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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > iPhone, iPad & iPod > Notes is just impossible

Notes is just impossible
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jeff k
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Dec 29, 2014, 08:20 PM
 
Just got my first iphone ever a month ago, the iphone 6.

Was so happy with notes, now I don't have to keep that little pencil in my wallet.

But it turns out notes kept vanishing at the end of the day. From discussion groups and Apple I was told to maybe disconnect them from my email accounts. So I did that and a week went by, but at the end of the week, one day, a note, full of good notes vanished at the end of the day.

(I never have gotten a good explanation yet as to how email accounts tie into notes) IN any case, I untied emails from Notes and they still vanish!

Ok, so I just tried a 3rd party app called Textpad. It was going ok for a few days except every time I use it is says cellular data is turned off, a nuisance alert every time (why would cellular data be needed for a simple notepad?). I emailed the developer no answer yet. But today, even weirder, the battery usage said, this little app, which I opened only once to write one sentence took up 47% of battery usage, (way more that Instagram, Camera, and Phone, which I used way more)

Lost and frustrated. thanks.
     
Spheric Harlot
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Dec 30, 2014, 10:08 AM
 
Originally Posted by jeff k View Post
(I never have gotten a good explanation yet as to how email accounts tie into notes)
It's the other way round:
Notes tie into e-mail as part of the IMAP mail protocol.

The way it works:

IMAP means that all e-mail and subfolders/mailboxes in an account are synchronised between all devices and a centralised IMAP mail server. If something is deleted/read/created/edited on one device, that change is synchronised, through the IMAP server, to all other devices.

Notes are synchronised across the IMAP mail server and all devices as if they were just another mailbox.
     
jeff k  (op)
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Dec 30, 2014, 02:25 PM
 
Thanks, P, the app is called NOTES.

What does that have to do with emailing?

I meet you at a cafe. I want to notate your phone number. Isn't this what notes is for?

PLEASE help me get my head around this, I'm still confused there.
     
Spheric Harlot
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Dec 30, 2014, 03:22 PM
 
Jeff.

I have explained to you how it works. The internet connection and IMAP are not needed for writing down the fake number the girl at the café has given you to get rid of you. They ARE needed for synchronising that note with your Mac at home, and your iPad.
That uses the IMAP protocol. Learn to live with that until you come up with something better.

I have this other app called MAIL. When I open it, my iPhone tells me I don't have an internet connection. What does MAIL have to do with internet?

And then there's this other app called FACEBOOK. What does that have to do with internet?

Also, I'm not P.
     
andi*pandi
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Dec 30, 2014, 05:10 PM
 
sounds like your syncing is off?
     
jeff k  (op)
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Dec 30, 2014, 08:34 PM
 
S-

But the the Icloud does is syncing Notes across devices like it does for Calendar and Contacts, NO?

Andi, Syncing is going ok with everything else.

I did notice that there were so many places to turn off notes and keep notes is it got to be difficult. When the note vanished, I did notice at that time, the note was not showing up on laptop/ desktop notes.
     
turtle777
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Dec 30, 2014, 08:59 PM
 
Notes is a sorry excuse for serious note taking.

Evernote FTW.
Cross-platform, web access, free.

-t
     
besson3c
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Dec 31, 2014, 12:31 AM
 
Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot View Post
Jeff.

I have explained to you how it works. The internet connection and IMAP are not needed for writing down the fake number the girl at the café has given you to get rid of you. They ARE needed for synchronising that note with your Mac at home, and your iPad.
That uses the IMAP protocol. Learn to live with that until you come up with something better.

I have this other app called MAIL. When I open it, my iPhone tells me I don't have an internet connection. What does MAIL have to do with internet?

And then there's this other app called FACEBOOK. What does that have to do with internet?

Also, I'm not P.

Notes syncing is done via iCloud now, not IMAP. I don't use OS X Mail and my notes sync fine.

Jeff, have you tried logging in and out of your iCloud account? Sometimes it needs a little kick.
     
ghporter
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Dec 31, 2014, 08:02 AM
 
I do NOT sync my notes...not anymore. When I got my first iPhone, I used Notes to keep a list of important data on my phone, synced with my desktop. Since then, more ways have emerged to keep this data up to date on multiple devices, so I turned off Notes syncing completely. Since Notes uses iCloud, it depends on your iCloud account - which is linked to an email address as a user name - to be active. If it's not active, or if you have other oddness going on with iCloud, you're in for some trouble.

With iOS 7, Apple took away some important features from Notes, including the ability to format the text. Font, color, size, all are set by Apple and by default, shall we say they "suck." Pasting data into Notes retains the source formatting, so I've been able to keep my note data readable that way, but I am migrating away from Notes for even simple reference data.

Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
     
Amber Neely
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Jan 2, 2015, 01:00 AM
 
Originally Posted by turtle777 View Post
Notes is a sorry excuse for serious note taking.

Evernote FTW.
Cross-platform, web access, free.

-t
I'm going to have to agree with Turtle, I really like Evernote. I've never had a problem with Notes before, but I really prefer Evernote because it works across all my devices with no snags. Snag-free is kind of my thing.
     
drchimrichalds
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Jan 2, 2015, 08:40 PM
 
I've looked up Evernote and it looks pretty great for note taking. I'm gonna check that out for replacing my app. Thanks
     
FireWire
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Jan 3, 2015, 07:49 AM
 
the new syncing scheme for iOS is a joke... it seems there's no way to sync many things (notes, calendars, contacts) via the physical USB connexion.. it's via iCloud or nothing... What if I don't have access to the web and need a quick backup? and to make things worst, they don't explain it at all.. I wasted a lot of time trying to figure out why my contacts weren't syncing...
     
P
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Jan 3, 2015, 10:42 PM
 
You can still do a straight backup in iTunes, can't you? Not a sync per se because you can't see the contents without syncing backup, but if your purpose was backup, that should work.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
   
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