How to Recover Deleted Notes on iPhone with/without Backup

HELP! Since my iPhone X and iPad Pro automatically updated, I have lost some notes. I don’t know what is happening and Apple said there is nothing they can do for this. Where have my notes gone from my iPhone? How do I get my notes back?

The Notes app is convenient for Apple users to store quick notes of daily life — a list of work schedules, travel plans or a quick sketch of your pet with drawing tools. Like other apps, all is well until some of important your iPhone notes got deleted or lost accidentally. Don’t fret, there are several practical ways to retrieve deleted notes on iPhone or iPad. Just read on to find out how to recover deleted notes on iPhone or iPad quickly.

iPhone Notes Recovery

Part 1. Where Do Deleted iPhone Notes Go?
Part 2. How to Get Back Deleted Notes on iPhone in 4 Ways
1. Find Deleted Notes in Recently Deleted Folder
2. Retrieve Deleted Notes on iPhone without Backup
3. Recover Deleted Notes from iTunes Backup
4. Restore Deleted Notes from iCloud Backup

Part 1. Where Do Deleted iPhone Notes Go?

Like iOS Photos app, the Notes app running on iOS 9 or later (including iPadOS) also features a “Recently Deleted” folder that can keep deleted items for a while and then delete them permanently. The notes you delete are not immediately removed from the Notes application but remain in this folder. Once it’s over 30 days or you manually empty the “Recently Deleted” folder, the deleted notes will no longer be visible there.

These notes have not completely disappeared yet. They are just hidden in iPhone’s internal storage waiting for newly-generated data to overwrite them. There is no Apple way to recover permanently deleted notes from iPhone directly. A backup file in iTunes or iCloud seems to be the only lifesaver for your lost data, but it is actually also possible to recover deleted iPhone notes without backup and from the device itself directly.

Part 2. How to Get Back Deleted Notes on iPhone in 4 Ways

1. Find Deleted Notes in Recently Deleted Folder

As we mentioned, the deleted notes will be moved to the Recently Deleted folder and kept there for 30 days. When you accidentally delete a note, you can follow these steps to undo deleted notes on iPhone in minutes.

Launch the Notes app on iPhone or iPad.
Tap on “Recently Deleted” from the list of folders. (If this folder does not appear, skip to the next method.)
Tap on the “Edit” button in the upper-right corner.
Select the notes or tap “Move All” and move them to another folder.

If you could not find the deleted notes in the Recently Deleted folder, they may have been deleted permanently. To recover permanently deleted notes, read the following methods.

2. Retrieve Deleted Notes on iPhone without Backup

When you lose notes on iPhone, you may get them back by restoring your device from an old iTunes or iCloud backup. But what if you don’t have a valid backup file or you don’t want to restore all data to your device? In this case, you can consider using some third-party data recovery software, such as Gihosoft iPhone Data Recovery, which makes iPhone notes recovery possible without backup. It helps scan and extract both the existing and deleted notes from your iPhone’s internal storage, and then export them individually or as a whole to your computer as readable formats. Here are some features of this tool.

WindowsFree DownloadWin Version MacFree DownloadMac Version

Key Features:

Recover permanently deleted notes on iPhone without backup.
Extract and recover notes from iPhone backup without restoring the device.
Support to preview the notes inside iPhone backups and selectively restore the notes you need.
Support to retrieve other 11 file types on iPhone, including photos, contacts, messages, videos, call history, WhatsApp, Viber, etc.
Fully compatible with the latest iOS versions and iPhone/iPad.

Now download and install this iPhone data recovery program on your computer, and check the steps below to recover your notes from iPhone directly.

Step 1: Open Gihosoft iPhone Data Recovery and select the check box of Notes.
Step 2: Connect your iPhone to the computer via a USB cable. Then click “Next” to start the scan.
Step 3: After scanning, preview the scan result, select the notes you need and click “Recover” to export them to the computer.

Note: The items that have been overwritten by new data cannot be recovered by any data recovery software. So we recommend you to turn on the Airplane mode and stop using the device after deleting your data. Then, use Gihosoft iPhone Data Recovery as soon as possible to increase the chances of data recovery.

3. Recover Deleted Notes from iTunes Backup

In case you have synced your iPhone to iTunes or Finder before your notes were deleted, the iPhone backup may contain the missing notes you want. However, restoring from an old iTunes backup will overwrite the current data on your iPhone. If want to keep your current data untouched, you can use Gihosoft iPhone Data Recovery to selectively extract your notes from iTunes backup.

Step 1: Run Gihosoft iPhone Data Recovery on the computer. Select “Notes” and click “Next”.
Step 2: Select “View iTunes Backup”, then select the backup that might contain your notes to scan.
Step 3: After scanning, preview and retrieve deleted notes on iPhone or iPad.

4. Restore Deleted Notes from iCloud Backup

If you have backed up your iPhone to iCloud before deleting the notes, you can restore the iCloud backup to iPhone for recovering your deleted notes. Nevertheless, this process requires to erase all the content and settings on your iPhone. Thus, you can also try Gihosoft iPhone Data Recovery to recover deleted notes from iCloud backup.

Note: Make sure you didn’t enable two-factor authentication with your Apple ID, or your device may not be recognized.

Step 1: Launch the iCloud backup extractor software and check the box for “Notes”.
Step 2: Choose “View iCloud Backup” then sign in with Apple ID to download backup files.
Step 3: After scanning, you can selectively recover deleted notes on iPad or iPhone.

Conclusion

Now you have read all the four ways to retrieve deleted notes on iPhone. As you can see, Gihosoft iPhone Data Recovery can help you get back deleted iPhone notes even without backup. However, it’s still important to back up your iPhone data regularly, as the overwritten data on iPhone cannot be recovered without a backup.