Password-Protecting the Notes app?

sberman -- One of the things I did today was update to 16.3. It didn't help. I can, however, still use my iPhone for other functions including adding and deleting new notes without needing a password.

I summarized the history of this issue as best I can in the OP. I'll try to be more clear about my immediate problem:

First, recall that I said up front, "I'm not using iCloud." That introduces some uncertainties in the whole password procedure. On the one hand, the document you referenced says, "Turn on Notes in your iCloud Settings, or make sure that you use notes stored on your device [emphasis mine]." On the other hand, it also says, "To lock your notes with your device passcode, you must turn on iCloud Keychain [emphasis mine]." These statements appear contradictory. Do the Notes passwords even apply if I'm not using iCloud?

I take your point that, in order to password-protect existing notes, I must do it individually for each. I still don't know if new notes are supposed to be automatically protected when I create them or not, but at the moment all of that is beside the point.

What I want to do now is remove the Notes password that I set earlier in the Settings/Notes/Password menu. Here's where I am right now:

When I click on Password under Settings/Notes/, I see very briefly the screen where I originally checked "Use Custom Password." (The check box is still checked.) Before I can do anything, however, that screen is covered by the screen that offers the choices, "Use iPhone Passcode" or "Create [Separate] Password." If I click cancel, it goes quickly through the previously mentioned screen and back to Settings/Notes/.

Since I got here initially by requesting "Remove Password" on that screen that I can no longer access, clearly I don't want either of the available options. But suppose I choose "Use iPhone Password." It then tells me that I "must turn on iCloud Keychain..." If, on the other hand, I choose "Create Password" under "Create a Separate Password," I'm back to the previously unavailable screen with the check mark, except that now, in place of "Remove Password," I'm offered "Reset Password." Since I don't want to set any password, I choose "Done" without entering anything, but then it tells me, "Enter a Password."

I'm not making any progress here! Best Regards -- JCW6

Thanks, sberman, for your reply. Right now I still need to know how to get out of the loop that I seem to be stuck in regarding "Remove Password" -- see the last paragraph of my OP. I can't do anything else until I solve that one! -- JCW6

Thanks, shoeluvr13, that does clarify the issue considerably. As you noted, I had expected that Notes would automatically encrypt each new note (if not the existing ones) after setting up the password in Settings.

Kindly confirm some details for me before we close this discussion:

1) My problems are not coming from the fact that I have neither signed up for iCloud nor set up facial recognition. Correct?

2) Since I have apparently already set up custom-password protection for notes, why does the following happen? When I either select an existing note or add a new note, hit the menu icon (three dots in upper right), and then hit the closed lock icon, it always asks me to "Set Password ...for all my locked notes" (by entering and confirming a password and entering a password hint. Didn't I already do that?

3) If I somehow failed to set this global Notes password, why do are the lock icons on all of my new and existing notes all closed? I never explicitly locked them individually.

4) Is the odd behavior of Settings/Notes/Password since I initially set a Notes password (described above) "normal?"

5) Was I mistaken in my recollection that I initially saw a red "Remove Password" option on the Settings/Notes/Password screen? There is now a red "Reset Password" option there when that screen is momentarily visible.

6) If I do decide to password-protect any particular note, can I ever un-protect it, or can I only unlock it temporarily for viewing?

Best Regards -- JCW6

Not literally, no. I can use the iPhone. I just can't select any other options for the Notes password, as described above. -- JCW6