How to retrieve missing iPad notes after iCloud Sync

This happen to me 5 minutes ago and its my class notes that disappear and I have nothing to study for the coming up exams in 3 days. I have no any other backup too. Please does anyone know how to recover them? All I wanted to create a back up of my notes in iPad in my iPhone. This is just absurd.

i have the same problem and this is not helping at all, is there actually a solution? i mean this is absurd.......all i did is turn on the sync, its supposed to add the notes that are on iCloud to my existing ones instead of making all my current notes on iPad vanish out of air.....(n when i turn it on it doesn't even have a confirm/warning button for this) please fix this????

This is absolutely ridiculous that the notes don't merge. And there is absolutely no warning. What an egregious and costly fail.

None of the links you provided answered the problem. The Notes were not in any deleted notes. The problem is that Apple has a bug. Instead of placing the Notes into deleted notes when you sync or turn on iCloud, Apple simply deletes all the notes from the device and then downloads the notes from iCloud. As others also stated, there is no warning that this would occur. Another Apple bug is that when you download your device backup from iCloud into a new device that was purchased, you expect your settings to remain unchanged. In this case, Apple changed the settings for Notes from using iCloud syncing to not using it. This is what caused the initial problem. I and others believed we were syncing because that is how we were using Notes. Nothing changed except that we changed devices, and that Apple decided to introduce not one, buy two bugs.

This just happened to me (July 2024).

I cannot imagine how this hasn’t been fixed yet, as this original post is from over a year and a half ago (January 2023).

Some people who have commented here have lost HUNDREDS of notes, and so much work. I would be absolutely livid.

This needs to be fixed NOW, and made a priority. If your software is permanently deleting a person’s work without warning how could anyone trust your products?

I am having the same problem. All of the notes I took in my classes are gone. There is no recently deleted folder and I cannot find the notes that I took prior to syncing. Has anyone found a solution to this?

Same happened to me, over 100 notes. I called apple and after a half hour they said they’re gone and they can’t help. I asked to talk with someone else. She said she was a senior advisor and there was nobody else for me to talk with, and there’s nothing else she could do, then hung up on me without saying anything else.

Except the same things happened to me, I did NOT remove any notes, I tried to sync my notes that were already on my IPad to my ICloud and APPLE deleted them NOT me you would think a multi-BILLION dollar company would be able to fix this problem with THEIR products. I was writing a book and lost ALL of my progress. This is something APPLE NEEDS to fix. Also it should just be a rule of thumb that syncing mean syncing and not replacing.

I encountered this same issue and fortunately was able to get (most) of my notes back because my most recent iCloud backup for the iPad was prior to when I turned on iCloud Sync for notes.

Issue:

I created new notes on my iPad while the "Sync this iPad" toggle for Notes within Apps using iCloud was off. When I switched on the toggle, all the notes created on my iPad were deleted and replaced by the notes from my iPhone/in iCloud.

APPLE NEEDS TO FIND A SOLUTION FOR THIS - or at the very least provide a warning that the newly created notes could be deleted.

Solution:

• In Settings on your iPad, click your name (enter iCloud settings)
• Click iCloud
• Scroll to DEVICE BACKUPS, click iCloud Backup
• Under ALL DEVICE BACKUPS, click the latest iPad backup and confirm the Last Backup was saved before you switched on the Sync this iPad toggle. For me, my last backup was yesterday.

Next,

• Erase all content and settings
• Restore iPad from latest backup (you will lose anything done after that most-recent backup - for me this was worth it to get the notes back)
• Notes created on iPad should be there. Immediately copy them onto your phone or Google Drive

Try this:

Settings -> Notes

Then turn on:

”On My iPhone” Account

It may take a while for them to fill in.

None of the links you provided answered the problem. The Notes were not in any deleted notes. The problem is that Apple has a bug. Instead of placing the Notes into deleted notes when you sync or turn on iCloud, Apple simply deletes all the notes from the device and then downloads the notes from iCloud. As others also stated, there is no warning that this would occur. Another Apple bug is that when you download your device backup from iCloud into a new device that was purchased, you expect your settings to remain unchanged. In this case, Apple changed the settings for Notes from using iCloud syncing to not using it. This is what caused the initial problem. I and others believed we were syncing because that is how we were using Notes. Nothing changed except that we changed devices, and that Apple decided to introduce not one, buy two bugs.

this just happened to me and I am appalled that 8 months later Apple have not fixed this problem and there is absolutely nothing we can do!!! This page is also making it vey hard to post this comment

Has anyone found a solution to this? I spent half a day writing notes on my iPad that were deleted with no warning when I decided to turn sync on. This is so unfair; I lost all that time and work, and I'm so devastated. Please post a solution if/when you find one :(

Hey there ktlasersIE,

Thanks for reaching out to the Apple Support Communities. For the best steps that can help with locating your missing notes, check out the steps listed in this link here: If you're missing notes on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

You may also be able to recover your notes with the steps in this next link here: Delete and recover notes on iCloud.com - Apple Support

Recover recently deleted notes

You can recover and edit notes you deleted in the last 30 days on iCloud.com or on your devices that are signed in with the same Apple ID. However, you can’t recover notes you permanently removed.

1. In Notes on iCloud.com, select Recently Deleted in the folder list on the left.

If you don’t see Recently Deleted, you don’t have any notes in that folder, and there’s nothing to be recovered.

2. Select a note, then click Recover in the Notes toolbar.

The note moves to the Notes folder.

If you want to move a recovered note directly to a folder you created, drag the note from the Recently Deleted folder to another folder.

Let us know if that's able to help.

Best regards.