From iPad 2 to IPad Pro how to transfer notes, calendar, etc.?

[Mbagni]

Hi all,

Sorry to bother the whole group with a very peculiar problem but I have just bought an iPad Pro and I wish to pass in it the information (notes, contacts and calendar) that are currently stored on my iPad 2 (glorious but with too few RAM!).
Simple you would say: use iTunes to backup and restore the user data BUT (here comes the problem) I have a nice MacBook Pro which currently has Mavericks installed and synchronizes with the iPad 2 through the Apple iCloud.
I remember that when the iOS 8 (or something near that release) came out, Apple had upgraded the iCloud and made it incompatible with the older version. Moreover Mavericks uses the older version and is incompatible with the new one.
With my surprise when I upgraded the iPad 2 to iOS 8 it automatically used the older iCloud compatibility mode (evidently the HW of the iPad 2 was considered by the Apple's guys too slow to support the new iCloud).
For your further info I did not upgrade the MacBook since it involved to upgrade (mostly not for free) all the installed applications, first of all VMware.
Here finally comes THE QUESTION: is there a way to initialize the iPad Pro, that comes with iOS 10, in such a way that will use the old iCloud mode (still maintained available by Apple) and synch smoothly with Mavericks?

A long preamble for a short question but I did it to describe the scenario and avoid wasting your time with not applicable solutions!

Thanks in advance to the forum members!

Marco

 

[scifan57]

You could avoid the problem entirely by backing up your iPad 2 to iTunes on your computer using the charging cable, then restore the new iPad Pro and set it up from your iPad 2 backup while also connected to iTunes on your computer.

 

[Mbagni]

Thank you scifan75, that is something I thought but the real "problem" is: will the iPad Pro continue to synchronize with my MacBook (running Mavericks) as the iPad 2 is currently doing?
I was understanding that the new synchronization based on iCloud required to upgrade Mavericks that is something I do not want to do (for the reasons already explained).
Maybe your solution lies in the last sentence of yours that I did not quite understood (that which begins with "set it up from your iPad 2 backup while also connected ti iTunes on your computer".
If you could elaborate a bit more this final process that looks like your solution to the automatic synchronization between the iPad Pro and Mavericks.

Thanks for your support (the new iPad Pro is still in the box waiting for a solution!)

 

[scifan57]

Here are the minimum system requirements for the various iCloud features. System requirements for iCloud

To clear up the last part of my previous post, you first connect your iPad 2 to iTunes on your computer and do a backup. You then connect your iPad Pro to iTunes on your computer and set it up from the iPad 2 backup you created earlier.

Your new iPad Pro will be using the latest version of iCloud available and can't be downgraded.

 

[Mbagni]

That is exactly what I wish to avoid: to be forced to upgrade Maverics to Sierra with all the implicit upgrading of the installed software.
Scifan57 I respect your experience and if you tell that there is no way to make the iPad Pro use the old iCloud standard (that currently used by the iPad 2 and the MacBook with Mavericks) I have no options than accept it but it is hard to digest!
Thanks for your support.

 

[scifan57]

Have you considered dual booting your Mac with Sierra on one partition and Mavericks on the other? That way you can still run your older programs and have full compatibility with the latest iOS devices.

 

[Mbagni]

I fell in love with VMware (or the equivalent product made for OS X) because I was tired of rebooting my computer. Maybe installing the latest version of OS X on a virtual machine and have it stripped down in order to contain only the Notes, Calendar and Contacts could be a reasonable compromise. This way I would have the synchronization with the only three applications I need shared with the iPad (no photo or other fancy stuff). Moreover, with the Unity mode, I can access to the virtualized applications like if they were native on my MacBook (the same thing I currently do for accessing the Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint).
Thanks for the good idea!

 

[scifan57]

I fell in love with VMware (or the equivalent product made for OS X) because I was tired of rebooting my computer. Maybe installing the latest version of OS X on a virtual machine and have it stripped down in order to contain only the Notes, Calendar and Contacts could be a reasonable compromise. This way I would have the synchronization with the only three applications I need shared with the iPad (no photo or other fancy stuff). Moreover, with the Unity mode, I can access to the virtualized applications like if they were native on my MacBook (the same thing I currently do for accessing the Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint).
Thanks for the good idea!

