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Notes.app - Recovering Deleted Notes

How does one recover deleted notes from a TimeMachine backup?


Digging around, I found that the Notes.app data is stored in the following folder:


//Users/<user acct>/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/Notes


However, I can't figure out how to access the Library folder in my TimeCapsule backups. Any ideas?


Your feedback is appreciated.


Best regards, Phil

Notes.app-OTHER, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.1)

Posted on Sep 6, 2012 5:46 PM

Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 6, 2012 5:54 PM

What you will want to do is go to that folder in the finder. If you haven't figured out how to get there, choose Go to Folder from the Finder's Go menu and paste in the following path:


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


Once you have that folder open in a Finder window, enter Time Machine, either by clicking the Time Machine icon in the Dock or by choosing Enter Time Machine from the Time Machine menu. You should be able to restore earlier versions of the files in that folder from there.

12 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 6, 2012 5:54 PM in response to Community User

What you will want to do is go to that folder in the finder. If you haven't figured out how to get there, choose Go to Folder from the Finder's Go menu and paste in the following path:


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


Once you have that folder open in a Finder window, enter Time Machine, either by clicking the Time Machine icon in the Dock or by choosing Enter Time Machine from the Time Machine menu. You should be able to restore earlier versions of the files in that folder from there.

Sep 7, 2012 7:02 PM in response to thomas_r.

Thanks. That allowed me to restore the deleted notes, but there was another issue with iCloud synchronization, which caused the restored notes to be deleted right after they were restored. That sync problem took Apple help suppotprt close to half-an-hour to figure out.

Nov 26, 2012 4:44 PM in response to Peter Haydu

Peter


It's been a while and I don't recall all the steps that the second tier Apple Care support technician made me go through. After we solved the issue, he contacted me by email and wanted to know whether I had used the Migration Assistant to move my data from my old MacBook Pro to the new one--which I had. They apparently thought that the Migration Assistant might have been responsible for the problems I ran into.


As I recall, he first had me sign out of my iCloud account and then delete the notes on my laptop. When I reactivated my iCloud subscription, all the notes synched and I no longer was getting duplicate notes as we had restricted the synching to the Notes iCloud account only. As I recall, I also had to disable the notes on my iPad and iPhone and then synch them re-activate only the iCloud account synching for notes.


I wish I could remember all the details, but I'm drawing a blank right now. Sorry...


Best regards, Phil

Aug 22, 2015 8:11 AM in response to thomas_r.

There are three Notes files in the ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/Notes/ folder. They are:

NotesV4.storedata

NotesV4.storedata-shm

NotesV4.storedata-wal


Do I restore all three files? If I restore them, will entries in other notes I created/updated since the date of the restore files be lost? How do I prevent this? I really just need to restore just one specific note, not all Notes.

Thank you.

Sep 7, 2015 7:30 PM in response to camionneur88

Those are the same i have come across -


how does one restore their notes from there files on the computer


I have tried preview - no luck

then open in notes - it never opens left it alone for 30 minutes

tried a text file - nothing


Apple moderators could someone shine some light i have a TM but when i started my note it was done with the back up and for 46 minutes been typing and then lost it - all i did was add another iCloud account to put notes in different account as this is how i do my backup and always work.


when i lost it i looked at my back up and it has yet to start for hourly backup so under an hour of work and it was deleted.


What app or software no matter the price ill buy it if it works - help


Thanks

iOSGenius

Notes.app - Recovering Deleted Notes

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