What to Do if Your iPad Markup Notes Disappeared

The worst thing that can happen when taking notes on your iPad is losing all of your annotations. Losing your PDF notes all of a sudden can be extremely frustrating. The bad news is that recovering them is often an impossible task. Let’s see how you can prevent these unpleasant events from happening.

Fix: iPad Markup Notes Keep Disappearing

Don’t Use Your Pencil to Open PDF Files

When you use your Apple Pencil, your iPad actually opens a preview of your file. As a result, you’re not editing the file itself. Instead, you’re only adding annotations on an overlay. When you hit Save or try to share the file with other users, the annotations disappear.

To avoid this issue, open the PDF file you want to edit without using your Apple Pencil. Add a quick note, save the changes, and then use your Pencil. Some users suggested that opening PDF files in Books and continuing with Markup should also do the trick.

Needless to say, make sure your iPad and apps are up-to-date. If you’re running outdated software or apps, install the latest updates, restart your iPad and check the results.

Use Third-Party Note-Taking Apps

Markup is part of the Apple Notes app. Using a different app should help you get rid of this problem. iPad users have been complaining about Markup deleting their notes for quite some time now. Apple has yet to officially comment on this matter. Unfortunately, this is not the only issue affecting Apple Notes.

To prevent such unpleasant events from occurring, don’t use Markup on your iPad for taking important notes. Instead, take notes using OneNote, Notability, Noteshelf, PDF Pro, PDF Expert, or other similar apps.

How to Recover Lost PDF Markup Notes on iPad

To get your lost edits back when using Markup on iPad, you need to:

1. Save your document to the cloud
2. Save your notes as often as possible
3. If your notes disappear, leave the file open for a few minutes to give your iPad the chance to re-populate your edits, and keep your fingers crossed
4. Then, open the problematic document on your desktop using the cloud save
5. Go to File, select Revert to, and click on Browse All Versions
6. Restore the last version of the file, and, hopefully, you’ll be able to restore most of your notes

However, this method works only if you manage to save your notes before disaster strikes.

Conclusion

The PDF Markup annotations you add on your iPad may sometimes disappear unexpectedly. To prevent this issue from happening, open your PDF files without using your Apple Pencil and save your notes as often as possible. Alternatively, you can also use a third-party note-taking app.

Have you experienced similar Markup issues on your iPad? Did you find other ways to solve the problem? Let us know in the comments below.

Madalina Dinita

Madalina has been a Windows fan ever since she got her hands on her first Windows XP computer. She is interested in all things technology, especially emerging technologies — AI and DNA computing in particular.