If you’re missing notes on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch

If you’re missing any notes, they may have been deleted accidentally or you may need to change your settings.

First update all of your devices to the latest version of iOS, iPadOS or macOS to make sure the issue isn’t related to previous software. Then try the following steps.

Check your account settings

If you store your notes with a third-party account or email service, such as Gmail or Yahoo, check your settings:

1. In the Settings app, tap Mail.

2. Tap Accounts, then tap the email account you want to check.

3. Make sure Notes is on.

If you use Notes with more than one email account, just repeat the steps for each account. If your account is missing, find out how to add an email account to your device.

Check your Recently Deleted folder

If you store your notes on iCloud, check your Recently Deleted folder:

1. Open Notes, then tap the back icon until you see your Folders list.

2. Tap Recently Deleted and search for your note.

If you’ve found your note in Recently Deleted or in another folder, you can move it:

1. In the Notes list, tap Edit.

2. Select the note you want to move.

3. Tap Move, then select the folder you want to move it to.

If you use Notes with another service, such as Gmail or Yahoo, check the Bin folder of that account in the Mail app. When you delete a note from the Notes app, your third-party account will usually keep it in the Bin folder. To recover a note from the Bin folder, you will need to copy and paste the note to a new note in the Notes app.

Use Search to find your notes

1. Open Notes, then tap the back icon until you see your list of notes.

2. Tap the Search bar and type a word, phrase or title from the note you’re looking for.

3. Make sure All Accounts is selected. Search will check all of your notes in each folder across your accounts, such as an email account.

If you can’t see the Search bar, you may need to scroll to find it. If you still can’t find a note, you may have locked the note. Search will only see the title of locked notes, so you may need to check all of your locked notes to find the specific note you’re looking for.

Manually search for your notes

If Search doesn’t display results, you may need to check a different folder and scroll down the list:

1. Open Notes, then tap the back icon until you see your Folders list.

2. If you have more than one folder, tap a different folder to see if your note is in there.

If you still can’t find your note, then it’s possible you’re not using the correct word, phrase or title from the note.

Find out more about Notes

Use Notes to do things such as creating checklists, sketching ideas and sharing notes.