Guides: getting lost Apple Notes back
Plain, step-by-step guides for finding, recovering and exporting Apple Notes on a Mac, iPhone and iPad. Each guide starts with what you can do yourself, for free, and only then explains where NoteRescue, the Mac app we make, can make it faster.
A note is missing
- Apple Notes disappeared: what to check first: after an update, a new device, signing out of iCloud or a settings change.
- Why is Recently Deleted empty in Apple Notes?: other accounts, mail-account notes, the 30-day limit and more.
- How to recover deleted Apple Notes after 30 days: every place a deleted note can still be.
- How to recover an Apple Note you edited or overwrote: undo, offline devices, and older versions in backups.
Getting notes out of backups
- How to restore a note from Time Machine: the careful manual method, with a safety copy.
- How to get notes back from an iPhone backup on a Mac: protect the backup first, then restore or read it.
- How to recover notes from an old Mac’s backup: notes that didn’t make it to your new Mac.
- Where are Apple Notes stored on a Mac?: the folder, the files and what you can do with them.
Keeping a copy
- How to export all Apple Notes to Markdown, PDF or text: free ways to get every note out, and what gets lost.
By Caner Kaya, Kayabyte. Questions or corrections: support@kayabyte.dev.