Sync Your Notes to Gmail or Your Other Email Accounts
As we mentioned before, a cool feature about Notes is how easily it syncs across all your devices via iCloud. If you prefer, however you can also sync notes via other email accounts, like Gmail. This comes in handy if you’re also using non-Apple devices like Windows PCs, or you simply prefer not to use iCloud.
- Open the Settings app.
- Scroll down and select Notes.
- Tap on Accounts.
- Select the account you want.
- In the account settings, scroll down and toggle Notes on or off, as appropriate.
If you have other email accounts available, you can also repeat the steps above to sync your notes to those accounts. Just about any IMAP account is supported; when using accounts other than iCloud, your notes will be stored in a standard email folder. Apple Mail will hide this folder, but it may show up in other email and webmail apps. Some webmail services like Fastmail will also recognize these and let you access and edit your notes from any browser.
Be aware that Notes offers considerably more limited features for notes stored in a non-iCloud account. Only simple formatting is supported in your notes, basically bold and italics, although the Mac version of Notes lets you do a bit more. However, you won’t be able to add drawings, tables, or even checklists to your notes. Adding attachments from the iOS/iPadOS side is similarly limited to only photos. You also can’t use tags or smart folders, or even create normal folders from the iPhone or iPad. Naturally, the built-in sharing options aren’t available here either.
Each account will also appear in its own section in the Notes app, with its own set of notes and folders. You won’t be able to sync the same set of notes to more than one account, but you can move them between accounts — with one important exception: although you can move notes between non-iCloud accounts, you can only move them to an iCloud account. Due to the formatting limitations, the Notes app won’t let you move a note from an iCloud account to a non-iCloud account.