Jeff Kennedy1

Q: How do you backup Notes?

I really like iCloud and how it keeps my iPhone and Macs in sync, but I have one question. How do you back up Notes?

 

In Calendar and Contacts, there are export options so I can export and back data up in case iCloud goes wonky, but I don't see such an option in Notes.

 

Thanks for any suggestions.

iMac 24' flat panel, Mac OS X (10.6.7), 4 GB RAM, 50 GB HD

Posted on Jul 29, 2012 1:53 PM

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Q: How do you backup Notes?

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  • by Surfalien,

    Surfalien Surfalien Dec 9, 2012 3:05 AM in response to Jeff Kennedy1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 9, 2012 3:05 AM in response to Jeff Kennedy1

    Also here is the link to the page:

     

    http://www.wideanglesoftware.com/touchcopy/index.php

  • by Roman1,

    Roman1 Roman1 Dec 19, 2012 1:02 AM in response to Surfalien
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Dec 19, 2012 1:02 AM in response to Surfalien

    Thanks! I'm not sure it can transfer back though. Similar to PhoneView which I did buy and love.

  • by philola,

    philola philola Jan 16, 2013 10:08 PM in response to Roman1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 16, 2013 10:08 PM in response to Roman1

    I don't the "On My Mac" section - Not sure how to create it or why it's not there.

    Any info on how to create?

     

    I have Mountain Lion (10.8.2)


  • by Bubs_69,

    Bubs_69 Bubs_69 Jan 17, 2013 7:20 PM in response to Jeff Kennedy1
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 17, 2013 7:20 PM in response to Jeff Kennedy1

    So it appears at this point in time the Notes app on OS X ML doesn;t get backed up in Time Machine, i.e like all other apps, you can't open the app, then 'go to Time Machine' and it brings up Notes history, it just seems to bring up Finder instead..

     

    I hope Notes will be included and work just like other apps do when backed up via Time Machine.

  • by Barney-15E,

    Barney-15E Barney-15E Jan 17, 2013 7:49 PM in response to Bubs_69
    Level 8 (49,722 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 17, 2013 7:49 PM in response to Bubs_69

    Bubs_69 wrote:

     

    So it appears at this point in time the Notes app on OS X ML doesn;t get backed up in Time Machine, i.e like all other apps, you can't open the app, then 'go to Time Machine' and it brings up Notes history, it just seems to bring up Finder instead..

     

    I hope Notes will be included and work just like other apps do when backed up via Time Machine.

    The "notes" are stored here:

    ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.notes/Data/Library/CoreData/ExternalRecords/

    Then it is burried in folders with unique ids.

     

    You can dig into that folder to find them and use Time Machine to restore. They are saved with a name like p16.notesexternalrecord.

     

    I haven't played with restoring them and seeing what happens when your recover in Time Machine then open Notes. I didn't have any that I deleted previously.

  • by William Lloyd,

    William Lloyd William Lloyd Jan 17, 2013 8:17 PM in response to Barney-15E
    Level 7 (21,141 points)
    Jan 17, 2013 8:17 PM in response to Barney-15E

    the .externalrecord files are not your notes.  They are the spotlight previews of the notes.  The notes themselves are in a sqlite database file. 

  • by Barney-15E,

    Barney-15E Barney-15E Jan 17, 2013 8:46 PM in response to William Lloyd
    Level 8 (49,722 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 17, 2013 8:46 PM in response to William Lloyd

    Potato, potahto.

     

    The point is to back them up and recover individually. Seems to come as close as anything.

     

    Are you sure those aren't the notes and the SQLite database is just the index?

     

    I won't have the time to dig into it deeper, so I'll leave that up to those who need the feature.

