The folder in my Notes app containing my notes stored on my MacBook has disappeared after the latest update to Big Sur (11.3). Now I'm going to be faced with searching through various folders in ~Library. ---User From MacRumors
I created a note on my laptop on my iCloud account very recently and closed the notes app, the next morning I went to open it and it randomly disappeared. It did not appear in the recently deleted folder, and restarting both my phone and laptop did not recover the file, so does anyone know how I could possibly recover the data?---User From Apple Discussion
As you can see, mac notes often disappeared or gone after update or iCloud setting changes. If your Mac notes are missing after a latest Ventura, Monterey or Big Sur upgrade, in this article we will show you 7 ways to recover disappeared or deleted mac notes with ease.
Whenever we found the notes files get disappeared or deleted on Mac, we are always caught in a panic and forget to check the Recently Deleted folder, where we probably are able to get them back with ease. What’s equally important is, we must stop writing data onto your Mac, which will cause the permanently loss of your Mac notes.
If the disappeared mac notes is not moved to Recently Deleted folder in Notes App, we should search the file by using Mac spotlight feature, then recover from Recent Opened files.
Though Mac Notes app creates database-like files, instead of saving each note as individual note file in a folder, it has a storage location to store temporary data in Mac library. That’s to say, if your mac notes get disappeared, you can go to its storage location and recover from the temporary folder.
~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/Notes/
If above 2 methods fail to recover your lost notes on Mac, it means your Mac notes get disappeared completely, you need a professional and advanced solution to fix this. While, the most effective solution to recover disappeared notes on Mac is using a third-party dedicated data recovery software.
Cisdem Data Recovery for Mac is the best Mac data recovery software that can recover corrupted or lost photos, audios, videos, documents and archive from any Mac supported data storage media, including internal/external hard drives, USB drives, SD card, digital cameras, iPods, etc. It also supports previewing files before recovery.
Time Machine is a backup software application distributed with the Apple OS X computer operating system which backs up all of your files to an external hard drive so that you can restore them later or see how they looked in the past. If you always backup your Mac data with Time Machine regularly, you can recover notes disappeared from Mac with it. To recover deleted notes on Mac from Time Machine:
If you are using upgraded notes (iOS 9+ and OS X 10.11+), you are able to recover and edit the iCloud notes disappeared from Mac in the past 30 days.
Nevertheless, you have no chance to recover notes permanently removed from iCloud.com, or shared by someone else (the notes won’t move to the Recently Deleted folder).
If you’re not using upgraded notes, you can’t recover deleted notes on Mac. In this case, you have to disable the Internet access immediately when you find your Mac notes disappeared. Next, you should:
Mac group containers are the place to store database from applications, like user data, caches, logs and so on. Though this method is not recommended for the reason that it needs a good basic of command-line and database knowledge, you can still have a try when other 6 above-listed methods don’t work to get your missing notes back.
There are 2 ways to recover disappeared notes from group containers, open the database files with a professional tool or copy the whole group container to another Mac for opening.
Always keep your notes backed up with Time Machine and iCloud, in that way, you will able to quickly and easily recover Mac notes disappeared.
After Mac notes disappeared, the first thing you are supposed to do is to check the lost files again in a Finder or Spotlight.
That’s all for the solutions to fix Mac notes disappeared. Although free methods do bring some assistance, they are conditionally restricted and don't recover successfully every time. Personally, I prefer using data recovery software (like Cisdem Data Recovery), which can scan and retrieve any lost, deleted files with one click.
Rosa has worked in Mac software industry for more than eight years. She believes that the purpose of software is to make life better and work more productively. In addition to writing, Rosa is also an avid runner.
Martin
How about deleted documents from trash? Can I still restore it?
Rosa Reyes
Hi, you can try Cisdem DataRecovery to restore deleted documents from Trash.
Kiley
I recovered the file from storage, but changing the extension to .html does not allow me to read the notes. It glitches when I try opening it in a browser and shows a short line of garbled symbols. I'm a college student, and I kept notes for classes in this program! I have a test coming up and I can't live without my lecture notes!! Please help!
Rosa Reyes
Hi, Kiley. Changing the extension to .html may have damaged your file. You can contact tech support by emails and describe your problems in details. Wish this help you!
David
Thank you so much. I could recover my notes by following your instructions.
Hebe
Thank You! I couldn't find my notes anywhere on Mac and I thought I had lost them forever. But thanks to this data recovery tool, I restored my missing notes.
Jonas
I've missed almost all my Mac notes after an Outlook actualization, most of them, very important to me. But I finally got them back with Cisdem data recovery, thanks.
Dolores
I couldn't recover my notes from Time Machine, but this Mac notes recovery really saved my Mac notes from disappearing.