Notes from my iPhone disappeared post accepting new iCloud Terms and Condition.

I received the same notification on my iPhone this morning, agreed to terms and all of my notes vanished, although later 16 returned, but none of those were really relevant. Then I went to iCloud in settings and it said to back up which I did, and all of my notes returned. One thing I did after my notes vanished from my phone is take a screen shot of all of them from my iPad. Then around 4 PM I got that same notification from iCloud on my iPad, so again I agreed to their terms, and my notes again vanished. I fooled around a bit on my iPad and finally saw the back up iCloud and so I did that and all of my notes are back. This is probably a very simple process for most younger people, but I am not young…..and when my notes vanished my heart sank as most of my passwords are there!

However all is well now, and I’m happy that I figured out how to get back my notes on my own! 🤗

None of these solutions worked for me. I logged into iCloud and could see all my Notes were there but I could not get them to download to my phone. I confirmed that the Default Account was already set to "On My iPhone" and I restarted my phone several times. Nothing. Then I tried this, which did work! Go to Settings, select Accounts, there were 3 accounts listed but only my Gmail account listed Notes as one of the apps tied to it. I selected my Gmail account, flipped the toggle for Notes to the On position, and all my Notes showed up on my phone. Success!

i just unsynced and synced them again like one comment here said, they’ve been downloading for AGES, i have over a thousand notes so ig it makes sense but i have to keep it open and even when it is open sometimes it just decides to stop loading 😭 augh. they are all visible on icloud website too!

I posted this which worked for me after all other suggestions failed. Hope it works for you.

None of these solutions worked for me. I logged into iCloud and could see all my Notes were there but I could not get them to download to my phone. I confirmed that the Default Account was already set to "On My iPhone" and I restarted my phone several times. Nothing. Then I tried this, which did work! Go to Settings, select Accounts, there were 3 accounts listed but only my Gmail account listed Notes as one of the apps tied to it. I selected my Gmail account, flipped the toggle for Notes to the On position, and all my Notes showed up on my phone. Success!

Thanks everyone for your suggestions.

most of my notes came back.

Anything after October 28 is completely gone. Not even on my iCloud account on the website.

I am fuming. 😡

Good luck to you all xx

All iCloud Notes = 1,787

After following instructions to reset Notes on my iPad, 802 have been restored … after 3 days. The little gear is still spinning and every once in a while a few more are added to the total. Several folders still not showing. At this rate it may be weeks before it is recovered. Oh, please, find an alternative to the frequently freezing up Notes.

now, it seems, Apple wants to thwart further discussion. When I click Post, a message appears “! Your post could not be saved. Please try again in a few moments.”

This morning I see the iCloud T&C alert on the lock screen.

Sadly, Apple doesn't tell us what has changed, so I scroll through the entire EULA and don't see anything suspicious. Once again, a software update wasting my time. 😤

I accept the T&C, and it required my iPhone (11 Pro) lock screen code. I've never seen this type of behavior before, after an Apple app update. Maybe it's 'cuz iCloud?

I tell Wifey and she spots the problem: Notes app has no notes.

I come to this fine community to find the solution of un-sync'ing then re-sync'ing Notes in the Control Panel.

Well, I get skittish at the last moment and don't un-sync, 'cuz I see several megabytes of storage used, and that Notes is [correctly] using iCloud. This was odd 'cuz Notes indicated zero notes/data. Therefore, there must be some data the app has stored, right?

I go back to Notes and see nothing. Then I go back to the Control Panel/iCloud/Notes and see the spinning spokes (not the beachball). I go back to Notes and the number of notes begins increasing. I go back to Settings and everything looks correct. Back to Notes and—thankfully—all my notes are there.

Dear Apple,

When giving us T&C updates, please tell us what changed. It can't be that difficult.

Sincerely,

Apple iCloud users.

I have an older iPhone (X). This worked for me: settings->iCloud->then turn off “Access iCloud data on the web”->go to notes and watch them reload. Then switch “Access iCloud data on the web” back on.

the same has happened to me unfortunately. i tried to do the steps everyone is suggesting in the comments but it downloaded only 5 notes with the newest date 2022 and now it is still downloading. very dissapointed. Apple go and fix this!!!

If you are following this, then your iCloud Notes are already gone from your phone. Say yes. Delete Notes from your phone. Then go to the App Store and reload it. [If you had Notes in the Dock bar at the bottom of the screen, it will not appear there after the reload]. Set iCloud as the default in Notes. It will then start to reload from the Cloud. I had 1,797 notes and it took 2+ days to reload them, with a little spinning gear wheel showing when it was working. Note: If you open another App, it will stop the process. You will have to Close Notes then re-open it to get it working again. Apple has certainly given us a large pain in the you-know-where! 😠

Help with recovering Notes Contents

@AdamsiThings. Thanks for this fix!! Adding to your instructions, on my iPhone I had to

1) Go to Settings and find iCloud

2) Select iCloud Drive as one of the apps using iCloud

3) Turn off 'Syne this Phone' and wait for a few seconds

4) Turn 'Sync this Phone' back on

And within 5 minutes all my 'lost' Notes came back into the Notes area.

Phew!

Same thing happened to me and I tried EVERYTHING the people mentioned to do, didn’t work. I even contacted Apple Support and they said they couldn’t get my notes back. I don’t know what to do, my notes were so important to me.

update - powered off and on after the two suggested steps. got my notes back on iPh!

did not work. still without notes on iPh 11 pro. They are on the web though, and still synced with my macbook pro.

AmericanDipper2 wrote:

I got nothing back. This is on my iPad not iPhone, and my notes are still lost. Years of notes. Many important to me. 😡😡

Do you see them when they are viewed at iCloud.com?

View notes and locked notes on iCloud.com - Apple Support

You will only get the notes synced to your device that are currently stored in iCloud. While the update stopped syncing the notes for many, they were able to sync them again to show up on the device. I have not seen any reports where the notes were removed from the iCloud.com website after the update. That may be a different issue altogether and not related to what the users have found on this post.

StupidSimple wrote:

I tried this but got a message asking if I was sure I wanted to unsync. Saying if I did my date would be lost. So I didn’t complete the step. I don’t want to lose the previous info just in case. Any one else get this?

First view your notes that are stored in iCloud:

View notes and locked notes on iCloud.com - Apple Support

These are the notes that will be synced back to your device when you turn off Notes in iCloud and choose to delete them from your device. Doing this does not delete them from iCloud. After you turn the switch for Notes back on, all the notes you viewed in iCloud using the previous link will then be downloaded back to your device.