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Getting Notes from 4S to 3GS

O

orange42

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 12, 2009
612
1
I have an upgrade so I want to sell my 4S and go back to my cracked 3GS which I just restored as new and added some important apps to it to get me through the month. I restored it as new instead of backup from 4S (which I actually tried too and it didn't work) since it's slow to begin with and don't want any extra clutter and apps I don't really use on it, especially since it's only 16gb.

When I first got the 4S I set it up as a new phone and somehow managed to get all my notes dating back to 2009 onto it but I don't remember how. Now I am having trouble getting my 4S notes (all of them from 2009 still) to my 3GS. Am I drawing a blank as to why I can't do this? Notes are one of the top apps I use and I really need all of them I have on there. There was no problem getting my contacts from iCloud onto the 3GS.

What do I need to do?

(I just added notes to my iCloud as well, but it seems that's only working for recent notes.)
 
mattopotamus

mattopotamus

macrumors G5
Jun 12, 2012
14,666
5,879
Do you have an email account set up? By default, notes are synced there as well. Check your gmail or yahoo.
 
O

orange42

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 12, 2009
612
1
mattopotamus said:
Do you have an email account set up? By default, notes are synced there as well. Check your gmail or yahoo.
Click to expand...

I have my Gmail account (Exchange) as my main one and that doesn't have the notes option, and my Yahoo one has notes sync off. If I turn that on what will happen?
 
Fernandez21

Fernandez21

macrumors 601
Jun 16, 2010
4,839
3,177
Do you have iCloud sync enabled? If so, did you enable notes? If not, just do that. It does force you to get a @me email address, but it will sync your notes across all your devices. I really like, cause I jot something on my iPhone, and it's available on my iPad and my Mac too.
 
mattopotamus

mattopotamus

macrumors G5
Jun 12, 2012
14,666
5,879
Fernandez21 said:
Do you have iCloud sync enabled? If so, did you enable notes? If not, just do that. It does force you to get a @me email address, but it will sync your notes across all your devices. I really like, cause I jot something on my iPhone, and it's available on my iPad and my Mac too.
Click to expand...

I have always used my normal email address on the cloud...
 
S

SR71

macrumors 68000
Jan 12, 2011
1,602
365
Boston, MA
Fernandez21 said:
Do you have iCloud sync enabled? If so, did you enable notes? If not, just do that. It does force you to get a @me email address, but it will sync your notes across all your devices. I really like, cause I jot something on my iPhone, and it's available on my iPad and my Mac too.
Click to expand...

This is what you need to do, OP. I've been doing this with my iPad, iPhone, and MacBook Pro and having my Notes stay in sync with each other is awesome. iCloud FTW <3.
 
O

orange42

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 12, 2009
612
1
Fernandez21 said:
Do you have iCloud sync enabled? If so, did you enable notes? If not, just do that. It does force you to get a @me email address, but it will sync your notes across all your devices. I really like, cause I jot something on my iPhone, and it's available on my iPad and my Mac too.
Click to expand...

I have iCloud enabled as of a week or two ago and made the @me email, but it's only been working for my recent notes that I've made since starting to use the cloud. I have about 300 notes since 2009 that I need to have on all my devices so how can I get these older ones to I guess go to iCloud?
 
Fernandez21

Fernandez21

macrumors 601
Jun 16, 2010
4,839
3,177
are you using windows? if you have outlook, i think you can check sync notes with outlook and they will all be copied there, though it has been a while since i've done that.
 
O

orange42

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 12, 2009
612
1
Fernandez21 said:
are you using windows? if you have outlook, i think you can check sync notes with outlook and they will all be copied there, though it has been a while since i've done that.
Click to expand...

I have a Macbook running Mountain Lion. I'm not positive and I don't use it but I might have Outlook on there with my Office package. I don't get how I set up my 4S as a new phone and was able to get my notes and contacts but can't do it with my 3GS (this was before iCloud too).
 
