Lost MAC Notes due to ICloud Sync Issue

[Popeye]

Posted in wrong thread so posting again.

I am running high Sierra and ran into an issue where I lost all my Mac notes. Using iCloud I am successful sync notes, photos and contacts between an iPad and an iPhone but found out that notes and photos were not syncing from my Mac. My Mac had the most current notes and I disabled and enabled the notes iCloud option (checkbox for notes sync), after I did that all my notes disappeared on the Mac but the notes on the iPhone and iPad remained but are about 2 months out of date. It is obvious the Mac has an iCloud sync issue but where did the local copy of my notes go? There was no message or warning and there are no deleted notes to recover. It is almost as it the sync process reset the entire notes SQLLite files from what I can tell. Is there any way to recover the local notes I had before? I logged into iCloud and the notes sync is old and matches the phone and iPad.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

-Which version of OS X/macOS on the Mac?
-Which version(s) of iOS on the iPhone and iPad?

If the Mac wasn't syncing properly and Notes were added, they may have only been stored on the Mac. When you disabled them, it should have prompted you to save a copy on your Mac, but it may not have if they were accidentally only saved locally on the Mac and not in the iCloud sync.

Do you happen to have a Time Machine or other backup of your data, as that may be the only way to retrieve the lost notes.

C

 

[Popeye]

I am running High Sierra on the MAC - 10.13.6. I don't have the versions of iphone/IPAD but on me but I know they are not up to date and is in the 13.x train. When I disabled I did not get any prompt to save a copy - when I went in they were just gone. Unfortunately I did not have time machine setup. I did find the SQLLite database files under ~/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.notes/ but they were updated with the current date and the new notes store. I am not sure if MAC saves archived versions of notes anywhere else I can search. I am really surprise that the MAC would just remove all entries just because iCloud was not syncing correctly - and without warning. I did the same process for photos and did not lose them. This was all before I know iCloud was all jacked up. Thanks in Advance!

 

[fiona_smith]

I also just had the exact same issue ;-; hope someone found something!

 

[clementine]

Posted in wrong thread so posting again.

I am running high Sierra and ran into an issue where I lost all my Mac notes. Using iCloud I am successful sync notes, photos and contacts between an iPad and an iPhone but found out that notes and photos were not syncing from my Mac. My Mac had the most current notes and I disabled and enabled the notes iCloud option (checkbox for notes sync), after I did that all my notes disappeared on the Mac but the notes on the iPhone and iPad remained but are about 2 months out of date. It is obvious the Mac has an iCloud sync issue but where did the local copy of my notes go? There was no message or warning and there are no deleted notes to recover. It is almost as it the sync process reset the entire notes SQLLite files from what I can tell. Is there any way to recover the local notes I had before? I logged into iCloud and the notes sync is old and matches the phone and iPad.

Hi, I was wondering if you were able to fix this issue? I'm having a similar issue myself...

 

[TonyAguila]

I am running High Sierra on the MAC - 10.13.6. I don't have the versions of iphone/IPAD but on me but I know they are not up to date and is in the 13.x train. When I disabled I did not get any prompt to save a copy - when I went in they were just gone. Unfortunately I did not have time machine setup. I did find the SQLLite database files under ~/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.notes/ but they were updated with the current date and the new notes store. I am not sure if MAC saves archived versions of notes anywhere else I can search. I am really surprise that the MAC would just remove all entries just because iCloud was not syncing correctly - and without warning. I did the same process for photos and did not lose them. This was all before I know iCloud was all jacked up. Thanks in Advance!

iCloud sync must have overwritten your Mac notes files with the ones in the cloud. If I were you, I would, for now, turn of iCloud syncing, and then go to my Library where the Notes data files are kept. To get there, from Finder, select Go -> Go to Folder… and in the window that opens, enter (I’m entering the following on a new line so you can just copy and paste):

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/Notes/

The window will open containing three files: NotesV7.storedata, NotesV7.storedata-shm, and NotesV7.storedata-wal.

“V#” might change with the version of Notes. If the files are not there, you can use Time Machine to restore them. If the files were changed to some other name(s), I would move them elsewhere and start the Time Machine restore with an empty folder. If you were able to restore the files, go ahead and test Notes now. (Funny that I stored this information when I found it online in one of my Notes.)

Your mileage might vary. I’m running version 4.10 of Notes in macOS 13.3 Beta (22E5236f).

 

[Shazeen]

Hi Tony, what if the issue is on the iPhone and not the Mac ?
I am facing the same issue. But rather than my Mac notes being deleted it is my iPhone notes. My iPhone notes were not being synced with my iCloud. But once I click to sync with iCloud those local iPhone notes disappeared and brought back my iCloud synced notes that were there on my Mac.

Is there any way for me to get the local notes back that were on my iPhone ?

It would be really helpful if you or anyone could help. ( those notes meant a lot to me)

 

[OldSchool]

Hi Tony, what if the issue is on the iPhone and not the Mac ?
I am facing the same issue. But rather than my Mac notes being deleted it is my iPhone notes. My iPhone notes were not being synced with my iCloud. But once I click to sync with iCloud those local iPhone notes disappeared and brought back my iCloud synced notes that were there on my Mac.

Is there any way for me to get the local notes back that were on my iPhone ?

It would be really helpful if you or anyone could help. ( those notes meant a lot to me)

This one of the reasons that forking money over to Apple for iCloud(+) isn't worth the hassle. They seem to loose peoples data on a ongoing basis with no recourse for the enduser. Thankfully in iOS 18 you will be able to back up to a SSD (I know you can now) on some iPhones, but with them putting a Disk Utility on the iPhone so you can format a SSD for the OS to back up your data rather than moving it to iCloud is a huge plus, since you never upload anything to any cloud, be it Google, Microsoft, Mega, etc, etc without having a back up first. iCloud is not a good backup solution. It is more a synchronization service for you Apple devices.

 

[Rodananne]

You have been able to do the above with iMazing for years and you are right, iCloud is a synchronisation service, not a backup, although iCloud Drive crosses that line as does iCloud Photo Library. If iCloud were intended to be a universal backup there would be no need for Time Machine.
I have, and always have had two backups, one Time Machine on a HDD and a Carbon Copy Clone on an SSD.