Where is Notes in Contacts?

Question

Level 1

5 points

Where is Notes in Contacts?

I have lost all notes in my own contact. I may have lost the same in other contacts but cannot tell as not all of my contacts had stuff written under notes. I am totally lost as to what to do as I did not write the stuff elsewhere. Whatever I had in there was very important.

So can someone help me out here please?

And this is not specific to a device. The situation is the same whether I log on to iCloud.com or look in Contacts on my MacBook or iPhone.

iPhone 16 Pro Max, iOS 18

Posted on Oct 8, 2024 03:51 AM

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Answer 1

kushma154 Author

Level 1

5 points

Oct 8, 2024 02:08 PM in response to 6x6

Contacts on iCloud also have the details in Notes field missing. Again, this is not the case with all entries. I know for sure that my entry has the details missing as I went there to look for something. And I did not delete this accidentally. There were lots of text in this field.

It seems this must have happened when I did the latest update.

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Answer 2

6x6

Level 6

18,207 points

Oct 8, 2024 04:21 PM in response to kushma154

I understand that some contacts on iCloud.com are missing the notes data. iCloud has a backup of your contacts. The link (above) will show you how to restore all contacts from a backup made at a specific data. This backup is independent of your iPhone iCloud backup.

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Answer 3

kushma154 Author

Level 1

5 points

Oct 8, 2024 05:23 PM in response to 6x6

Thank you. Yes there are 10 backups dating back to 28 September till yesterday. I 'recovered' even the earliest one and restored it. But it is still the same - no data! This means it probably happened before 28th September. Perhaps when I installed the update my iPhone or my MacBook Air.

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Answer 4

6x6

Level 6

18,207 points

Oct 10, 2024 06:05 AM in response to kushma154

The contacts data is stored in ~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook (the "~" is important as it denotes your personal library, not that of the system.) I'd suggest restoring the entire folder.

Understand that you'll loose all the data you have recorded since the backup date.

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Answer 5

6x6

Level 6

18,207 points

Oct 13, 2024 06:02 AM in response to kushma154

Yes, your library is hidden by default. In Finder, click Go > Go to Folder and paste this string “~/Library/Application Support” (without the quotes.) The folder “AddressBook” will be toward the top.

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Answer 6

kushma154 Author

Level 1

5 points

Oct 14, 2024 04:03 AM in response to 6x6

I am beginning to wonder whether Time Machine actually backs up Contacts. After looking at various versions backed up on various dates, I am still not finding the missing notes. This cannot be true as I accessed the info I am looking for in the past month.

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Answer 7

6x6

Level 6

18,207 points

Oct 14, 2024 06:32 AM in response to kushma154

I dug into the sqlite files (databases) in the “~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook” folder (and sub-folders) and the contacts notes are part of the databases.

Quit Contacts completely and restore the entire “~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook” folder. Restart your Mac and open Contacts to see ir the contact notes were restored.

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Answer 8

kushma154 Author

Level 1

5 points

Oct 15, 2024 12:07 AM in response to IdrisSeabright

Thank you Idris! This seems to be the way forward and thank you for pointing this out. I was not aware of this and therefore have lost vital information that I may not be able to retrieve. So disappointed :(

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