Notes: Local notes ('On My Mac') suddenly not showing any notes, although the files are present on the file system.

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Level 1

12 points

Notes: Local notes ('On My Mac') suddenly not showing any notes, although the files are present on the file system.

Hi,

Since today, my local (i.e., not the iCloud synched) notes suddenly went empty, apart from a single old note in the 'Recovered Items'. I tried going back to previous versions of the folder ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/Notes using Time Machine, unsuccessfully.

I also tried recovering not just the aforementioned folder, but the entire ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes, ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes.datastore, ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes.HTMLConvertor, ... etc folders as well. Again, to no avail.

The strange thing is: when I go back to a version 2 weeks ago and open the NotesV7.storedata-wal file in an editor, I can see text that was in the notes, but when I open the actual Notes app, the list of local notes just remains empty. I went back to dates where I am absolutely sure I worked on those local notes, still, not showing anything. I even killed the /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/NotesShared.framework/Versions/A/XPCServices/com.apple.Notes.datastore.xpc/Contents/MacOS/com.apple.Notes.datastore process prior to restoring, to make sure no other process is holding on to a previous version of the notes.

Obviously, I tried restarting too.

Notes version 4.5 (876.1), macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 (17G6030).

Anyone any ideas? Many thanks!

MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.13

Posted on Dec 16, 2019 6:56 AM

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Answer 1

BDAqua

Level 10

250,511 points

Dec 16, 2019 11:17 AM in response to jan_spooren

Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at startup), does the problem occur in Safe Mode?

Safe mode attempts to repair Disks & clears lots of caches, so if Safe Mode works try again in regular boot.

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Answer 2

BDAqua

Level 10

250,511 points

Dec 17, 2019 9:14 AM in response to jan_spooren

Did you haveNotes Quit when you did those files?

Maybe other Notes files needed?

Find Any File...

http://apps.tempel.org/FindAnyFile/index.php

Hold Option or alt key when selecting Find to Find All.

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Answer 3

jan_spooren Author

Level 1

12 points

Dec 18, 2019 2:57 AM in response to BDAqua

Yes, I quit Notes when restoring the file. I even killed the /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/NotesShared.framework/Versions/A/XPCServices/com.apple.Notes.datastore.xpc/Contents/MacOS/com.apple.Notes.datastore process, to make sure no other Notes related process kept the files open.

I don't have FAF, but I ran:

sudo bash

cd /

find . -name "NotesV*"

and that did not turn up any other Notes files. I then tried

find . -name "*Notes*"

which resulted in an obviously large list. I went through all file time and dates. Most are dated 2018 and have therefore not been changed recently, except for:

/private/var/folders/gc/xxv0s3dj4dl_q3mcsp1_n0vm0000gn/C/com.apple.Notes/mds/

/Users/jansp/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/Caches

/Users/jansp/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Notes.plist

The 2 last ones are not really relevant, because I tried restoring these to old versions already, by pulling the entire /Users/jansp/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/ folder from Time Machine. I did experiment renaming the cache file, which results in it being recreated upon starting Notes. But, I still didn't get my Notes back.

I then renamed the /private/var/folders/gc/xxv0s3dj4dl_q3mcsp1_n0vm0000gn/C/com.apple.Notes/mds/ folder and tried again (after again restoring to the November 5th version of the actual NotesV7* files). That mds folder is also automatically regenerated, but still no luck.

No clue what to try next. Is there a tool available to export / import notes from the NotesV7* files? My Notes are in these, as I can see when I open the NotesV7.storedata-wal file in an editor. Notes just refuses to show them for some bizarre reason. Also, Notes hasn't been updated lately (as in the last year)...

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Answer 4

jan_spooren Author

Level 1

12 points

Dec 19, 2019 3:40 AM in response to BDAqua

Actually, there seem to be two locations where notes are stored:

The iCloud synched notes are in ~/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.notes and these are indeed in a Sqlite DB.
The local notes are in ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/Notes and I guess they're in a Notes-proprietary format.

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