iCloud backup for all on My iPhone Notes

I put all my notes in the All on My iPhone Notes folder, not in the iCloud Note folder. It's my understanding that All on My iPhone notes are supposed to be included in iCloud backups. But when I click on Settings, iCloud, iCloud Back Up, iPhone, Show all Apps, Notes is not included in the list. How can I be sure these Notes are being backed up? I've started to do backups of my iPhone on my laptop using iTunes, but I can't find a way to verify that the All on my iPhone Notes are indeed being backed up. I have 10+ years worth of notes and it would be devastating to lose them. Help!


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iPhone SE, iOS 18

Posted on Jan 28, 2025 08:59 PM

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5 replies

Jan 29, 2025 12:27 PM in response to DragonSpeed

Dragon Speed Said:

"iCloud backup for all on My iPhone Notes:[…]I need to turn off the sync for Notes on my iPhone. But when I do that I get this dire warning that all iCloud notes will be removed from your iPhone. I THINK that means JUST the notes that are in the iCloud folder and NOT the notes that are in the All on My iPhone folder. But I'd really like to confirm that before turning off sync for Notes.[…]

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You are welcome,


“Removed from your Device”:

You can sync them across your devices. These notes of yours apparently aren’t in iCloud. So, that means they are only locally stored. Having been downloaded, they’d be included in device’s backup. So, sync notes with your Mac, and then back up the Mac by creating a Time Machine Backup of it.


iPhones can only be restored to certain iOS version backups, whereas Macs can be restored to any previous backup of it. That’s why backing up a Mac is better, and it comes to the recovery of data. You’d use Migration Assistant to transfer things from the TMB, rather than just restoring the entire Mac from the backup.

Google Search Query: back up iphone notes

Jan 28, 2025 09:16 PM in response to DragonSpeed

"iCloud backup for all on My iPhone Notes: I put all my notes in the All on My iPhone Notes folder, not in the iCloud Note folder. It's my understanding that All on My iPhone notes are supposed to be included in iCloud backups.[...]"

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Missing Notes:

Being only sync-able, notes only Sync with iCloud --they are not stored in an iCloud Backup. That being so, if you deleted them from the iPhone, then they'd be gone and not since on other devices. So, that is why they are not seen.


Read this: What does iCloud Back Up? - Apple Support

As it Reads: iCloud helps keep your data safe in two main ways: syncing and backing up. For example, if you're using iCloud Photos, iCloud Drive, or Notes, your information automatically syncs to the cloud and is kept up-to-date across all of your devices whenever you make a change. Any data on your device that isn't regularly synced is stored in your iCloud Backup.

Jan 29, 2025 08:03 AM in response to DragonSpeed

Hmmm - I read that to mean that since the All in My iPhone folder is not regularly synced with iCloud, it is included in the iCloud back up - ?

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iCloud doesn’t back up everything —What does iCloud Back Up? - Apple Support . Recovering everything is what backing up to a computer is intended for. Restore a computer from a Time Machine Backup that contains these note, any you’d be able to recover them.


Jan 29, 2025 08:41 AM in response to TheLittles

Thanks! I'm a little tech challenged. :) I did back up my iPhone to iTunes on my laptop and included Notes to be backed up. But I can't find a way to verify what was actually backed up. iTunes says it will not backup Notes if they are synced to iCloud, so if I want them included in the iTunes backup, I need to turn off the sync for Notes on my iPhone. But when I do that I get this dire warning that all iCloud notes will be removed from your iPhone. I THINK that means JUST the notes that are in the iCloud folder and NOT the notes that are in the All on My iPhone folder. But I'd really like to confirm that before turning off sync for Notes. Also, I THINK since iTunes says it will not backup Notes if they are synced to iCloud, that means iTunes WILL backup the notes in the All on My iPhone folder since they are NOT synced to iCloud. But again, I can't find confirmation of that.

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iCloud backup for all on My iPhone Notes

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