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Move notes fron "on my iPhone" to syncing account

Z

Z400Racer37

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 7, 2011
715
1,680
Hey guys,

I was just wondering if it was possible to move my notes from the "on my iPhone" category to a category that syncs (i.e. iCloud, or Gmail etc.). I have not been able to find a way to do this from the phone... Anybody have any way to do this? I have not been able to find one so far, and it's driving me nuts!

Thanks a lot everyone!
 
How are you able to view the categories? Mine are syncing to iCloud by default.

Z400Racer37 said:
bump... anyone have a suggestion even?
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Bumps. Posts that bring a thread to the top of the New Posts list but add no content to the thread (bumps) are not permitted. This applies not only to posts that say "bump" but to those with the intent to bump, e.g. posts saying "anyone?" or the equivalent. See why and how to avoid bumping.
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hmm... didn't know that, sorry. I'm able to view the categories "all notes", "Google", "on my iPhone", and "iCloud" on my phone. The Google, and iCloud notes sync, but the on my iPhone ones don't. I see no way to transfer them from "on my iPhone" to another category from my iPhone, and I can't seem to view them at all from my Mac. I'm having the same problem with the notes from my iPad… The ones that are in the sinking accounts can sync, but the ones that are specifically on that device can't be transferred to an account that syncs...

Thanks
 
I had the exact same problem.

Apple won't let notes on devices or Macs thru itunes anymore. Only imap based accounts sync.
I had to move all my On My Mac notes to my Gmail notes on my Mini, which is a simple drag task.

However, it's a hassle on the iphone. The only solution that I could find was go to Notes->Accounts->On My iPhone.
Click the note. Below is the option button. Click->Copy.
Then go to Accounts->Gmail->+->Paste.

Luckily for me I had only 10 notes. It took me a while and a lot of fingering.

FINALLY, I sent a @*$§@ note to Tim Cook.:mad:

Still looking
 
I'm having this same issue. Is there no better way than manually copying each one? It's not even a complete solution, as you lose the date data.
 
When did Notes become cloud sync-able? All my 2009-2012 notes are in the "On My Phone" folder with 2012 onwards on iCloud. It's like Apple is punishing early adopters who were there before they figured out their cloud strategy. (Well, maybe they still haven't figured it out...)
 
The only solution is to manually copy every note from the "on my iPhone" folder to the "iCloud" folder. Once all the notes are under iCloud, the folder list disappears, and you have one cohesive iCloud-synced notes app, just as it should be.

LaserBeam, how is it that you lose information? If you manually copy each note over and make sure it is "saved" in iCloud, I see no loss of information.

Dinggus, you need to have the @me or @icloud email enabled to sync notes.
 
@MonsieurC - laserbeam273 was saying that the DATE data is not copied across if you just copy and paste the old note into a new one. This is true, it takes on the date of the copy date losing the original creation date which can be important to some. Like me. This is another annoyance with having to transfer over 200 notes one at a time. I tried emailing them, and then Airdrop but iOS 8x only works with Yosemite which i haven't installed.

Anyone found a way around this yet? A way to group transfer your notes from the "on my iPhone" section to another account or even computer. Someone suggested using an older version of iTunes in another forum...
 
Saimurai said:
@MonsieurC - laserbeam273 was saying that the DATE data is not copied across if you just copy and paste the old note into a new one. This is true, it takes on the date of the copy date losing the original creation date which can be important to some. Like me. This is another annoyance with having to transfer over 200 notes one at a time. I tried emailing them, and then Airdrop but iOS 8x only works with Yosemite which i haven't installed.

Anyone found a way around this yet? A way to group transfer your notes from the "on my iPhone" section to another account or even computer. Someone suggested using an older version of iTunes in another forum...
Click to expand...

After all this time Apple have eventually added "Move" to Notes in iOS9.
No longer do our "On My iPhone" Notes have to be orphaned so I've now got 4,842 Notes in iCloud :)
Also, when the Notes are moved, they retain their original date.
 
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btempleton said:
After all this time Apple have eventually added "Move" to Notes in iOS9.
No longer do our "On My iPhone" Notes have to be orphaned so I've now got 4,842 Notes in iCloud :)
Also, when the Notes are moved, they retain their original date.
Click to expand...

Yeah, they added it, however it ONLY allows you to move notes to iCloud. Not my Exchange account or IMAP account. So yeah, nice first step, but still useless.
 
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I have the same problem and it's frustrating. That change on iOS 9 does not help this situation.
 
I just found how to move notes from local or any account to a desired account (e.g., to iCloud):

  1. Open Notes
  2. Go into an account
  3. Select "Edit" on the upper right
  4. Select "Move all" on the bottom left
  5. Select an account into which to move the notes.
  6. Repeat with other accounts as desired.
 
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btempleton said:
After all this time Apple have eventually added "Move" to Notes in iOS9.
No longer do our "On My iPhone" Notes have to be orphaned so I've now got 4,842 Notes in iCloud :)
Also, when the Notes are moved, they retain their original date.
Click to expand...

yyyyyaaaaaayyyy!!!!!!!

Wait....how exactly? There's no option to move local files (on iPhone)

GOT IT, as soon as you update your phone to iOS9.3.1 it appears. instead of just saying Delete All, as an option there is Move All. Once you've moved all to iCloud (this is so awesome by the way, ive been waiting for this for years now, i treat Notes like a diary.....where was i...) oh yeah, so you have to quit Notes on the iPhone so that the iPhone folder disappears otherwise it still says there are notes in there (in my case 200 odd, even though when i opened the folder there were no notes). Resetting Notes sorts this out.
 
Last edited:
It only lets me move to "On my iPhone", not to my gmail or other accounts. I don't have iCloud set up. Anyone else face/overcome this?

emailboy said:
I just found how to move notes from local or any account to a desired account (e.g., to iCloud):

  1. Open Notes
  2. Go into an account
  3. Select "Edit" on the upper right
  4. Select "Move all" on the bottom left
  5. Select an account into which to move the notes.
  6. Repeat with other accounts as desired.
Click to expand...
 
justoneQ2 said:
It only lets me move to "On my iPhone", not to my gmail or other accounts. I don't have iCloud set up. Anyone else face/overcome this?
Click to expand...
Hey justoneQ2, have you updated fully? Also, check your mail settings that gmail is permitted with Notes on your iPhone.

A few posts above, Zaphon states: "Yeah, they added it, however it ONLY allows you to move notes to iCloud. Not my Exchange account or IMAP account. So yeah, nice first step, but still useless."
 
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