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:
- Deleted the Notes app
- 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.
- Redownloaded the Notes app from the Apple Store
- Opened the Notes app. No notes were there.
- 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
- 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.
