Backing up apple 'NOTES' - What is the best way?

[Marty_Macfly]

Hi All,

My notes has been set up to iCloud a while ago. Great for referencing on iPhone, iPad and Mac.

I had a fright though, deleted something by mistake. This is replicated across all devices for that note in question.

I could not find a back up of it in Time Machine.



Backing up by the Mac:
1. Looking in Time machine - Notes is not in there at all.
2. I have now set 'on my Mac' on for Notes.
3. I have saved a couple for notes into a folder 'on my Mac' to test
4. Did a 'back up now' onto TM
5. I then checked Time Machine - NOTEs is still not in TM

Am I doing something wrong?!

What do I need to do to get notes to actually back up, onto a Hard drive?

Is there a better way to back up Apple notes?



Hope you can advise

Regards
Martin


PS:
Love the simplicity of the native apple NOTEs app. Be good to work with the system, rather than buy another note taking app!

 

[0128672]

You can export notes as a PDF to save on your Mac, which will be included in a TM backup. Here's the details:

Archive or make copies of the information you store in iCloud - Apple Support

Learn how to archive or make copies of the information that you use with iCloud.

support.apple.com

 

[NoBoMac]

Are you looking for the Notes app? If so, yeah, not backed up. Not sure if it has always been that way or recent, but can understand if recent, as the MacOS "volume" is protected and can be recreated by OS install. User installed apps do get backed up.

The actual notes are stored in ~/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.notes in an SQLite database. In theory, can try to restore that folder and hope everything works (though I've seen some odd things in the past when trying to recover deleted/lost items from old backups of Library contents). Or restore along side the real notes folder and use the sqlite3 terminal command to dump the contents of the database, and see if you can spot the text you are looking for.

Otherwise, yeah, need to print them.

Or, simple Shortcut on your iOS device:

 

[Apple_Robert]

Deleted notes are still available 30 days after deletion. You can find them in the recently deleted folder Notes creates when a note in deleted.

 

[chabig]

I had a fright though, deleted something by mistake.

Deleted notes are maintained in the Recently Deleted folder for 30 days.

 

[Marty_Macfly]

Hi all, many thanks for the advice.

Unfortunately, I deleted a paragraph from a note, not the whole file itself.

Therefore the file is not in the deleted folder, I lost that paragraph.

Not the biggest loss, but at least it’s flags up a problem with backing up notes.

Will try the idea that PDF back up

Can you password protect a PDF like you can note?

 

[0128672]

Hi all, many thanks for the advice.

Unfortunately, I deleted a paragraph from a note, not the whole file itself.

Therefore the file is not in the deleted folder, I lost that paragraph.

Not the biggest loss, but at least it’s flags up a problem with backing up notes.

Will try the idea that PDF back up

Can you password protect a PDF like you can note?

Apparently it's possible, but I haven't tried it:

Password-protect a PDF in Preview on Mac

In Preview on your Mac, protect a PDF by adding a password that everyone must enter to open, print, or change the file.

support.apple.com

 

[billchase2]

Or, simple Shortcut on your iOS device:

Any advice on getting the Shortcut to work? When I build and run that, it only backs up the first note.

 

[NoBoMac]

Make sure you have no filter or limits set on the "Find Notes". Otherwise not sure what might be going on.

 

[0128672]

I just tried this shortcut, and it's really fast. Thanks @NoBoMac.

 

[Marty_Macfly]

Are you looking for the Notes app? If so, yeah, not backed up. Not sure if it has always been that way or recent, but can understand if recent, as the MacOS "volume" is protected and can be recreated by OS install. User installed apps do get backed up.

The actual notes are stored in ~/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.notes in an SQLite database. In theory, can try to restore that folder and hope everything works (though I've seen some odd things in the past when trying to recover deleted/lost items from old backups of Library contents). Or restore along side the real notes folder and use the sqlite3 terminal command to dump the contents of the database, and see if you can spot the text you are looking for.

Otherwise, yeah, need to print them.

Or, simple Shortcut on your iOS device:

Hiya,


Glad this thread is bringing up some great ideas on backing up apples NOTES!

@NoBoMac - that shortcut - can it run on a Mac?

