How to lock notes on iPhone: passcode or separate password
Locked notes can use your iPhone passcode or their own password. The choice decides who can open them.
In short
Go to Settings › Apps › Notes › Password and choose Use Device Passcode or Use Custom Password, then open a note, tap the More button and tap Lock. With the device passcode, anyone who knows your iPhone passcode can open locked notes; with a custom password, nobody can — including you if you forget it, as Apple cannot recover it. Notes with PDFs, video, audio, file attachments or tags cannot be locked.
Key takeaways
- Device passcode is easy to recover; a custom password is more private.
- A forgotten custom password cannot be reset for old notes.
- The title of a locked note stays visible in the list.
Two ways to lock notes
Since iOS 16, Notes offers two locking methods, chosen per account (your iCloud account, “On My iPhone”, and so on).
- Device passcode: locked notes open with your iPhone passcode, or Face ID or Touch ID. On your other devices, each device’s own passcode or Mac login password opens them. Nothing new to remember.
- Custom password: a password used only for Notes, the same on all devices signed in to your Apple Account. Face ID or Touch ID can be turned on as a shortcut.
Apple says both options protect locked notes in iCloud accounts with end-to-end encryption.
Set it up and lock a note
- Go to Settings › Apps › Notes (Settings › Notes before iOS 18) and tap Password.
- If you have several accounts, choose one.
- Tap Use Device Passcode or Use Custom Password, and optionally turn on Face ID or Touch ID.
To lock a note, open it, tap the More button, then tap Lock. To remove the lock, tap More, then Remove.
What you can’t lock, and what stays visible
Not lockable
- Notes with video, audio, PDF or file attachments.
- Notes with tags, and Quick Notes.
- Notes shared in iCloud, or synced with other accounts such as Gmail or Yahoo.
- Notes that use features from a newer version of Notes.
What stays visible
The title of a locked note remains visible in the notes list, so choose titles that say nothing. Once you open one locked note, all locked notes in that account stay open for several minutes. They lock again when you close Notes, when the iPhone sleeps, or when you tap Lock Now at the top of the list.
If you forget the password
With a custom password, Apple cannot help you get back into notes if you forget it and cannot use Face ID or Touch ID. Resetting it in Settings › Apps › Notes › Password › Reset Password only applies the new password to notes you lock from then on. Apple advises against relying on Face ID alone: changing your Face ID settings asks for the Notes password again.
With the device passcode, forgetting is less of a risk — but anyone who knows your iPhone passcode can open your locked notes.
For documents rather than text
Notes cannot lock PDFs or attachments, which are often the most sensitive part: a scanned passport, a contract, a medical letter. Latent does not store text notes, but it does keep PDFs, scans and any other file encrypted behind a pattern that is separate from your passcode.