Let us know how it works out.

The only dual booting I've done myself is on my old iMac which has OS 9 and OS X, allowing me to run older programs which don't work in OS X.

 

[Mbagni]

Short test results:
running Sierra in a virtual machine in order to use the Calendar and the Notes joined with the latest iCloud service works but I find it a bit too slow to be used on daily basis, especially considering the alternative that used GMAIL as the cloud service to synchronize my Calendar and Notes.

If interested, see the OPTIMAL SOLUTION at the end of this message.

In details:
This is my testing environment:
MacBook Pro Retina - 13-inch, Late 2013
Processor 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Graphics Intel Iris 1536 MB
Software OS X 10.9.5 - Mavericks

On this system I have installed VMware Fusion Professional 6.0.2
When I installed Fusion I was offered to create a Virtual Machine with an image of my own system and I did it obtaining a copy of my Mavericks that I have seldom used to test some software before including it in my library.

In order to access the latest iCloud services I upgraded the virtual machine to Sierra (about three hours from beginning to end). Once logged on my iCloud account I was able to access the Notes and the Calendar events created on my iPad Pro (iOS 10.1.1).

OPTIMAL SOLUTION

Starting with iOS 8 Apple has introduced a new iCloud service that, although having the same name, differs from that used until iOS 7. Let's call it iCloud2 to differ from the old one that I will call iCloud1.

The service iCloud1 was used until OS X 10.9.5 (Mavericks), while iCloud2 is used by the newer OS X (El Capitain and Sierra). There is no known way to make Mavericks use the iCloud2 or Sierra use the iCloud1.

Devices like iPad 2, although running the new iOS (8 and 9) still use the iCloud1 and cannot be configured to use iCloud2 while, when upgrading to iOS 8, were asked if upgrade the iCloud service or keep the old one (I do not know if the option is offered also to users upgrading to iOS 9 or 10).

I currently have an iPad 2 with iOS 8 and an iPad Pro with iOS 10. Both have been connected to the iCloud service but, as I already told, the iPad 2 uses iCloud1 and iPad Pro uses iCloud2.

My beloved Mavericks, obviously, uses iCloud1, hence the current synchronization, through Apple iCloud is the following:

iPad 2 <--> MacBook
iPad Pro <--> ???? nothing!

BUT (there is always a "but")
If you have a gmail account (if you haven't you can do in 10 minutes, it's free!) you can configure that mail account to be used to synchronize both Notes and Calendar. So, through the gmail account you can have the following:

iPad 2 <--> MacBook <--> iPad Pro

TIPS
The new Notes application, when using the iCloud2 services allows the creation of fancy texts that can include also hand drawings. These notes cannot be copied and pasted into the gmail notes but the reverse can be done (a gmail note can be copied and pasted into a iCloud2 note without losing information).

Using the application Notes from the MacBook it is possible to select multiple notes from one account (e.g. iCloud1) and drag them into the gmail account. This solves the problem of migrating the notes into the gmail account without rewriting them.

ATTENTION
if a note contains images (photo or screenshot) the graphic content will be lost in the cut and paste process so far described.
I have not succeeded to extract the graphic using the MacBook applications (it seems to allow the Copy but when pasting it results into an empty line). On the contrary, using the iPad Pro (iCloud2) I can copy and paste each single graphic content (but not the sketches made by hand!) into a note using the iCloud1 service.

That's all folks!

 

[Mbagni]

ADDENDUM

from the iPad Pro (iCloud2) it is possible to send a Note by mail without losing the images contained in the note. The hand written sketches are moved at the bottom of the message while the normal images are kept placed like the original note.

The sketches are transformed into static images and the whole mail message can be selected and copied into a new note in either gmail or iCloud account.

This is the farthest extent of my trials.

PAY ATTENTION WHEN USING COPY AND PASTE OF A WHOLE NOTES:

from iCloud to iCloud it works perfectly
from gmail to gmail it works perfectly
from gmail to iCloud works perfectly
from iCloud to gmail it looses the images!