Apple Security Update Deleted Notes

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Eva888

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#300636 24-Sep-2022 00:21

Just finished a chat with Apple Support. About 130 notes were deleted after a security update 12.5.6 from my older iPad and can’t be retrieved. Notes were since 2017, but there are about 10 notes left random ones dated from 2017 till now that still appear. Am so upset. This has never happened before with any update and have always trusted Apple. All files and photos, passwords are intact, just the notes which have a lot of important info I kept there for ease of access.

They tried via iCloud and couldn’t retrieve. Surely there is another way. I’ve asked for it to be escalated and someone will call back in the morning. I told them it was their urgent security update that randomly deleted information from my device and they need to take some responsibility not just fob me off with an apology. There was no warning before the update.

michaelmurfy

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#2972401 24-Sep-2022 00:58

While I don’t have an older iOS device handy to look I know for a fact this update wouldn’t be able to remove notes as it is a small update affecting a seperate part of the operating system (Safari). iOS 12 is frozen with only the occasional major security update happening these days.

It is also important to note that outside of this iOS 12 is actually out of support.

The update seems like a total red herring. Were the notes backed up to iCloud to begin with? Is the iPad fully backed up to iCloud also?

If the iPad was not backed up previously or the notes app was excluded from iCloud storage then I can safely say the notes are gone. My only other suggestion is to ensure you’re looking in the right notes folder.

If the iPad is backed up to iCloud (and always was) then you could try a factory reset and restore from iCloud but only do this if your iPad is backed up, don’t just assume it’ll be backed up.

Good luck.

Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
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Eva888

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#2972435 24-Sep-2022 09:47

iPad did have iCloud enabled for notes. It was backed up until storage became full. I bought another iPad with more capacity but had not finished the long job of sorting out which files and photos to keep so have been using the old one mostly, unless an app wouldn’t work. I have done nothing that would delete the notes which have survived all the past updates to date.

The notes from 2017 onward were automatically saved to the cloud. There is no way I would delete over 100 notes and leave behind a smattering of 10 notes dating from 2017/ 2019/ 21 and 22. So why did the ones in between those dates disappear? The lot would have been deleted. It doesn’t make sense. If storage was full, I should have also lost photos and files but didn’t.

In the past on one of my smaller capacity iPhones when an update came that was too big as in IOS 15 it would automatically assess the space, ask me if I agreed to temporarily delete some apps which would be restored later after the update. So why wasn’t my information on the iPad similarly protected.

Woke up happy because I dreamt it had all been restored. Apple are calling me back soon.

Eva888

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#2972466 24-Sep-2022 11:34

Apple engineering team are looking at it and will call me tomorrow. Very helpful, they also found it strange.

alasta

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#2972468 24-Sep-2022 12:01

Do you have a Mac with Time Machine enabled? If so then hopefully the notes would have synced to your Mac and then be picked up by your Time Machine backup.

Eva888

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#2972526 24-Sep-2022 18:11

alasta:
Do you have a Mac with Time Machine enabled? If so then hopefully the notes would have synced to your Mac and then be picked up by your Time Machine backup.

No Mac, just a PC which I don’t use with the IPads. Serves me right for procrastinating switching everything over to the new iPad. Damned that it lost the most important thing on it apart from passwords.

CYaBro

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#2972531 24-Sep-2022 18:43

You didn’t have another email account on there say for a Microsoft account?

My iPhone has notes stored in iCloud and others in my Microsoft account.
I can choose which one (folders) to create new notes in.

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fearandloathing

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#2972681 25-Sep-2022 10:31

I thought I had a lot of notes deleted by iOS. However they were moved to my online archive mailbox, strangely enough after creating an archiving policy. Maybe something to check.

Eva888

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#2972748 25-Sep-2022 14:09

The support person did check if they were in the mail account but couldn’t see any. Had to cancel today’s appointment as grandchild arriving and too stressed to think about at this time. Told Apple to reschedule.