Upgraded to El Capitan - Time Machine not possible to write data back of Notes

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 may not see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.

Linc,

Thanks for this, but it is not working for me, so would be very grateful for any more assistance you can give. I have recorded exactly what I have done which I think is equivalent to your post though different in parts.

I have been in El Capitan for some time and Notes has been working well and syncing across all my devices.

Today I accidentally deleted a Note (including deleting it from the recently deleted folder...dont ask) so it really is gone.

But I have TM running, so I turned off Notes in iCloud (and turned off wifi for good measure), to prevent the restored Notes being overwritten immediately from the iCloud Notes. (At this point there were no notes in Notes of course, because iCloud Notes was turned off).

Then I entered TM, navigated to ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes from yesterday, and selected "restore" then chosing to overwrite the original.

Logged out, logged in and opened Notes, and Notes was completely empty.

Turned on wifi and iCloud Notes and Notes immediately populated with my iCloud Notes (still minus the deleted one course).

I have read that Notes might be stored in ~/Library/Group Containers/ group.com.apple.notes/ and earlier I noted that when I made a test note, the time on the NoteStore.sqlite-wal file there changed. (a similar test note did not seem to change anything in the ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes folder).

So I also tried restoring ~/Library/Group Containers/ group.com.apple. notes/ from Time Machine but again got an empty Notes.

So I seem completely unable to restore Notes from a Time Machine backup.

Any help most welcome.

While in Time Machine, press the key combination shift-command-C. The front window will show all mounted volumes. All snapshots should now be accessible. Select the one you want and navigate to the files you want to restore.

If you need to restore from a backup of the hidden user Library folder, first select a snapshot, then press shift-command-G. A Go to Folder dialog will open. In it, you'll enter the path to the folder. The dialog will help you by automatically completing the parts of the path when you start to type them.

The path begins with slash character ("/"). Enter that. The rest of the parts will be separated by slashes.

The next part is the date and time of the current snapshot. Enter a "2", and the rest of the date should be filled in automatically. Press the right-arrow key to jump to the end of the path. Enter a slash to start the next part.

Next is the name of the volume (usually "Macintosh HD" unless you gave it a different name.) Start to type that, then jump to the end and enter a slash.

The next part is "Users", followed by a slash.

Next is your short user name. That's also the name of your home folder, which is represented by a house icon in the sidebar of a Finder window.

Finally, enter "Library", then press return. You should now be in the Library folder. From there you can get around as in the Finder. You can also select a different snapshot of the same folder.

Hi Mikebhm,

I follow the instructions you mention on your comment . I restore '' ~/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.notes/ '' from time machine . then before restart or logout I follow the instruction mentioned by Linc Davis in a previous comment , I also restore'' ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes '' from time machine to the same date as the first one : ~/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.notes/. After that I shut down my computer then login and I got my deleted notes it works very well 🙂 .

Here are the instructions to get your delete notes back from apps notes on mac running el captain 10.11.4

1) Close the apps note

2 ) Press Shift+command+G

3) copy this path ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes

then paste it to the ''Go to the folder window'' then hit enter.

4) open time machine (Enter Time Machine), then scroll to a previous date and select restore. then confirm replace.

then repeat the process from 2) Press Shift+command+G

5) copy this path ~/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.notes/ and paste it to the Go to the folder window. then hit enter.

you'll get something like this

6) open time machine (Enter Time Machine), then scroll to the same date as the one you pick up for the previous step and select restore. then confirm replace.

7 )from now just shut down your computer or restart your computer . you 'll get your delete notes when login to your computer.

Hope this will help 🙂

P.S : I follow the instructions by Linc Davis and Mikebhm.

Hi Husumer,

I follow the instructions mentioned by Mikebhm . I restore '' ~/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.notes/ '' from time machine . then before restart or logout I follow the instruction mentioned by Linc Davis in a previous comment , I also restore'' ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes '' from time machine to the same date as the first one : ~/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.notes/. After that I shut down my computer then login and I got my deleted notes it works very well 🙂 .

Here are the instructions to get your delete notes back from apps notes on mac running el captain 10.11.4

1) Close the apps note

2 ) Press Shift+command+G

3) copy this path ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes

then paste it to the ''Go to the folder window'' then hit enter.

4) open time machine (Enter Time Machine), then scroll to a previous date and select restore. then confirm replace.

then repeat the process from 2) Press Shift+command+G

5) copy this path ~/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.notes/ and paste it to the Go to the folder window. then hit enter.

you'll get something like this

6) open time machine (Enter Time Machine), then scroll to the same date as the one you pick up for the previous step and select restore. then confirm replace.

7 )from now just shut down your computer or restart your computer . you 'll get your delete notes when login to your computer.

Hope this will help 🙂

P.S : I follow the instructions by Linc Davis and Mikebhm.