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 Jaswas,

    Jaswas Jaswas Mar 3, 2013 3:04 AM in response to Jeff Kennedy1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 3, 2013 3:04 AM in response to Jeff Kennedy1

    Hey there for everyone. I had the same problem, I wanted to restore my notes from my Time Machine Backup.

     

    So its quite easy. You just open:

     

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

     

    and the same path but on your backup. Then you copy the Folder with the large number onto your hard disk.

     

    And the last thing you have to do is to open:

     

    ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.notes/Data/Library/Notes/

     

    and replace the SQlite databases with the ones of your Timemachine Backup.

     

    Im not using iCloud so I dont know if this will work out when you sycn the next time. For me its okay

  • by aThanasi,

    aThanasi aThanasi Mar 12, 2013 4:08 AM in response to Jeff Kennedy1
    Level 2 (305 points)
    Mar 12, 2013 4:08 AM in response to Jeff Kennedy1

    You can use copytrans contacts in order to back up your notes as seen here:

     

    http://www.copytrans.net/support/how-to-backup-iphone-notes/

     

     

    back-up-iphone-notes.png

  • by JDfunky,

    JDfunky JDfunky Mar 13, 2013 11:13 PM in response to aThanasi
    Level 2 (187 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 13, 2013 11:13 PM in response to aThanasi

    @aThanasi, you appear to be posting about software for use on Windows computers, not relevant to this particular thread i.e.  > Mac OS & System Software > OS X Mountain Lion >

  • by ixber,

    ixber ixber Mar 21, 2013 9:52 AM in response to Jaswas
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Mar 21, 2013 9:52 AM in response to Jaswas

    My Library file is invisible. How do I make it appear ?

  • by Stephen Spark,

    Stephen Spark Stephen Spark Mar 21, 2013 10:00 AM in response to ixber
    Level 4 (2,419 points)
    Mar 21, 2013 10:00 AM in response to ixber

    Open a Finder window, click on the Go menu then press the option key on the keyboard to reveal Library.

  • by ixber,

    ixber ixber Mar 21, 2013 10:09 AM in response to Jeff Kennedy1
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Mar 21, 2013 10:09 AM in response to Jeff Kennedy1

    Thanks Stephen. That did it.

  • by dancetoday07,

    dancetoday07 dancetoday07 Mar 26, 2013 8:24 PM in response to ixber
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Mar 26, 2013 8:24 PM in response to ixber

    I decided the simplest thing is just to copy them to Evernote. 

  • by Kjell Peterson,

    Kjell Peterson Kjell Peterson Apr 5, 2013 8:37 AM in response to Jeff Kennedy1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 5, 2013 8:37 AM in response to Jeff Kennedy1

    This shell-command tells sqlite to write all your notes to a single text/html file:

     

    echo 'SELECT * FROM ZNOTEBODY;' | sqlite3 ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/Notes/NotesV1.storedata > ~/notes.html

     

    As others pointed out, the notes reside in ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/Notes/ . If you want to restore your notes with Timemachine, you have to restore the whole directory, containing of NotesV1.storedata, NotesV1.storedata-shm and NotesV1.storedata-wal (these files seem to depend on each other). You can also copy this directory from Timemachine to anywhere on your filesystem and extract the notes with sqlite.

     

    For example copy the directory to your desktop and run

     

    echo 'SELECT * FROM ZNOTEBODY;' | sqlite3 ~/Desktop/Notes/NotesV1.storedata > ~/Desktop/notes.html

     

    Works great for me!

  • by Roman1,

    Roman1 Roman1 Apr 7, 2013 1:16 PM in response to Kjell Peterson
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Apr 7, 2013 1:16 PM in response to Kjell Peterson

    Kjell,

     

    I haven't tried your instructions, but in the name of the whole community and people who care and use notes for hundreds of their notes (as it should be as it's the only app that supports the built-in iphone/ipad spotlight function and Siri) I heartily thank you.

     

    Thank you for sharing your hard earned knowledge. I'll try it and sleep better.

     

    Best,

    Roman

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Apr 7, 2013 1:20 PM in response to Jeff Kennedy1
    Level 9 (50,245 points)
    Desktops
    Apr 7, 2013 1:20 PM in response to Jeff Kennedy1

    Time Machine backs up everything without you having to do anything once it is set up. Use that.

  • by Roman1,

    Roman1 Roman1 Apr 7, 2013 1:22 PM in response to Kjell Peterson
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Apr 7, 2013 1:22 PM in response to Kjell Peterson

    Alright: couldn't resist and tried it.

     

    Yes, my current iCloud stored notes were saved in a huge, badly readable and non formatted HTML file. At least the text would have been backed up in this case so the loss would be less dramatic. Still, no workable restore at this point.

     

    ****, APPLE, why don't you let us just drag and drop those notes to a folder, zip them up, and when needed drag them back to the notes.app?!

     

    [sorry for the rant, i'm so %$#$%@]

  • by Roman1,

    Roman1 Roman1 Apr 7, 2013 1:24 PM in response to Csound1
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Apr 7, 2013 1:24 PM in response to Csound1

    Nice thought. Please try, before you post. Time machine, with the advent and intro of iCloud has lost a lot of functionality.

     

    I'd be thankful if you tried a case and described how a previous state (say an hour before, last week, etc).

     

    Thank you.

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Apr 7, 2013 2:05 PM in response to Roman1
    Level 9 (50,245 points)
    Desktops
    Apr 7, 2013 2:05 PM in response to Roman1

    Notes are stored on your computer (just like contacts, calendars, mail etc) and are backed up by any local backup system, such as Time Machine.

     

    Roman1 wrote:

     

    Nice thought. Please try, before you post. Time machine, with the advent and intro of iCloud has lost a lot of functionality.

    Attribution please.

  • by Kjell Peterson,

    Kjell Peterson Kjell Peterson Apr 10, 2013 5:07 AM in response to Roman1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 10, 2013 5:07 AM in response to Roman1

    Of course it would be easier to restore single notes if they were plain text files. But the format the notes are stored in is not as proprietary and obscure as I first thought. (Only the file-extension "storedata" is.) Actually it's just a sqlite-database that can be read and modified quite easily, as I found out now: There's a Firefox-extension called SQLite Manager that you can use to browse all of your notes - even ones that where previously deleted! Although I don't know for how long deleted notes are kept (and if all of them are kept), I can confirm that I saw one in there that I had deleted weeks ago.

     

    I hope that helps!

  • by djevanstn,

    djevanstn djevanstn Jun 22, 2013 11:10 AM in response to Surfalien
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 22, 2013 11:10 AM in response to Surfalien

    I just found your post today...

     

    There are a few things about this program I'd like changed, but it does "exactly" what I wanted done (a solid backup of the information on my IPHONE to my PC)

     

    Of course you already knew this, but I wanted to thank you for the post.  I'm really irritated with Apple for making this so difficult for me and irritating for so long.  I bought the program and it allows "anything" to be saved locally.   I haven't explored all the options, but I have the backup running now.  I don't see a restore yet, but again, I do have the data.

     

    Thanks !

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