How To Read Recovered Apple Notes From Crashed HDD

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How To Read Recovered Apple Notes From Crashed HDD

I attempted to use DiskWarrior 5 to repair the hard drive that crashed on the previous laptop I was using last year (Macbook Pro Mid-2010 7,1). I was running OS X 10.9 Mavericks for sure, and I'm almost positive I had updated to OS X 10.10 Yosemite by the time the hard drive crashed. DiskWarrior did not end up completely fixing the drive, but I was able to salvage most of the important files that I needed back.

The only thing that I have yet to get back that I really wanted to were my Apple Notes (not stickies). I was able to salvage a couple of com.apple.Notes folders with these files:

NotesV1.storedata

NotesV1.storedata-wal

NotesV1.storedata-shm

I've tried to add the .html extension and open them in Text Edit and Safari, and I'm seeing plenty of code, but none of my actual notes. I notice that at the top of the NotesV1.storedata file it says: SQLite format 3, which leads me to believe that SQLite could be used to open/decode what I have so that I can actually read it. I don't know anything about SQLite except that it can be opened and used in Terminal, and that it is already installed by default on my current computer which is a Macbook Pro Mid-2012 (9,1).

Here is a sample of what I'm seeing if it helps.

Can anyone who knows what I'm trying to do and also knows what they're doing give me step-by-step directions on how I can open these files with SQLite in terminal, or decode them, or something. And no, unfortunately I do not have a back-up of the hard drive anywhere, nor was I using iCloud at the time.

Posted on Feb 7, 2016 8:49 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,660 points

Feb 11, 2016 11:52 AM in response to SpaceCarRider

Sqlite is a database format.

Your Mac should have a tool built in to read these files, it is a Terminal command that has this manual…

https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/ man1/sqlite3.1.html

If that is too hard you could try an app like…

https://www.sqlitepro.com/

…or one of the many that are discussed at …

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/100959/mac-sqlite-editor

You need to open the 'NotesV1.storedata', you may need to look in various tables to find the relevant data, the data will be broken up so that parts are unique, it is generally how databases are structured, if you need everything intact (like the modification dates etc) you will need to make queries to extract the relevant parts. Otherwise you can export to CSV or other formats via that app.

I'd recommend working on a copy, just in case you save the changes & alter the original.

I don't think this database is encrypted, but it is possible so post back if it all looks like gibberish. Also bear in mind that the data may not have images or other media files that may have been attached, sometimes they are kept out of databases as files.

Another option is to find the location that the Notes.app stores these databases in your user account, you may be able to place these copies there & get the app to read them. Ideally you would have a similar version of the OS installed to do this.

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Answer 2

Feb 8, 2016 12:23 AM in response to Drew Reece

Thank you for your reply Drew, but as stated above I'm looking for some directions on how to actually execute this. I've downloaded DB Browser for SQLite, http://sqlitebrowser.org/ for the second time now to attempt what you are suggesting. I am aware of the GUI apps for doing what I'm trying to do, but so far I have yet to come across someone actually explaining the process. All I have seen is people throwing out the links to the applications that are supposed to help.

I don't typically mind doing some research to figure the answer to my own problem, but in this case I really just want to get the information from my notes and be done with it. The DB SQLite may be incredibly user friendly for someone who already knows what they're dealing with, but to me I have no clue what to do with it.

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Answer 3

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,660 points

Feb 11, 2016 11:52 AM in response to SpaceCarRider

Do you understand what a 'relational DB' is?

For a broad analogy you could consider the DB like multiple spreadsheets that link to each other. The key to making it work is that each row has an ID to use for linking to that related data. These ID's are usually numbers, you will find many rows starting with numbers.

In your SQLite DB you have tables instead of spreadsheets. The data is still stored in rows and ID's link to join related data from one table to the next.

The DB also has extra info that describe how it is structured, that is what the Database Structure shows you in the Sqlitebroswer app.

This is all a little fuzzy because I do not have a copy of this database (I don't have this notes version), so I am generalising the process below…

Make a copy of the DB to work with.
Open your copied DB, select the 'browse data tab'
Select one of the tables in the popup.
- You should see lots of rows of data, if not look in another table
- Scroll horizontally to see if the data is simply out of view.
- Double click a cell to edit or read the full value (this will change your data - you are working on a copy aren't you!?)
- Keep going until you find one that looks like your notes, scroll down & check the others look OK too.
If you find the notes you can now export that data, File > Export > Tables as CSV. That will create a text file separated with commas, you can work with that in Excel, Numbers or a plain text editor like TextEdit.

Please note DB's can sometimes store several versions of something, check to see if you have the full information, it is possible to filter rows but it does involve knowing some SQL queries.

If you are still having trouble I may be able to give you a script to export the tables to a CSV file for you to hunt through, but as you can probably see from your DB, it is really structured for use inside an app.

Ask if you needs parts explaining, just be sure you keep several copies of the original file & you will be fine (put one on USB & remove it for safety).

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Answer 4

Feb 11, 2016 11:51 AM in response to Drew Reece

Thanks again Drew, I think the ultimate reality of this situation is that none of the note files actually contain any of my notes. There is information, but nothing I wrote. It appears that maybe the files were corrupted or maybe changed during the process of the DiskWarrior recovery. I didn't go search for those files until After I allowed DiskWarrior to replace the directory, because at that time I didn't know what to look for. I'm really not sure what happened though. But, for as many forums as I've visited, and judging from your directions, there is nothing to be recovered from the files I have. I'll probably keep them around and try again sometime.

Lesson learned: I should have been backing up my system! I've started using Time Capsule and iCloud at this point, and will probably copy my Apple Notes to another file type for safe keeping now.

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Answer 5

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,660 points

Feb 11, 2016 2:31 PM in response to SpaceCarRider

Backups are critical, you may want another disk to 'archive' files onto as well, Time Machine will delete the oldest data when the backup disk is nearly full. Archives are a frozen point in time. Create a new topic if you want to discuss that in depth, there are many that will help with that here 🙂

Did you examine each table to see if it contains anything at all?

If they are all empty then it is pointless, however if some of them have data it may just be that you have missed the correct table (the structure is confusing at best), I would look for one called ZNOTEBODY - just a guess from the screenshot, it is not the whole picture.

I think we may have used the wrong Application, SQLIte Pro has the ability to export all tables easily - it means you can get a text file for each table. It is probably easier for you to browse, especially if you select the file in Finder & tap spacebar to see a preview.

https://www.sqlitepro.com/

Grab the app, Open the DB via File open.

Click Export in the upper right, select CSV.
Enable all the 'Objects to export' in the list, select a destination folder & then click 'Open' (what a weird name for this button).
If there is data there you can consider a exporting in another format.

This is the demo DB that ships with SQLite Pro.

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