Signs that don't show text when there was text put on them.

I have written down signs to show what's in each chest I have. And I don't know if it's my computer, or minecraft, but the signs don't have any text on them. And I don't want to destroy them and replace them, because that would be a pain trying to write down what I had on it in the first place.
I'm in a mountain biome, playing mostly on survival. And only on creative if I'm either making pixel art, or a big project.