The default iOS Notes app is free and is of very limited features/functionalities.
Apple's free, default, iOS Notes app is a basic notes apps that Apple includes, more or less, as a example “showcase” app of what could be done when designing/coding a more fully featured note-taking app.
Apple's free Notes app is NOT a full featured notes app and has many useful features NOT available to it.
To make the free iOS Notes app a relatively basic, simple notes app that anyone can, more or less, learn fairly easily, Apple's Notes app has eschewed many useful features found in other more powerful and robust/feature-rich, third party note taking apps.
Apple has always treated their iOS Notes app in a way where the app is like only approx. 80% “there”.
Apple's iOS Notes app is, also, notorious for major issues, like deleting notes at random, arbitrary times and deleting entire groups of notes unexpectedly, for no real reason
My wife and I had these issues happen, on a handful of occasions, long ago, to the point that that Apple's free iOS Notes app is no longer a trusted, reliable app to use for ANY extensive note-taking.
Also, to also emphasize how basic the free iOS Notes app is, Apple ONLY upgrades/updates this app once a year with a new iOS/iPadOS version introduction every September/October.
Forget continuing to use Apple's free iOS Notes app.
If you want “piece of mind” and know that notes can't just “accidentally and mysteriously” disappear, at random, look to other third party free OR paid notes apps from the Apple iOS App Store.
There are third party notes apps that have been with iOS/iPadOS and Apple devices for, at least, 5 years, or more and have a much better track record of reliability and can automatically save notes to other data storage/backup services other than just Apple iCloud, like Google Drive, DropBox, Amazon Cloud services, and/or BOX or other similar data storage/backup services.
If you need more features from a notes/note taking app, I recommend you look to the Apple iOS App Store for more fully featured, AND much more stable, third party Notes apps that get many more regular updates throughout the years!
Here is an incomplete list of notes/note taking apps you may wish/want to look at that are more robust and feature-rich, in no particular order.
CollaNote ( Free )
Goodreader
INKredible
Liquid Text
Margin Note 3
Microsoft One note
Nebo
Noteful/Pro
Notability
Notepad+/Notepad+ Pro
NoteShelf 2
Notes Plus
Notes Writer/(Pro)
Notebook
Good Notes 5
Zoom Notes
Quick Notes X Pro
Best of Luck to You!
