Restore an iCloud backup to Mac?

Question

Level 1

29 points

Restore an iCloud backup to Mac?

I deleted a note in Notes by accident awhile back but only just realized! I can see I have old iCloud backups on my Mac by looking in ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/

I guess I could restore an old backup, open that Note and copy it to a temporary file. Then restore my most recent backup and simply paste in as a new Note?

I'm assuming you can't pick-and-choose a particular Note in the backup so you have to restore to the Mac the entire backup.

Any other smarter ideas?

Thanks,

DonSimon

MacBook Pro mid-2013 Catalina 10.15.7

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Nov 21, 2024 8:58 AM

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Answer 1

muguy

Level 10

82,441 points

Nov 21, 2024 9:05 AM in response to tetters

Your notes would be contained in an iCloud backup provided you do not sync notes to iCloud.

The backup in iCloud is for your iPhone or iPad and cannot be restored to your Mac. Restoration is all or nothing to your device so you would need t factory reset the device and set it up using the backup.

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Answer 2

tetters Author

Level 1

29 points

Nov 22, 2024 10:13 AM in response to muguy

Thanks MuGuy,

It's a pity I can't just somehow restore the backup on my MacPro at ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/

I suppose I could shut down my main iPhone and my Mac, do the reset/restore to an old iPhone 6 I have here, extract the deleted Note I need back, then reset/restore said iPhone 6 to its latest backup.

Then turn on Mac and main iPhone again and expect that they'll be as they were but with the errant note back in its Notes too.

Hoiw's about that (if indeed I can't restore that ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/ on my Mac?

DonSimon

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Answer 3

Nov 22, 2024 10:31 AM in response to tetters

Deleted notes go into a special "Recently Deleted" section in Notes. Have you checked there? (I ask, because I only recently discovered recently deleted.)

Doing what you suggested to the iPhone 6, with the iPhone disconnected from iCloud, seems like it wouldn't hurt anything. I'd try exporting the file to a flash drive rather than just flipping iCloud back on, though. This from someone who's never used those backups…

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Answer 4

tetters Author

Level 1

29 points

Nov 23, 2024 9:58 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

Thanks Richard,

I guess I'll have to do an iPhone restore. But before I do can I find out my oldest iCloud backup (as I think this note was deleted a year-or-more back)?

But can I be sure that my Mac's Time machine doesn't back up iCloud Notes, 'cos I have TM backups going back years?

DonSimon

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Answer 5

Nov 23, 2024 1:31 PM in response to tetters

Notes isn't backed up with Time Machine. I looked at TM backups for the last year, and Notes isn't in the Applications folder, nor anywhere else that I could see.

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