Notes are disappearing from iPhone devices for some users — but there's a fix
Some iPhone users are reporting the sudden disappearance of content from the Notes app. Luckily for them, there seems to be a quick fix for it.
According to 9to5Mac, this insidious little glitch can happen to anyone running an iPhone with any version of iOS 18 installed on it. I haven't been able to recreate it, but the way it reportedly works is that users are losing all of their notes after agreeing to new iCloud terms and conditions. The prompt comes up, people hit "agree," and the notes vanish.
Sounds awful, right? The good news is you most likely didn't actually lose all of your notes.
Notes app fix
The issue has been rectified for some users, but if you want to execute the fix manually, here's what you should do, per 9to5Mac:
Go to Settings
Tap on your name
Tap "iCloud"
Tap "Notes"
Enable "Sync this iPhone" if it's not toggled on
If you wait a minute or two after doing this and open the Notes app, your notes should start downloading from the cloud. One potential issue is that "Sync this iPhone" may already be toggled on for you. If that’s the case, turn it off, then back on, and reboot the phone.
If all goes well, you should get your notes back eventually. If not, it might be time to reach out to Apple support.