Notes App lagging after iOS 18 Update

18.1.1…. I’ve signed in and out, deleted, reinstalled. To no avail. It lags awful - so slow - and also loses my numbering when I copy and paste to a text.

I use the app daily to write my gratitude list and it’s making me decidedly NOT GRATEFUL.

Shorter notes work better so I started a new note. My friend had me get the app PasteNow and if I copy and paste from notes to PasteNow, then copy from PasteNow it keeps my numbering. It’s a lot of work but I suppose I’m GRATEFUL I found a work around.

For me it's linked to headings / subheadings, but there are attachments in the notes in question too.

If all of the titles, headings, subheadings are open it scrolls ok, doesn't seem to lag. *** soon as one of them is closed, if I scroll with that closed heading in the view, it lags.

Only happens with big notes, small notes seem unaffected.

I just tried Settings, Apple Pencil, and turning off the two options (only draw with Pencil; English/Scribble).

So far that seems to have helped.

This seems to be improved in IOS 18.2. There’s no mention of it in the update notes. However I’ve noticed a major difference since the update.

My performance improved a lot when I switched to list view

In iOS 16 there were no delays in notes, in iOS 17 large text notes (>100,000 characters) slowed down a bit, it was unpleasant. In iOS 18.1 large text notes slow down a lot, it’s impossible to work.

Re-opening and closing the app 20 times didn’t work for me.

I deleted the Notes app. Then reinstalled and allowed all my notes (1002) to load. It didn’t work for me.

Now I edit large notes only in macOS Sonoma, since it’s impossible to do this in iOS 18.1. It’s very inconvenient.

I’m waiting for a fix, otherwise I’ll have to look for a replacement iPhone.

Same goes for me.

I was very excited for the "Collapsible sections", so I immediately used it on a super long note I've had for the past year or so. As soon as I did that it started lagging terribly and now it's basically almost impossible to use, considering how slow it is.

It does this both on my Macbook M1 (2020) and my iPhone 12. I don't think the device matters though, I think it's something that hopefully will be fixed through future updates.

This is happening with a large note both on iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia. The note eventually (after maybe a minute?) opens on iOS, but is so laggy that the keyboard lags about a second behind my typing. On mac, it takes about 10-20 seconds to open the note. The performance is noticeably a little laggy on mac as I type as well, but nowhere near as bad as iOS.

Frustrating - the main reason I use apple notes is because it's so fast to open and begin typing versus other note apps.

I'm a heavy notes user with ~10k notes saved, many with scans, 2.2GB notes DB size. iOS 18 Notes is broken. Seems to hang every 5 seconds. When I type a note, it hangs with every 5-10 character's typed .

iOS version 18.0.1

I also have the multiple blank notes problem and I am pretty sure it is because I tap the new note button multiple times because of the lag and being accustomed to seeing the note appear immediately.

if I just tap it once and wait….and wait…and wait…and wait some more l, I only get one new one

Update iOS 18.1.1 on 13 pro:

The very large note takes about 5 seconds to load once tapped in notes. Typing in the note is slightly laggy most of the time, and sometimes while typing fast I have to slow down to wait for the lag, otherwise it doesn’t register. So, it’s better, but still not the great experience it was. It’s very disappointing, performance the reason I used Apple’s notes vs the competition. It was simple and fast to take a quick note.

18.2 did not seem to change anything for me either.

Strangely, if a note has content, it opens just fine. It’s creating new notes and the automatic deletion of a blank note (or manual deletion of one with content) that hangs big time.

the hang seems to have shortened but it still is many many seconds

Still the same on OS 15.3 etc.

It's definitely related to bullet points / highlights within a sub heading for me. Only on large notes. When all headings are expanded, it scrolls fine until it hits a section with either bullet points or highlights in it.

But it completely grinds to a halt when everything in the note is collapsed now. Barely scrolls at all.

Strange that Apple isn't fixing this.

i am having similar problems. . . i thought it was only on my phone, but it happened on my computer today as well. the app is strangely glitchy. it obviously works fine sometimes. but i've had moments where i am typing in a note with a lot of text. . . and it crashes and the recent stuff i wrote is gone. i've had moments where i am typing, try to move the cursor to edit something and it jumps to the middle of the note. (those were on the phone, 16 pro max) but on my M1 MacBook Air i just copied and pasted something from one note to another. . . and it left out random lines (the lines i had most recently edited)

very glitchy. i hope this gets fixed soon. i use Notes a lot.