iPad notes are gone

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Level 1

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iPad notes are gone

My son has an iPad mini, running iOS 8.1.3. The other day, he went to use the Notes app (where he has been putting his school assignments for the past year!) and all the notes had vanished. I have spent hours searching the forums to try to figure out what happened and how to get them back.

- Powering off and on did not return notes.

- He does NOT use yahoo or gmail or any email account that supports notes.

- He does NOT have an iCloud email account. As a result, the device will not allow him to turn on Notes backup under the iCloud settings. The "Default Account" for Notes is set to "On My iPad."

- He does have iCloud enabled and backing up (supposedly), but logging in to iCloud.com (using his apple id) does not show anything in the notes folder. (I do see his contacts there, though, so something is being backed up, but not the data he needs.)

I'm stumped. He's beyond upset (especially since now he'll have to re-do all the summer school assignments that he'd completed). Can anyone give me any other suggestions?

Thank you so much for your help!!

Laura

iPad Mini, iOS 8.1.3

Posted on Aug 4, 2015 2:24 PM

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Answer 1

sberman

Level 10

263,787 points

Aug 4, 2015 2:41 PM in response to LauraGBD

An iCloud backup is very different from the data that is stored in iCloud.

It is quite possible that the Notes are in fact in the iCloud backup. See this article:

About backups in iCloud and iTunes - Apple Support

To restore the notes, however, you would need to restore the entire iCloud backup to the iPad. There is only one way to do this, and it is described here (see "Restore from an iCloud backup to a device you already set up"):

Restore your device from an iCloud or iTunes backup - Apple Support

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Answer 2

LauraGBD Author

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Aug 4, 2015 5:03 PM in response to sberman

Thank you for your help!

He restored from the oldest backup, but the notes are still gone. 😟

Is there anything else we could try?

And what should we do in the future? Without an icloud email account, we can't even turn on the backup for notes. I guess I will tell him to use another app, like evernote instead of the iPad notes app.

Laura

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Answer 3

sberman

Level 10

263,787 points

Aug 4, 2015 5:47 PM in response to LauraGBD

LauraGBD wrote:

- He does NOT use yahoo or gmail or any email account that supports notes.

Changing this behavior is another way to have the notes backed up.

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Answer 4

LauraGBD Author

Level 1

0 points

Aug 4, 2015 6:14 PM in response to sberman

Actually, no. He's not old enough legally to have an account on those servers (<13). He has an email account on my server, which I can control and monitor. But it doesn't have storage for notes.

The lack of facility for parental controls is actually one of the big drawbacks to Apple devices. We bought him an ipad for the user-friendly interface, but we have found Microsoft PCs and Android devices much easier to lock down for younger users.

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Answer 5

sberman

Level 10

263,787 points

Aug 4, 2015 6:34 PM in response to LauraGBD

Are you aware of this feature?

Use Guided Access with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support

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