Update: ‘Fixing Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite Notes Crashes And Exchange Syncing Bugs’ also applies to Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan
In this post I show you how to fix Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite Notes crashes and Notes syncing bugs with an exchange server. The fix should work on previous Mac OS X versions like 10.7 Lion, 10.8 Mountain Lion and 10.9 Mavericks, too. Upgrading to Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite leads to several bugs concerning Gmail and exchange syncing. Further more, it could lead to Notes app crashes and syncing bugs with exchange server. I on my own faced these two major bugs on my MacBook Pro (mid 2012).
First, I got Gmail and Exchange mail syncing problems. I could not move mails from the inboxes to a folder. All moved mails appeared again in the inbox after a few seconds when I went back to the inbox. I’ve already posted fixes to overcome the Gmail bug on Yosemite and Mavericks, which perfectly works for me. In the meantime, Apple released an update for the mail.app to resolve the Gmail bug on Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks.
Second, the Notes app did not sync my Microsoft Exchange account, nor from my Mac to the exchange server, neither from the exchange server to my Mac. I fixed it following this work around:
Caution: If you got, in addition to IMAP and/or Exchange notes, sole-locally stored notes or POP3 notes, you have to take care on your own to save them separately! If you do not save them, they will be gone / deleted following this instruction! Following these steps is at your own risk!
Cleaning caches and notes app container resolves Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite Notes crashes and exchange syncing issues. Could you fix it, too? Let us know and post your experience!
Stay tuned! 😉
I have done this step by step. But only 50%of the notes has been synced. How to resolve this.
Hi dinesh,
Which note type do you have? IMAP or Exchange? Gmail, iCloud,…? Please, give me more detailed information for helping.
Cheers,
Gee Are
Gee, I’m actually trying to understand why skype 7 crashes in mac os yosemite. I have recently upgraded a brand new Macbook Pro. I installed the official upgrade provided by Apple. This is the only issue I’ve been experiencing with yosemite. Is there any fix for that?
Thank you in advance.
Hi Julio,
have you already installed the latest Skype 7 version?
Try the “Easy Fix” described here:
https://miapple.me/fixing-mac-os-x-10-10-yosemite-app-crashes/
If this doesn’t work do the advanced fix by deleting the App Store container. Maybe this fixes the issue.
Cheers,
Gee Are
Hi Gee,
The easy-fix seems to have done the job, thanks. I’ll keep in touch.
Cheers,
— Julio.
Hi,
It worked perfectly for me and it was instantaneous (my notes are only around 200 Ko).
But it don’t get what’s the Notes checkbox in System Preferences iCloud Panel, provided my notes are still synchronized on iCloud, even not checked…?
By the way, I guess (I’m on a French version) that there’s a small misspelling on point 4 : it’s not «librairies», but «Library», same folder as the one in point 5.
Thank you for your help.
Hi MacRicow,
thanks for your feedback, misspelling in 4. corrected!
Regarding the Notes Checkbox: Did you wait for some minutes (sometimes it takes time)? Did you reboot your computer? Maybe this helps.
Cheers,
Gee Are
Worked perfectly with Yosemite GM Notes crashes. Thank you. Also I had to wait few minutes until iCloud Notes resync.
HI I wonder if you can help on something else? Since upgrading to Yosemite, my calendar will not sync with my work exchange server. Email syncs fine. Also it all works together on my ipad and my iphone running iOS 8.1. I have a 2009 macbook pro which works like a charm except for this niggle since Yosemite.
Any suggestions would be gratefully received!
Hi Sara,
you can try in an analogue way for exchange calendar (On your own risk! Make a backup!):
1. Go to ‘System Preferences…‘, ‘Internet accounts‘ and deactivate all ‘Calendars‘.
2. Close Calendar app.
3. Go to finder and click on ‘Macintosh HD/library/caches‘. Drag all the contents of the folder to the trash.
4. Click on the finder, click ‘Go‘, hold the option key and click on ‘Library‘ (will not appear if you don’t hold the option key). 5. Go to the folder ‘Caches‘ again and drag everything in the folder to the trash again.
6. Click on the finder, click ‘Go‘, hold the option key and click on ‘Library‘ and then on the folder ‘Containers‘. Drag com.apple.CalendarAgent, com.apple.CalendarAgent.CalNCService and com.apple.CalendarFileHandler to the trash.
7. Click on the finder, click ‘Go‘, hold the option key and click on ‘Library‘ and then on the folder ‘Calendars‘. Drag everything in the folder to the trash again.
