Important note disappeared from all devices and iCloud – not in Recently Deleted, cannot be recovered

Question

pdcz Author

Level 1

4 points

Important note disappeared from all devices and iCloud – not in Recently Deleted, cannot be recovered

Hello everyone,

I’ve lost a very important note from the Apple Notes app and I can’t find it anywhere.

• The note has disappeared from all my devices – my MacBook Air, iPhone, and also from iCloud.com.

• It’s not in Recently Deleted, and I definitely didn’t delete it manually.

• The note was last updated about 1–2 weeks ago.

• I’ve checked the local Notes database file (~/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.notes/NoteStore.sqlite) and even though it’s around 7 MB in size, the missing note is not there.

• I don’t use Time Machine backups.

The note contained important information, so I’d really appreciate any advice on how to recover it — either through iCloud recovery, system cache, or other methods.

My devices:

– MacBook Air (M1, 2020) – macOS Tahoe 26.0.1

– iPhone 15 Pro – iOS 26.0.1

Thank you very much for any help or suggestions! 🙏

iPhone 15 Pro

Posted on Oct 31, 2025 8:22 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Oct 31, 2025 8:45 AM in response to pdcz

Unfortunately, I suspect it's gone for good. The places to look would be places you have looked, the best option being Recently Deleted (especially on iCloud.com) and if you accessed it <30 days ago but then accidentally deleted it, it should be there.

pdcz wrote:

• I don’t use Time Machine backups.

Losing important data is a hard way to learn a lesson, but hopefully you start maintaining a backup. Looking at the Notes storage location that you provided, I can use Time Machine to go back to that file an hour ago, two weeks ago, or months, if needed.

Back up your Mac with Time Machine - Apple Support

It’s recommended to back up to an external drive that is 2-3x the size of your internal storage. External storage is relatively inexpensive, a 1 TB SSD or a 2-4 TB HDD can be purchased for <$100. Consider that one backup may not be enough, a commonly recommended strategy is 3-2-1 where you have three copies of your data, two of which are backups and one of which is stored offsite.

Reply

Answer 2

HWTech

Level 9

68,750 points

Oct 31, 2025 8:41 AM in response to pdcz

Here is an Apple article for recovering deleted files from iCloud:

Recover deleted files on iCloud.com - Apple Support

FYI, when something bad happens to one item being synced with iCloud.....it will affect that file on each of the other devices syncing to iCloud.

If you have any important & unique files on your computer or external media (including the cloud), then you need to make sure they are properly backed up. The more important the file, the more backup copies you should have. Most backup apps will only backup the files stored locally on your device. So be very careful with any files stored in the cloud. I don't use the cloud file syncing services, so I cannot advise you further on that matter. Plus cloud file syncing services are not a backup.

Reply