My notes have mysteriously vanished from the Notes app on my Mac. They were there yesterday, and now I can’t find them anywhere. I really need them back for work projects. Has anyone faced this before and found a solution?
It’s frustrating when important notes vanish! You may want to start by checking if your notes are synced via iCloud or another email account. Sometimes, the sync can go awry. Go to Preferences in the Notes app and see which accounts are set up to sync with your Mac. If you use iCloud, log into icloud.com and check if your notes are there.
Another possible issue could be that notes were accidentally moved to the Recently Deleted folder. Open the Notes app, and on the left sidebar, navigate to Recently Deleted. If they are there, right-click and move them back to your main notes.
If the above steps don’t work, consider using a recovery tool like Disk Drill
. It can scan your Mac for deleted files including notes, and potentially recover them. One pro of Disk Drill is its deep scan feature, which can recover a lot of data. A con is that the free version has limited recovery capabilities, so you may have to purchase the full version.Other tools like EaseUS and Data Rescue have similar functionalities but may have different pricing or limitations. Try different methods but remember that the more you use your Mac after noticing data is missing, the lower your chance of recovery may get.
Let’s hope you get your notes back!
If you still can’t locate your notes after trying @techchizkid’s suggestions, it might be worth checking if the Notes app might have some glitch or bug related to a MacOS update. Sometimes, updates can mess around with app data. This has happened to me a couple of times and a simple reboot or refreshing the system helped bring back all my missing notes.
I would suggest trying a couple of additional steps:
-
Check for MacOS Updates: Go to the Apple Menu > About This Mac > Software Update. If there’s an update available, install it and restart your Mac. It can sometimes fix underlying bugs.
-
System Preferences and Accounts: Go to System Preferences > Internet Accounts. Make sure your iCloud account is checked for syncing Notes. Sometimes, macOS glitches and unchecks these boxes during updates or sync failures.
-
Third-Party Note-Taking Apps: If you have been experimenting with apps other than Notes, like Evernote, Bear, or Microsoft OneNote, it’s possible they might have imported your notes. Double-check these apps.
And while @techchizkid mentioned Disk Drill (https://www.disk-drill.com/), which is definitely top notch for recovery, I’d also suggest you look at Time Machine backup if you have it set up. Opening Time Machine and navigating to your Notes app data from yesterday or a recent backup could be a quick fix to restore your notes.
Keep in mind, Time Machine is built right into macOS, so leveraging it doesn’t require any third-party software and might save you some cash. You simply need to enter Time Machine, navigate to the Application Support or Preferences folder within your Library, and see if you can restore Notes data from there.
A word of caution though, regular use of your Mac can overwrite the sectors where deleted files were stored. The longer you wait or keep using your Mac, the slimmer the chance of recovery by any tool. If you’re really hitting a wall, you might have to resort to a professional data recovery service, but this should be your last option due to the cost.
It sucks losing important data, but hang in there! There’s usually a way to get things back, just don’t give up too soon.
I completely get the frustration, losing important notes sucks big time, especially when you need them for work. Here’s my two cents adding to what @codecrafter and @techchizkid said—both have already covered some solid ground.
First off, I’d say don’t panic. There’s a good chance they’re still somewhere on your Mac or in iCloud, just hiding from you.
-
Spotlight Search: Have you tried using Spotlight to search for your missing notes? Sometimes they can be there in some ghost-like state. Just hit
Cmd + Space
and type in some keywords from your lost notes. They might pop up in unexpected folders (I had a similar situation where notes were filed under ‘On My Mac’ instead of iCloud and got hidden in plain sight). -
Check Other Folders: The Notes app supports multiple folders and accounts (Local, iCloud, Google, etc.). It’s possible your notes ended up in a different folder or account. Check each of them individually.
-
Rebuilding the Database: For more drastic measures, consider rebuilding the Notes database. It’s a little geeky but worth trying before going nuclear with recovery tools. Navigate to
~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/Notes/
and move everything to a backup folder, restart the Notes app and see if it reconstructs itself with your vanished notes. -
Terminal Magic: If you’re comfortable with Terminal, you could try forcing a sync via iCloud. Open Terminal and enter these commands:
killall bird
Wait a few minutes and see if your notes reappear. This forces a resync from iCloud.
-
Time Machine: Both @codecrafter and @techchizkid hinted at Time Machine—don’t underestimate it. Even if you’ve not been diligent with backups, it’s like finding old stuff in an attic. Access the Time Machine, go back to a time when you knew your notes were safe, and restore.
-
Third-Party Recovery Software: I noticed some recommendations about Disk Drill. If all else fails, this might be your knight in shining armor. Disk Drill is super effective for scanning deep into your storage and retrieving lost files. You can check out more about it here. The major downside, as previously mentioned by @techchizkid, is the free version limitations. So if you’re serious about getting those notes back, you might need to invest in the full version. The deep scan feature can recover files other tools might miss.
—or—
Try other alternatives like EaseUS if Disk Drill doesn’t work out for you. Each has its own pros and cons, but their functionalities are similar in recovering deleted or lost files.
-
Bug Report: Did you notice the notes vanishing after a recent macOS update? Sometimes updates can have bugs that mess with your system files. Although it’s rare, if it happened post-update, considering rolling back or reinstalling the update might help.
-
System Integrity Scan: Something that hasn’t come up but could be useful is running a system integrity scan using Disk Utility. Open Disk Utility, select your main storage drive, and click ‘First Aid’. This won’t directly recover your notes but might fix underlying file system issues that could be causing the problem.
-
Apple Support: If you’re utterly out of luck, a trip to the Apple Store or an online chat with Apple Support might be worth it. They can perform diagnostics that we mere mortals don’t have access to.
Lastly, stress less and keep experimenting. Losing stuff is unnerving but more often than not, it’s recoverable. These methods should cover a broad spectrum of potential issues.
Do remember, the more you use your Mac without recovering your notes, the higher the risk of those files being overwritten. So, prioritize the recovery as soon as you notice the loss. Hang in there, buddy!