notes are gone after accepting new icloud terms and conditions

The notification came up for me on the 6th of November. The notes suddenly came back after two times disappearing and I knew it had to have been the reason why this happened (along with storage capacity, low power mode and not having the updated iOS’ which I now do so I had to delete data) so I am glad I came across this thread via an internet search. Older notes kept on my previous device pulled up but unfortunately two of my most used notes didn’t sync to the latest version. I used these just before I agreed to the notification. A lot of information is gone. I tried a few things, even called Apple the day it happened and went into the store yesterday. A guy at the store said give it about a week and it could come back to the latest version as it may be stuck in the cloud finding it’s way back to me. I have edited the two notes since but stopped. I hope it doesn’t interfere with the chance of coming back to the latest versions I had. One was dated March 2023 and the other August 2024. Bizzare how this occured when they were regularly saved. He said this occurs to people. But two attendants there didn’t even hear about the notification issue yet and am sure they will in time. Very upsetting and disappointing. I’m not going to hold my breath on it coming back but I can only rebuild on the information I have. I am scared to try deleting the app and tried everything else that I came across. If anyone could please assist that would be greatly appreciated.

The notification came up for me on the 6th of November. The notes suddenly came back after two times disappearing and I knew it had to have been the reason why this happened (along with storage capacity, low power mode and not having the updated iOS’ which I now do so I had to delete data) so I am glad I came across this thread via an internet search. Older notes kept on my previous device pulled up but unfortunately two of my most used notes didn’t sync to the latest version. I used these just before I agreed to the notification. A lot of information is gone. I tried a few things, even called Apple the day it happened and went into the store yesterday. A guy at the store said give it about a week and it could come back to the latest version as it may be stuck in the cloud finding it’s way back to me. I have edited the two notes since but stopped. I hope it doesn’t interfere with the chance of coming back to the latest versions I had. One was dated March 2023 and the other August 2024. Bizzare how this occured when they were regularly saved. He said this occurs to people. But two attendants there didn’t even hear about the notification issue yet and am sure they will in time. Very upsetting and disappointing. I’m not going to hold my breath on it coming back but I can only rebuild on the information I have. I am scared to try deleting the app and tried everything else that I came across. If anyone could please assist that would be greatly appreciated.

This worked for me thank you.

In addition, I would make a habit of regularly backing up notes. calendars, etc to any old iPhones or other Apple devices that you have, then disabling Internet on said device(s) for as long as you don't need to use them.

I also had same experience, all notes gone after downloading iCloud update today- very scary!

I went to Settings, iCloud Drive, turned off "Sync this iPhone", and when it turned off- they all started downloading immediately. (thank God!) then went back and turned on "sync this iPhone" in the iCloud drive again. Hope this helps someone!

Tried all suggestions to retrieve notes. I am not sure how to get into icloud back ups on iphone 14 pro. However turned on my older ipad 6 th generation missing notes are there. However on my iphone icloud account notes are the missing notes. On default list it only lists on my phone and my gmail account to choose from. I cant seem to be able to get icloud onto my notes. Despite being listed as 1 of 4 accounts eg yahoo mail etc. Would having my phone on battery saving have affected accepting new icloud terms?

after reading someone was advised to delete notes app then download it again. I decided to back up my phone first. Which automatically backed up older ipad that had icloud notes. At some point I went back into setting my name and notes. Turned sync this phone off for about a minute turned it back on. Was about to delete notes app and icloud folders were back loading back onto phone!! I had turned battery saver off. Next time I do anythi g like this againI will turn battery save off, back up my device. Now got to consider IOS 18. But not after todays problems

i was freaking out so bad because i'm a writer and i have most of my unfinished drafts and such in my notes app because i'm stupid i guess idk but this worked thank u so much i hope you have a fantastic day <3

Just went to my notes and they were gone! I came here immediately and I too had just accepted the new ICloud terms! I was horrified that they were all gone and I had no idea what happened. Thank goodness for this discussion, I followed what the person above 👆me advised and it did take a few minutes to get all my notes but they did finally come onto my phone! Thank you !

All the same issues with my 7plus. I accepted required terms 11/6/2024. Next day all notes vanished. My notes are supposed to be backed up on iCloud, and yes still toggled on. However, they are not there either. Something like 4 years worth simply gone. I have yet to find a deleted folder, actually I have zero folders in notes nothing at all there. They are very important. Thank you for the information not to delete the app!

Perfect!! Thank you, they all can back PHEW.

I did press CANCEL when it said ‘delete from iPhone’ as I did not want to risk it and all the notes still returned without actually switching the SYNC off ….

Turn your phone off and turn it on again. Simples 🙂

"Have you tried turning it off and on again...?" isn't just a comedy line, it's often the solution.

That's what I did - turned my iPhone off and restarted it - and hundreds of Notes are now synching back from iCloud to my phone.

Toggling Notes off and on in iCloud settings would also work, but I got a warning that some edits made on my phone hadn't synched to the cloud and would be lost if I did that.

Simple is best.

I found the same issue but once I updated to the latest IOS 17.7.1 (i was already on a version of 17) version avail on my phone, my notes all came back and the icloud/notes feature was turned back on. Phew!!!

Did you finally manage to get them back in your iPhone? I have restored just the ones from iCloud before year 2021 that are not important to me. And nothing from the years 2023-2024 that I had saved only on my iPhone….

Crisis averted, thank you! To anyone not having luck with this, try it with your phone plugged in and connected to wifi.

May seem obvious to most people, but it had slipped my mind and the sync wasn’t happening for me initially.

Did you have any folders and sub folders created? If so, did your folders and sub folders return back to normal? When I followed the steps you gave, everything came back but they all came back as folders. No sub folders👎🏾