Vanishing I-pad notes

[evennewerbie]

This has happened to me three times recently and is worse than just annoying.

I use I-pad Notes quite a lot to draft things that might end up in online forums, letters or messages or other places. A note may contain results of considerable browsing and research, thought, checking, link copying, in short investment of time and effort not easily reconstructed.

But of late they just disappear as I am working on them! Usually as I am highlighting an entire note with the intention of using it. Or on the latest occasion just of saving and copying it precisely because of the risk of disappearance! (If it is a clue to anything I noticed that usually there remains on screen at first a large bold capital letter usually O, maybe A).

They just disappear!! They are not to be found among 'recently deleted'. Not to be found anywhere I have been able look on the iPad or in iCloud. (Surprises me iPad loses anything easily, as I thought they made any number of copies of notes as you elaborate them).

Anyway, does anyone know this problem and above all is there any way of recovering for example at least my most recent Note lost today?

 

[twerppoet]

The only time I've seen anything similar is when I've selected all text and accidentally typed something. Are you using any third party keyboard apps?

 

[evennewerbie]

I am just using the iPad (5) virtual keyboard.

But you are saying after I selected all I might have accidentally hit a key and that would do it? Yes, it's quite possible I did that. I will have wiped everything away irrecoverably by it?

 

[twerppoet]

I am just using the iPad (5) virtual keyboard.

But you are saying after I selected all I might have accidentally hit a key and that would do it? Yes, it's quite possible I did that. I will have wiped everything away irrecoverably by it?

If you use the Undo after only a few actions, and before you close the note any deleted or replaced text should come back. You may have to tap it more than once.

Undo should be a back arrow on control bar just above the keyboard. The forward arrow is to undo any undos you didn't mean to undo. Or more properly, a redo. I could be wrong about the arrow. There may be an undo key the second or third keyboard (accessed with the 123 and #+= keys). It's been a while since I used iOS 12. I'm not sure where the Undo was.

Strangely, you can shake the iPad a few times and the Undo and/or Redo options will pop up in a dialog. It's something the iPhone does, and makes sense, sort of, there. Shaking an iPad, especially a full sized one isn't really recommended. There's considerable drop potential.

Undo should work for most any changes made, even if my guess about what happened is wrong.

If you leave the note, you won't be able to recover it anymore. Undo is only available until the note is closed.

 

[evennewerbie]

Thank you.
I have probably lost this last writing of mine, but might have saved it if I had known what you say now.

Not sure what you mean by 'leave the note' but I left it as it was to come to this forum and other stuff. I then returned to it and it was as I had just left it. I could not recover my lost writing,But I was able to try out the Undo function and see it works at least short-term. After deleting a text for example. So presumably I had accidentally deleted those times, after doing Select All. This immediate recovery manoeuvre will be useful to know from now on.

I had been just unaware of the Undo function. It is on my present OS just a key that is there on the numbers. (Have managed to use IPad for maybe 10 yrs without knowing this!)

 

[twerppoet]

When I said "leave the note" I meant that you can only undo actions from your current session with the note. If you exit the note's editing mode for any reason (close the app, open a different note, etc., the Undo goes away.

There may be exceptions. I haven't experimented with every permutation, but the best bet is to always correct what is wrong with the note (if possible) before you do something else.

 

[evennewerbie]

Yes, thanks again. I've convinced myself (nearly lost another text!) that last piece of advice is right.

Since you can go back to the previous to previous version and so on, it means that all these previous versions are retained in device memory. According to what we are now saying, that would be no longer than the very current session as you explain. I did have a memory of having in the past somehow seen into a Notes memory, and there were dozens if not a hundred or more of versions of something, which made me think there was something more lasting, but I guess that's wrong.

 

[Querty]

There’s a hard core of posters on here who are worth their weight in gold for info and help just putting a shout out for you guys