Edit iOS notes via IMAP

Question

I'd like to create and edit notes created by the iOS Note app programmatically from the server-side.

I can see the notes created by the iOS device in my IMAP folder but any changes I make won't show up on the iOS device.

Does such API exist?

I think not, check this question, http://stackoverflow.com/a/3941780/63678 — Daniel Magnusson, Feb 27 '13 at 13:48
i need something that can modify the notes on the server-side — James, Feb 27 '13 at 13:50

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 27 '15 at 14:03

I just wondered myself and tried editing the note with mutt. As emails (via imap anyway) are not meant to be edited (as correctly stated by @CodaFi) mutt copies the note into the editor, saves it as a new "email" and delete the old one. The edited note gets synced to Notes.app just fine.

Beware: The title/subject of the note/mail is derived from the first line of the body.

PS (I don't think it affects the validity of the above): My setup is private IMAP server & mbsync with local Maildir & mutt.

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 11 '13 at 09:05

Well, I use the HeaderTools plugin with Thunderbird to accomplish this, so it's certainly possible. The notes app picks up the changes right away.
( I's not a very satisfying solution as HeaderTools only allows editing as html source in its own viewer/editor )
I guess you could fire up wireshark to investigate precisely what goes on. The drafts theory sounds plausible. If I needed to dig into this, I think I would just try it out with python directly, instead of googling around for hours.

Edit iOS notes via IMAP

2 Answers2