How To Reset Your Forgotten Apple Notes Password

Apple Notes makes it extremely easy to password-protect confidential notes on the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and Mac. But if you don’t use the password often to unlock your notes, it’s just as easy to forget it. Sound familiar?

Sadly, it’s not convenient to reset a forgotten Apple Notes password. As you’ll learn below, the chances of retrieving your currently locked notes depend on whether you can use Touch ID or Face ID to unlock them.

Note : The instructions below apply to the Notes app for iOS 15 , iPadOS 15 , macOS 12 Monterey, and later. If you run into any issues, update the system software to the latest version of iOS, iPadOS, or macOS and try again.

How to Reset a Forgotten Apple Notes Password

Changing a forgotten Apple Notes password doesn’t work like your typical login reset. Although the process is straightforward, the new password will only apply to any future notes you create, and any notes you’ve locked with the password you forgot will remain locked. However, it might be possible to recover the contents inside if you can access them via Touch ID or Face ID.

How to Retrieve Locked Notes Using Touch ID or Face ID

Before resetting your forgotten Apple Notes password, check if it’s possible to open the locked notes using device biometrics —Touch ID or Face ID. If you do, you must retrieve the contents inside each note by copying them to a new note.

Note : If using a Mac without Touch ID, you can follow the steps below on your iPhone or iPad, provided that the locked notes reside on the iCloud account and not under On My Mac.

1. Open the Notes app via the Home Screen or Dock on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac. Then, select a locked note and use Touch ID or Face ID to view it.

2. Tap the More icon (three dots) on the top-right corner of the screen and select Send a Copy > Copy to copy the contents of the iPhone note to the clipboard. On the Mac, press Command + A to highlight all contents. Then, control-click and select Copy .

3. Create a new note under the iCloud or On My iPhone / iPad / Mac accounts. Then, tap and hold any vacant area within the note and select Paste . On the Mac, control-click and choose Paste . Repeat the steps for every locked note you want to retrieve.

How to Reset Forgotten Notes Password on iPhone

After retrieving the contents inside any locked notes, go through the steps below to reset the forgotten Apple Notes password via the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad. Your iOS device will request your Apple ID password or the device passcode for added security during the reset procedure.

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad. Then, scroll down and select Notes > Password .

2. Select the password for the Notes account you want to reset— iCloud or On My iPhone / iPad . Then, tap Reset Password .

3. Enter the password for your Apple ID or type in your iPhone’s device passcode and tap Reset Password again.

4. Enter the new password into the Password and Verify field. Add a memorable password Hint to increase the chances of remembering the password if you forget it again. Turn on the switch next to Face ID or Touch ID and tap Done .

How to Reset Forgotten Notes Password on Mac

You can reset a forgotten Apple Notes password for the iCloud or the On My Mac accounts if you use a Mac. Enter your Apple ID or Mac user account password during the reset procedure.

1. Open Notes and select Notes > Preferences on the menu bar.

2. Open the menu next to Locked Notes and select the account you want to reset— iCloud or On My Mac . Then, select Reset Password > OK to continue.

3. On the pop-up that shows up, enter the password for your Apple ID and select OK . Or, type in your Mac user account passcode and press Enter . You must then select the Reset Password option again to confirm you want to change passwords for the designated account.

4. Enter the new password into the Password and Verify fields, add a hint in the Hint field, and select Set Password .

5. Check the box next to Touch ID (if your Mac supports Touch ID) to activate biometric unlocking for the Notes app. You must enter the new Notes password to confirm the action.

Resetting a forgotten Apple Notes password on your Apple devices can be complicated, so it’s a good idea to store the new password in a secure place to avoid the hassle of resetting it. If you couldn’t recover the contents of your old notes, don’t delete them, as you may recall your old password later.

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Passcodes suck. They take a long time to type in, it’s easy to forget them and most people probably pick something really easy to guess, which hurts their security. This is why biometric unlock methods are so popular.

All but the most inexpensive smartphones now have fingerprint scanners built-in. One little touch and your phone unlocks, which is pretty convenient. But more devices are also now using facial recognition instead since screens are getting so large. Apple is no different and offers devices that use both of these technologies to secure them. Technologies that are officially known as Face ID and Touch ID.

But how do Face ID and fingerprint scans work?

What Are Face ID & Touch ID?

