How To Access Locked Notes On Iphone

You can lock the notes in your iPhone's Notes app with password protection to keep them private.
To lock a note, you need to add a lock to the file using the Notes app's Share button.
Once a note has a lock, you can choose to hide it behind a password, Touch ID, or Face ID, or unhide it and keep it readily available.
All notes lock and unlock in unison, and use the same master password, which can be different from your iPhone's password.
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Notes are a convenient way to collect information. You can record passwords, reminders, medical information — anything you might need to jot down on the go and reference again later.

But if you use the iPhone's Notes app for personal or sensitive information, you might want to protect the information by locking notes with a password, Touch ID, or Face ID.

It's easy to lock your iPhone's notes, but the lock feature is a little confusing, and might not work the way you expect it to. Here is what you need to know:

Before you can lock a note, you need to create a master password. You can't give every note its own unique password.
Just adding a password won't lock the note — you need to take the second step of hiding the note.
All notes with locks are locked or unlocked together. You can't have some hidden and some unhidden notes with locks.
If you create a new note, it won't have its own lock unless you add it. That means you can have notes with locks (which are either hidden or unhidden) and notes that don't have locks on them at all.
When you view a locked note, all the locked notes become unhidden, so you will need to rehide them when you're done.

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How to lock and hide your notes on iPhone

Before you can lock your notes, you need to enable the lock in the Notes app first. This is simply a matter of creating a master password.

1. Start the Notes app.

2. Tap on one of the notes to open it.

3. Tap the Share button at the top right of the screen.

4. In the pop-up, tap "Lock Note," which has a padlock icon and should appear in the second row of icons.

Using the Share button, tap "Lock Note" to set up the master password.

5. Enter a password (and repeat it on the Verify line). If you want to, you can also type a password hint as a reminder. If you want to unlock notes using Touch ID or Face ID, leave the button turned on — otherwise swipe it to the left.

6. Tap "Done."

7. The lock has now been added to this note, though it's not yet hidden. To hide this note, tap the new lock icon at the top of the screen.

After setting up the lock, it will appear at the top of the screen, near the Share button.

8. The contents will now be hidden, and you'll see a message that says "This note is locked."

You'll need to enter a password or use biometric ID to see a locked note.

How to lock additional notes in the Notes app

After setting the master password, you can lock other notes at any time:

1. Start the Notes app. The lock icon next to every note's name indicates which notes have locks.

2. Tap a note that doesn't have a lock.

3. Tap the Share button at the top right of the screen.

4. In the pop-up, tap "Lock Note." It may ask you to enter your locking password.

5. After a moment, the lock button will appear at the top of the screen. To hide it, tap the button. Remember that if you hide any note, all the notes with locks will be hidden.

How to view a locked note in the Notes app

1. Start the Notes app.

2. Tap the note you want to view. If it's hidden, you'll see a screen that says the note is locked. Tap "View Note."

3. If you have Touch ID or Face ID enabled, unlock the note that way. Otherwise, enter the master password.

4. When you view a hidden note, this unhides all the notes, so you will need to hide the note again when you are done if you want to continue to keep it private.

All notes that have locks will be locked or unlocked at the same time.

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Dave Johnson

Freelance Writer

Dave Johnson is a technology journalist who writes about consumer tech and how the industry is transforming the speculative world of science fiction into modern-day real life. Dave grew up in New Jersey before entering the Air Force to operate satellites, teach space operations, and do space launch planning. He then spent eight years as a content lead on the Windows team at Microsoft. As a photographer, Dave has photographed wolves in their natural environment; he's also a scuba instructor and co-host of several podcasts. Dave is the author of more than two dozen books and has contributed to many sites and publications including CNET, Forbes, PC World, How To Geek, and Insider.