Why do Notes disappear from my phone?

Linda, the only way I was able to get my lost notes from my iPhone was to log into yahoo from a computer and retrieving them that way. I sent them to myself as an email and then pulled them from my email on my iPhone and copied and pasted back into my notes. I can't get my notes to stop disappearing -- I'm just glad they were found. I know this isn't much help, but hopefully it helps a little.....

Thanks! It really is frustrating, though, isn't it? A person should not have to go through copying and pasting to retrieve their notes!

This is/has been reported to Apple Engineers. Current solution that can work is the following:

Go to Settings > Mails, Contacts & Calandars > (Email Account)

Where is says "Email Account", select the email account the notes have disappeared too, do not select the iCloud Account, and make sure "Notes" is turned off. Please note before doing this, one might need to copy the notes to an email/third party document editor so they can be resent/recreated to a note after the "Notes" option in every account besides iCloud are turned off. After that, this is crucial, restart the device by doing a hard reset (Hold the Sleep Wake Button and Home Button until you see the Apple Logo). Then when the device powers back on automatically or by you pushing the sleep/wake button to turn it back on, go into Settings > iCloud AND Settings > Mail, Contacts & Calandars > iCloud and make sure Notes is turned on for both. After that go into the Notes App and create a test note while on Wi-Fi and then go on your computer and go to iCloud.com and see if the Note appears there after 30 minutes. If the issue still persists after doing these steps, please go to apple.com/feedback and report it.

Note, if you have more than a single iCloud email account connected, Notes will be conflicted. Make sure the notes in the second iCloud email account is turned off

If the above does not resolve your issue, one thing that will work and should not be an issue is going to iCloud.com and creating a note on the computer and making sure Notes is turned on the device in Settings and that Note that was created should appear on the device after about 30 minutes. Create a few blank notes on there and use a new note from there.

Hi Linda,

as one of the many posters on this topic who has gone through all the possible solutions I can offer the following ways around this.

Just to review, notes move to your Yahoo mail account and dissappear from the Notes app. This problem apparently also occurs with some people using Gmail as the default Notes email account, although I haven't been able to replicate it but leaves me distrusting using Gmail as the default for Notes. It does not seem to happen if the default is set to iCloud.

Possible solutions -

As you noted, the notes do not appear in the Yahoo account in the Apple Mail app, so you can install the Yahoo mail app, keep using Apple Notes for making notes, and then access any that dissappear from the Notes app via the Yahoo Mail app. This works but seems a bit counter productive to have 2 mail apps on your iPhone, but at least it works without trouble, is all free and not subject to any additonal charges or limits on data.

Set iCloud as the default email account in Notes. I personally do not wish to entrust all my information to iCloud or one provider.

Install a 3rd party notes app. There are quite a few if you look on the app store.

I've tried a few and have settled on Evernote, which is free up to a certain useage (60mb per month upload iirc) but has much more flexibility than Apple Notes. Yes, it means installing a second note app, but this and many of the 3rd party note apps offer many more features than the Apple Notes app.

HTH

Thank you! It worked. My notes are nothing terribly important, so any I've lost weren't a tragedy, but it drove me a little bonkers to find that they kept disappearing.

I was writing a note and I think it was a really good idea but it disappeared and I forgot what I wrote.

D:

You probably want to write: "don't use iPhone notes, they ***** in a big way". My dissapear without traces when I really needed. Idon't have yahoo or cloud connection, luckily i found them in my Gmail trash, no idea why.

Thanks bro. I got my notes back 🙂
and am very happy

THANK You !!! nicholap what a relief! had too many important items on Notes. Have retrieved them all

Thanks, Chazoo12.

This solved my problem.

Where in Yahoo will I find this folder. I searched all over my Yahoo account and didn't find anything labeled "notes."

Hi

Spoke with a very helpful lady at Apple as my Notes have gone missing too. She isolated the fact that the missing notes were from those made under Yahoo notes. All the iCloud notes were there. By the way Apple can go back 10 days and retrieve missing notes/emails if you delete in error - worth knowing.

She then gave me Yahoo's help number (UK 0800 028 9562). Another very helpful lady asked if I had the yahoo mail app loaded on my iphone and ipad. Answer not any longer. So down load the app again and install and set up. And the missing Notes appear in a folder called Notes in the yahoo mail app. This folder is not in the normal yahoo mail only within the app.

Turns out Yahoo periodically transfers the notes we make from the Notes App on the iPHone to the Notes Folder within Yahoo Mail app. (Too many apps here). But unless you have it installed they do not show anywhere.

I would think Gmail is the same.

Hope this helps.

John

Thank you very much for your clear posting. I thought I had become very careless with my finger near the delete button but when 6 notes dissappeared together I thought it must be something else. Your posting was the 5th I read and it made things very clear so many thanks again. 🙂 Andy

Hi

Glad it worked for you and to have been of help.🙂 John

Merry Christmas.