If not, is the idea - to set it to run on an iPhone, then archive the *.zip file away onto the Mac?

Hope you can advise


Martin

 

[0128672]

I read your question and thought it would be fun to figure this out. Although you can't run the shortcut on a Mac, you can create an Automator script to copy your iCloud Drive Notes backup folder (with the contents, of course) to your Mac. Before creating this, it's important to create an iCloud Drive folder for your Notes backup zip files.

You could specify your Mac Documents folder instead of the Desktop. I'm going to play with this a bit more to maybe add a schedule, but for now this basic version works.



Update: checking the Replacing existing files is important; otherwise you'll get copies of the Notes backup folder each time.

 

[Marty_Macfly]

I read your question and thought it would be fun to figure this out. Although you can't run the shortcut on a Mac, you can create an Automator script to copy your iCloud Drive Notes backup folder (with the contents, of course) to your Mac. Before creating this, it's important to create an iCloud Drive folder for your Notes backup zip files.

You could specify your Mac Documents folder instead of the Desktop. I'm going to play with this a bit more to maybe add a schedule, but for now this basic version works.

View attachment 1813162

Hiya WildSky,


Thats brilliant you are doing some research all of us can benefit from!

Imagine being the trail blazer, working out the path for all of us to follow

I'm not that apple techie at all, so all help is appreciated



Best Wishes
Martin


PS:
I've posted some more queries on Notes on this forum, I'm having a NOTES blitz this weekend

 

[0128672]

Hiya WildSky,


Thats brilliant you are doing some research all of us can benefit from!

Imagine being the trail blazer, working out the path for all of us to follow

I'm not that apple techie at all, so all help is appreciated



Best Wishes
Martin


PS:
I've posted some more queries on Notes on this forum, I'm having a NOTES blitz this weekend

Here's something else: when the iOS/iPadOS Notes backup shortcut runs, the Automator script automatically detects there's a change in the iCloud Drive Notes Backup folder and automatically downloads a new version to my Mac.

You asked a good question and it's been fun to work on this.

 

[0128672]

One more thing: for the iOS shortcut, I added an Automation so that it will run daily at a specific time. Now the whole process is automated from backup > copy to Mac > Time Machine backup.

 

[Wolf1701]

Apparently it's possible, but I haven't tried it:

Password-protect a PDF in Preview on Mac

In Preview on your Mac, protect a PDF by adding a password that everyone must enter to open, print, or change the file.

support.apple.com

Just a tought, pw protection in pdf is usually weak... an encrypted 256 bit dmg with the pdf inside is better. This is how I backup some critical documents in my usb key. (It can be done with a script)

 

[NoBoMac]

If not, is the idea - to set it to run on an iPhone, then archive the *.zip file away onto the Mac?

@WildSky pretty much answered it all.

But in the case of the iOS Shortcut, yes, eventually will go to the Mac, if iCloud Drive is turned on there. Shortcuts defaults to iCloud, but if you've enabled other cloud service(s) (eg. Dropbox), can select some other service to save it to and get it to one's PC/Mac.

 

[sgtaylor5]

https://medium.com/macoclock/exporting-your-apple-notes-to-markdown-style-at-ease-2359a3acb6a9

Exporter for Mac which exports all of your notes in Markdown format, and your attachments into another folder. Worked well for me when I moved to Bear.

 

[Marty_Macfly]

I read your question and thought it would be fun to figure this out. Although you can't run the shortcut on a Mac, you can create an Automator script to copy your iCloud Drive Notes backup folder (with the contents, of course) to your Mac. Before creating this, it's important to create an iCloud Drive folder for your Notes backup zip files.

You could specify your Mac Documents folder instead of the Desktop. I'm going to play with this a bit more to maybe add a schedule, but for now this basic version works.

View attachment 1813162

Update: checking the Replacing existing files is important; otherwise you'll get copies of the Notes backup folder each time.

Hi Wildsky,

Finally got some time to look into setting this up on the Mac!

I have never created an automator script in my life, I'm still coming over from windows, so I am a bit nervous with all of this.


