Notes disappeared from phone after accepting new iCloud terms

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Level 1

20 points

Notes disappeared from phone after accepting new iCloud terms

Using an iPhone 13 mini on OSx17.

My notes were under “on my iPhone” and, from memory being backed up to iCloud but not under iCloud within notes app.

I accepted the new terms and conditions. Immediately after, notes were gone from my phone. I have an empty “on my iPhone” folder in the notes app and the iCloud folder has disappeared altogether.

When I log into iCloud via a browser, my notes appear there (I don’t think that was the case before?).

I have tried:

Installing the 17.1.1 update which hadn’t installed automatically but which another person found solved this for them.
rebooting the phone
under Settings-Notes-Accounts- Adding my iCloud account (although it was already listed as an account)

I have also looked at signing out of iCloud but now get a window asking me if I want to keep copies of some data on my phone. Given the current situation, I am doubtful about continuing with this as I don’t want to lose more data from my phone.

Noting that under Settings-Notes, “On my iPhone” account shows as turned on but looks slightly greyed out. If I continue down to Accounts, my iCloud account is listed, as mentioned above.

Very disappointed with this. Help appreciated.

iPhone 13 mini, iOS 17

Posted on Nov 5, 2024 6:17 PM

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Answer 1

sfbio Author

Level 1

20 points

Nov 6, 2024 9:43 AM in response to Martin_Peg

Thank you

In the end the solution that worked (sort of) for me was:

Notes previously only on my phone were in iCloud, so all data there
Delete the notes app on my phone (which no longer had notes in it)
Reinstall the notes app
On opening notes, follow the prompt to settings
Toggle sync with iCloud to on (in my case it was previously off)
Open the notes app on my phone and leave it open (I used settings so that the screen wouldn’t lock)
With time the notes originally “On my iPhone” (that had been pulled by the change to iCloud) synced to the phone.
Now, all my notes seem to be back on my phone but under “iCloud” rather than “On my phone”

Thanks to everyone for sharing what worked for you.

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Answer 2

Nov 6, 2024 6:44 AM in response to sfbio

I had this same issue, there seemed to be a disconnect between Notes and iCloud which prevented them from being synced. I checked my iCloud account and all the Notes were still on there and my settings were showing as Notes synced with iCloud 'On'. Saw people on another thread saying reboot the phone but that did nothing so i deleted the app and downloaded it again and this seemed to get it syncing as the notes slowly started appearing on my phone. Hope that helps.

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Answer 3

sfbio Author

Level 1

20 points

Nov 5, 2024 6:43 PM in response to sfbio

Also, under iCloud, apps using iCloud, Notes was and is toggled to off.

Baffled as to why notes on my phone appear to have been pulled to iCloud, outside of the phone backups - although the settings look different from what I remembered???

Again, thoughts on how to restore my notes to being on my iPhone, without causing further damage, would be welcome.

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