notes are gone after accepting new icloud terms and conditions

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.

I had the same issue and managed to get my notes back. I fixed this by going to settings>notes>default account> then changed to On My iPhone. This redownloaded my notes and kept both iCloud and On My iPhone notes

Yep, me too! Extremely frustrating. I contacted Apple Support and they had no idea how to transfer them back to my phone. If Apple themselves don’t know how to do it, how are we supposed to know. Hoping we find an answer soon.

All of my IOS Notes just disappeared after getting a notification from settings saying to accept the new iCloud terms and conditions if i wanted to keep using iCloud on my phone. I did so and they are gone. Any idea on how to restore them?

Big FAIL by Apple. They failed by letting this happen in the first place ( ie. notes ‘vanishing’) and they failed when they did not send out a notice on how to fix the situation. Lucky we had community to rely on

Me too! I restarted my iPhone but they did not come back.

go to settings – notes – default account – on my iPhone, and they will come back

Going to settings, notes, and then choosing “on my iphone” worked. Simple and no phone calls to support necessary Thank you!

Apple, you must do better. Updates should never change default settings.

It happened to me! 6 Nov 2024 on iOS 17.6.1 I accepted new T&Cs. Shocked to see everything gone, empty, zero. I turned my phone off and on again. I opened iCloud in browser on my phone and confirmed my notes were all there, and weren’t fully *gone*. Then they just… started downloading… and now seemingly it’s all fine again.

Hi all,

This happened to me today and I rely so heavily on my notes.

So good to see others with the same issue as I don’t feel totally alone and hugely frustrated!

I did as you suggested but the only notes that have came back are all my historic ones!

I have no notes reappearing since Feb 2021!!

Help! I really need my notes back.

Any ideas?

Just got mine fixed with same issue. Restart your iPhone first. Then, go to iCloud, and open your Notes. All your files will be retrieved. :)

I had one Notes disappear and all of the others (multiple notes) were still there. None of these solutions seem to work for bringing back just that one Notes.

Thank you for this post!!!! It worked… I was panicked