In Notes, two iCloud options

[Michael Graubart]

I have an iPhone 5S with iOS 9.3.4 and a desktop Mac with OSX 10.8.5 (Mountain Lion).

If I open Notes on my phone, iCloud appears twice (in addition to options for my gmail account and my BT mail account). A note entered in the upper iCloud option on the phone syncs to iCloud.com but not to my Mac. A note entered in the lower iCloud option on the phone syncs to my Mac, but does not appear in iCloud.com.

Can anyone explain this mystery to me? Thank you in anticipation.

 

[J. A.]

That could be possible because your Mac's OSX is Mountain Lion. If you upgraded the Notes on your iPhone, so that you can use the features provided by iOS 9x, but don't update to El Capitan, the notes from your iDevice won't sync to the Mac.

Here's Apple's information:
Before you upgrade your notes - Apple Support

"If you upgrade ... with iOS 9" explains it, partially.

 

[Michael Graubart]

That could be possible because your Mac's OSX is Mountain Lion. If you upgraded the Notes on your iPhone, so that you can use the features provided by iOS 9x, but don't update to El Capitan, the notes from your iDevice won't sync to the Mac.

Here's Apple's information:
Before you upgrade your notes - Apple Support

"If you upgrade ... with iOS 9" explains it, partially.

Thanks very much for your quick reply, J.A. I realize that what you say is the probable explanation for the syncing behaviour — but not for why there are two places, both called iCloud, for entering notes on my phone. (The reason for my not updating my OSX is that I have some expensive software that would not work in El Capitan.) But my notes do sync! As I said originally, notes entered into the upper iCloud option on the phone sync to iCloud.com but not to my Mac (which corresponds to your explanation), whereas notes entered into the lower iCloud option sync to my Mac, but not to iCloud.com.

It occurs to me that the latter behaviour is identical to what happens if I enter notes under gmail or BT mail. Could that be the explanation? That when notes entered into the lower iCloud option do sync, it is because they are syncing by email — by iCloud mail?

 

[scifan57]

I believe it's possible to install two versions of OS X on your Mac, each In a separate partition on your hard drive. You could then switch from one to the other on startup. This would allow you to have the latest version of OS X and still be able to run those older programs on the older version of OS X.

 

[Michael Graubart]

Thank you very much, scifan57. That is, in fact, exactly my present situation. As a safety-net for the possibility that I will eventually upgrade my OS, I installed Parallels Desktop some time ago, installed Mountain Lion in the second partition as well as in my primary one, and my present versions of Photoshop and Finale there as well. It makes it more cumbersome and slightly slower to use these apps, but eventually I shall doubtless upgrade in my primary partition and make do with the cumbersomeness and slowness involved in switching to and using the apps in the secondary one. But in the meantime, and just to satisfy my curiosity, I should still be grateful for an answer to my question about the two different iCloud options on my phone.