Notes just disappeared off Macbook, no iCloud backup - where did they go?

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Level 1

5 points

Notes just disappeared off Macbook, no iCloud backup - where did they go?

Help! I'm trying to figure out why all my recent notes suddenly disappeared. As far as I know, I didn't do anything to cause this. I tried to recover via iCloud, but due to lack of space, backups on iCloud stop in March 2020. So over two years of notes are just gone. Can anyone help? I literally was using it one day, and woke up the next and nothing was there. I haven't done any recent updates. I checked my recycle bin but I'm not finding anything. I did some internet searching and tried to recover via user name, library, group container - but for some reason there is no "library" folder.

My notes are super important to me, so I'm basically losing my mind. Yeah I get it, I should have backed it up, but it's very frustrating that they just suddenly disappeared, for seemingly no reason.

MacBook Pro 13″, OS X 10.11

Posted on Jun 4, 2022 3:40 PM

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Answer 1

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Meliara04 Author

Level 1

5 points

Jun 5, 2022 9:40 AM in response to Owl-53

By some miracle, I did find them under "notesV7.storedata." However, I couldn't open this file in Notes. I had to save the file to my desktop, change the file type to "html," and then open in my browser. So I can access the notes, but it's difficult because they are all in one long jumble. It still makes no sense to me why they disappeared in the first place. I won't be using Notes anymore.

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Answer 2

Owl-53

Level 10

102,877 points

Jun 5, 2022 2:15 AM in response to Meliara04

Sorry they seem to be gone but " I tried to recover via iCloud, but due to lack of space, backups on iCloud stop in March 2020. So over two years of notes are just gone."

iCloud is not a good idea to depend upon for Very Important things like Notes.

If , as you say, this computer does not have a Time Machine Backup and they are not still in iCloud, they are probably gone for every.

iCloud was never designed or intended to used as a mode to Backup.

It is a conduit to have files on iCloud so all other devices using the same Apple ID and iCloud can have access to the files. Changes performed on one device will Sync to iCloud. The changes done one one device will be reflected to all the Other Devices.

Lesson learned Do you have a Rescue Plan In-Place. This comprises having 3 Backups using 2 methods and 1 Off Site incase of Theft, Loss or Natural Disasters. A Time Machine Backup is very useful and can be used to Revert to Previous Working macOS.

For addition purposes - two Tested Clones each to separate external drives. This is insurance incase. At least one Tested Clone and / or Time Machine Backup should be Off - Site

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