Missing iCloud Notes After MacOS Update

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Level 1

4 points

Missing iCloud Notes After MacOS Update

In the Notes app on my MacBook, the notes saved under the "iCloud" folder had not been syncing for about a month and could not be accessed from iCloud or other devices. To fix this problem, which was apparently a software bug, I decided to update my OS per recommendations made by Apple employees on this site. Now, after the update, the Notes app is syncing properly - but all of the un-synced notes that were on my computer from the past month have disappeared. They are not in the "recently deleted" folder. They are also not available via Time Machine back-up because they were technically never saved locally.

My question is if there is ANY way to recover these lost notes. This appears to be an issue many users have had over the past year that Apple has not yet adequately addressed.

MacBook Air 13″

Posted on Oct 31, 2024 9:57 AM

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Answer 1

AlWeir

Level 4

3,020 points

Oct 31, 2024 4:45 PM in response to Jnd2

nabeards

Thought I would share how to restore these notes from iCloud:

Your iCloud notes are *not* stored in the ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes location. Only your 'On My Mac' notes are there.

Instead, look in ~/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.notes .

Steps to restore your lost text or note:

Quit the Notes app, turn off your WiFi (disconnect from the Internet so your old notes don't sync!)
Copy ~/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.notes to another place (like your Desktop)
Restore ~/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.notes from your TM backup
Open Notes
Copy any text you need to recover, and paste into another document, e.g., TextEdit.
Quit Notes
Delete ~/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.notes folder
Move the group.com.apple.notes on your Desktop back to ~/Library/Group Containers/
Open Notes
Copy the text from TextEdit back into your new note
Turn back on your WiFi / internet access

And be sure to thank Apple for making this so ridiculously complicated. 😐

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