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)
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.
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.
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.
@philrodo:
As someone in a similar situation (deleted notes, restored files from TM backup also deleted via iCloud), I’d be very interested in knowing what Apple support solution worked for you.
Thanks!
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
I turned off the internet access before restoring in Time Machine to block icloud, then copied and pasted the notes into another app, then turned on internet access, then copied and pasted them back into Notes. A little time consuming, but less than the half hour for support to figure it out, unless you have a huge number of notes.
Thomas A Reed's fix worked for me with an improvement on Caroline999's additional step. Instead of copying and pasting all notes, just go through and add a carriage return to each. That makes them new notes that are saved. Then turn wi-fi back on. They upload to iCloud.
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.
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
Cannot tell you how much I appreciate this solution.
It saved my butt, big time.
I also learned something about Time Machine that is exceptionally valuable. That is if you open up the directory that is of interest in normal OS X, then open TM, TM will come up with that folder. This feature is HUGE.
Great tips!
I'm having the same problem, now I know how to fix it.
Got to the point where I had the 3 folders as noted in the reply by camionneur88, but I cannot seem to open any of these 3 files
What is the trick?
I am not particularly computer literate
Thanks
You really have to wonder about all this "convenience"...I've also spent countless hours trying to fix a problem that involves getting a few lines of text to sync across a couple of devices.
Notes.app - Recovering Deleted Notes
