You deleted a note and you want it back. There are four routes and they are worth trying in that order, because each one costs more than the last and the first one solves most cases.
Start now rather than later. Most of what follows depends on a thirty-day clock that began the moment the note went.
1. Recently Deleted, the folder most people walk past
Open Notes and go back until you are looking at the list of folders rather than a list of notes. Recently Deleted sits at the bottom. Anything you deleted in the last thirty days is in there, whole.
To get one out, open the folder, tap Edit, select the note, then Move To and pick a real folder. Moving it is what restores it. Simply opening it does not.
The thirty days run from when the note was deleted, not from when you noticed, which is why this is the step to do before reading the rest of this page.
2. When there is no Recently Deleted folder
This is common and it is alarming, and it is almost always one of three things.
The folder is per account, not per phone. If your notes are split across iCloud and On My iPhone, each has its own Recently Deleted and you may be looking at the wrong one. Go to the top of the folder list and check under every account heading, including a work or school account you forgot was connected.
The note may have been in a folder someone else shares with you. Deleted notes in a shared folder follow the owner's account, not yours.
Or the folder was emptied, either by you or by the thirty days running out. An emptied Recently Deleted disappears from the list entirely rather than showing up empty, which is why it looks like it never existed.
3. iCloud.com, which sometimes has what the phone does not
Sign in at icloud.com on a computer, open Notes, and look for Recently Deleted there. Sync is not instantaneous in either direction, so the web occasionally still holds a note the phone has already let go of. It is a thirty-second check and it costs nothing.
Do not go looking for a deeper recovery tool there. iCloud's Data Recovery section can restore files, contacts, calendars and bookmarks. Notes is not on that list, so the web Recently Deleted folder is the whole of what iCloud.com offers for this.
4. Restore from a backup, and why it is genuinely a last resort
A backup made before the deletion will contain the note. The catch is that restoring one does not merge anything: it replaces the state of the device with the state at backup time. You get the note back and you lose every message, photo and note created since.
That trade is worth it for something irreplaceable and almost never worth it otherwise. If you do it, copy anything from the last few weeks off the phone first, because that is the part the restore will take.
When a note is actually gone
Past thirty days, with no backup from before the deletion, it is gone. Apple does not keep a spare copy on your behalf and support cannot retrieve one.
Treat recovery software that promises otherwise with suspicion. For a note that lived in iCloud there is nothing on the phone to scan, and the honest ones will tell you that after you have paid.
The part worth reading after you have your note back
Almost nobody deletes a note they know is precious. What actually happens is that you delete a note because it is finished, since finished and deleted were the same button. The trip you already took. The contractor you already paid. The project that shipped. It clears the list, which is what you wanted, and eleven months later you want the confirmation number that was in it.
The fix for that is not being more careful. It is having a third option, so that done and gone stop being the same gesture. Whatever app you use, if it has an archive, point it at everything you are tempted to delete but do not actually want destroyed, and keep deleting for genuine rubbish.
Egg is the app I build, so treat this as a disclosure rather than advice. It has an archive: one move takes a note, or a whole notebook, out of your list and out of everyday search without deleting it, and a search that comes back empty tells you how many matches are sitting in there. Trash is separate and still exists, for the things that really are rubbish.
Notebooks, tags, and files that live inside the note. Native on iPhone, iPad and Mac plus a full web app. Free for 100 notes, and the export door is never locked.
Start freeFrequently asked
How long do deleted notes stay in Recently Deleted on iPhone?
Thirty days, counted from when the note was deleted rather than from when you went looking for it. After that the note is removed and only a backup made before the deletion will still contain it.
Why is there no Recently Deleted folder on my iPhone?
Usually because you are looking at the wrong account. The folder is per account, so iCloud and On My iPhone each have their own, and a work or school account has another. It also disappears from the list entirely once it is empty, rather than showing as an empty folder.
Can I recover a note deleted more than 30 days ago?
Only from a backup that predates the deletion, and restoring one replaces everything on the device with its state at backup time rather than merging the note back in. Without such a backup the note is gone, and no recovery app can change that for a note that lived in iCloud.
Should I delete old notes or archive them?
Archive anything that is finished rather than worthless, and delete only genuine rubbish. Most notes people lose were deleted on purpose, because deleting was the only way to get a finished note out of the way.