  • by dancetoday07,

    dancetoday07 dancetoday07 Jan 20, 2013 6:23 PM in response to Barney-15E
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jan 20, 2013 6:23 PM in response to Barney-15E

    Barney, are you saying that is how you get to the notes backup in Time Machine?  I deleted some notes accidentally. I forgot that my old iPhone that I was giving to my son would sync with my new iPhone and iPad. I was deleting things off of what I was giving him so he would have the space. Then I realized it was telling my two devices to delete them. So I turned Time Machine off right away so it wouldn't get the message to delete those, in case it worked that way.  So I have searched in Time Machine by the word Notes and by the name of the Individual missing notes, but that didn't get me anything. So when you say the noter are at "

    ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.notes/Data/Library/CoreData/ExternalRecords/

    Then it is burried in folders with unique ids.", how do I get to that?  Open the first and then the next ,etc.? 

     

    I need to turn my son's phone notes OFF so they won't sync with mine anymore or he will be deleting the rest of my notes. 

  • by Barney-15E,

    Barney-15E Barney-15E Jan 20, 2013 6:37 PM in response to dancetoday07
    Level 8 (49,722 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 20, 2013 6:37 PM in response to dancetoday07

    Yes, dig into each folder. You'll find some notes in there. I use Quicklook (press space bar) to read them.

    If, as someone mentioned, they are just images, you at least can recreate the text note from the picture.

     

    I found mine inside the ImapNote/_records/0 folder inside the unique ID folder at the above path.

  • by William Lloyd,

    William Lloyd William Lloyd Jan 20, 2013 6:38 PM in response to Barney-15E
    Level 7 (21,141 points)
    Jan 20, 2013 6:38 PM in response to Barney-15E

    Yes I am sure.  The SQLite database is the store of record.

     

    That said, for anyting "on the network" (i.e in iCloud), backing up and restoring the database isn't that useful because iCloud is considered the "store of record" so if you delete stuff and it syncs to iCloud, then restoring the SQLite database won't do much good: The next time the machine goes online the iCloud version of things (i.e. deletes) will bowl over the local copies.

  • by Barney-15E,

    Barney-15E Barney-15E Jan 20, 2013 6:47 PM in response to William Lloyd
    Level 8 (49,722 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 20, 2013 6:47 PM in response to William Lloyd

    Then, where is the database file?

  • by William Lloyd,

    William Lloyd William Lloyd Jan 20, 2013 6:48 PM in response to Barney-15E
    Level 7 (21,141 points)
    Jan 20, 2013 6:48 PM in response to Barney-15E

    /Users/blloyd/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/Notes

     

    These are the files:

     

    NotesV1.storedataNotesV1.storedata-shmNotesV1.storedata-wal
  • by William Lloyd,

    William Lloyd William Lloyd Jan 20, 2013 6:51 PM in response to William Lloyd
    Level 7 (21,141 points)
    Jan 20, 2013 6:51 PM in response to William Lloyd

    FYI if you want to see  EVERYTHING in notes you could go to that directory and type "sqlite3 NotesV1.storedata .dump" and it will spew it all out as ASCII.  Do a redirect (i.e. sqlite3 NotesV1.storedata .dump > notesbackup.txt" and you have a backup.  You could then figure out the SQLite command to re-load that backup if you ever need it (this is left as an exercise for the reader ;-)

  • by Barney-15E,

    Barney-15E Barney-15E Jan 20, 2013 6:52 PM in response to William Lloyd
    Level 8 (49,722 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 20, 2013 6:52 PM in response to William Lloyd

    I'll just write a SQL script for him.

  • by dancetoday07,

    dancetoday07 dancetoday07 Jan 20, 2013 7:40 PM in response to William Lloyd
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jan 20, 2013 7:40 PM in response to William Lloyd

    Right, that's what has happened to me twice now.  Once the note seemed to just delete itself on one device and I rushed upstairs to get it off the other device and poof, right in front of my eyes, it was deleted via iCloud.  This time, though, I did it because I forgot that my son's iPhone (my old one) was still synced with my new phone and iPad and I was deleting notes from his and it then deleted them off of mine before I realized that was happening. 

     

    I don't know SQL or ASCII. I am going to see if I can follow what you are saying in Time Machine.

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