Trying to recuperate Notes from Time Machine

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Trying to recuperate Notes from Time Machine

I am trying to recuperate my Notes from a recent Time Machine Backup. All the online instructions I have found say that "The notes are typically stored in the following location: ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes." Except they are not. What I find are: com.apple.Notes.datastore; com.apple.Notes.HTMLConverter; and com.apple.Notes.datastore.NotesImporter! No com.apple.Notes (see screen grab). So now what?

Incidentally, this is the second time all my notes have vanished, so if god willing and with your assistance I can recuperate them, I don't think I'll ever use them again.

[Edited by Moderator]

iMac 27″, macOS 12.7

Posted on Aug 5, 2025 6:46 AM

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Answer 1

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6x6

Level 6

19,077 points

Aug 6, 2025 5:07 AM in response to Antifon

First, make a regular backup in Time Machine to preserve the existing 3 files, in case you need to recover them if the restauration fails.

Then, quit Notes completely, open Finder, go to the above location and “enter” Time Machine. You will then see the Finder window and the time line arrows to select a previous backup. Choose a time before your problem occurred, select the 3 files and click the Restore button. For more information: Restore items backed up with Time Machine on Mac - Apple Support.

Understand that you will loose all the notes recorded after that backup. You may want to export those before restauring the backup. You’d then import them manually once you recovered your original notes.

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