My iPhone 11 recently experienced a glitch that made all of my Notes folders and notes disappear. After changing some settings, the folders returned and my iCloud notes became accessible again, but the notes stored under "On My iPhone" are still missing. Those included extremely important personal and medical information collected over many years. They are not in Recently Deleted, and that folder was missing when the problem first occurred. Apple Support was unable to recover them. However, the Notes app is still using about 1.18 GB of storage, so I'm wondering whether the missing data is still somewhere on the phone. Is there a safe program or method to connect the iPhone to a computer and recover or inspect that data?
4 Answers
If the information is irreplaceable, a reputable professional mobile-data-recovery company may be worth consulting. Stop using the phone as much as possible first, because new data could overwrite recoverable records. Ask for a diagnostic and a clear explanation of whether they can work with an iPhone Notes database before paying; recovery is not guaranteed, especially if the data was removed through synchronization or the phone’s encryption.
Before paying for recovery, check whether the notes were connected to another account, such as Gmail, Outlook, or a work account. In Settings, look under the accounts that have Notes enabled, then check those accounts’ web interfaces if available. Also look for an older Finder or iTunes backup, an iCloud device backup, or another Apple device that may still contain the notes. Don’t restore anything until you’ve preserved the current state and checked what backups exist.
The storage figure doesn’t necessarily mean the notes are still recoverable. It could include cached data, database files, indexes, or remnants from the iCloud synchronization attempt. iPhones also protect app data with encryption, so there usually isn’t a normal way to plug the phone into a laptop and browse its internal files directly. Avoid installing random recovery tools or giving anyone remote access, since many are ineffective and could overwrite or expose your data.
First, check Recently Deleted, even though it may not appear if the app is glitching. Since you’ve already looked there and the notes were stored locally, your best DIY step may be making a computer backup immediately. Use Finder on a Mac or iTunes on Windows, and avoid restoring or resetting the phone until you’ve exhausted recovery options. An unencrypted backup may be easier to inspect, although newer device backups can require encryption in some circumstances.
I’ve already checked Recently Deleted, and the missing notes were definitely under “On My iPhone.” I’ll make a computer backup before trying anything else and will avoid resetting the phone.