Help me save my wife's Notes

Question

Help me save my wife's Notes

I posted this earlier in a thread that was several years old but received no response, so I thought I'd try creating a new thread. Basically, in getting my wife set up on a new Macbook Pro, a series of unlikely contretemps led to the loss of most of her notes. Evidently with her old Macbook she was syncing notes via gmail. When we switched to iCloud these were somehow all wiped out, except on her old computer. I took this machine and backed up her folder ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes just to be on the safe side.

Sure enough, I turned on wifi, gmail synced, and her notes (from the Notes app) were wiped out. *But* I still have her com.apple.Notes--which should contain all her notes, right? So--I copied this backed up com.apple.Notes into her Containers folder and renamed the old one. Unfortunately, when I opened Notes (we're still on her old Macbook) there was nothing there.

Then I saw this later posting elsewhere:

Since macosx el capitan, upgraded notes keeps its databases in Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.notes. Previous folder Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes is used for previous format of notes, so - it contains your old formatted notes before converting it to next version of Notes.so Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.notes and Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes should be copied for backing up, new one and old.

I recognize that I have probably lost her post-El Capitan notes for good, but I hold out hope of recovering the others. Can anyone tell me how to extract the notes from her old pre-El Capitan com.apple.Notes file? Many, many thanks.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X El Capitan (10.11.1)

Posted on Mar 17, 2016 7:37 PM

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Answer 1

Mar 26, 2016 10:18 AM in response to Community User

Any help out there? Keep me out of divorce court please!

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Answer 2

Mar 26, 2016 11:15 AM in response to Community User

Without doing all of the jiggery pokery moving preference files, have you tried syncing via Internet Accounts inSystem Preferences?

If her gMail account is set up in Internet Accounts, make sure that notes is checked. Also, if your wife logs into gMail through a browser to look at her notes, are they still there? They should be, I really don't think either gMail or OSX wipe things just like that, if anything you would end up with duplicates.

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Answer 3

Mar 26, 2016 11:24 AM in response to Hibernian56

Thanks for that. Unfortunately they are gone on Gmail. I will not detail the series of unfortunate missteps that led to this but our situation is this:

Only four notes left on gmail.

Something like 50 on her new computer

Four left on old computer

Many no doubt in that preference file I described

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Answer 4

Mar 26, 2016 1:24 PM in response to Community User

I never did it before, but i just logged into gMail, and deleted notes do not go to the trash? Thats a bit alarming, so I can sympathise with you there.

So do you still have the pre El Capitain com.apple.Notes file? And is her user account still on the old machine, WITHOUT iCloud set up? Can you not just put that back.

If that doesn't work, TIME TO GET YOU HANDS DIRTY 😁

Make a back up of the backup container first....

In the NEW backup, browse to ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/Notes/

You should see files named NotesV3.storedata or NotesV4.storedata etc. These are database files, you will need an sql database viewer to read these. If you don't have one download a free one from here, there are 2 Mac versions, download the Cipher version.

http://sqlitebrowser.org

Now, once you open the database, don't do anything. Go to File>Export>Export and export as CVS, a dialogue will pop open, highlight the ZNOTEBODY table ONLY. Once done you will have ZNOTEBODY.cvs, you can open this file up in excel or numbers, it's a simple spreadsheet.

In ZNOTEBODY.cvs you will see in column "F" your notes are there, albeit in HTML format, but thats a good thing as any formatting your wife did should be respected.

Next you need a HTML editor, either CODA or CoffeeCup will do..

https://www.panic.com/coda/

http://www.coffeecup.com/osx/web-editor/

If you've never used one before, go for CoffeeCup Web Editor, the trial is good for 30 days and it will give you a live preview of the HTML code.

All you need to do is copy the text from each note cell, them paste it into the HTML editor, it will then reformat it, removing the HTML tags. You can then copy that info back into a new note for your wife, hopefully saving everything and your marriage.

To use CoffeeCup, copy the note info one spreadsheet (note) cell at time. In CoffeeCup, go to File>New Project>Quick Project where you see a number 1 with a flashing cursor, just paste in your info, the preview window above should reflect the note as it used to be. You need to do this each time, deleted the code you just pasted, then copy a new note in from the spreadsheet. A bit tedious, but thats the best I can do for you.

Good luck, and let me know how you get on.

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Answer 5

Mar 26, 2016 2:03 PM in response to Hibernian56

Hibernian56, I have always had a great fondness for all things Irish, and your generous (and evidently knowledgeable) response has only deepened my appreciation. I will try this later in the weekend, along with a couple other chores I need to perform on wife's computer to get things straightened out (and redeem myself). I will let you know how it goes. Meanwhile, many thanks!

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Answer 6

Mar 26, 2016 2:08 PM in response to Community User

No problem. If like me you have already started to consumed some recreation juice, best to leave it for now. Remember, at all costs we must maintain the "we men know everything relating to tech" farce in the eyes of our beloved. Have a good one.

Slan.

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Answer 7

Mar 26, 2016 2:12 PM in response to Hibernian56

Funny, I was going to wait until I'd fortified myself just a tad but you and I may be in different times zones and it's just a little early. Then I thought: better tackle this with all my very limited faculties at full power. Your sensible advice underscores my resolve!

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Answer 8

May 2, 2016 8:52 AM in response to Hibernian56

Hibernian56, hi, and sorry for the delay. At first I think I was trying to get the data out of the wrong file. But finally I found a v3 file with some data and exported it to a .csv file. When I used quick look I thought, great, looks like maybe 250 notes recovered here. But when I tried to open it in Excel, all I have is five or six cells filled, and the rest empty. I took a screenshot of the top of the .csv table as viewed with quick look (not excel), and the link is below. Any idea why can't I see any of this stuff in Excel? Thanks so much for your help!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wa6odqkajsqt27h/Top%20of%20ZNOTEBODY%20in%20quickview. jpg?dl=0

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Answer 9

May 24, 2016 11:57 AM in response to Hibernian56

Ok, your answer was officially right. The problem seems to be that the data just won't show up in Excel 2008. My son, who has Excel 2016 or Office 365 or whatever, was able to view it effortlessly. Data recovered! Many many thanks.

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