Notes Crashing On iPhone And iPad After iOS 17 Update?

Notes crashing when writing using Apple Pencil or while playing audio on iPhone and iPad? It happens after updating to iOS 17 respectively iPadOS 17? Issue persists even after the 17.0.3 update? You’re not the only one experiencing it!

Notes Crashing iOS 17 Issue?

This problem has been reported by one of our annoyed readers:

“…notes app crashing constantly as well as audio notes cutting out mid song. Same for files app cutting the audio out in the middle of a song.”

We’ve seen many other similar reports on other discussion platforms like Reddit (1, 2 and 3) and Apple’s Discussion Forums (1 and 2 )

The Conclusion is that we’re most likely dealing with an iOS 17 iCloud bug. The problem occurs when Notes tries syncing data from iCloud. This leads to the unexpected shutdowns:

1. Notes Crashing When Writing

As we can notice from the above reports the app crashes when writing mostly when using the Apple Pencil on the iPad.

2. Notes Crashing When Playing Audio Files

A significant amount of users also complain about the fact that they aren’t able to play audio files in Notes. Music playback would crash the app unexpectedly.

How To Fix Notes Crashing On iPhone & iPad

Apple should include a fix in an upcoming update. However, until then you might want to try these workarounds:

1. Disable iCloud Sync

Many users confirmed that turning iCloud sync off for Notes, would do the trick. However, this workaround forces you to use only local notes.

As a temporary fix, you can turn off iCloud sync in Settings -> Apple ID -> iCloud -> Show All -> Notes -> Sync this iPhone.

This should prevent Notes crashes on iPhone or iPad.

2. Reinstall Notes

You can also try offloading and reinstalling Notes on your device:
Go for Settings -> General -> iPhone Storage -> Notes -> Offload App -> Reinstall App.

Tip: You can then turn back iCloud sync for Notes and see if it works. Does it?

3. Share A Document

An user mentions that he managed to fix Notes crashing in iOS 17 by sharing a Page or Word document to an existing note!

I recommend you to try the same and let us know if it helps.

4. Create Notes using the app icon

Another workaround requires you to create a new note using the app icon.

Long-press on Notes to bring up the quick-actions menu and select New Note.

Opening Notes via this shortcut could prevent the app from crashing when writing or playing an audio file. Does it?

Have you managed to get around the Notes crashing issue in iOS 17 / iPadOS 17? Do you have a better solution? Share your feedback in the comments and we will update this article accordingly.

Related: Notes app crashing was also a thing during iOS 15. Take a look at the fixes that worked two years ago.