apl novice

Q: Restore Notes from Time Machine (El Capitan)

I backup using time machine, I recently deleted some notes and now need to restore them from my local hard drive using time machine. Should be easy right? that's what time machine is for, easy backup and restore Right?

 

I have searched the community but all posts on this subject seem to be either older OS's restoring everything from a ~Library/.... file or cloud based restore.  Any help gratefully received.

MacBook Air, OS X El Capitan (10.11.4)

Posted on Mar 26, 2016 6:09 AM

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Q: Restore Notes from Time Machine (El Capitan)

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  • by apl novice,

    apl novice apl novice Mar 30, 2016 7:16 AM in response to apl novice
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 30, 2016 7:16 AM in response to apl novice

    I dont know if I am being clear here, I have an Apple "Airport Time Capsule" that I backup to Wirelessly using Time Machine, I need to restore some "Notes" that I deleted inadvertently.   I don't seem to be able to find where notes are stored to be able to retrieve them.

     

    Has anybody any idea how to do this?

  • by Glenn Leblanc,

    Glenn Leblanc Glenn Leblanc Mar 30, 2016 8:13 AM in response to apl novice
    Level 6 (11,016 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 30, 2016 8:13 AM in response to apl novice

    If you recently deleted notes, they should go to a folder called Recently Deleted. If your sidebar isn't shown in Notes, enable it to see the folder. Deleted notes should be in that folder for 30 days.

  • by apl novice,

    apl novice apl novice Mar 31, 2016 7:10 AM in response to Glenn Leblanc
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 31, 2016 7:10 AM in response to Glenn Leblanc

    Thanks for your answer Glen, I can see this folder but its empty.   I have been working on this for so long it must be longer than 30 days ago I deleted them.  My Time Machine backup is my only hope but it seems not much of a hope!  John

  • by Glenn Leblanc,

    Glenn Leblanc Glenn Leblanc Mar 31, 2016 8:59 AM in response to apl novice
    Level 6 (11,016 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 31, 2016 8:59 AM in response to apl novice

    I wish I knew how to tell you to restore the notes, but I haven't found a way to do that. Notes are contained in your user Library/Containers folder.

    ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes

    From that location:

    ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/Notes/  -- 3 files containing the databases

    ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/CoreData/ExternalRecords/  --- several folders containing the records.

     

    I've had no success restoring notes, but I've seen where others have in the past. I use iCloud for notes. One thing I've seen was to make sure your computer is offline from the internet before restoring notes. I haven't tested any of this.

    You could just try restoring the whole com.apple.Notes folder from Time Machine and see what happens. Guess success may depend on who is the provider of notes, or is it just local notes on the Mac.

  • by apl novice,

    apl novice apl novice Apr 2, 2016 5:39 AM in response to Glenn Leblanc
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 2, 2016 5:39 AM in response to Glenn Leblanc

    Thanks Glen,  I really appreciate your time on this one, I was using Apple Notes and just storing on my local hard drive, my reasoning was even with the cloud, if you delete a note on your hard drive it deletes it on the cloud but if I back up to time machine I get to keep old notes and am able to restore from backup, not so, as I have found out!!

     

    However having now found out deleted notes are kept for 30 days, thats a good option.  Is this a new feature do you know, I don't remember seeing it before?

     

    John

  • by Glenn Leblanc,

    Glenn Leblanc Glenn Leblanc Apr 2, 2016 6:54 AM in response to apl novice
    Level 6 (11,016 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 2, 2016 6:54 AM in response to apl novice

    I'd like to know the answer to this myself. I've even tried testing this yesterday with On My Mac notes and can't seem to restore those either. Others said in the past they had success, but maybe I can't seem to duplicate that.

    As you said, it would seem that storing notes locally would have a hard backup copy in TM, but doesn't seem to be that way.

     

    For the 30 day feature for Recently Deleted, I'm not really sure when that started. The folder only shows up when you have notes in it for 30 days or less from deletion.

     

    If I find any new info, I will post back.

  • by Glenn Leblanc,

    Glenn Leblanc Glenn Leblanc Apr 4, 2016 10:05 AM in response to apl novice
    Level 6 (11,016 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 4, 2016 10:05 AM in response to apl novice

    I have figured out how to restore my notes. Seems my note database is updated in the Groups container folder. Trying restoring the 3 files in that folder:

     

     

    The files to restore are:

    ~/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.notes

    NoteStore.sqlite

    NoteStore.sqlite-shm

    NoteStore.sqlite-wal

     

    Others have success with these files:

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

    Notes/NotesV6.storedata

    NotesV6.storedata-shm

    Notes/NotesV6.storedata-wal

  • by Lukesandwich,

    Lukesandwich Lukesandwich May 5, 2016 9:46 AM in response to Glenn Leblanc
    Level 1 (4 points)
    May 5, 2016 9:46 AM in response to Glenn Leblanc

    Hey All I just SUCCESSFULLY  RESTORED NOTES ON el capitan 10.11.4 

    and i gotta tell you it's super super dooper easy

     

    go and do this exactly as I say and you will love it!

     

    >>

    1. closing the Notes app

    2. then moving/cutting out to another blank folder all three / 3  NoteStore.sqlite.* files from ~/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.notes/,

    3. and putting the files from the backup in their place

    4. then opening Notes

     

    you should see all your past notes.

    THEN: backup asap that container and also the normal container here : ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/Notes/     just to be safe. keep all your backups done regularly...

    this really did the trick!!!