8. Restart your computer.
9. Empty trash.
10. Go to ‘System Preferences…‘, ‘Internet accounts‘ and activate all ‘Calendars‘.
11. Open notes again and wait for a while till updating of Calendar app is finished.
Let us know if this works. 😉
Cheers,
Gee Are
thanks so much Gee Are! I can’t believe I didn’t get the go thing, can’t see for looking!! Thanks
You’re welcome! 🙂
You Sir are a genius! I have tried to fix this problem ever since Yosemite came out. Had at least 2 phone call sessions directly with Apple Tech Support and they would just respond “This is a known issue, we are working with Microsoft on it, you should contact Microsoft” – Applying your suggestions fixed the issue perfectly (I would just add that I had to remove and re-install the entire Exchange account) – You’ve made my day (and my week)…thanks so much!!!
Hi thankful-reader,
many thanks for your feedback and the information! I’m very glad to could help you!
Cheers,
Gee Are
Thanks so much, this fixed the new issue in Mac OS Sierra for me as well 🙂
Hi Fredrik,
thank you very much for your feedback! I really appreciate that!
Cheers,
Gee Are
SO My notes is crashing after following the instructions twice. Notes are fine in cloud can see them on my phone and open the Notes program on my other computers running yosemite. I think it is the application itself is there any other way to address this?
Thanks
Hi Tony,
do I correctly understand you that you got several computers running on Yosemite and only on one single computer Notes are crashing? did you apply my instructions on the other computers as well? And does it work there?
Cheers,
Gee Are
So yes I have two desktops and one laptop running Yosemite and the notes are working fine on those boxes (as they are on iPhone and iPad) My wife’s laptop is also fine (i know different data) ironically my newest machine is the one that I have trouble with and to date only notes is effected. I applied you clear instructions on the effected machine but not on any of the ones that are working normally. When I open notes I get this mess of code in a Notes quit titled window. Access to my notes using safari logging into iCloud solves access issues but I cannot fathom what could be causing notes to crash on this one machine (27″ late 2013 build 1TB flashHD)
Hi again I should say thank you for helping and now reading through the code error I found this closer to the top
“‘Got more than one folder with folderId AAMkAGFkMTc0ZWVjLTAxMWItNDg5MC1iY2EyLThmYWFlZWQyMmRkNwAuAAAAAAD5vQW1SAs/RqJu9HwRvqF5AQBM++7EiA4gR50/5LuOHC9iAAAAclNHAAA='”
hope that is a good clue 🙂
Hi Tony,
Go to “Preferences Panel >> Mail, Contacts and Calendar”
Look in the preference panel: Maybe your Exchange account had set up two accounts and maybe both have selected notes’s sync.
Select only one. Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Gee Are
Hi Thanks for the suggestion a little confused as Mail, Contacts and Calendar is IOS right not Yosemite? If you have any idea what the folder would be named I could hopefully search for it and see
Thanks
Hi Toni,
on your Mac: In the Mac Notes app click on ‘Preferences’ and then proceed as I described in my last answer….
Cheers,
Gee Are
Ahh here in lies the problem I cannot open the notes app to do that it crashes
Hi Tony,
then use the Mail app. You should have access to the notes preferences, too.
Cheers,
Gee Are
Got you just looked and I only have one account for each of my accounts listed :(. I do not want to delete them so I think I am stuck
Hi Tony,
are you using Mac’s Mail App? If not, open it and let it sync for a while. Maybe this solves your issue. If this doesn’t work either, repeat the entire tweak in my original post and don’t forget to reboot your Mac. Sometimes it is needed to do it twice…
Cheers,
Gee Are
Thanks Gee I leave mail open 24 hours a day for months at a time in some cases I rarely shut down my computers. I have done the procedure twice but will try it a few more times and see if that helps. hoping the next upgrade will fix the issue I am wondering if Yosemite set up new folders and the one from maverick is still hiding somewhere.
thanks so much for your detailed reply, appreciate it. I will keep it on file. I deleted the calendar accounts earlier and restored to the latest back up and now the calendars are working again! I hope it stays working but if not I will try your method! When you say click go, where is go?! Thank again
Hi Sara,
thanks for your feedback! For “Go” go the Finder app, then on the Finder menu bar click on “Go”.
Cheers,
Gee Are
Thanks a lot Gee. I upgraded to OSX 10.10 a week ago and noticed that tha App Store aplication and the Drop Box crashed on startup. After searching long on the web came to your article and “lo and behold”! I i used your technique but instead of doing it for NOTES, I just follow your steps but number 5 i trow away the files containing app store. Finally after days searching, its all right. Thanks again!!!!
Hi Apolonius,
that’s great and thanks for your feedback!
