Notes app is crashing after iOS 18 update on my iPhone

I had the same problem on my iPhone 11 Pro Max since yesterday when I updated to IOS 18 and the notes app appeared to be unresponsive and none of my notes would open. I had one large notes file which I desperately needed.

I tried all the solutions online and non worked. This included locking the note and applying a password. No good.

Some people suggested turning off syncing to iCloud but I never was using iCloud. I tried enabling and then disabling but that didn’t work. I tried logging out of iCloud then restarting the phone and logging back in to no avail.

I realised that even though the notes app appeared to be frozen some functionality was still working in that I was able to move the notes file to and from iCloud and between folders locally on the iPhone.

I realised that I could create a brand new test note file and this worked perfectly and would open and close and could be edited perfectly normally as long I kept away from my existing file. Having created a new file I disabled iCloud syncing and turned off 4G mobile data and clicked on my existing note and just left the app open apparently hung but after about twenty minutes it finally opened complete with all my data much to my relief.

I immediately copied all the text into an email that I sent to myself as a backup.

Problem Solved.

Notes now works fine as it did before the update. Just to be sure as I am an IT engineer I decided to delete my notes from both iPhone and iCloud and removed and reinstalled the notes app from the App Store to have a clean start recreating a new note from the data I copied out of the old file.

Everything now back to normal with no data loss but I really don’t like the new layout of IOS 18 and it’s caused a major headache with notes.

Hope that helps.

Good luck.

I wrestled with this for a day. The issue was not the smaller notes but very large ones. The app would lock up.

The remedy was to change the name of the file in iCloud. The solution was instant. The conflict was gone and I was able to access Notes again on my iPhone 15 ios18

I found a solution. Worked for me, can’t guarantee it will for everyone. I went to iCloud on the web. For me it was four notes that were really long that kept freezing the app when I tried to open them. I was able to open them on the website. I copied and pasted them into a new note. One I cut in half on the size. Then I deleted the offending ones. Now they open in the app. Like I said, might work for you. Give it a try.

Here’s a solution that what worked for me. Hope this helps! If your larger notes are causing the notes app to crash after iOS 18.1.1 update try this.

Step 1. Open settings and go to iCloud and unsync your phone.

Step 2. ( make sure you’ve done the first step otherwise you’ll delete notes from iCloud) delete your notes from your iphone. Then Delete the notes app from your iPhone.

Step 3: Wait 5 mins. Then Reinstall the notes app from app store. Resync your iCloud notes with your iPhone and wait till your notes have redownloaded to your phone. Once finished your notes should work normally. ✌️

Thanks so much for this (replying to Metis' comment on the first page of this thread)!

I took these steps and it didn't work for me immediately (no folders or notes appeared in my notepad app after doing it). (Worth noting too - I only started having issues after updating to OS update 18.1.1 today.)

The additional steps I took were the following (after doing what you outlined above):

• Deleted the Notepad app from my phone
• Reinstalled it
• Turned Notepad syncing ON (it auto turned itself off after I uninstalled the app and reinstalled it)
• The folders appeared in my Notepad app, but there were no notes in there. I waited about 5 to 10 minutes, and then they started syncing - all appeared after sync was finished
• The large notes that I couldn't click into before (and froze the app) I could not click into. The app was working fine after this too.

Cheers everyone!

I had the same problem. So what I did was opened notes on the iCloud website. Copied and those long notes (I had four that were causing problems) and pasted each of them into a new note, renaming them too. Then opened the app to see if they worked which they did. Then I deleted the offending notes. I’m convinced this is an iCloud problem. Something happens in the syncing process. Hope this helps.

I believe that I have found a solution: turn off Notes syncing in iCloud settings. This will remove all your notes from your device. Then turn notes syncing back on. Go to notes, which will be empty, and then watch as all your notes come back. It seems to fix whatever was broken.

So, go to Settings, select your name at the top of the list, select iCloud in the second grouping on that page, then select Notes in the Saved to iCloud grouping, then turn off Sync this iPhone (or iPad), and then turn it back on. That’s it.

Hi Sandy, the warning message doesn’t mean that your notes will be deleted from iCloud, just your iPad. After you select the Delete option, turn on syncing to iCloud again. If you then open notes you will see your notes being downloaded from iCloud. I was scared to do it too, but it worked. I haven’t had another problem with the app freezing or quitting. But it still lags. I have to stop typing for a second or two between letters, but I think that is a different problem. At least, after doing the steps above, I could access my notes, copy them, and paste them in a different app. I hope this reassures you.

I have the same issue and was horrified to find my Notes hanging and unable to read at all. What I did as a workaround was following some suggestions here to login to iCloud on a laptop and copying and pasting my notes into emails for storage. Then deleting the longest note before the issue resolved. Now it’s back to normal. Apple should resolve this asap it’s disruptive and inconvenient to users.

Renew my finding of this bug:

As I mentioned previously, I found out that condition only happened while the "text format" window open. If I close the "text format" window, nothing happens no matter how many words I "look up."

I found the similar bug while I use the Journal app, the only difference is it will not crash Journal out directly, just the "look up" result could not display normally and close immediately.

Ok. I think I have a work around if the other suggestions didn’t work (like shutting iCloud off and re syncing or changing the name of the offending notes that freeze up the app) For me it was two notes that jammed up the app. They were very long. I went on the iCloud website and I tried the name change but it didn’t work. The app still froze when I tried to open them. So I decided to eliminate those two notes by cutting and pasting into a new note. The way I did this was to select all (long tap) on the keyboard of the iPad there’s a scissor, I tapped that then went to the Notes App (amazingly there is no cut, copy and paste menu in the website when you select on an iPad) Then I pasted it in a new note. Tapped Done. Deleted the old one on the Website. Now it opens fine. Hopefully this is a good fix and not something that’ll rear its ugly head again. I feel like it’s a syncing issue.

Apple Support says engineers are aware of the issue and are working on a fix. The advice was to look out for an update, no timeframe, no reassurance it would even be on the next update. The whole thing is a joke!

They said other than doing:

a) unsyncing, deleting the notes app, reinstalling and the resyncing

b) restoring to factory settings, then uploading a back up

There is nothing else they can do and to just await the potential update. It leaves alot of people stuck with an unusable notes app, which so many of us use on the daily with alot of important information on there.

Riduclous and incredibly frustrating. It’s been over a month since ios 18 came out, 18.1 didn’t even have any fixes. Absolute joke.

This worked for me…. Longest notes were crashing. Smaller ones opened ok. For the longest notes, click and hold on the note that won’t open, delete it, go to “recently delete” notes folder, click and hold then move it back into the notes folder…. Then you can see it again! Hope this works!

I have a SE 2020 on ios 18-18.2 and the thing that kept my notes from crashing (after upgrading to ios 18.0) which happened in 10-15 seconds was going to Settings, Apps, Notes and then turn on "On My iPhone" Account (this was the last thing that I tried after spending days trying everything under the sun to fix the crashing problem. Now the notes is working fine.

tariq208 wrote: "iPhone 13. iOS 18.2.1 (22C161)"

tariq ~ Update to the current version iOS 18.3. If you then still have issues, post back here.

About iOS 18 Updates - Apple Support

Update your iPhone or iPad - Apple Support

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