Notes: New Note disabled

I am having the same issue although I am not a developer I am using version 10.11 Beta (15A225f) Notes Version 4.0 (512). I can confirm that I was definitely able to create notes on my macbook before the beta installation. Another strange occurence happened with Notes when I first installed the beta OS, some of my notes duplicated and triplicated. I have already deleted 28 "copies" but have more to delete when I am done comparing to make sure I don't lose any data. I purchased storage and I currently have 142 GB available so I doubt that is an issue. Another thing to point out, I am unable to create a new note using iCloud and On My Mac acccounts.

While I was typing this, I experimented with something and was able to create a new note. Try this: in the Notes app, go to View then choose Show Toolbar. You will then see the Create a Note icon and you should be able to create a new note. Still not sure why the menu or keyboard shortcut doesn't work.

I solved it by going to icloud settings inside Apple ID and deactivating and re-activating notes.

You need to have your iPhone unlocked and nearby to create a new note.

If you go inside of System Preferences>AppleID, then click on Notes (in iCloud) to disable it and then click on Notes (in iCloud) to re-enable it, it will restore this functionality.

Er_Murena had right answer for me. Settings -> Internet Accounts -> iCloud -> Uncheck and then Check Notes app

Thanks, Er_Murena!

I lost all my notes following the "go to icloud settings inside Apple ID and deactivating and re-activating notes" advice and still cannot create new notes :/

I lost all my notes following the "go to icloud settings inside Apple ID and deactivating and re-activating notes" advice and still cannot create new notes :/<<

Exactly the same thing just happened to me.

It is absolutely irresponsible to post support advice that deletes all existing Notes data. Is this the new and improved Apple support?

For me (on Monterey), the problem was solved by going to Preferences in the Notes app and unchecking "Resume last Quick Note." Then I could create a new Quick Note, and the New Note button and command worked.

Frightening but it works! All my Notes disappeared... and then re-appeared. Thanks to Er_Murena and jonkibwe.

First new note button greyed out > then I went to System preferences > iCloud > deselected and reselected note > coming back to notes, all notes disappeared ( stress levels high ! ) > all buttons are greyed out, tagging is not working, hashtag is not working. So basically if someone is storing important information in notes, you may loose it all ? I do see it on iCloud, though I am worried that somehow while syncing this may also get wiped out There is no option to back up notes and restore them Apple Engineers - please continue to work diligently to look at these forums and solve our issues.

It is so annoying that the Apple team hasn't fixed it yet.

Thanks to Er_Murena and jonkibwe 😊, their solution works...

The problem is in Quick notes. As you can try, if your last note is empty, the New note button is greyed and you cannot press it (even by cmd+N or menu).
Fill the new note and you can create another one. Monterey introduced Quick notes. When the Quick note is empty, it behaves same and you cannot create New note.

Solution one: Fill your Quick note with some text

Solution two: Disable in Setting field Open last Quick note.

Always check if your last note contains something and is not blank.
(Apologies, my MacOS not in English language so the names of fields could slightly differ)

You need to disable and re-enable notes on iCloud in System Preferences -> Apple Id. It worked for me on Monterey 12.3.1

I had the same problem then tried going to Notes --> Preferences --> Ticked the "Enable the On My Mac account" The new note icon is back (no longer gray) on my Notes view. Hope this helps.

I've just closed the app and opened it again and I was able to create notes 🫢

Notes - Preferences -- UNCHECK resume quick note, close notes and reopen. Enjoy =)

As others have said. Going into setting, inactivating and reactivating notes works. Disable and re-enable notes on iCloud in System Preferences -> Apple Id

I am making blank notes on my phone just to use on my computer. Migrating to MacOS has been frustrating to say the least. At least on Windows/LINUX there is someone in the interwebs to offer a real solution to these kind of things.

new note on my MacBook has been greyed out for many years. Every 6 months or so I look for a solution. I have asked many apple experts. I have a tone of important notes I created on my iPhone which works. I can't delete these. These are visible in the MacBook, but I can't create new ones on the MacBook. Its a bug which has been around for years. Both devices have notes set to sync in iCloud preferences. Today I tried switching off notes sync on iPhone, but it said it would deleted all my notes so I canceled. This is crazy. However, interestingly, if I switch off notes sync on the Mac, it doesn't say this, but it did it anyway without warning. then it loaded them again, now I can create new notes, for the first Time on my Mac.

Same here. Tried every thing noted in the notes and comments above. Nothing worked.

If you already have a new note added earlier and which is empty, that is the problem. You should delete the empty note and new note button will be back in full force.

In my case, I solved the problem with the following steps:

1. Open the notes app
2. Click preferences on the top menu
3. Check "Enable the On My Mac account

Not a dev, but for me this fixed it:

Preferences--- Enable the On my Mac account

(I also unchecked Resume last quick note first, per someone else's advice as an easy fix, but that alone did not work)