I created a note on my laptop on my iCloud account very recently and closed the notes app, the next morning I went to open it and it randomly disappeared. It did not appear in the recently deleted folder, and restarting both my phone and laptop did not recover the file. I can't seem to access notes from an iCloud backup, so does anyone know how I could possibly recover the data?
First, we need to point out that when Notes is working in 'iCloud Mode', all running instances of the program in all platforms under the same iCloud account are referring to a common document, stored in the iCloud with only a local cache each. Because of this, any change whatsoever done anywhere will (eventually) reflect everywhere upon synchronization.
That being said, the first question is: how many different devices are associated and signed into your iCloud account? Do you control or have knowledge of what happens with each and every one of those? If you have sold or gifted one or more of your Apple device(s), did you disassociate all from you iCloud account, as explained here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201065 and https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201351 If in doubt, change your account password and then update that only on your trusted devices.
Another possibility is that iCloud sync has been lost, which would explain the case of "all old notes disappeared". In that case, sign out and sign back in to the correct iCloud account, making sure no error or warning conditions are flagged.
It happened to my iCloud notes around 8:30am this morning (3/11/2019). I logged in iCloud.com and noticed that the notes are not there either. I called the service 18002752273 around 10:00am. The assistant asked for the number of notes disappeared, Apple ID and answers to the identity verification questions, then run the recovery process and told me that nothing was recovered.
It just happened to my notes stored in iCloud as well. I added a little bit content to one of many notes, then all the sudden all the rest notes were disappeared. I logged in iCloud.com and didn’t find the lost notes either. Now only the note that I just edited is still there. Was there someone deleting users’ notes in iCloud? How to recover the lost notes?
The exact same thing just happened to my notes. A year's worth of notes (backed up to the cloud) lost.
All I have is whatever notes I had before 1/15/18.
I was not using the "upgraded" notes if that helps.
Same thing happened to me at around the same time. I used notes in the evening March 12 (Seoul time) and when I woke up in the morning the amount of notes in my iCloud folder was at zero. Next to the zero was an icon to upgrade notes. So I did that thinking it would restore my lost notes. Didn’t do anything. I checked my iCloud notes folder on my computer and there was nothing there. No recently deleted folder either. I really need those notes back soon.
I have encountered the same problem. I suddenly lost some notes and they were nowhere to be found????
Fortunately I had made back-up via my external harddrive.
What I did:
I replaced all note related files from User > Library > Containers >
com.apple.Notes
com.apple.Notes.datastore
com.apple.Notes.HTMLConverter
com.apple.Notes.NotesImporter
com.apple.Notes.QuickLookExtension
com.apple.Notes.SpotlightIndexExtension
And replaced all note related file from User > Library > Group containers
group.com.apple.notes
All back to normal.
REMEMBER TO BE OFFLINE I.E. OFF WIFI/ INTERNET, WHEN YOU REPLACE FILES!! Otherwise all files will sync with iCloud i.e. current situation!
I pinned the notes that I had lost and copied them too, I case there would be problems when back online — wifi/ internet.
All good, when back online
I still wonder how my notes could disappear — and case problem I still need to understand.
Only one iPhone is logged on the stated iCloud account. I’m the sole owner of this phone. I’m not using upgraded notes.
Notes disappeared from notes app
