Keyboard Lag? Too many notes

snsokstan

I am trying to implement ForeverNotes on about 2,000 notes. The keyboard lag on my MAcbook, which only happens in Apple Notes and no other app, is very bothersome. I read that having too many notes in one folder may cause this.

That would be worsened when I migrate more notes from my other app (Evernote) into AppleNotes. I have 15,000 notes in Evernote that I want to move.

Any experience among your FN users with keyboard lag on a Mac? I don't get a lag on my iPhone 16.

MacbookPro M1 64GB memory 2TB SSD Sequoia 15.1.1 Good internet speed (150+ down, 30+ up)

tvillemw

Have you tried the usual tricks? Like rebooting the MacBook or force quitting Notes - https://support.apple.com/en-us/102586

I've had keyboard lag on my iPad but only in Safari. Shutting down the iPad and restarting always fixes it. In those few cases I suspect one of the websites had a process going on that was hogging system resources.

I saw you posted this issue on Reddit's r/applenotesgang. Other people there have had lags with Notes using handwriting recognition.

snsokstan

I haven't tried force quitting but I went through a litany of suggested solutions I found on Google searches including rebooting, etc.

We have a second laptop that is also sync'ed with iCloud/Notes. It's a new Macbook Air and the keyboard lag is also evident.

snsokstan

My Notes (and iCloud) sync with two laptops, two iphones and one iPad. I used my same Magic Keyboard by Bluetooth with my iPad and had a some keyboard lag, but not as much as on the laptops.

The lag on the laptops occurs with either the built in keyboard or the external Magic Keyboard.

I am wondering it may be related to a large number of notes that are constantly in a syncing state with one or more devices. I may try leaving all devices open to Notes for a while and see what happens.

Nyraev

In my experience (about 1,500 notes), my keyboard lag was coming from big smart folders.

snsokstan

@Nyraev Thanks for the suggestion. How big are/were your smart folders? Were you able to cure the problem?

My smart folder are sizable and would get a lot bigger when I import notes from Evernote (which is sounding like a bad idea now.)

Nyraev

snsokstan The biggest one was about >600 notes.

Looking at your screen, maybe just try to delete Recipes and Photography 1 smart folders just to see the result.

I used to have a big smart folder that corresponded to a particular tag, now I type the tag into the search bar or click on the tag from the tag cloud and everything is smoother.

MahmoudFahiem

I also have this lag although I have 1450 notes now.

My mac is M1 8GB 256GB ssd model, so I thought the problem is with low resources

snsokstan

Just to be sure I close this thread here as I did on Reddit:

The problem of keyboard lag showed up on my laptop and a second ancillary laptop I keep in the kitchen. So it wasn't related to a particular machine.

The culprit was a smart folder. I have several but just one caused the problem. It was a smart folder configured to show me notes that were untagged.

It had about 227 notes—not as many as in my other smart folders—but I confirmed by deleting and recreating this folder that it caused to keyboard lag.

I finally connected with a second-level support at Apple. I was disappointed that they wouldn't proceed until I reinstalled the OS. As the problem existed on two machines, that was a clear waste of time.

Anyway, no more untagged notes smart folder and no more keyboard lag.

tvillemw

snsokstan For the first time I've experienced keyboard lag. I was using my iPad for adding cards and documents to my Personal hub. Some came from the iCloud Documents folder, others I added by scanning directly into Notes. Only five in all. I was also adding links and tags, editing headings, etc. So, for about an hour up and down to and from iCloud. The lag was one noticeable beat after every letter typed. After quitting out of Notes and relaunching everything was normal.

snsokstan

tvillemw but no smart folders as the possible cause?

tvillemw

snsokstan I have four Smart Folders for admin purposes (no tags, created today, created this week, checklists). The lag occurred in a note with a newly scanned id card. I was working on a hub note with one heading and eight links to notes with scanned id cards and documents but little text. So, lots of scanning in a session.

Edited to add: I was using an iPad, only 200 notes

snsokstan

Thanks! for the update

TomCohen

I have many notes already sorted into regular folders.

I need to know if there is a risk of getting all into the default folder as the systems suggests as I worry of lag

snsokstan

TomCohen This question might be good for the official Apple Community forum. I did leave a question there about keyboard lag but it wasn't answered. Your question is more specific and you'll likely get a reply.

I've got 2000 notes in my plain iCloud folder but not in subfolders. Once I eliminated that smart folder to collect untagged notes, keyboard lag disappeared.

https://discussions.apple.com/welcome

MindLedger

I have a lot of notes and the only time I experienced keyboard lag on my Mac was when I had a lot of untagged notes in my Untagged smart folder. Now whether it was simply the large number of notes in the smart folder or the way Notes searches for untagged notes is a question I can't answer, but I'm leaning towards the untagged search/filter process being the culprit. My workaround was to bulk tag all my untagged notes with #edit and then create a smart folder searching for this tag. I was then able to complete my tagging without any keyboard lag. Now, I don't keep Untagged as a permanent smart folder- I just create it from time to time, complete my tagging and then delete the smart folder.

snsokstan

MindLedger That's a great solution to my similar problem of the negative impact of a smart folder collecting untagged notes: put on a tag to indicate they are not specifically tagged.

Outside-the-box thinking.

Thanks!

-J-

snsokstan

And reporting the lag problems on

https://www.apple.com/feedback/notes/

Helps getting this problem with untagged notes folder on apples radar.

mikemurphy

Just wanted to share that I started experiencing significant keyboard lag as soon as I switched all of my Folders to Smart Folders to implement the Forever Notes system. I have 6-8 Smart Folders with ~ 2000 Notes. Apple Notes was always lightning fast until I converted to Smart Folders. MacBook Pro M1 - Sequoia.

MindLedger

mikemurphy Do you have a smart folder for Untagged?

mikemurphy

MindLedger I created one,, but it’s empty now as all of my Notes have tags. I make a lot of tutorials and have one YouTube Smart Folder that holds all of my YouTube video descriptions that now has over 1500 notes. I’m going to convert that back to a regular folder and see if that helps speed things up.