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

I found a fix. I called Apple tech support and they walked me through it and I got all my notes back. No long wait time either.

Hi, if someone can help me I lost all 2025 notes recently, I really dnt know why, I deleted the app for restore all notes with iCloud but only show notes until 2024 :(

I experienced this too on my iPhone 7 the day after I agreed to the updated iCloud terms and conditions (11/5/2024). No notes existed within the Notes app. However, I found that my Notes are tied to my iCloud account so I logged into icloud.com and found them there, yay! Next was to figure out how to get them on my phone. My iCloud account was listed under Settings > Notes > Accounts, but I was afraid to make any changes. So, I contacted Apple Support and we found a solution:

1. Deleted the Notes app
   1. Since my notes data was tied to my iCloud account, it retained it. If your notes are local, it would delete them if you delete the Notes app.
2. Redownloaded the Notes app from the Apple Store
3. Opened the Notes app. No notes were there.
4. Once the Notes app was opened, it prompted me to connect my iCloud account with a pop up that took me to Settings > Notes > Accounts > my iCloud account > iCloud. From there, we toggle the button next to Notes so it was On (aka Green) - screenshot below with the backup option for Notes toggled On
   1. 
5. I may have had to close the Notes app again but I forget. Either way, once we toggled the iCloud backup icon to On for Notes, this allowed for the notes to start downloading to my phone again!

I hope this may help someone too! So sorry folks are going through this.

Happened to me too. I didn’t have iCloud storage space synched for over a year either so I was worried.

I went to settings > iCloud > apps using iCloud Show All > Notes > Manage Storage

And it resolved itself. I went back into the notes app and they started loading.

Hi,

Had this too and found a simple fix….

1) Go to Settings and search for iCloud

2) Select iCloud Apple ID (at the top of the list)

3) Under ‘Apps using iCloud’ select Show All

4) Select Notes

5) Turn off ‘Sync this Phone’ and wait for a few seconds

6) Turn ‘Sync this Phone’ back on

This should kick the notes app back into life to use iCloud again.

Hope this works for you and helps a few others along the way 😊

I wrote a new note yesterday and it was added to another thing that wasn’t public. I restarted and did everything this said but it’s not coming up at all. It was very important and I’m devastated it’s gone. I hit the three dots and I think hid it or made a seperate folder-seperate folder is gone.

I restarted my phone. Nothing. Anything else I can do?

For me just bring back my note from 2021 although I paid extra to app to have more iCloud space and they supposed to keep all my notes ( before it shows iCloud has my notes) but now even in iCloud no new notes has stored, very sad I have a lot of documents save on my notes

Thank you sooo much!!! I tried A few others suggestions with no luck and was panicking. I have too many important notes (that realistically shouldn’t be on my phone) that I depend on daily. I followed your instructions and they finally came back!

Same here!! I just tried for two hours to fix it. I thought me or one of my little ones accidentally deleted everything until I put two together about the iCloud update! I tried going to iCloud to see if I can put it back onto the phone but there doesn’t seem to be a way! I hope they fix it soon. I need all my notes! It’s one of my most used apps.

I also lost my Notes on my iPhone but not on my iPad after getting this t&c message. The iPhone had several accounts for notes, including iCloud. iPad only had one account for iCloud. So I added the iCloud account again and the notes came back.

Also just got an email about Find My being disabled on my iPhone. Went to the Find My app and turned it back on.

Time to do a backup…

I accepted the terms and conditions for iCloud when they popped up on my screen and today (nov 6)I realized that my notes were deleted. Slowly they started trickling in but stopped, I am missing notes from this year and even some from years before. I contacted apple support and they all said that the things suggested here I should not do since my notes are not backed up by iCloud. I understand that that is my fault for not having enough iCloud storage but at the same time most apple support specialist are acting like it's my fault. I did anticipate that my notes would be deleted due to apples mess up. I am supposed to have a call back but they keep saying that I will probably not get those notes back. I am beyond frustrated.

Hey! I know you’re not replying to me but if your notes are on iCloud.com and not your phone, there should be a way to get them back. People have had various solutions - mine is listed in the forum replies — but to briefly describe, was resolved by deleting the Notes app, reinstalling Notes, open Notes then it took me to Settings > Notes > Accounts > iCloud account and I toggled the iCloud backup option for Notes On. Slowly the notes loaded on my phone!

I hadn’t tried just togging the iCloud backup option off and on for Notes so I wonder if starting there is a better/faster option - just in case you have any local notes saved, since deleting Notes would remove them.

Sending much luck! 🍀 So sorry this happened!

I had the same issue with iCloud notes disappearing after I accepted the recent iCloud terms and conditions (a few days ago). I am using an iPhone 13, iOS version 16.3.1. I managed to resolve the issue and re-synchronise all my notes by doing the following:

1. Log in to your iCloud account online (icloud.com) to check that your Apple Notes are still there.
2. Turn the Notes option off and on under Settings/[user]/iCloud/Notes/Sync this iPhone; when prompted to "Delete from My iPhone," select Delete. I restarted the handset (though this may not be necessary) and then turned Notes back on.
3. Open Apple Notes, and you should see the notes begin to synchronise automatically.

So others have mentioned changing the default account helps, and it did for me with an additional step. If when you look at your default accounts you don’t see iCloud directly listed as an option, just your other emails and/or On My iPhone, then you need to go back a page, and re enter your associated iCloud account. I then unselected on my iPhone as the default, selected iCloud, and re-selected On My iPhone as the default account. After a while my notes loaded again. I did still lose quite a few from the On My iPhone account but the iCloud ones were mostly recovered to my knowledge. Hope you get them restored!

When my Notes disappeared i turned off my phone, waited a few minutes and turned it back on.

I have over 400 ‘notes’ so it too a while for all of them to reload. But that worked for me.

Think of your phone as a mini computer. When a computer goes thru an update it has to be re-started for everything to be updated.

Hope this helps