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Notes Disappeared? Guide to Recover Deleted Notes on Mac

Updated on Monday, January 29, 2024

iBoysoft author Connie Yang

Written by

Connie Yang
Professional tech editor

Approved by

Jessica Shee

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How to Recover Deleted/Disappeared Notes on Mac?

Summary: This article tells how to recover deleted or disappeared notes on Mac. Among the measures, recovering deleted notes with iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac is the most efficient way.

recovery deleted notes on Mac

Apple's Notes is a useful notetaking app on Mac computers and iPhones. It helps you save a lot of important information, such as links, memos, passwords, etc. However, now you find some or even all notes are disappeared from the Notes app.

Maybe you've deleted them by mistake or they are missing after you upgrade to macOS 12 Monterey or macOS 13 Ventura. Whatever the cause is, this post offers useful methods to recover your deleted notes on Mac. Then, your disappeared notes will get back.

How to recover deleted notes on Mac/MacBook:

WaysStepsApplicable situations
Use iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac1.  Free download, install, and open iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac. 
2.  Select the macOS - Data volume and click Search for Lost Data. 
3.  Preview the scanning results and find your deleted notes. 
4.  Click Recover to get them back.
The deleted notes are permanently deleted. 
You can't find the deleted notes from the Recently Deleted folder in the Notes app, iCloud.com, Time Machine, and .storedata files.
Recover from the Recently Deleted folder1.  Open the Notes app. 
2.  Open the Recently Deleted folder from the sidebar. 
3.  Right-click the desired notes and select Move to > On My Mac.
You've deleted the notes within 30 days.
Use iCloud1.  Open the Apple icon > System Preferences > iCloud. 
2.  Uncheck the Notes option. 
3.  Log into iCloud.com with your Apple ID. 
4.  Double-click Notes to open it and find and recover your deleted notes.
You've enabled iCloud and allowed it to sync your Notes app and meanwhile, you've just deleted the notes a moment ago.
Use Time Machine backup1.  Connect your Time Machine backup hard drive to your Mac. 
2.  Disable Notes in iCloud to stop it from syncing your Notes app. 
3.  Enter Time Machine from the top Time Machine icon. 
4.  Browse the files and find your wanted notes.
You've enabled Time Machine to back up your Mac.
Recover from the .storedata files1.  Click Finder > Go > Go to Folder. 
2.  Enter ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.notes/Data/Library/Notes/ and hit Return. 
3.  Copy and paste the notes .storedata to the desktop. 
4.  Change the file extension from .storedata to .html and open them to find your desired notes.
You haven't turned on iCloud and have a Time Machine backup.

Free download iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac to quickly recover your disappeared deleted notes on Mac.

Table of Contents:

Where are Notes stored on Mac?

By default, the destination that your notes stored on your Mac is in your user Library folder. Here is the path to it: ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/Notes/. You can open Finder and click the Go option on the top menu bar. Then select Go To Folder and enter the path to find your notes.

Also, if you've enabled iCloud and synced your Notes on your Mac, you can find your notes stored on iCloud's website.

Can you get back deleted Notes?

Yes, you can recover the deleted notes on Mac from the Recently Deleted folder in the Notes app if the notes are deleted within 30 days, from iCloud.com if you've allowed iCloud to sync your Notes app, and from Time Machine backup if you've made it recently.

If you can't recover deleted notes from the mentioned three ways, use data recovery software to get back your disappeared notes on your Mac. Data Recovery tool like iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac even allows you to recover permanently deleted notes on your Mac.

How to recover deleted/disappeared notes on Mac?

If your Mac/MacBook notes disappeared, choose the ways below that cater to your scenario to retrieve them.

How to recover deleted notes on Mac:

  1. Recover deleted notes on Mac with data recovery software (Best)
  2. Recover deleted notes on Mac from the Recently Deleted folder
  3. Recover deleted Notes on Mac using iCloud
  4. Recover deleted notes from Time Machine backup
  5. Restore deleted Notes on Mac from .storedata files

1. Recover deleted notes on Mac with data recovery software (Best)

Using a data recovery tool is the simplest and quickest way to recover deleted files on Mac, including your notes. Here, iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac is recommended. It is a top-ranking, professional, and safe data recovery tool.

This Mac Data Recovery software helps recover lost notes, documents, emails, photos, videos, and other types of files from your corrupted Mac hard drive. It even gives you a chance to recover permanently deleted notes on your Mac.

Attention, please! You can follow this video tutorial to recover your deleted notes from your Mac.

Or else, you can also follow the steps below to recover disappeared notes on Mac with iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac:

Step 1: Free download and install iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac on your Mac computer.

Step 2: Select the Macintosh HD - Data volume or macOS - Data and click "Search for Lost Data".

scan macOS data volume

 Note: The Macintosh HD - Data volume usually stores the user data, including your data on the Notes application. If you are using macOS Mojave or earlier, there's no Macintosh HD - Data volume. The user data is stored in the startup volume, which is usually named macOS or Macintosh - HD by default.