The obvious answer to this question is that Face ID is a face unlock system and Touch ID is a fingerprint unlock system. Job done. End of article. Right? Well, it’s a little more complicated than that because although lots of different companies use faces and fingerprints to unlock their devices, they don’t all work in the same way.

These two biometric systems are Apple’s proprietary solutions to the biometric problem. This matters because companies like Apple feel that their approach and technology are more secure than their competition. It matters because hackers and other security specialists have managed to fool systems like these in the past.

As you’d expect, there’s a race between the creators of biometric security sensors and those who want to defeat them. You must know how the sensors on your Apple device work and what their limitations are.

How Does Face ID & Touch ID Work?

Touch ID is Apple’s most mature biometric system and you’ll find it on certain models of iPhones, iPads, and MacBook Pros. Its sensors use the sapphire crystal as the button material. This is very hard and incredibly resistant to scratches, which is why high-end smartphone cameras also use sapphire lens covers.

When you place your finger on the button, a very high-resolution image is taken of your fingertip. A proprietary software algorithm then examines the image, transforming your fingerprint into pure math. This is then compared to the stored mathematical transformation of the fingerprint that was registered when Touch ID was set up. If they match, then the device unlocks.

Face ID works in a pretty smart way as well. Many devices use a normal camera for facial recognition. It compares the photo it has on record with the one you are presenting to unlock the device. The software that does the facial matching is quite sophisticated, but many of these cameras can’t tell the difference between a photo or a mask, so they can be fooled into unlocking.

Face ID, on the other hand, makes use of a specialized TrueDepth camera to create a very detailed depth map of your face. One with over 30 000 points. It combines this with an infrared image of your face to create a facial profile. The neural net machine learning hardware components of modern Apple mobile device processors make this level of sophistication possible.

So how secure are these technologies and are they good enough for you to trust?

General Biometric Security Flaws

First of all, some security vulnerabilities apply to biometric systems in general. The biggest problem with using an aspect of your biology to unlock something is that you can’t change it. If someone managed to make a perfect copy of your fingerprint or face, they could unlock anything. If someone figures out a password or passcode, just change it.

This sort of thing has happened in the past and the way that biometric sensors have got around it is by becoming more detailed and looking at multiple aspects of your biology. For example, finer details of your fingerprints or the presence of body heat. Those who want to defeat these systems have to get better at replicating your biology, which is impractical for the average hacker at a certain point.

The biggest weakness of biometric systems is a pretty simple one. Someone can simply take your finger or face and force you to unlock your device. That’s different from a password or code which you can “forget” or otherwise withhold. We’ll deal with this scenario at the end of the article.

How Secure Are Face ID & Touch ID?

This is a bit of a loaded question since that depends on what your definition of ‘secure’ is. Usually, the security of systems like these is expressed as the odds of someone randomly beating them. That’s the “brute force” method of cracking a digital lock. For Touch ID there’s only a 1 in 500,000 chance of someone’s fingerprint being similar enough to yours that Touch ID will be fooled.

Of course, that’s very different compared to someone making an impression of your fingerprint or creating fake ones from a scan. Then again, how likely that is to happen depends on who you are and if someone would be motivated to take this extreme path. If you’re a VIP who draws this sort of attention, you shouldn’t be using biometrics, since they aren’t secure enough at that risk level in our opinion.

Face ID is more secure from a brute force perspective according to Apple’s numbers. With a one-in-a-million chance of a random person looking enough like you. Identical twins are perhaps the exception here. So what about photographs or masks that replicate your face? Face ID has countermeasures for this. As mentioned above, photos won’t work since the camera can sense depth. It uses neural net technology to also mitigate against the use of masks.

There are no numbers to tell us how effective this is, but once again for the average user, no one is going to spend thousands or even millions of dollars creating technology to defeat Face ID. If you’re the president of a country, don’t use biometric locks.

Activating The iOS Biometric Killswitch

Now only one issue remains. What if someone is in a position to force you into unlocking your phone? They just have to point it at your face or put your finger on it, after all. If you think you may be entering this situation, you can simply click the on/off button five times and biometrics will be disabled in favor of a passcode.

On the iPhone 8 and up you need to squeeze the side button and either of the volume buttons. These methods could be different when you read this, so be sure you look up the biometric killswitch method for your specific iOS device.

In short: Face ID and Touch ID are plenty secure for most people, but not for people who need military-grade security. If you are however very paranoid, use a six-digit passcode instead.

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