Fernandez21

Fernandez21

macrumors 601
Jun 16, 2010
4,839
3,177
orange42 said:
I have a Macbook running Mountain Lion. I'm not positive and I don't use it but I might have Outlook on there with my Office package. I don't get how I set up my 4S as a new phone and was able to get my notes and contacts but can't do it with my 3GS (this was before iCloud too).
Click to expand...

have you tried doing a spotlight search for one of your notes on the mac? it could be they were transferred over somewhere and you just dont know.
 
O

orange42

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 12, 2009
612
1
Fernandez21 said:
have you tried doing a spotlight search for one of your notes on the mac? it could be they were transferred over somewhere and you just dont know.
Click to expand...

The only notes on the Mac Note app are the ones from iCloud. I need the ones from 2009-present into iCloud so I can use my 3GS and sell my 4S.
 
xnickitynickx

xnickitynickx

macrumors regular
Mar 13, 2012
229
1
Orlando, FL
it might take a little bit, but i think if you edit something on the older documents it will save to icloud. i might be wrong of course, but its worth a shot.
 
Fernandez21

Fernandez21

macrumors 601
Jun 16, 2010
4,839
3,177
Go into your notes app on the iPhone and click the back arrow at the top and see if they have been syncing with your email provider.
 
O

orange42

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 12, 2009
612
1
xnickitynickx said:
it might take a little bit, but i think if you edit something on the older documents it will save to icloud. i might be wrong of course, but its worth a shot.
Click to expand...

I have about 300 notes and would not like to do that because that would require me adding a date and time to the note, copy and pasting them into a new note (because editing the original doesn't send it to iCloud), then going back down to the bottom and make sure I delete the right now. Part of me wanting these notes so bad is because they have specific dates and times to them that I'd like to hold onto.

Fernandez21 said:
Go into your notes app on the iPhone and click the back arrow at the top and see if they have been syncing with your email provider.
Click to expand...

They are no longer doing that. Just On My iPhone and iCloud. I think I used to have them sync with my Yahoo email but stopped that because it wasn't my primary email account, my Gmail one was. And I can't sync them with my Exchange Gmail account.
 
Fernandez21

Fernandez21

macrumors 601
Jun 16, 2010
4,839
3,177
orange42 said:
I have about 300 notes and would not like to do that because that would require me adding a date and time to the note, copy and pasting them into a new note (because editing the original doesn't send it to iCloud), then going back down to the bottom and make sure I delete the right now. Part of me wanting these notes so bad is because they have specific dates and times to them that I'd like to hold onto.



They are no longer doing that. Just On My iPhone and iCloud. I think I used to have them sync with my Yahoo email but stopped that because it wasn't my primary email account, my Gmail one was. And I can't sync them with my Exchange Gmail account.
Click to expand...

I'm talking about the ones still on your iPhone 4S. If you can find out where they were coming from, you could sync to that. So say they were on your yahoo account, you can set up your yahoo account again and set it to only sync notes and set iCloud as the primary so all new notes go there but still have access to the ones on yahoo.
 
O

orange42

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 12, 2009
612
1
Fernandez21 said:
I'm talking about the ones still on your iPhone 4S. If you can find out where they were coming from, you could sync to that. So say they were on your yahoo account, you can set up your yahoo account again and set it to only sync notes and set iCloud as the primary so all new notes go there but still have access to the ones on yahoo.
Click to expand...

I tried that I think, by turning Yahoo notes on but they were all just saved to my iPhone other than the recent ones, which are on iCloud, if that's what you're saying? If my only option is gonna be to redo them all than I better start soon.
 
O

orange42

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 12, 2009
612
1
Would it be possible to take my 4S and 3GS to an Apple store and have them just transfer all the notes to the 3GS somehow?
 
I

Irish Rose

macrumors 65816
May 29, 2010
1,068
1
orange42 said:
Would it be possible to take my 4S and 3GS to an Apple store and have them just transfer all the notes to the 3GS somehow?
Click to expand...

I don't believe you can. If you sync via iCloud you can transfer your notes over wirelessly in a matter of seconds.
 
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