Lock your notes on iPad

In the Notes app , you can lock notes with a password to protect your sensitive information. Notes uses a single password for all your locked notes in an account (for example, your iCloud account), on all your devices.

You can use Face ID (on an iPad with Face ID) or Touch ID (on other iPad models) as a convenient way to access your locked notes; however, don’t rely on Face ID or Touch ID as the only means of unlocking your notes. If you update your Face ID or Touch ID settings, or want to change your Notes password, you have to reenter your Notes password. For this reason, it’s strongly recommended that you add a password hint when you create the password.

Set up your notes password

The password you set applies to all notes you lock from now on.

Go to Settings > Notes > Password.
If you have multiple accounts, choose the account you want to set a password for.
Enter a password and add a hint to help you remember it.
For added convenience, you can also turn on Face ID or Touch ID.

Important: If you forget your notes password, and you can’t use Face ID or Touch ID to unlock your notes, you won’t be able to view your locked notes, and Apple can’t help you regain access to those locked notes.

You can reset your notes password, but this doesn’t give you access to previously locked notes. The new password applies to all notes you lock from now on. Go to Settings > Notes > Password > Reset Password.

See the Apple Support article How to lock notes on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

Lock a note

You can only lock notes on your device and notes in iCloud. You can’t lock notes that have PDFs, audio, video, Keynote, Pages, Numbers documents attached, or notes that sync with other accounts. You can’t lock an iCloud note that has collaborators.

Open the note, then tap .
Tap Lock.

When a note is locked, the title remains visible in the notes list.

To remove a lock from a note, tap , then tap Remove.

Open a locked note

Opening one locked note opens all your locked notes in the same account for several minutes so you can easily jump into another note or copy and paste information from other apps.

Tap the locked note, then tap View Note.
To open the note, use Face ID, Touch ID, or your Notes password.

To lock your notes again, do one of the following:

Tap the lock icon at the top of the screen.
Tap Lock Now at the bottom of the notes list.
Close the Notes app.
Lock your iPad.

Helpful?

iPad User Guide

Lock your notes on iPad

Set up your notes password

Lock a note

Open a locked note