The best ways to recover deleted Apple Notes on a Mac
By Kayabyte · Last updated 30 October 2026
Short answer: try them in this order. First, Recently Deleted (notes stay about 30 days). Second, iCloud.com’s Recently Deleted and any other Notes account. Third, your backups: a Time Machine backup or a Finder iPhone backup made before the note was lost. Restoring from a backup by hand works but swaps your whole Notes data; the Mac app NoteRescue (made by Kayabyte, free scan, USD 24.99) reads backups directly and exports only the notes you pick.
1. Is it still in Recently Deleted?
Each Notes account (iCloud, On My Mac, On My iPhone) has its own Recently Deleted folder, and deleted notes stay there for about 30 days. Check all of them, and iCloud.com/notes. See Why is Recently Deleted empty?
2. Was it in a mail account such as Gmail or Outlook?
Those notes live on the mail server. Check that account’s Trash or Deleted Items folder.
3. Is there a Time Machine backup from before the loss?
Time Machine can restore the Notes data folder from an older date. It works, but it replaces the notes you have today unless you take a safety copy first. Step by step: How to restore a note from Time Machine.
4. Is there an iPhone or iPad backup on your Mac?
A backup made in Finder holds the notes that were on the device then. Protect it first (Finder keeps one backup per device and overwrites it): How to get notes back from an iPhone backup.
5. Use a tool that reads the backups
| Option | Good for | Limits |
|---|---|---|
| Time Machine by hand | Free; one or two notes if you are careful | Swaps the whole Notes folder, offline |
| Data recovery apps (for example Disk Drill) | Undeleting files from a disk | A note is a database record, so they rarely find it |
| iPhone managers (for example iMazing) | People who already manage iPhone backups | Check what they offer for Notes |
| NoteRescue | Seeing every note in every backup, which are missing, then exporting or restoring only those | Needs a backup from before the loss; no iCloud-only or locked notes; Mac only |
More detail: NoteRescue vs Disk Drill, iMazing and Time Machine.
What cannot be recovered
If a note was never in a backup, nothing can recover it, and no honest tool can. The free NoteRescue scan tells you before you pay.
Download NoteRescue and scan for free