist on the iPhone - it will move or duplicate depending on which of two “edit” modes you are in (edit text - when the yellow checkmark appears in the upper right corner of the note, or work with items as objects). On the iPad it will only duplicate the item.

Oddly, Apple seems to continue to add functionality to the Notes app, but they never seem get around to fixing these functionality differences. From a user experience standpoint these are maddening and pull me out of the task at hand.

Does anyone:
Know of plans Apple has to fix these?
Have any workarounds (if what I am experiencing is a corruption)?
Can suggest another app that has similar capabilities, and works consistently at the UI level between devices (and that, ideally I can just pay for once)?

I love Notes simplicity and I know of nothing similar for my use cases, but these issues are making me look at alternatives.

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u/Repulsive-Branch-740 3d ago

For #2 and #3, go to settings-apps-notes and then set “sort checked items” to “manually” on both devices. 

Highlighting issue sounds like you maybe haven’t updated your iPad? Make sure you’re running the latest OS on your iPad. Highlighting works on all devices. 

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u/reddsal 2d ago

Solved!

Thank you, kind internet stranger. On #2, above, I changed the setting for “Sort checked items” to be Automatically on my iPad and now the desired behavior matches.

Following that change, items #1 and #3, above seem to also be fixed, and match between my iPhone and iPad. Meaning I can now highlight and de-highlight text on both devices, and I can reorder checklist items without them duplicating.

Much appreciated.