Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT
I want to try to resurrect, through TM, some old Notes info.. I expect that they are stored somewhere in the system, but I can seem to find them. So just where are they stored?
iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3), 2.7 Ghz 16GB RAM
This procedure will revert the whole Notes database to a previous version. It's not possible to restore individual notes.
Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes
Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select
Services ▹ Reveal in Finder (or just Reveal)
from the contextual menu.* A folder should open with an item named "com.apple.Notes" selected. Quit the application if it's running. Move the selected item to the Trash, then restore it from a backup that predates the unwanted change. If you back up with Time Machine, enter it and select the snapshot from which you want to restore.
Log out or restart and empty the Trash.
If you synchronize Notes with iCloud or another network service, the notes you restored may be immediately deleted after you restore them. In that case, temporarily disconnect from the Internet, for example by turning off your broadband adapter, and restore again. Copy the contents of each note to a document in another application, such as TextEdit. Reconnect to the Internet. If the notes are deleted, recreate them from the TextEdit document. They should then synchronize to the network.
*If you don't see the contextual menu item, copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. In the Finder, select
Go ▹ Go to Folder...
from the menu bar and paste into the box that opens by pressing command-V. You won't see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.
This procedure will revert the whole Notes database to a previous version. It's not possible to restore individual notes.
Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes
Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select
Services ▹ Reveal in Finder (or just Reveal)
from the contextual menu.* A folder should open with an item named "com.apple.Notes" selected. Quit the application if it's running. Move the selected item to the Trash, then restore it from a backup that predates the unwanted change. If you back up with Time Machine, enter it and select the snapshot from which you want to restore.
Log out or restart and empty the Trash.
If you synchronize Notes with iCloud or another network service, the notes you restored may be immediately deleted after you restore them. In that case, temporarily disconnect from the Internet, for example by turning off your broadband adapter, and restore again. Copy the contents of each note to a document in another application, such as TextEdit. Reconnect to the Internet. If the notes are deleted, recreate them from the TextEdit document. They should then synchronize to the network.
*If you don't see the contextual menu item, copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. In the Finder, select
Go ▹ Go to Folder...
from the menu bar and paste into the box that opens by pressing command-V. You won't see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.
Thanks Linc. Good answer, however, it doesn't seem that is what I want to do. Unfortunately, you say restoring individual notes is not possible and that IS was I wanted to do. So I guess history won't be repeating itself this time out!
Ii would seem that that is something people (OK!-me) would want to be able to do. So is that ability very difficult to build in?
So is that ability very difficult to build in?
Whether it is or not, Apple hasn't done it. What you can do is restore an earlier database, extract the text of a note, and then revert to the newer database.
On second thought since I can always revert I'll give your suggestion a try. It sounds like it just might produce the result I wanted-or close enough anyway. Thanks
Linc, you are the greatest!
Unfortunately this hasn't worked for mw 😟
I followed your exact suggestions by restoring an old Time Machine backup but upon entering the notes, nothing was there. I disabled wifi and did all the rest perfectly.
Simon
Where are Notes files stored?
