Need help! I lost all notes in contact list

Hi,

I usually use Note in Contact to save some information of each people in my contact list. For example my parent’s icould and password (I manages for them), my friend's allergenic food, my client’s bank account… So they are VERY VERY important to me.

But today, I found out all of them are gone, nothing left in the note area.

As I remember, I still see them a week ago, before I updated my nickname in the contact.

I tried to recover a version (it said 1 month ago) but can’t fix the problem.

Any one know how to recover them, please help.

(If all of my notes are lost just because I update my nickname, ios is so dumb)


Posted on Apr 28, 2023 07:45 AM

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Posted on Apr 19, 2024 08:46 PM

Mine just disappeared too 😭 looks like it was the 17.4.1 update

12 replies

May 9, 2024 08:08 AM in response to spnsgeek

spnsgeek wrote:

Seems nobody (community admins/leads/high level “experts” even understand the actual issue itself. They simply see “notes” and ignorantly and blindly assume “Oh you mean the Notes app…” <proceeds with utterly useless information…>
Do they actually read the questions asked let alone comprehend them?

There's one reply in this thread that's not a "me, too". So, I don't see how you can generalize from that response to mean that "nobody" understands the issue. Making insulting implications also doesn't increase the chances that people will want to help you.


There were certainly reports about a year ago when this thread was created reporting that people had lost contact notes. I don't recall that anyone ever figured out if it was possible to recover them. The forum search function can be a bit cumbersome but you can also use you favorite search engine and constrain the search to Apple's website:


site:apple.com contact notes


Adjust the terms as necessary.


May 1, 2023 11:23 AM in response to le90

Hello le90,


If you're missing any notes on your device, this support article may help: If you're missing notes on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support. Follow this guidance:


"Check your account settings

If you store your notes with a third-party account or email service, like Gmail or Yahoo, check your settings:

      1. In the Settings app, tap Mail.
      2. Tap Accounts, then tap the email account that you want to check.
      3. Make sure that Notes is on.

If you use Notes with more than one email account, just repeat the steps for each account. If your account is missing, learn how to add an email account to your device.


Check your Recently Deleted folder

If you store your notes on iCloud, check your Recently Deleted folder:

      1. Open Notes, then tap the back icon Tap the arrow icon until you see your Folders list.
      2. Tap Recently Deleted and search for your note.


If you find your note in Recently Deleted or in another folder, you can move it:

      1. In the Notes list, tap Edit.
      2. Select the note that you want to move.
      3. Tap Move, then select the folder you want to move it to.

If you use notes with another service, like Gmail or Yahoo, check the Trash folder of that account in the Mail app. If you delete a note from the Notes app, your third-party account will usually keep it in the Trash folder. To recover a note from the Trash folder, you need to copy and paste the note to a new note in the Notes app.


Use Search to find your notes 

      1. Open Notes, then tap the back icon Tap the arrow icon until you see your list of notes.
      2. Tap the Search bar and type a word, phrase, or the title from the note that you're looking for.
      3. Make sure All Accounts is selected. Search will check all of your notes in each folder across your accounts, like an email account.

If you don't see the Search bar, you might need to scroll to find it. If you still can't find a note, you might have the note locked. Search will only see the title of locked notes, so you might need to check all of your locked notes to find the specific note that you're looking for.


Manually search for your notes

If Search doesn't show results, you might need to check a different folder and scroll down the list:

      1. Open Notes, then tap the back icon Tap the arrow icon until you see your Folders list.
      2. If you have more than one folder, tap a different folder to see if your note is in there.

If you still can't find your note, it's possible that you're not using the correct word, phrase, or title from the note."



We hope this helps. Let us know if we can assist with anything else at all. Take care.


May 9, 2024 08:40 AM in response to spnsgeek

Update: so I sync most to Gmail as Default. When I log in to Gmail using the web browser on a computer, I can still see all the contact notes under the Contacts section. I didn’t add any notes for any iCloud contacts. But some contacts show in iCloud contacts list in addition to in Gmail and def did not have iCloud set as Default for those when created/added. Will update after I reach out to Google to see if the missing data in iOS Contacts app is their issue.

May 9, 2024 07:09 AM in response to Kkraig

Seems nobody (community admins/leads/high level “experts” even understand the actual issue itself. They simply see “notes” and ignorantly and blindly assume “Oh you mean the Notes app…” <proceeds with utterly useless information…>

Do they actually read the questions asked let alone comprehend them?


I’ve lost a lot of really important info too and there’s no way to explicitly export that information contained within contacts… 😤😡

Jun 1, 2024 09:24 AM in response to le90

Has anyone found a way to recover these, or received any sort of helpful info from Apple Support? I have the same issue with the Notes field in Contacts (and also the same issue with people responding about the Notes app, as opposed to the info in Contacts).

Restoring a previous set of archived Contacts (via iCloud, Data Recovery, Restore Contacts) does not help. This may help with numbers or emails, but does not restore Notes info.

Syncing with gmail / Google Contacts also did not help--because the sync is automatic, gmail contacts also show the current iCloud contact Notes data, with missing text, rather than the complete Notes text I had just an hour ago.

I have info in Contacts that is not listed anywhere else, because it is supposed to be backed up in iCloud. If this is something Apple has overlooked and cannot resolve, I will be shifting away from relying on Contacts stored with Apple.

Appreciate any solutions you may have found.

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

Need help! I lost all notes in contact list

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