Chreed

Q: After I updated to OSX 10.11.4 all my notes on my mac are gone! How do I get them back?

I updated my macbook pro yesterday to OSX 10.11.4 and then going in to my notes.app all my notes are gone!? ***! I have a lot of important notes and need to find them! Is there anyone who can help me retrieve my notes?

MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.4)

Posted on Mar 29, 2016 9:52 AM

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Q: After I updated to OSX 10.11.4 all my notes on my mac are gone! How do I get them back?

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  • Helpful answers

  • by keg55,

    keg55 keg55 Mar 29, 2016 10:07 AM in response to Chreed
    Level 6 (8,407 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 29, 2016 10:07 AM in response to Chreed

    If your Notes are in iCloud, have you tried signing out of iCloud then back in?

  • by Chreed,

    Chreed Chreed Mar 29, 2016 10:09 PM in response to keg55
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 29, 2016 10:09 PM in response to keg55

    They're not in iCloud just on the computer. Thanks anyway!

  • by William Kucharski,

    William Kucharski William Kucharski Mar 29, 2016 10:28 PM in response to Chreed
    Level 6 (15,118 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 29, 2016 10:28 PM in response to Chreed

    By default after the upgrade Notes seems to only look at your iCloud and other network accounts if you have one.

     

    Go to the Notes menu and make sure the "On My Mac" Account is checked (select it if it is not):

    Screen Shot 2016-03-29 at 11.26.23 PM.png

    Then once you've done that, select the "On My Mac" Notes:

     

    Screen Shot 2016-03-29 at 11.25.18 PM.png

  • by Alex-Turner,Solvedanswer

    Alex-Turner Alex-Turner Mar 30, 2016 4:40 AM in response to Chreed
    Level 2 (151 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 30, 2016 4:40 AM in response to Chreed

    open finder.

    Click Go

    Click Go To Folder

    Put in this address: ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.com.Notes/Data/Library/Notes/

    Right click on the .storedata file and choose open with

    Text Edit: applications > Text Edit

     

    Your data is in there. Its messy and mixed in amongst A LOT of computer code.... but you can find your notes in big clumps throughout the code.

     

    copy and paste it into Word and then clean up the code from there.

  • by Chreed,

    Chreed Chreed Mar 30, 2016 4:50 AM in response to William Kucharski
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 30, 2016 4:50 AM in response to William Kucharski

    I tried this, but it is as if after I upgraded it simply formatted the notes.app and deleted all my notes.

  • by Chreed,

    Chreed Chreed Mar 30, 2016 4:51 AM in response to Alex-Turner
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 30, 2016 4:51 AM in response to Alex-Turner

    This helped! I've found the notes but it's gonna take a long time to edit out all that code though...

    Thanks for the help!

  • by Lexiepex,

    Lexiepex Lexiepex Apr 3, 2016 2:44 AM in response to Alex-Turner
    Level 6 (10,477 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 3, 2016 2:44 AM in response to Alex-Turner

    Alex, can you help me here:

    in ElCap  10.11.4  I don't find com.apple.com.Notes , however I find  com.apple.Notes  and the following folders as you mentioned.

    But in the Notes folder there is no  .storedata  file, only  three files called   NotesV6.storedata   NotesV6.storedata-shm   NotesV6.storedata-wal  . I suppose the NotesV6.storedata  is the one I should look for ?

    I also find files with the same names but V1 instead of V6: in   com.apple.mail   and in     /private/var/root/......... /Notes.

    There is no such file as   .storedata on my mac.

    Lex

  • by Lexiepex,

    Lexiepex Lexiepex Apr 3, 2016 3:09 AM in response to Alex-Turner
    Level 6 (10,477 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 3, 2016 3:09 AM in response to Alex-Turner

    I looked in  NotesV6.storedata  with Textedit and Textwrangler and found the Notes, but it is an incredible job to extricate them from there...

    There must be a simpler way, I thought.

    So I deleted the   NotesV6.storedata    file, then while in this folder in Finder, I entered TimeMachine, went back a few days (and Finder stayed in that folder ! ) and restored the file. That worked.

    This might not be possible always and for all dates (I was in 10.11.4 also in the TimeMachine date).

  • by alfromestero,

    alfromestero alfromestero Apr 12, 2016 7:51 PM in response to Chreed
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Apr 12, 2016 7:51 PM in response to Chreed

    I believe the above folder has a typo.  remove the .com after /com.apple so it should be

     

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

     

    Also, after you find the file NotesV6.storedata

    - copy it to your desktop,

    - add the file extension HTML and

    - open it with safari by just double clicking on it.

     

    You can then find your note data is a readable and copy-able format so you can simple copy and paste it into a new note in "new" Notes.

     

    Good luck...   Al Z