All the notes on my iPhone disappeared

Earlier today I saw that my storage was full and I had to update my phone (iPhone 11) to 17.3 but I had no storage. I clicked on manage storage and my phone froze so I thought it would be an easy fix by just restarting my phone and trying again. My phone ended up being stuck on the Apple logo for an extended period and even after I hooked it up to my computer it would be stuck. It finally comes back on but I can barely see any apps and I notice my notes are all gone except for shared notes I have with someone. I also was able to delete enough things to get my phone to update and that didn't fix my notes. I have also tried the "On my iPhone" and "Accounts" method which creates new folders in my notes but don't restore any of my notes, like many other people I use those notes daily to remember important things and I don't know what else to do. Please help.

This is genius! Worked for me too. I've recovered almost all of my notes but unfortunately I haven't yet found a way to open locked notes.

Same thing happened to me. All my notes were completely gone. They said 0. We logged onto iCloud and all the notes were there. They’re still not on my phone, but they are on iCloud.

Same problem here, I worked extensively for the last 3 days in the notes app, iCloud storage was full so I upgraded, the notes were not syncing between devices, and now I lost all my work from the last days. What a trash is iCloud service

Oh my god so it's not just me. This happened to me this morning unfortunately at this point I probably can’t recover them because I tried many ways to fix them so there won’t be a back up for me anymore. 🥺😭

I went to go type something in an existing note when it suddenly closed the note and took me to the notes home screen. But everything was gone. I can't search up my notes like others can, it's all just gone. When I check my iCloud, it just says 0KB, like there's truly nothing there. I tried things other have replied to do and none of it has worked. I can't even try and use a backup because my last backup was from 5 years ago when I first got this phone (I never re-backed it up because I never had the storage to without needing to delete a lot of things). I also can't used Mail(?) to try and recover Note because I never set up Mail on my phone (I never saw a need to), so the only account attached to my notes is my iCloud account but everything is just gone. 5 years worth of notes just gone and I don't know what to do. I had so much important stuff in my notes and I just don't know what to do. Please help.

Hello annieluh1,

We're glad to hear that updating your iPhone helped recover a few of your missing notes. If you worked through all the guidance in the link provided previously and you still can't find the remainder of your missing notes, you most likely won't be able to recover them.

Thanks!

where are my notes?

Settings>Apple ID>Notes turn it off and back on don’t get scared when it says delete from my iPhone just click it

This worked for me!! Thank you! I immediately moved them from "on my iPhone" to my iCloud as well, to hopefully prevent from happening again and for some peace of mind knowing that they are backed up to my iCloud account. I did this while still in airplane mode.

Going back to paper immediately!!

Apple notes for a sales meeting is horrible. I lost everything today.

I’m in our yearly sales meeting today and scanned in the handouts to annotate with key notes to save on my iPad. Everything was going great all day. I’ve taken notes on the scans and key directives from management. ALL DAY!! Then boom. All my annotations disappear in front of my eyes while I’m not touching the iPad. Everything gone! Now I’m the idiot who trusted Apple with my work. So frustrating.

All my notes are completely gone. I logged onto iCloud and most of the notes were there (not all of them some are still missing i think the ones with photos) They’re still not on my phone, but they are on iCloud Idk what to do

This did not recover my lost notes

this just worked for me!!!

2024-03-05 iPhone 11ProMax

My Notes titles were there but no text inside. My phone had hiccuped and froze for a few seconds some minutes earlier.

What worked was using Chrome to get into the Yahoo account I used to back up that folder of Notes. There is a Notes folder and my Notes were in there but in Read Only. I opened a note and looked at it. When I checked back in the Notes app, it had returned to normal.

Now I’m going to use the iCloud folder to save Notes instead of Yahoo mail, and email notes to myself more often. I’ll experiment with the On My iPhone folder too.