jtik

Q: Does anyone know how to restore/retrieve Notes from Time Machine back-up? I am running Mountain Lion and I had to replace my hard drive. I've restored almost all files, but I can't find Notes.

Apple replaced my hard drive yesterday. I am running on Mountain Lion. I was able to restore all the files I needed except my "Notes". Any idea where I can find these on my Time Machine back-up so I can copy them over to my new hard drive?

 

Thank you.

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Feb 17, 2013 11:50 AM

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Q: Does anyone know how to restore/retrieve Notes from Time Machine back-up? I am running Mountain Lion and I had to replace my hard ... more

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  • by Allan Eckert,

    Allan Eckert Allan Eckert Feb 17, 2013 11:54 AM in response to jtik
    Level 9 (54,020 points)
    Desktops
    Feb 17, 2013 11:54 AM in response to jtik

    Second thread on right under heading More Like This has the solution

     

    Allan

  • by jtik,

    jtik jtik Feb 17, 2013 1:03 PM in response to Allan Eckert
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 17, 2013 1:03 PM in response to Allan Eckert

    Is this the note you are referring to:

    Not sure if this can help you.

    I checked my notes. They are stored here:

    MacintosHD/Users/MYHOME/Library/Containers/com.apple.notes/Data/Library/CoreData /ExternalRecords/

    xxxxxserie.of.numbers.probably.yours.are.different/IMAPNote/_records/0/

     

    If I go tot this window on finder and enter Time Machine I can go back and find old notes...

     

    If so, am I doing this on my new hard drive on on the time machine? When I do this on the time machine, what is "my home"? Also, I am unable to find "containers".

     

    If I go to users/jeff/library, then I see components, compositions, contextual, etc, but not containers.

     

    Thanks

  • by Eric Root,Helpful

    Eric Root Eric Root Feb 17, 2013 2:38 PM in response to jtik
    Level 9 (73,421 points)
    iTunes
    Feb 17, 2013 2:38 PM in response to jtik

    Last sentence - on my installation the components and other items you mentioned are in the Library where the System Folder is. They are not present in the user library, which is where Containers is.

     

    Screen Shot 2013-02-17 at 5.37.07 PM.png

  • by jtik,

    jtik jtik Feb 17, 2013 3:17 PM in response to Eric Root
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 17, 2013 3:17 PM in response to Eric Root

    Thank you. I found the Notes on my Time Machine back-up. When I drag them to by desktop they are in the .storedata format (.storedata, .storedat-wal, and .storedata-shm). Is there a way I can open them in Notes?

     

    I appreciate your patience.

  • by Eric Root,Helpful

    Eric Root Eric Root Feb 17, 2013 5:26 PM in response to jtik
    Level 9 (73,421 points)
    iTunes
    Feb 17, 2013 5:26 PM in response to jtik

    Not a problem.

     

    Please do a backup.

     

    I'm in my Snow Leopard partition now so I can't check the file format/name.

     

    What happens if you move what is on the desktop to your user library Containers?

     

    If you can wait until tomorrow, I'll check, but you should be able to check by looking in your current user folder. If necessary, create a new note so you can see what it is named.

  • by jtik,

    jtik jtik Feb 17, 2013 5:51 PM in response to Eric Root
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 17, 2013 5:51 PM in response to Eric Root

    Feel free to give up on me whenever you want...

     

    I think I did put them in the Notes Library section, I see the same-looking files, but I cannot open them. I can get them to look like Asci text. I'm not even 100% that these are my Notes files. I had several Notes before I replaced by hard drive, but now there are only the three files I referenced above. Of course, maybe one file contains multiple notes, but I can't tell if that's the case.


    When I created a new note on my new hard drive, I didn't notice any change in the Library.

     

    I can definitely wait until tomorrow, but again, I don't want to strectch your patience too far.

     

    Thank you

  • by Eric Root,Solvedanswer

    Eric Root Eric Root Feb 18, 2013 9:38 AM in response to jtik
    Level 9 (73,421 points)
    iTunes
    Feb 18, 2013 9:38 AM in response to jtik

    Below is a screen shot of the file names in my user library. They appear to match what you typed. I have 18 notes, all with multiple lines, and they evidently are all stored in the 3 files. The modified date/time match when I last used them yesterday. After doing a backup, if you put the files here, you still only get Asci text?

     

    Screen Shot 2013-02-18 at 12.29.03 PM.png

  • by jtik,

    jtik jtik Feb 18, 2013 5:56 PM in response to Eric Root
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 18, 2013 5:56 PM in response to Eric Root

    Thanks for trying. I gave it another shot, but failed. I'm sure the problem is with me, but I give up. I'll live without my Notes.

     

    Thanks again for your help. jt