Notes Password

kaytlin50 wrote:

So why can't Apple help me recover my notes password?

The password is the data decryption key.

The password is not stored.

Apple doesn’t have your password, and Apple didn’t save your password anywhere on your iPhone or elsewhere, and Apple didn’t implement a backdoor in the encryption security.

Which means there is no password to recover. And unfortunately for this case, Apple used robust encryption. Encryption with no known backdoors.

Right now, your efforts are no different from some miscreant trying to access the protected data. There are no backdoors, and nobody that can be contacted that can revoke your password security. Without that password, there can be no access. This is the same as the case that this data encryption is intended to protect against.

Backdoors in encryption are problematic for various reasons, too. There are no known robust backdoors in modern encryption, either. Not without risking complete access to everything, if the details of the backdoor becomes known. Which they inevitably do.

iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 do allow a second means of locking the file, with the device passcode being used.

… How to lock or unlock notes on your iPhone or iPad - Apple Support

This new support won’t help in this case with the forgotten password. This will not bypass the non-passcode encryption, as was used here. There remains no back door.

Warning here highlighted in red:

Because the notes password is “over and above” the very secure encryption already provided by Apple via their OS.

The note itself is encrypted … and the “key” is the user supplied password.

Anyone who feels that it’s necessary to use an additional password - on the premise that Apple is not sufficiently secure - is responsible for keeping track of this “extra” layer of encryption.