I don’t recall when the Notes syncing issue was fixed, I’m thinking approx. three months ago? At any rate, Notes has been syncing perfectly ever since with no problems. I’m sorry you are still having issues. I know how terribly frustrating that is.
Have you tried erasing everything and factory resetting all of your devices? I have done that on all of mine, even the watch. I don’t know that that was the solution, I think Apple somehow fixed it but never told me what they did. A fresh reinstall of everything may be worth trying. If you do, my recommendation is not to migrate anything but to download everything from scratch. It’s a pain, but at least everything is “fresh.“
Perhaps but is the only way for me to keep my apps in sync in the walled garden. And, I’ve never had a significant sync problem that I recall other than with Notes. That said, if I run into another major Notes syncing issue, I’ll probably have to change note apps. I hope not, I like Notes.
I totally understand. I’ve tried to use Notes, iCloud Drive, etc. at least a dozen times in recent years. Photos, files, and notes etc. may eventually sync perfectly, they usually do. But sometimes they don’t and when they fail you are basically on your own.
Apple has been in the cloud services business for 23 years and I still can’t rely on it.
My Notes has not been syncing properly since Christmas. I’m just resigned to my fate now. I try to refer to one device as my “source of truth” (usually my iPad). iPad to Mac isn’t too bad for me - it does it within an hour or two usually. For mysterious reasons known only to Apple, my phone is never up to date. It seems to always be maybe a week or so behind. I have no idea why and I’ve given up relying on it when needing to look at a recent note. During this period I’ve upgraded phones, so it’s an account/Apple-side issue not an iOS/hardware issue.
In the last month I’ve also started having the odd issue with iCloud Drive, which it turns out is even more frustrating. I have specific files that don’t sync, sometimes for several weeks, but unlike Notes you can’t try and force a sync (that I’ve noticed). Because it seems to be random, I’m currently in the daft situation of a) having to remember which device has the “current version” of a few files I use across all devices, and b) having to check if a file that was “stuck” has now fixed itself before I proceed.
All this and Apple just put up their prices for iCloud
(Others have mentioned issues with Reminders sync - I’ve not spotted that yet though I have been using Reminders more this year. It’s background sync is working well as far as I’ve noticed - I can set a task and a reminder on one device and the alert is coming up on another device without the app having been opened to sync in-between.)
Have been using Obsidian with its Kanban plug-in to track tasks on a small group project. Works for me. Adding new tasks to a list, copying completed tasks to an appropriate list. Plus I can get to it from all my devices (desktop Mac, laptop MacBookPro, iPad Air, and iPhone 14) with only iCloud failing to sync up at random times.
I would use whatever task manager you want but I would have the task be “Do items on X list” and a pointer to a checklist in Obsidian.
You can easily reuse them and they are easy to maintain as the items in the list change.
If you want a bit more functionality I’ve been playing with the Checklist Reset Plug-in which quickly and easily resets a checklist to all on or off with a single command.
I use Apple Notes for things like checklists instead of a task manager.
For something like a packing list I keep one template for all the things I would need to pack for trip with headers. I then have a pinned Packing List that I just copy the template into for each trip.
What I like about this is I don’t need the same thing for each trip – once I’ve copied it into the pinned note I quickly clear out the pieces I don’t need. I can also include notes for specific things related to the trip that don’t need to be in the template.
I use this maybe 2-3 times a month and it works for me. Then in whatever task manager I’m using that week I have a Start Packing task and a Finish Packing task.
I’ve tired using Omnifocus, Reminders and Noteplan for repeated checklists and using Apple Notes this way has been the best solution.
One reason this works well for me is I mainly use Apple Notes for lists, links, and processes. So repeated checklists fits with how I already use Notes. That’s probably been the key for me – it’s how I was already using Apple Notes. This sounds similar to what OogieM is doing, just with a different tool.
And, I’ve never had a significant sync problem that I recall other than with Notes. That said, if I run into another major Notes syncing issue, I’ll probably have to change note apps. I hope not, I like Notes.