Notes not showing up (high sierra, mojave and IOS 15) /

[cerberus22]

i have a laptop now running Mojave and a desktop running High Sierra and a iphone running iOS 15.6.1.
i'm not seeing some notes on the DESKTOP running high sierra that i do see on the phone.
i have not had time to troubleshoot this further but i am having to go get my phone to look up information while working at the desktop and it is obviously disconcerting to have put so much time and effort into Notes only to see some of them not showing up on a device.
any ideas where to start please?
new member here so THANKS for any tips if i am missing any courtesies in my post.

 

[chabig]

Chances are that the older version of Notes on Mojave doesn't support notes created on later operating systems.

 

[NoBoMac]

Ditto above with the addition of iOS 15. 15 added tags function, so anything made on Mojave or iOS 15-16 might not work well on HS.

 

[cerberus22]

Ditto above with the addition of iOS 15. 15 added tags function, so anything made on Mojave or iOS 15-16 might not work well on HS.

how does this work please?
i have a thousand notes between my laptop and desktop on high sierra and my iphone.
i upgrade the laptop to mojave - and what happens?(!)
my notes blow up and i can't tell what is not showing up and what is showing up or what is where or what?
i mean. i mean - i how do i get my notes working again?
is there some kind of very helpful and extremely detailed apple article that tells you how to resolve this?

Chances are that the older version of Notes on Mojave doesn't support notes created on later operating systems.

hi. i have high sierra on the desktop.
so i had HS on the laptop and i upgraded to mojave on the laptop.
what is not supporting what?
i had HS on each.
i upgrade the laptop. and now any note i touch on the laptop can't be read on the desktop now?
or what?

 

[NoBoMac]

Appears High Sierra cannot see anything touched/created on anything newer, in this case Mojave and iOS 15.

Believe there is no going back at this point so only probable option is to use iCloud.com to work with Notes on HS.

 

[cerberus22]

Appears High Sierra cannot see anything touched/created on anything newer, in this case Mojave and iOS 15.

Believe there is no going back at this point so only probable option is to use iCloud.com to work with Notes on HS.

hi NBM,
this is one of those issues i have been ignoring like the proverbial elephant in the living room so i appreciate the help. also i am trying not to be cranky about this but my brain can't process this stuff if they don't explain it. and apple documentation seems to get leaner and leaner the older i get or something.
so - well can i please ask you to help me a little more here? i am kind of thinking on the fly here based upon your help.
so i could continue to proof my notes - well i could keep proofing them on the laptop/mavericks but any time i touch a note it will then basically disappear from my desktop/high sierra?
but it will still presumably show up on my phone?
and if i do see a note on my desktop/HS i can edit it with no consequences?
then longer term i - well if i need to see and edit all my notes i need to log into iCloud and read/write to a note there?
THANK YOU(!)

 

[NoBoMac]

I don't have a comprehensive list/matrix of features/options (eg. tags, tables, locked notes vs iOS 16 locked notes) that will/will not work between operating systems, but can simply boil it down to: if you create or edit a Note on a newer version of OS, be it Mac or iPhone, it might not show on your oldest machine (High Sierra in this case). A Note modified/created on the iPhone might not show on either Mac as iOS 15 is newer than Mojave. If not showing on a device, you'll have to use iCloud.com to view/change on the devices where the Note does not show.

iOS 15 (2021) > Mojave (2018) > High Sierra (2017)

 

[cerberus22]

I don't have a comprehensive list/matrix of features/options (eg. tags, tables, locked notes vs iOS 16 locked notes) that will/will not work between operating systems, but can simply boil it down to: if you create or edit a Note on a newer version of OS, be it Mac or iPhone, it might not show on your oldest machine (High Sierra in this case). A Note modified/created on the iPhone might not show on either Mac as iOS 15 is newer than Mojave. If not showing on a device, you'll have to use iCloud.com to view/change on the devices where the Note does not show.

iOS 15 (2021) > Mojave (2018) > High Sierra (2017)

hey man.
thanks a LOT for this. two more very short ones please? sometimes i need a little explanation to get me moving shin when i run into something like this.
iCloud workflow basically means i log into my account via a web browser and then i click on notes and basically use the app "online"?
is there a name for this kind of - well what should i have looked for to know this might be an issue? i guess it is some kind of backward compatibility note or alert or issue if you upgrade to mojave?

then i guess assuming i can edit a note on HS i should expect it to stick across ehe orher apps? meaning as long as i see it and can edit it i won't have problems using a note only in high sierra but not in another OS?

i guess it still seems a bit tricky since i am not going to be upgrading the desktop for quite some time so it episodes be good to know what to watch out for...

anyway THANK YOU and apologies for needing to think it through a bit...

 

[NoBoMac]

There is no definitive answer, you will need to figure out what works best for you re: where/when you edit a Note.

For the example you give re: High Sierra, yes, a note created/edited there should show on all the other devices. A simple text-only (read: no fancy features) created on a newer OS should show on all as well as it is not using any new/"advanced" features.

As for alerts, Apple has generally put warnings in place. For example, if trying to turn on Tags in Notes in iOS 15-16, there will be an alert telling you that those Notes will not be compatible with earlier OSes. If I recall correctly, it even points out that I have an account on an older machine (a relative's machine I administer that's still on Catalina) that the Notes will not be visible there.

 

[cerberus22]

There is no definitive answer, you will need to figure out what works best for you re: where/when you edit a Note.

For the example you give re: High Sierra, yes, a note created/edited there should show on all the other devices. A simple text-only (read: no fancy features) created on a newer OS should show on all as well as it is not using any new/"advanced" features.

As for alerts, Apple has generally put warnings in place. For example, if trying to turn on Tags in Notes in iOS 15-16, there will be an alert telling you that those Notes will not be compatible with earlier OSes. If I recall correctly, it even points out that I have an account on an older machine (a relative's machine I administer that's still on Catalina) that the Notes will not be visible there.

thanks. i saw an alert in mojave about 'tags' and not being resemble in high sierra when i opened notes on the laptop but this was /after i upgraded. /also i wasn't doing anything and didn't even know what a tag is (actually i still don't) so it was confusing as to what was going on (actually it still is to be honest).
but if i am following you are saying the mere fact i upgraded to mojave on the laptop and presumably i had icloud turned on means that any note i touched in mojave is no longer compatible or even seen by high sierra?
i mean it is not possible to turn off tags in mojave and keep using notes as text only or is there?(!)
sorry to be asking lots of questions but it is kind of impossible for me imagine trying to manually sort through a hundred plus notes and expect to sort it properly. and it is going to be some time before i have mojave on the desktop so i need to figure it out. or i guess you said earlie to access notes when on the desktop using iCloud and i am forgetting this solution...

 

[eua2000]

I had the same problem, on my iPhone, I had 1k+ notes under the iCloud account, and on my Macbook and desktop only around 800 notes were showing, I figured that the notes missing were the locked ones, they disappeared right after a software update in the iPhone. This is what worked for me: In your iPhone Go to Settings > Notes > Password, choose an account (if you have more than one), then tap "Use Custom Password", create a password, and done.