Step 3: Find the deleted notes from the filter of the path or type and preview them.

list found files

Step 4: Select the deleted notes and click "Recover" to save your notes to another destination.

Now, your notes are available again. Very easy, right?

2. Recover deleted notes on Mac from the Recently Deleted folder

Usually, the deleted notes are kept in your Recently Deleted folder in Notes within 30 days. So, if you've deleted your notes in no more than 30 days, you can try to restore them from the Recently Deleted folder.

  1. Open the Notes app from the Dock.
  2. Select the Recently Deleted folder from the left sidebar on your Notes app.
  3. Right-click the desired note and choose "Move to" > "On My Mac".
    restore deleted notes from the Recently Deleted folder

Then, the deleted notes will be restored to your Notes.

3. Recover deleted Notes on Mac using iCloud

iCloud is popular cloud storage used to sync files among your Apple devices. If you have synced your data with iCloud, you can use it to restore your deleted Mac apps, removed documents, disappeared notes, etc.

  1. Open the Apple menu > System Preferences > iCloud.
  2. Uncheck the Notes option. This is to prevent the files on iCloud from being deleted as well. 
    uncheck Notes in iCloud
  3. Search for iCloud.com in the browser and log into it using your Apple ID and password. Forgot the Apple ID password?
  4. Double-click "Notes" to open it and save your disappeared notes. 
    open Notes in iCloud

 Note: Remember to re-check the Notes option in iCloud to enable it to continue syncing your Mac Notes.

4. Recover deleted notes from Time Machine backup

Time Machine is a built-in feature in Mac OS that enables you to back up important files on your Mac. If you have the habit of backing up your Mac at regular times, you can use the Time Machine backups to find the lost notes.

However, if your notes are deleted after your latest Time Machine backup, they couldn't be captured in the backup. In such a case, restoring the disappeared notes with data recovery software is the right way.

Moreover, recovering deleted notes from Time Machine backup may overwrite the recently saved notes. Therefore, you need to back up the latest notes by copying and pasting them to another destination or exporting them as PDFs.

export notes as PDFs

Then, you can follow the steps below to recover disappeared notes from your recent Time Machine backup:

  1. Close Notes and disable iCloud syncing for your Notes app.
  2. Connect your external storage device that has the Time Machine backups to your Mac.
  3. Click the Time Machine icon on the upper right corner of your screen and select "Enter Time Machine".
  4. Browse the files that are related to .apple.notes and find out your desired notes. This will take some time. Then click "Restore".

After retrieving the lost notes, you need to turn on Notes in iCloud for syncing.

5. Restore deleted Notes on Mac from .storedata files

The Notes app is a native app on Mac. It always stores temporary data which is called .storedata files in the user Library folder. You can browse those files and check if you can find out your deleted Mac Notes.

  1. Open Finder and navigate to the top menu bar, then click Go > Go to Folder.
  2. Put ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.notes/Data/Library/Notes/ into the search box and press Return. 
    find notes storeddata on Mac
  3. Copy and paste all of the three files to your desktop. 
    the Notes storeddata on Mac
  4. Change the file extension from .storedata to .html to make the three files accessible. The files will show up in HTML format. 
    change the Notes storeddata extension on Mac
  5. Double-click to open them and press Command - F to find your desired data and restore it to a different destination.

As the .storedata files are user data that be well-protected, some users may see disordered codes on the converted .html files. In that case, you have to use a data recovery tool like iBoysosft Data Recovery for Mac to help you recover the deleted Notes on your Mac.

If you think the above ways are helpful for recovering disappeared notes on your Mac, share them with more people.

 

Conclusion

From this post, you can find that there are multiple measures for recovering deleted notes on your Mac. But as you can see, it has some limitations or preconditions if you want to recover deleted notes from the Recently Deleted folder, iCloud, and Time Machine backup.

Different from the three ways, recovering deleted or disappeared notes with data recovery software (like iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac) is the quickest and most efficient way. It offers the highest recovery rate for your deleted notes.

Related posts:

• How to Recover Replaced Files on Mac?

• How to Recover Disappeared Files from External Hard Drives on Mac?

• How to Recover Lost/Missing/Disappeared Documents Folder on macOS?

FAQs about how to recover deleted Notes on Mac

A

The recently deleted notes are stored in the Recently Deleted folder in the Notes app within 30 days. If you can't find them there, it means that you've deleted the notes over 30 days. You can use iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac to restore your permanently deleted notes on your Mac.

A

If you don't find a recently deleted folder in the Notes app, either you haven't upgraded the Notes app or you don't have any recoverable notes.

A

Yes, once you type the information on your Notes app, it will be auto-saved on the app. Meanwhile, the notes are also stored in Finder under this path: ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.notes/Data/Library/Notes/.