Cheers,
Gee Are
Hi Apolonious,
many thanks for your feedback! I absolutely appreciated it! And this is the result:
https://miapple.me/fixing-mac-os-x-10-10-yosemite-app-crashes/
Cheers,
Gee Are
Pingback: Fixing Notes Crashes And Exchange Syncing Bugs on Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks - miApple.me
Hi, Gee Are. This is a great page.
I was getting an “Incorrect Password” message in Notes for my Exchange 2010 account even though I know the password is correct. Other apps were syncing data with my Exchange account successfully. I followed your instructions on my MacBook Pro running 10.10, but what happened is that my Exchange account shows up and shows current notes, but the account has the wrong name. (I had renamed the account in System Preferences > Internet Accounts.) It shows the name that the account used to have a long time ago.
I’ve tried removing and re-adding the account, and I’ve tried doing your instructions again. It seems like maybe it was storing an Exchange account in Notes that I had previously deleted and it was using that password instead of my current password. Is there a way to clear out the accounts manually by deleting some files in Finder?
Hi Randall,
thank you very much for your feedback!
In regard to your question to manually delete “some files” in finder check this post:
https://miapple.me/fixing-mac-os-x-10-10-yosemite-app-crashes/
Follow these instructions for “Mail” to delete the mail containers, but keep in mind that the re-syncing process could last up to a couple of days if your mailboxes are huge (>1 GB). Make a back-up before. Disclaimer: On your own risk!
Cheers,
Gee Are
Pingback: Fixing Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite App Crashes - miApple.me
Hi Gee Are, thanks so much for this, I called Apple Senior tech support just earlier and they had me create a new “library profile” I think it was, over two hours on the phone and that just exacerbated my issue further and lost all of my preferences and settings, your remedy here really did work for me! on a MacBook Air 2013 & MacBook Pro 2013, this issue was a real pain for me, you seem to really help others a lot just looking at the amount of comments above, I just wanted to say a huge thanks, also are we able to now “re-tick” the notes syncing in Mail.App ? I have several Exchange and iMap accounts, also running Outlook for Mac 2011, I am only using Outlook for Exchange accounts and have sync set in the account settings here, I just wanted to ask if you knew of any conflicts in having this option ticked in Mail.App and in Outlook 2011, I am also running Yosemite on both of these computers and have iCloud notes too, thanks in advance for you assistance again, keep up the great work, I am very very grateful !
Hi Josef,
You’re welcome! Regarding the Mail app check this post:
https://miapple.me/fixing-mac-os-x-10-10-yosemite-app-crashes/
Cheers,
Gee Are
Thanks for the detailed post! Unfortunately, I have followed all your steps to no avail. Every time I open Notes, it crashes within seconds. This is only an issue since updating from Mavericks to Yosemite. Similar to Tony in October, I am also getting the “Got more than one folder with folderId” under the application specific Information. I use three different Exchange accounts, and only one of them has Notes set to sync (before Yosemite, I could sync all three Exchange account’s Notes and iCloud Notes without error).
I have not sorted my problem either. The Extra folder issue stands deleting and deselecting has no effect
This repaired my notes crash. It occurred because I set up two new domains and emails on office 365 on apple mail with notes checked. In addition to my Yahoo notes and iCloud notes. The remaining problem is that I cannot set up my notes from Yahoo and the exchange accounts now that the crash is fixed. They both time out or come back with a pass word failure that is inaccurate. Any help on getting notes to work across this many accounts?
Hi Todd G,
thanks for your feedback!
In regard to your Yahoo and exchange accounts issue: Do you have a complicated password meaning to you use special characters? Some time ago I experienced a similar problem. The solution: I just used a new password with standard letters and numbers and at a maximum of 10 digits.
Cheers,
Gee Are
Hi,
I followed the below steps, but I still can’t sync my iCloud notes with outlook for the exchange account. Here is what happens, in settings, internet accounts, I select the exchange account, and upon selecting notes I get the symbol of progress but it does not stop.
Go to ‘System Preferences…‘, ‘Internet accounts‘ and deactivate all ‘Notes‘.
Close Notes app.
Go to finder and click on ‘Macintosh HD/library/caches‘. Drag all the contents of the folder to the trash.
Click on the finder, click ‘Go‘, hold the option key and click on ‘Library‘ (will not appear if you don’t hold the option key). Go to the folder ‘Caches‘ again and drag everything in the folder to the trash again.
Click on the finder, click ‘Go‘, hold the option key and click on ‘Library‘ and then on the folder ‘Containers‘. Drag com.apple.notes to the trash.
Restart your computer.
Empty trash.
Open notes again and wait for a while till updating of Notes app is finished.
Hi karim,
this fix applies to the native Mail and Notes app of Mac OS X, not for Outlook for Mac. Are you using Outlook which also includes a notes section? Have you check your native apps if they are working?
