How to Fix iPhone Notes Disappearing After Accepting New iCloud Terms

Apple in September updated its iCloud terms and conditions with some minor changes, and this week it has been notifying iPhone users that they must accept the revised terms in order to continue using iCloud. Unfortunately, after accepting the new terms, some iPhone users have seen all of their notes disappear in the Notes app.

iOS 18 Notes Feature
While some users have turned to social media to justifiably panic about all of their notes being gone, thankfully the issue can be fixed by following the steps below.

  1. Open the Settings app.
  2. Tap on your name at the top (aka your Apple Account settings).
  3. Tap on iCloud.
  4. Tap on Notes.
  5. Turn on "Sync this iPhone" (green = on). If it is already on, turn it off and on again.
  6. In the Notes app, wait several minutes for your notes to be restored from iCloud.

We began monitoring this issue earlier this week, but it is unclear what the underlying cause is. Apple did not respond to our request for comment.

Related Roundups: iOS 18, iPadOS 18
Tag: iCloud

Popular Stories

iOS 18

Apple Says iOS 18.4 Will Be Released in April With These New Features

Wednesday February 26, 2025 7:15 am PST by
In a recent press release, Apple confirmed that iOS 18.4 will be released in April. From the Apple News+ Food announcement:Coming with iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 in April, Apple News+ subscribers will have access to Apple News+ Food, a new section that will feature tens of thousands of recipes — as well as stories about restaurants, healthy eating, kitchen essentials, and more — from the...
Generic iPhone 17 Feature With Full Width Dynamic Island

Latest iPhone 17 Series CAD Images in Line With Redesign Rumors

Friday February 28, 2025 2:51 am PST by
Apple is expected to embrace a new camera system design for some models in its upcoming iPhone 17 series, and the latest purported CAD images don't deviate from what we have been hearing lately about Apple's new lineup. If you do not like the sound of an iPhone with a Google Pixel-style camera bar, look away now. Seasoned leaker Sonny Dickson shared the following images in a post on X...
iphone 16e usb c feature

Apple Provides Reason for iPhone 16e's Lack of MagSafe

Friday February 28, 2025 4:39 am PST by
Apple has offered a reason why the iPhone 16e doesn't include MagSafe, one of the more notable omissions from its latest entry-level smartphone. According to Apple representatives who spoke to Daring Fireball's John Gruber, MagSafe is not included in the iPhone 16e because "most people in the iPhone 16e's target audience exclusively charge their phones by plugging them into a charging...
apple intelligence black

These New Apple Intelligence Features Are Coming in iOS 18.4

Friday February 28, 2025 3:17 pm PST by
iOS 18.4 was supposed to bring new Apple Intelligence Siri features, but Apple ended up needing to pull those capabilities from the update to continue testing. There are fewer new Apple Intelligence additions now, but there are still some new features that will make the update worth installing when it comes out in April. Priority Notifications Apple introduced Priority Notifications back at ...
Generic iOS 19 Feature Mock Light

iOS 19 Rumored to Include These New Features for Your iPhone

Saturday March 1, 2025 11:00 am PST by
iOS 19 is still around three months away from being unveiled, but there are plenty of rumors about the upcoming update. Below, we recap iOS 19 rumors so far. Redesigned Camera App A leak earlier this year allegedly revealed a redesigned Camera app coming with iOS 19. On his YouTube channel Front Page Tech in January, Jon Prosser shared a video showing what the new Camera app will...
cook trump

Trump Responds to Apple Keeping Diversity Policies

Wednesday February 26, 2025 6:32 am PST by
In an all-caps post on Truth Social today, U.S. President Donald Trump said Apple should fully end its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies. Tim Cook meeting with President Trump in 2017 "APPLE SHOULD GET RID OF DEI RULES, NOT JUST MAKE ADJUSTMENTS TO THEM," he wrote. Trump's post comes one day after Apple held its annual shareholders meeting, during which a majority of...
apple watch ultra snow

6 Features Coming to the Apple Watch Ultra 3

Tuesday February 25, 2025 9:00 am PST by
The Apple Watch Ultra 3 is expected to launch later this year, arriving two years after the previous model with a series of improvements. While no noticeable design changes are expected for the third generation since the company tends to stick with the same Apple Watch design through three generations before changing it, there are a series of internal upgrades on the way. By the time the ...
airpods pro purple

Here's When AirPods Pro 3 Are Rumored to Launch

Monday February 24, 2025 9:14 am PST by
According to a post on X today from a leaker known as Kosutami, Apple plans to launch AirPods Pro 3 in May or June this year. The leaker also claimed that an AirTag 2 will launch around the same time. Kosutami is best known as a collector of prototype Apple hardware, but they have occasionally shared accurate information about Apple's future product plans. For example, they accurately...
apple c1

How Fast is Apple's First-Ever 5G Modem? The Results Are Surprising

Friday February 28, 2025 10:08 am PST by
iPhone 16e reviews are now out, and Apple's custom-designed C1 modem has been put to the test. The results so far are quite surprising, as the C1's speeds are not as slow compared to Qualcomm modems as originally expected. While the C1 does not support ultra-fast mmWave 5G in the U.S., it appears to offer comparable 5G performance to Qualcomm's Snapdragon X71 modem found in the iPhone 16,...

Top Rated Comments

antiprotest Avatar
16 weeks ago
"Our unique integration of hardware and software ensures the total destruction of your data."

Privacy. That's iPhone.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mystery hill Avatar
16 weeks ago
There is no way to batch export all notes on iPhone and iPad to a folder on the device, or to an external drive.

You have to completely depend on iCloud and hope that a bug doesn’t delete all your notes.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Egk Avatar
16 weeks ago
Safari can’t even keep my bookmarks up to date. I will *never* trust Apple with anything critical when it comes to sync.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Hank001 Avatar
16 weeks ago

That would be a disaster for most people! I know it’s rare but shows the risk of cloud computing.

Can you still create notes on your mac locally? And if so how do you back them up?
Calm down please. One can simply store them on the iPhone as well.


Attachment Image
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
tywebb13 Avatar
16 weeks ago
would simply making a new note make all the others come back?

i heard that this was a simpler way to fix it.

but more concerning is apple's silence on the matter.

why the silence?

refusal to acknowledge the bug, when it is blatantly obvious to the rest of the internet?

well as big as apple is, the internet is bigger!

and not even helping people with a workaround to fix it, leaving it up to sites like macrumors to provide the workaround?

that’s very poor form on apple's part
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ellpee Avatar
16 weeks ago
Only a matter of time before everything you have in iCloud disappears. Nothing about it works smoothly, even adjusting settings will induce hiccups. Always print your favorite photos!
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)