I signed out of iCloud on my iPhone, and afterward, several notes disappeared from the Notes app. I’ve signed back in with the same Apple Account, but they still haven’t returned. Were the notes deleted or is there a way to restore them?
Signing out doesn’t normally delete Notes. The big question is whether those notes had actually synced before you signed out. If they were recently edited, I’d check iCloud first to make sure those changes made it to iCloud before assuming anything was lost.
Nothing in Recently Deleted? Notes that were actually deleted from iCloud can stay there for up to 30 days, so that’s worth checking before assuming they’re gone for good.
Hmm, the account they were saved under could also be the reason. Notes can be under Gmail or Yahoo instead of iCloud, and there’s also the “On My iPhone” section. Other accounts are easy to miss.
Yeah, I checked Recently Deleted and there’s nothing there. The missing notes are still showing on iCloud.com, though. I only use iCloud for Notes, so it’s not Gmail, Yahoo, or On My iPhone. I had edited a few of the missing ones pretty recently, so I’m wondering if the iPhone just hasn’t synced them properly yet.
Might be worth checking if your iPhone is up to date too. Apple lists updating iOS as one of the things to try when Notes are missing.
I’d check the iCloud Notes setting again too. Make sure Notes is actually turned on under your iCloud settings, then give it a little time after signing back in. If the notes are still in iCloud, they should show up on the phone once the sync finishes.
I checked the Notes sync setting and restarted the phone. A few minutes later, the missing notes started showing up again. Looks like the iPhone just needed some time to sync them after I signed back in. I was starting to think I’d actually lost them.