JRC4

Q: Restore a Note from Time Machine Using Yosemite?

One of my Notes (in the Apple Notes app) has disappeared.  I can't figure out how to restore it from Time Machine.  I see other posts saying to find the Library/Container, but I don't see that anywhere in OS X Yosemite.  Anyone help?  Thanks!

Posted on Nov 11, 2014 7:17 PM

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Q: Restore a Note from Time Machine Using Yosemite?

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  • by JRC4,

    JRC4 JRC4 Nov 11, 2014 8:38 PM in response to JRC4
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iCloud
    Nov 11, 2014 8:38 PM in response to JRC4

    In other words, I'm wondering where in Finder I can find the data files for Notes.

  • by Josabs,

    Josabs Josabs May 8, 2015 7:53 AM in response to JRC4
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 8, 2015 7:53 AM in response to JRC4

    Has anyone answered this question? I have the exact same problem

  • by cdhw,

    cdhw cdhw May 8, 2015 9:04 AM in response to JRC4
    Level 4 (2,653 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    May 8, 2015 9:04 AM in response to JRC4

    Notes are stored in a database that lives here in:

     

         ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/

     

    Use the Finder > Go > Go to File ... to get to ~/Library/Containers/ and then use Time Machine to do its thing and recover an old version of com.apple.Notes. You then want to copy the note you have lost to another document, e.g. TextEdit, and use TM again to return to the present.


    Obviously, make sure you have a backup of your current notes before attempting this.

     

    C.

  • by cdhw,

    cdhw cdhw May 8, 2015 10:00 AM in response to cdhw
    Level 4 (2,653 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    May 8, 2015 10:00 AM in response to cdhw

    Sorry, that should have been


         Finder > Go > Go to Folder...

     

    My bad.

     

    C.

  • by JoyRose,

    JoyRose JoyRose Sep 30, 2015 11:12 PM in response to cdhw
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iTunes
    Sep 30, 2015 11:12 PM in response to cdhw

    I am having the same problem, trying to recover an EXISTING note that had different contents.

     

    I followed the steps you provided above, but I noticed it did not recover the old note contents from 1, 3, or even 6 months ago. It only went back as far as a few days ago, regardless of how far back in Time Machine I tried to restore.

     

    I also noticed inside of the com.apple.Notes folder, the path Data > Library > Notes contains these 3 files: NotesV4storedata, NotesV4storedata-shm, and NotesV4storedata-wal.

     

    Time Machine would replace these files with an older version: NotesV3storedata, NotesV3storedata-shm, and NotesV3storedata-wa

     

    I removed the V4 files and even trashed them. But when I opened Notes, the V4 versions of each of these files replaced the V3 versions. So I was not able to recover farther than a few days back. The way I can tell is that my shopping list will only go back as far as Sept. 21, 2015, a date I inserted in the title of the note and change when I update the list. The current shopping list note has a more recent date. But with the Time Machine recovery, nothing seems to go beyond a few days ago.

     

    So, any ideas how to restore Notes beyond the Yosemite version? Thanks!

  • by leroydouglas,

    leroydouglas leroydouglas Oct 1, 2015 12:29 AM in response to JRC4
    Level 7 (23,378 points)
    Notebooks
    Oct 1, 2015 12:29 AM in response to JRC4

    Easiest to use your Local Snapshots.

     

    About Time Machine local snapshots - Apple Support

  • by JoyRose,

    JoyRose JoyRose Oct 1, 2015 6:15 PM in response to leroydouglas
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iTunes
    Oct 1, 2015 6:15 PM in response to leroydouglas

    To be honest, I have no idea how Local Snapshots has anything to do with my issue.

     

    The good news is that while working with Apple Care, I was able to view the older Note, and copy the encryption key I needed. Problem solved!

     

    Thanks anyway!

  • by alanfromoxnam,

    alanfromoxnam alanfromoxnam Nov 7, 2015 5:02 PM in response to JoyRose
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Desktops
    Nov 7, 2015 5:02 PM in response to JoyRose

    Restoring Notes in Yosemite

    I managed to restore all my notes by selecting the following folder :-

    ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes

    then clicking on the Time Machine icon and selecting a date, sub-folder /Library/Notes and RESTORE

    After closing Time Machine all my Notes were restored in place.