Notes disappear after Time Machine restore on MacBook Air M4

I have mistakenly deleted my notes in the notes app on my MacBook Air m4.

I have a Time Machine back up and a Super Duper clone. Which I don't know how to use.

Is there anyway to use either of these to get my notes back to ICloud.

I am not very experienced in these matters.

Tried for several hours with restoring with Time Machine . Notes came back but immediately disappeared. After using Migration Assistant.

Any help would be most appreciated,as I don't know what I am doing and just wasting hours.

Thanks in advance.

R.Bellamy

MacBook Air 15″, macOS 26.2

Posted on Feb 7, 2026 2:52 AM

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Posted on Feb 7, 2026 5:13 PM

Raymond -

iCloud sees that your notes were meant to be deleted and deletes them again as soon as it sees them restored.

The trick will be to disable any network connection (Wi-Fi or Ethernet) on your Mac before you restore from Time Machine, so that an iCloud data refresh is not triggered.

Once the Time Machine restauration is done, move all the iCloud notes to the "On my Mac" location. This will preserve them for the time being. Reconnect your network and wait a few minutes. Finally, move the "On my Mac" notes back to the iCloud location.

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Notes disappear after Time Machine restore on MacBook Air M4

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