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⏺ If you can't accept iCloud Terms and Conditions... Learn more >
⏺ If you don't see your iCloud notes in the Notes app... Learn more >
⏺ If you can't accept iCloud Terms and Conditions... Learn more >
⏺ If you don't see your iCloud notes in the Notes app... Learn more >
The notes app on iPhone. I need to access my old notes, and I have no clue what my password was for locking them. Is there any possible way to do this?
iPhone XR, iOS 13
From this document: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205794
"If you forgot your notes password
You can unlock a note only when you enter the password that it's locked with. If you forgot your password, Apple can't help you regain access to your locked notes.
You can create a new password, but this won’t give you access to your old notes. But it will let you password protect any notes that you create going forward with the new password. This could lead to you having multiple notes with different passwords.
If you have multiple passwords, you can't tell which password you should use when you look at your notes in the Notes list. When you open a note locked by your old password but enter your current password, you'll see an alert that you entered the wrong password with a hint for your old one. If you then enter the correct old password, you get the option to update that note's password to your current one."
From this document: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205794
"If you forgot your notes password
You can unlock a note only when you enter the password that it's locked with. If you forgot your password, Apple can't help you regain access to your locked notes.
You can create a new password, but this won’t give you access to your old notes. But it will let you password protect any notes that you create going forward with the new password. This could lead to you having multiple notes with different passwords.
If you have multiple passwords, you can't tell which password you should use when you look at your notes in the Notes list. When you open a note locked by your old password but enter your current password, you'll see an alert that you entered the wrong password with a hint for your old one. If you then enter the correct old password, you get the option to update that note's password to your current one."
Thank you for the tip. The problem is I tried a million times and I have no clue what the password might have been. Even the hint that is available is quite vague. Apple must provide a way for us to access them even if I forgot the password. We always forgot password for accounts and devices, it should not mean that we can’t retrieve that data anymore.
Thank you for the reference. I did check it and unfortunately it makes no sense that I can’t access my own notes even if I forgot my password. We’re humans and that is why there is a forgot password option in all online accounts and devices we use. Don’t you agree? There has to be a way to retrieve these notes.
It's only a password for notes. It is not the password for my phone or laptop. It is just like a password for an email, so I see that there should be no need for making it inevitable to access your personal data if you forgot the passcode. Anyway, thanks for the help. I only wish to have a feature that can help me retrieve my notes and not lose them forever. Hope you can understand that.
You chose to encrypt the notes. If you forgot the password, the data is not recoverable.
There is nothing anyone can do for you. The only "feature" that's effective in bypassing the encryption is your memory.
If you can't remember the password, then your notes are unrecoverable.
It is not "just like a password for an email".
The analogy you gave is for passwords that are stored in other locations on a server. The passcode for Notes is only stored on your iPhone, it is not sent to Apple so they cannot reset it. Only you can do that. If there was a way to back door it locally it would work for anyone who had access to your iPhone and knew how to follow the process rendering the passcode useless.
I seriously doubt you tried a million times and if your hint is vague why did you put it in that way? You could try a hypnotherapist.
I haven’t accessed these notes in a long time and I can’t crack the hint or seem to remember the password. I am just trying to reach out if there were any possibility to gain access to them. Thanks for the explanation.
I have been trying all day, so it is countless metaphorically speaking, a million.
There is no limit on number of attempts so please keep trying, as there is no other way out.
No. I don't agree at all.
If encrypted data could be decrypted and accessed without the key, then the encryption would be completely useless.
There must be a way to access my old notes. I forgot the password and resetting the password won't help access the old notes.
