Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

mvolpato

macrumors newbie
Sep 8, 2021
2
2
What was the success ratio of the files you saved?

How do you open them up? Using Safari browser Etc?

E.g. The Notes exporter app said it failed on 3 Notes, out of 150 notes

Hi,

I have 98 notes and they are all exported, every time I run the script.

Only a few of them have some images, maximum 2 each.
I do not have weird attachments.

What is going on with those 3 notes? Is there something in common that might make the export fail?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Marty_Macfly

Marty_Macfly

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 26, 2020
962
272
Hi,

I have 98 notes and they are all exported, every time I run the script.

Only a few of them have some images, maximum 2 each.
I do not have weird attachments.

What is going on with those 3 notes? Is there something in common that might make the export fail?
Hello again!

From what I can see, there isn’t anything obvious.

I are opening the files up in notes they just look like normal notes. Perhaps a special character which the app doesn’t like when it exports in markdown files

Regards
Martin
 
  • Like
Reactions: mvolpato

Marty_Macfly

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 26, 2020
962
272
Hi All,

I’ve come across this useful You tube clip, on making the most use of NOTES.

E.g. One idea of storing away photo copies of receipts in organised folders, quickly and easily.

Even more reason to back up one’s notes!


Hope that helps :D
Martin



 

ozthegweat

macrumors regular
Feb 20, 2007
247
229
Switzerland
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:
I'm in the same boat, the backup only includes the 26 newest of my 148 notes? "Limit" is deactivated, and "All Notes" is selected... oh and I'm on iPadOS 15.0.1.
 
Last edited:

Marty_Macfly

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 26, 2020
962
272
I'm in the same boat, the backup only includes the 26 newest of my 148 notes? "Limit" is deactivated, and "All Notes" is selected... oh and I'm on iPadOS 15.0.1.


Hi Oz,

Personally I would not go down that route, not a reliable Backup option, riddled with issues, just like you hit just now, that 26 file limit?!?!


I'd personally suggest following the final approach described above:


Relevant items in chat here:

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...es-what-is-the-best-way.2305423/post-30200695

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...es-what-is-the-best-way.2305423/post-30204990


Hope that helps
Martin
 

ozthegweat

macrumors regular
Feb 20, 2007
247
229
Switzerland
Hi Oz,

Personally I would not go down that route, not a reliable Backup option, riddled with issues, just like you hit just now, that 26 file limit?!?!


I'd personally suggest following the final approach described above:


Relevant items in chat here:

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...es-what-is-the-best-way.2305423/post-30200695

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...es-what-is-the-best-way.2305423/post-30204990


Hope that helps
Martin
Thank you so much! Will probably go the Mac exporter app route, as it will retain formatting as markdown code.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Marty_Macfly

NoBoMac

Moderator
Staff member
Jul 1, 2014
6,285
4,973
Since this thread has come back to life... Follow-up on what I posted in this post.

I went ahead and did the "left as an exercise". Whipped up a Shortcut to back-up any Notes that were modified since last back-up. Shortcut writes a "last backup" timestamp file to iCloud which gets read in each time the Shortcut runs (find all Notes modified between "last backup" and now). Setup Automations to run every two hours between 6:30am-10:30pm to run the Shortcut.

Most of my Notes are static and I use Notes more for quick note jottings (another Shortcut that timestamps the Note) vs major tomes (would probably make a document and place in Dropbox and use their offline mode on iOS), so fall well within the 26 Note limit on "Find Notes" action. So, working well for my use-case.

And, iOS 15 still has the limit of 26 in place.
 

AppleUser8

macrumors newbie
Jun 20, 2020
3
1
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?
Agree. The issue with Notes unlike Google Docs is you can't recover a lost word and/or paragraph. This is very needed!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Marty_Macfly

Apple_Robert

Contributor
Sep 21, 2012
35,648
52,437
In a van down by the river
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:
When I try to run your shortcut, I get the following error.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_3E11094D6339-1.jpeg
    IMG_3E11094D6339-1.jpeg
    129 KB · Views: 35
  • IMG_0004.PNG
    IMG_0004.PNG
    460 KB · Views: 37

NoBoMac

Moderator
Staff member
Jul 1, 2014
6,285
4,973
Unknown why that happens. For me, seems to happen when the Shortcuts app/subsystem is messed up. Swipe quit of the Shortcuts app usually fixes it. Worst case, restart the device.

I have not personally seen that message in a while.

Only other thing I can think of is that there still might be some undocumented limit on how many notes/bytes the Find Notes action will return. Back in the day it was 26 notes. Just looked on 17 and all 45 of my notes are found. Might put a Count and Alert action after Find Notes to see how many notes it found. Would also tell you if the Find or Archive action is where it's failing.
 
Last edited:

Apple_Robert

Contributor
Sep 21, 2012
35,648
52,437
In a van down by the river
Unknown why that happens. For me, seems to happen when the Shortcuts app/subsystem is messed up. Swipe quit of the Shortcuts app usually fixes it. Worst case, restart the device.

I have not personally seen that message in a while.

Only other thing I can think of is that there still might be some undocumented limit on how many notes/bytes the Find Notes action will return. Back in the day it was 26 notes. Just looked on 17 and all 45 of my notes are found. Might put a Count and Alert action after Find Notes to see how many notes it found. Would also tell you if the Find or Archive action is where it's failing.
Thanks for the reply. During the interim between replies, I used iMazing 3 beta (via wireless connection) to export all my Apple Notes. It was done very quickly. Any attachments from a note (eg. pictures) are saved separately as a png. Notes without attachments can be saved as text or PDF.
 
  • Like
Reactions: NoBoMac
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.