Corrupt Notes - Permanent syncing on Mac

Question

I use Apple Notes with my iCloud account. Starting with macOS of several versions ago, the app permanently shows the spinning wheel as if the syncing never stops.

• This problem has started on an old Mac. The new Mac was not setup via local data transfer but by adding the iCloud-account and pulling data from the Cloud. The problem shows on both Macs.
• The problem does not show in my iPhone and iPad. But then, not sure if there even is such a thing like the spinning wheel in Notes for iPhone and iPad.
• Data-synchronization in general works fine: add/delete complete notes, partial edits, sharing with others.

Has anybody else seen this problem and found a solution?

If not, here are my own ideas how to maybe fix it. But I am missing a step on each of them. The basic assumption for all ideas is, that one of the many notes is corrupt and causes the permanent-syncing.

1. Export all notes (both content and meta-data) and re-import them. This kind of process often rectifies data-corruption issues. But I don't see how I can fully export Apple Notes in the way it is possible e. g. with Evernote. Does anybody know?
2. Run a consistency check. Notes afaik uses an SQLite database. DBs often provide a way of checking consistency. But I have not found this for SQLite. Does anybody know?
3. Identify the corrupt note, save contents e. g. in a new note, delete the old note. But I don't know how to log activity of the Notes app to find the problematic note. Does anybody have answers for my questions on possible solutions 1.-3.? Does anybody have other ideas what to try?

Answer 1

I had the same problem and managed to resolve it by following the steps below. Not sure if the OP is still having the issue, but this could assist others finding this thread.

Steps followed (from memory)

1. Create a test new user account on the Mac
2. Log into that account, configure iCloud (switch off everything apart from Notes sync if you want)
3. See if the permanent syncing issue appears using the test user. If not, then all good - proceed with the steps below.
4. Allow the Notes sync process to complete and stop.
5. Exit Notes.
6. Use Finder to go to ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/Notes
7. There should be 3 files in this folder. Take a copy of the files and move them to a location you can access using your normal user account (a shared folder or similar).
8. Log out of the test user and back into your normal user account.
9. Shutdown the Notes app if it is running.
10. Navigate to the ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/Notes folder again.
11. Overwrite the 3 files in this folder with the 3 files taken from the test user account.
12. Start up Notes - hopefully the sync will start and then stop.