iPhone Notes

In this episode – iPhone Notes . . .

In previous episodes, we’ve discussed the value of having the Notes app on your iPhone. Recently I discovered the following article from Readers Digest that may help you keep those notes private.

In today’s digital age, you can use many handy iPhone tricks for convenience and productivity, and the Notes app is one of my most valuable tools. It’s a practical way to use your iPhone to jot down information such as shared to-do lists, contact information, shopping lists, and more. Leaving these notes unprotected may pose a security risk, as anyone accessing your phone can quickly view them. This episode will walk you through how to password-protect notes on your iPhone.

How Does Apple Protect Notes?

Apple provides only basic default security to protect the data stored in the Notes app on your iPhone. When locked, your iPhone locks Notes like any other app, requiring whatever security check you use to unlock your device. This could be with a passcode you enter manually, Touch ID, or Face ID.

How Can You Further Protect Apple Notes?

One way to add an extra layer of security to your Apple Notes is to enable two-factor authentication for iCloud. This prevents unauthorized access by notifying you when somebody attempts to log into your iCloud. When this happens, you’ll receive a prompt requiring you to either approve or deny the attempt.

Apple Notes also has an optional “On My iPhone” account that stores notes on your device rather than syncing them to iCloud. This adds an extra layer of security, as your notes won’t be accessible through your iCloud account or any other devices you may own.

Apple recently released a feature called Advanced Data Protection for iCloud. You can activate this in your iCloud settings, then follow the instructions to set up data recovery if you ever lose access to your account. With Advanced Data Protection for iCloud, notes that you lock with a password or biometric authentication are fully encrypted.

This means your iPhone scrambles the data; even if stolen, it is unreadable. Only the correct passcode or biometric authentication can decrypt the data. If Notes is accessible from your lock screen’s Control Center, removing it and hiding other apps on your iPhone is a good idea. The final security measure you could take is to set up password protection for your notes. This is important if you use Notes to store sensitive information such as passwords or financial details.

You can do this easily by following the steps;

Open the Settings app on your phone and navigate to “Notes.”
Tap on “Notes” and then tap on “Password.”
If prompted, tap “Use iPhone Passcode” to access password settings. You may have to turn on iCloud Keychain as well. If prompted to do this, you can go to Settings > [Your Name/Profile] > iCloud > Passwords and Keychain.
You now have the option to either unlock your notes using your iPhone’s passcode or you can create a separate password for your notes. If Touch ID or Face ID is enabled on your device, you can also use biometric authentication to lock your notes.
Once you’ve set your password and biometric authentication preferences, open the Notes app and navigate to the note you want to lock.
Tap on the icon in the upper right-hand corner (the circle with three dots) and tap “Lock.” You’ll then enter your password or use biometric authentication to lock that note.

Once you’ve entered the correct password or biometric information, you’ve locked the note. After this, you must unlock the note using your passcode or Face ID/Touch ID to view its contents. That’s all there is to it. Now you can add an extra security check to specific notes, even after you’ve unlocked your iPhone and opened the Notes app.

I’m Patrick Ball; thanks for listening; see you in the next episode.

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