Upgrade your notes with iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan

When you upgrade your notes, you'll get more than a great way to jot down a quick thought.

 



 

With Notes in iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan, you can turn a list into an interactive checklist with a single tap. Or easily add a photo, map, or URL to a note. You can even draw a sketch with your finger on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. And thanks to iCloud, everything in your Notes are kept up to date across all your devices. So you can create a note on your Mac and check it on your iPhone when you’re on the go. To use the new Notes features, all you have to do is upgrade.

Get started

When you open Notes in iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan for the first time and select Upgrade Now, both your notes on your device and your notes on iCloud.com will upgrade. And if you sign in to iCloud with the same Apple ID on your other devices with iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan, any changes you make to a note on one device instantly appear on all your other devices. 

Make sure your notes finish upgrading before you leave the Notes app.

The notes you created before your upgrade might look different, but you can immediately start using all of the new app features to customize and enhance them.

If you upgrade later, your notes will stay the same, and you can upgrade to the new features at any time. Just open Notes and select Upgrade.

Learn more

Here are a few things to keep in mind about upgraded notes in iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan:

  • Your upgraded notes on iOS 9 won't stay up to date on your Mac until you update to OS X El Capitan.
  • If you copy and pasted HTML formatting into a note before your upgrade, they'll look different after your upgrade and won't have the same HTML format. 
  • The new sketching feature in Notes is only available on iPhone 5 and later, iPad Pro, iPad (4th generation), all iPad Air models, iPad mini 2 and later, and iPod touch (6th generation). If you have an iPad Pro, you can use Apple Pencil with the Notes app.
  • If you’re signed in to more than one iCloud Mail account on your iOS device or Mac and have notes syncing turned on, you can only use the new Notes features with your primary iCloud account. You can see your primary account in Settings > iCloud, or System Preferences > iCloud.
  • Upgraded notes don't support IMAP and won't connect to Microsoft Outlook. Go to iCloud.com on your Windows PC to view and edit your iCloud notes.

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