Some questions:

1) Is there an idiots guide somewhere on how to set up 'Automator scripts' for Macs? In particular for backing up iCloud Notes?


2) How do I test the *.zip back up files?
- I'm really nervous of a bad backup
- E.g. I overwrite my ok iCloud notes, with a *.zip backup only containing 1 file etc.



3) Using Notes backups in real life - are the below steps correct?
a. Back up the current Notes straight away
b. Bring back a backup from the *.zip file, from correct day in Time machine
c. Delete live files, in correct folder
d. Unzip backup, in correct folder
e. open Notes app, and recover what need - Save offline - E.g. 'on-my-mac' version of files
f. Restore latest notes - redoing steps b to d above
g. Copy over recovery, from 'on-my-mac' version - back onto include notes







Hope you can advise
Martin

 

[0128672]

Hi Wildsky,

Finally got some time to look into setting this up on the Mac!

I have never created an automator script in my life, I'm still coming over from windows, so I am a bit nervous with all of this.


Some questions:

1) Is there an idiots guide somewhere on how to do set this up the 'Automator back up' for Macs?

2) How do I test the *.zip back up files?
- I'm really nervous of of a bad backup, and I overwrite my iCloud notes with an zip file only containing 1 file etc.


Hope you can advise
Martin

I'll get back to you later with specific Automator steps. In the meantime, open Automator and try finding the steps shown above to drag them into the active window. Once you've done that, edit the various options to match the screenshot.

Regarding your second question, I can assure you that unzipping a Notes backup folder produces each separate Note as a text file within the unzipped folder. Each separate text file can be imported into Notes or the text copied and pasted into a new Note. Nothing to worry about there.

 

[Marty_Macfly]

I'll get back to you later with specific Automator steps. In the meantime, open Automator and try finding the steps shown above to drag them into the active window. Once you've done that, edit the various options to match the screenshot.

Regarding your second question, I can assure you that unzipping a Notes backup folder produces each separate Note as a text file within the unzipped folder. Each separate text file can be imported into Notes or the text copied and pasted into a new Note. Nothing to worry about there.

Hello again WildSky,


Wow - quick reply!

I've edited my post above, not quick enough before you replied though!

I've crystallised what I'm asking a bit more, plus for review, my thoughts on how I would approach Notes data recovery.


Night W, Take care


Martin

 

[Marty_Macfly]

Before I answer your questions, have you already created the Shortcut suggested by NoBoMac? If not, please do that first.

Morning WildSky,


Just created the iPhone automation - wow, it wasn't so hard to do

have set for 11am. Be done in a minute. Be good to see the output


Regards
Martin

 

[Marty_Macfly]

Hi Again WildSky,


hhhmmm... its exciting to be doing automation stuff - I'm getting there. Any advise appreciated!


The iPhone automation has created a zip file.
However:
1. I have 129 notes on I cloud
2. However, the Zip file only has 26 files in it. I'm currently investigating if they are the top 26 files in my Notes app etc.
3. Password protected file - The 1st one I see only has the title - no contents. Does the ZIP not save password protected files?! That would be a pain.


Any advise on this part 1st, before I move onto the Mac automation?
As I say, any help much appreciated!


Thanks for all your help W!


Best wishes
Martin


PS:
Backing up the iPhone and Mac no etc. Before do anything else!

 

[ecatomb]

Thank you, never though about saving Notes ?
I tested with 27 notes (added 2 for this test), it's only saving 26 notes...

 

[Marty_Macfly]

Thank you, never though about saving Notes ?
I tested with 27 notes (added 2 for this test), it's only saving 26 notes...

Hi E,


Cool, glad not just me thinking this is a really good thing to sort out

Have you looked at any password saved notes? is it only the 1st line that has been saved for you as well?

Have any folder structures been saved for you?





RE: Apple Notes is brilliant
I find the apple Notes app awesome! All viewable from all my apple gadgets etc. I've also only touched the surface of the cool stuff you can do in it. Be great to use as my 'go to' notebook - Working with the apple ecosystem, rather than buying yet another app with its own quirks etc.



RE:Only 26 notes saved....
You to Ecatomb as well?!
Interesting!



Best wishes
Martin