Want to access your Apple Notes on a PC? In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to create, edit, move, delete, and work on your iPhone notes on a Windows computer.
Before we get started, you should know that the built-in Apple Notes app on iPhone, iPad, and Mac lacks a Windows version or browser extension. But thanks to the two methods shown below, accessing Apple Notes on your Windows PC is easy.
Use the web version of iCloud Notes
This is not only the easiest but also the best method to view, create, edit, and delete your Apple Notes on a Windows or Linux computer. All you need is a web browser.
1) Visit iCloud.com in Chrome, Edge, Firefox, or a browser of your choice on your Windows PC.
2) Sign in using the same Apple Account you use on your iPhone. If you don’t know your Apple ID, here’s how to find it.
3) Click Notes.
4) You can now access all your Apple Notes. You can also create a new note, open locked notes, edit existing ones, move or delete notes, recover recently deleted notes, create and remove notes folders, and do almost everything else. All the changes you make on the web version of iCloud Notes will also sync to your Apple devices, such as iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Vision Pro.
Note:
- Using the above steps, you can only access those notes that are stored in iCloud. If you have added your Gmail or other third-party accounts to your iPhone and are creating notes in it, please see the next method.
- And if you were creating notes under the On My iPhone/iPad/Mac folders, these notes are saved locally only to that particular device. To access these on a Windows PC, you’ll have to move them to iCloud first. Once they are available in iCloud, you can access them in a browser on your non-Apple device.
Use Gmail, Outlook, or Yahoo to access your iPhone Notes
In addition to iCloud and local On My iPhone accounts, you can add third-party locations like Google, Outlook, and Yahoo to the Apple Notes app. To do that, go to iPhone Settings > Apps > Notes > Accounts > Add Account.
Once you have added your preferred accounts, open the Notes app and tap Folders to see all the possible locations where you can create notes inside the iOS Notes app.
Use the steps below to to see these non-iCloud notes on a Windows PC.
Gmail
You can access (but not edit) all the notes you have under the Gmail folder of the iPhone Notes app by visiting mail.google.com on your Windows PC and going to the Notes section. Make sure to use the same Google account that’s on your iPhone.
Outlook
You can access and edit notes saved in the Outlook folder of the iPhone Notes app on the web by logging in at outlook.live.com and selecting the Notes folder. All edits you make on the web will sync to your iPhone. If they don’t, just create a new note in the Outlook section of the iPhone Notes app. This will force everything to sync, and you will see the changes on the web and iPhone.
Compared to Gmail and Yahoo, Outlook’s approach is better as it lets you edit on the web and syncs the changes everywhere.
Yahoo
Similarly, notes you create under the Yahoo folder inside your iPhone Notes app can be accessed (not edited) by opening mail.yahoo.com on your PC and going to the Notes section.
One major downside of using Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, or a non-Apple service is that it won’t upload your existing iCloud notes to them and make them accessible inside Gmail, Yahoo, or Outlook.
Another piece of information you must know is that you can move notes in Gmail, Yahoo, or Outlook to iCloud, but you can’t move iCloud notes to Gmail, Yahoo, or Outlook.
All in all, these are two of the easiest ways to access notes created inside the official Apple Notes app on your Windows PC.
In summary:
- If you save your notes to iCloud, follow the first method to access them on the web.
- And if you save your notes elsewhere, like Gmail, Outlook, or Yahoo, use the second method to access them through their respective services on the web.
Finally, I would leave you with this piece of advice — if you regularly use an iPhone and a Windows PC or Android phone, consider checking out some excellent cross-platform note-taking apps like Microsoft OneNote, Simplenote, Google Keep, and Evernote. These services offer their entire feature suite on all platforms, and either one of them can be an excellent Notes app alternative.
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