ipad and icloud

On my iPad air with ios 8.4, in settings under icloud to turn on notes i am asked to create an icloud address. i already have an icloud address but when i entered it i get an error message address taken, and asked to create another one. how can i use my pre existing icloud address?

Is this your only apple device? If not are all your apple devices that are using this icloud address also linked to the same apple id? If they are not that is the problem.

Lisa

The iCloud address it's looking for is the one you were assigned by Apple when you turned on iCloud drive. It's the same as your iCloud email address. Is that the one you're using?

System Preferences, iCloud, Account Details. (from your Mac or PC) You can confirm your address from there.

This is one of the weaknesses of iCloud - Notes, because it uses IMAP, requires an IMAP connection (or, in other words, email). I hope that Apple, at some point in the future, migrates Notes to something other than IMAP but I can wait since I tend to use OneNote more anyway.

Suffice it to say, I feel your pain. It can be a pain but it's seamless once it's set up. As a test, can you send and receive email using that iCloud email account (to verify its functioning)?