Cheers,
Gee Are
I followed the above instructions for fixing the notes synching with the exchange account. It did not work and it messed up the notes application on iPhone. I restored iPhone os it was not fixed. Please help
Hi karim,
was your iPhone connected to iTunes while you performed this tweak? Or did you perform a sync during the tweak? You should not do this. But deleting cashes should not change anything on your Exchange content either.
Look into your Exchange account via web browser if your data is still there. If so, disconnect your iPhone and re-do this tweak.
Cheers,
Gee Are
Thank you so much for this article! I’ve been going out of my mind without being able to use Notes! Worked like a charm 🙂
Hi Dan,
thanks a lot for your feedback!
Cheers,
Gee Are
I’m so glad I found your site. I upgraded to Yosemite and I Notes crashed on startup. I tried downloading Yosemite again. But nothing worked. But, following these simple instructions, I was able to get my Notes app working again. THANKS
Hi Mike,
thanks a lot for your feedback!
Cheers,
Gee Are
if i lost all my notes from updating to yosemite, what should i do? do you have any suggestion? thanks!
Hi Liyana,
have you already lost all of your notes??? Which kind of account are you using for notes? If it is an iCloud account and check your notes on https://icloud.com/#notes. If their are still there, iCloud will restore the notes.
Please, give me more details information for helping you.
Cheers,
Gee Are
Yeah ever since I updated my Mac to Yosemite, I lost all notes. and I can’t even find it on iCloud. I don’t know why 🙁 There’s only the newer notes after Yosemite and not from before.
Hi Liyana,
do you have an iPhone or iPad? and do you have any backup? Then check this: http://support.apple.com/en-us/TS4108
Good luck!
Gee Are
I tried every step here twice, it did not solve the notes app exchange account sync issue. However I found an alternate solution by myself. First I unticked “auto discovery” in Mail options for the exchange account. Then I created a new account from within the notes app, manually entering all details, gave it a brand new name to keep it separate from the “original” exchange account. That did the trick. Now it is working very fast. Do not enter “Internet accounts” – just keep the Notes unticked there for the Exchange account
Hi Vidar,
thank you very much for your feedback and that alternate solution! Great!
Cheers,
Gee Are
It’s disgusting to force people to like or endorse your site before they can appreciate the quality of your responses.
Hi Henry,
thank you for your feedback. I really appreciate this!
Do you have any impressions, how long it takes to write that kind of a post? And you do not have a couples of seconds to have a right look a my post to see the ‘x’ to unhide the content without any forcing?
I would appreciate a more respectful approval of my work.
Cheers,
Gee Are
Many thanks for solving this annoying problem… but I would suggest a step number 9… go back and turn on NOTES for each account under System Preferences: Internet Accounts. Maybe this procedure would be obvious to many users, but it was not for me, and when I rebooted my Notes folder stayed empty no matter how long I waited, as you implied.
Hi John,
thank you very much for your feedback and input! OP updated! 🙂
Cheers,
Gee Are
Hi Gee,
After i upgrade to 10.10.5, Mac outlook 2011 connection to exchange server stopped…
Outlook is requesting password but after that nothing…
i rebuilt the DB, deleted and created the account, created a new identity and even reinstalled the application with no success
Mac Mail app and web access is working fine
Can you please assist?
Hi Tamer,
have you tried a newer version of Outlook 2011, meaning Outlook 2013 or Outlook 2016?
However, Outlook on Mac is crap… 🙂
Cheers,
Gee Are
My fix was easy. Go to System Preferences > Internet Accounts > select Notes to be active ONLY for the iCloud account – unselect Notes for all other accounts.
Hi CEB,
thanks for your help. You’re tweak will work solely for iCloud Notes. However, some guys need MS Exchange Notes…
Anyway, thanks again for replying!
Cheers,
Gee Are
Hi, I tried step by step but am just getting a spinner next to the notes icon in Internet Accounts. It won’t actually check the box.
I’m trying to sync notes from a google account in 10.10.5. This all used to work just fine, but one day stopped syncing.
Any ideas?
Hi Jimbo,
do you have more than one notes account activated? Try to deactivated all (not delete!), reboot and then activate your Google account and try again.
Cheers,
Gee Are
No, just one. I found a solution, and that was to disable two factor authentication. apparently the mail app itself has an issue with two factor because I can add the same google account to apple mail just fine.
Hi Jimbo,
great news! And many thanks for your information!
Cheers,
Gee Are
Thank you !! Worked Well .. Excellent
Hi Smith Jones,
you’re welcome! Many thanks for your feedback!
Cheers,
Gee Are