ross258
Level 1 (1 points)

Q: Half of all my notes are gone! Help!

I kept getting a reminder to update my password on the Yahoo account linked to the computer, but since I started using a different Mail application and didn't want to have two apps updating e-mails decided to delete the account from System Preferences. Immediately afterwards almost all of my Notes I made in the App are GONE with only some notes I made from ancient times remaining. I immediately reconnected my Yahoo account to the Mac, but it didn't appease the computer and now i've lost almost everything. Years worth of Ideas. It didn't keep asking my to update the Yahoo password before El Capitan! I didn't realize the consequences would reverberate across apps! Is there a way to fix this? Anyway at all?

 

Eternal gratitude to anyone who can help!

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X El Capitan (10.11), Notes App, Mail and Accounts

Posted on Oct 27, 2015 11:18 PM

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ross258

Q: Half of all my notes are gone! Help!

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  • by ross258,

    ross258 ross258 Oct 27, 2015 11:47 PM in response to ross258
    Level 1 (1 points)
    Oct 27, 2015 11:47 PM in response to ross258

    I've been doing some digging and this is what i've found so far

     

    Notes App note being backed up by Time Machine.

     

    On that discussion, someone found the location of files called .notesexternalrecord. These seem to be the file format that the Notes app uses to store notes.

     

    Weirdly if you pull them up individually in spotlight , you can't CMD double click them to open their containing folder.

     

    I saw previews of some of them and they look like they contain some of the missing notes. I copied the folder somewhere safe. Accessing them again is still a problem. The general consensus seems to be not to mess around with the original files in any way as that could mess a lot of things up. So am holding safely onto them till  there's a way to access them.

     

    I believe the notes are still alive somewhere in the computer and will continue to try and find a way to fix this. If anyone has had this experience and knows of a better way to restore the Notes to as they were pre-mistake help is much appreciated.

  • by ross258,

    ross258 ross258 Oct 27, 2015 11:58 PM in response to ross258
    Level 1 (1 points)
    Oct 27, 2015 11:58 PM in response to ross258

    Actually, not sure I saved anything.

  • by jackoloki,

    jackoloki jackoloki Aug 16, 2016 7:13 AM in response to ross258
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Desktops
    Aug 16, 2016 7:13 AM in response to ross258

    Did you ever find a way to open or view the contents of a notesexternalrecord file? I know for a fact that the note I'm looking for is inside one of these files (a search for a phrase that the note contains turns up in Spotlight search), but I can't find any way of getting at it?

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Aug 16, 2016 9:37 AM in response to jackoloki
    Level 9 (70,250 points)
    iTunes
    Aug 16, 2016 9:37 AM in response to jackoloki

    You might want to start your own post since this one is from last year. A new post would be much more visible. You can link to this one.


    Have you tried opening the file in TextEdit?

  • by jackoloki,

    jackoloki jackoloki Aug 16, 2016 9:50 AM in response to Eric Root
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Desktops
    Aug 16, 2016 9:50 AM in response to Eric Root

    Thanks, I already did start another post. That was the one you responded to yesterday. I was just trying to see if the original poster of *this* thread had found a solution.

     

    Text Edit, yeah...it just gives me some sort of plist header, nothing else. It's as if the external records file doesn't really have anything in it but maybe points to another file...or maybe has another file is pointing to it when I do the Spotlight search, idk. Or maybe the file contents are there, they just need to be accessed by some other means...Terminal? All I know is my writing is there somewhere on that system. I wish there was someone who really understood the structure of Notes and how it keeps and stores them.