don't share my notes (iPhone 8) with icloud

maybe shared isn't the right word

I have sensitive notes and I thought I was not using the cloud so the notes stayed on my phone

I thought I had to select having my notes "sent"? to the cloud

but noticed that are there

I need to have my notes stay in my phone

I've tried all the directions I found and, when I look at the cloud, the notes are there

when I chose to delete them from the cloud window, it deleted them from my phone too without notification me that would happen

is that called sync?

I want my notes only on my phone, had the same problem with gmail, reason I am not using gmail now, it showed material saved in contacts did not need to clog up my email addresses

I want some info to just stay in the phone

how do I do that?

when I open settings> name> iCloud, it is grey and I can't change anything

below that section, "game center" Maps shortcuts and waze are in a section that is not grey

oddly, "game center" name is black, not greyed...

but the rest of that box from "manage storage" to icloud back up, all the text is gray except games

no one should have

are there settings in another section that might effect this

I tried instructions from apple, so I did change some settings while trying to turn off notes/iCloud

and game center is active, I never play games, only tried to download a Disney app that did not work outside the park

ok will restart, looking at settings>notes,

says "default account On My Phone , is checked not ICloud

and "on my phone" account shows below, green

I will power off, restart

restarted, same... at bottom says 'sign out" but when I looked at that says to sign out to turn off "find my phone"

additional Q, I'm changing from gmail to protonmail, looks like deleting gmail will delete "contacts" does that mean it will remove all my contacts from my phone book?

there were no dots but, because I cleared the cloud it deleted all my notes?

fortunately, I have a screen shot and can recreate them

thank you, I have a slightely better idea of how it works

greyed out because I never set up finger or pass ID

I worked in gloves often and did not want to be re entering my code or removing gloves to look at a message

unemployed for quarantine, not a problem now

I set up finger and pass and looked at deleting it, but, says there is something else that would be deleted if I do

this is a lot more confusing than is should/could be (rolling eyes)

thank you!

it was handy to have some of that info in the phone

but if it is not green, my phone should not be using it ?

not now, I'd rather just keep all my info on my phone