notes are gone after accepting new icloud terms and conditions

All of my notes from March of this year (2024) until now were not saved to my iCloud before this happened. They're just completely gone. I reached out to Apple Support, but there was nothing they could do. I write a lot in my free time, but now all of my recent stories are gone. If anyone can help me fix this, I'll be enternally grateful to you. :'(

I had the same issue with iCloud notes disappearing after I accepted the recent iCloud terms and conditions (a few days ago). I am using an iPhone 13, iOS version 16.3.1. I managed to resolve the issue and re-synchronise all my notes by doing the following:

1. Log in to your iCloud account online (icloud.com) to check that your Apple Notes are still there.
2. Turn the Notes option off and on under Settings/[user]/iCloud/Notes/Sync this iPhone; when prompted to "Delete from My iPhone," select Delete. I restarted the handset (though this may not be necessary) and then turned Notes back on.
3. Open Apple Notes, and you should see the notes begin to synchronise automatically.

Just got mine fixed with same issue. Restart your iPhone first. Then, go to iCloud, and open your Notes. All your files will be retrieved. :)

Hello, so I also accepted the terms and conditions last night. Notes were gone this morning. Have tried everything from the past 5 pages of comments here to no avail for the past three hours. The 'on my iphone' notes are gone and not coming back with anything mentioned here so far. If I was to do a backup of my iphone to a previous backup would they potentially be in there?

In order to do that I need to update my laptop to the latest OS update however my faith in updates is currently weakened after what's happened this morning.

Has anybody got any advice as for this situation in particular? Tried shutting the phone off , toggling on and off the 'sync this iphone' etc etc. There is no 'recently deleted' folder anywhere to be found.

I thought I was backed up but as always, these are the moments I've found out it's not as straightforward as I'd presumed and I feel stupid now. Just to clarify I'm not having an issue with icloud notes or notes linked to an email account, but purely the 'on my iphone' notes. If anyone has had any luck I'd be delighted to hear how you got on. Thanks a million

Only older notes came back. I’ve lost all 2024 notes😭

Mine was already synced. Can’t sync something that was already synced. They stole 10 years of notes.

Some of my notes came back but up until 10/25. Nothing after that! I have really important notes after that and many that I updated after that, too!! Anyone have that happen and was able to successfully retrieve them? This is a disaster!

Brilliant. Thank you for the information. I had the same problem after accepting new T & C’s.

1 - Deleted the Note App (as mine were still in the iCloud).

2 - Re installed the note app.

All ‘lost’ notes reappeared in less than 2 minutes !

Mine disappeared today to. 10 years of them from each iPhone I’ve had. They are EXTREMELY important. I have bible notes for studies I give. And I spent months writing them. And I need them for Saturday’s teaching.

now they are gone.

I went to sync them and my phone is already SUNCED so that is an EPIC FAIL.

NEXT OPTION PLEASE!

were your notes backed up in iCloud? mine weren't!!

I had the same happen to me. It happened because I didn’t agree to begin with, I closed the app bc it was taking ages. But after I saw it deleted all of my notes, I went back and did it. Then I watched my notes come back BUT the issue is that it’s about 2 months BEHIND

ive lost MONTHS worth of notes because of this and I’ve been talking to Apple support. They’re suggesting I update my phone and make sure I’ve got enough storage and whatnot. This is insane frustrating and I’m really bothered by this. These notes are SUPER important

im on an iPhone XR on version 16.1 but am updating to iOS18 rn

Okay, has anyone had this happen where a new note folder you created to house notes has not come back? I have uninstalled and reinstalled, did everything suggested here, but cannot find the note at all. It is SO IMPORTANT, but I cannot find it on the cloud, or in the notes anywhere. It is gone. I just need anyone to help guide me through this because I’m gutted.

Seriously!! And why would anything like that delete notes off my device…… if my iCloud was full then fine, they should have defaulted to store locally and Apple shouldn’t have had the option of deleting them. I’m so angry!

DO NOT FOLLOW THE STEPS SUGGESTED TO TOGGLE NOTES OFF AND ON IF YOUR ICLOUD IS NOT UPDATED and CURRENTLY BACKED UP!!!!! This will only allow whatever is on your iCloud to pull in and you’ll lose everything else that was local on your phone. The Apple support rep said if you don’t do this and call them, they can likely restore all your notes. Once you’ve done this, you can’t get them back. I hit cancel when the message “Will delete…” came up, but she’s still looking to see if maybe she can restore them. She can’t find anymore notes currently though….. so fingers crossed.

Also, apparently Apple doesn’t monitor this community, so if you don’t report issues to them, they never track the data of people having issues. There may be a ton more out there that the engineers could be tracking and finding out what went wrong if you call

apple and don’t just post here. Something I learned today. 🤪