Notes Disappeared from Mac, Why and How to Recover [Full Ways]

Mac Notes Disappeared? 5 Ways to Recover Notes on Mac

Apple Notes is a notetaking app that is available in iOS and macOS operating systems. In the information age, we are getting more and more accustomed to taking a note, which can be a moment of inspiration or an important working schedule. In fact, we write everything down in the Notes to keep ourselves updated! It's so convenient and, above all, free to use. 

But notes on your Mac may disappear for unknown reasons. Then how to recover disappeared notes on Mac? This tutorial covers five ways to restore notes that are lost on Mac.

Solutions	Steps	Scenarios
😀Recover notes with Mac data recovery software	Download and install EaseUS Mac file recovery software. Run it and scan your Mac for disappeared notes.	Deleted notes are not in the Recently Deleted folder and are permanently lost.
🔁Restore from Recently Deleted Folder	Open the Notes app on your Mac. Open the Recently Deleted folder. Find your notes and move to Mac.	Notes are deleted and go to the Recently Deleted folder.
🟩Recover missing notes from Temporary Folder	Click on "Finder > Go > Go to Folder". Copy and paste the Mac Notes storage location into the box "~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/Notes/" to find notes.	Apple notes suddenly disappear
😀Recover from iCloud backup	Go to Apple > System Preferences > iCloud. Open Notes for iCloud backup.	All my notes disappeared on my Mac
💾Recover from Time Machine	Connect your backup external hard drive to your Mac, and find the missing notes to restore.	Mac notes disappeared after the upgrade.

Recover Disappeared Notes on Mac with Mac Data Recovery Software

Even if you can not recover the disappeared notes through the first three ways, you can still restore the lost notes with the premier EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac.

When choosing which software to help you recover disappeared notes on Mac, EaseUS Mac data recovery software is your best choice. Being professional, safe, and easy to use, EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac stands out among the data recovery software.

• It allows you to recover notes lost due to deletion, disk formatting, virus attack, system crash, and all the other possible reasons in macOS and Mac OS X.
• No matter whether you want to recover deleted files on Mac from emptied Trash Bin, restore files from a formatted USB drive, or perform data recovery in other situations, you can use it to get things done.
• It restores many kinds of common file recovery except for notes, like DOC/DOCX, XLS/XLSX, videos, and audio, as well as recovers deleted emails on Mac.

Step 1. Choose iCloud Recovery

Select the iCloud tab from the left list, choose the "Recover data from iCloud account" option to recover your notes, and click "Next" to log in to your iCloud account.

Step 2. Choose the "Notes" category

EaseUS software will quickly scan all the recoverable data from your iCloud account. Check the "Notes" category, and click the "Next" button.

Step 3. Recover notes from iCloud

Select the notes you want to restore, click the eye icon to preview the details, and then click the "Recover" button to get them back.

Step 4. Save recovered notes

Choose a safe storage location on your Mac hard drive to save the recovered notes. You can also save the recovered notes to your cloud drives, such as DropBox, OneDrive, GoogleDrive, etc.

EaseUS Mac Data Recovery software also does well in recovering deleted photos on Mac/MacBook or from any Mac-supported data storage media, including internal/external hard drives, USB drives, SD cards, digital cameras, etc.

Share this article on social media to help others learn how to fix Mac Notes disappeared issues and recover deleted notes on a Mac.

Notes Disappeared from Mac? Restore from Recently Deleted Folder

How long have you removed the content from the Notes application? By default, the Notes program keeps stuff for 30 days after deletion. So if you're looking for an item that you may have accidentally deleted, check it in the "Recently Deleted" folder.

Step 1. Open the Notes app on your Mac.

Step 2. Click to open the"Recently Deleted" folder in the left sidebar. 

Step 3. Find the missing note. Right-click it, click "Move to" and "On My Mac".

The Notes app on Mac can only retain deleted notes within 30 days. If you can't find the recently deleted notes or you delete them permanently, the most efficient way to get data back is using specialized Mac file recovery software.  

Restore Disappeared Notes on Mac from Temporary Folder

Mac will create temporary files named .storedata files in the user Library folder when you are using the Notes app. So, if your notes disappeared suddenly, you can browse the .storedata files to find missing notes. 

Step 1. Open Finder and hit the following keys on your keyboard – Cmd, Shift, G. (Or go to the "Go" > "Go To Folder Menu" in the top status bar).

Step 2. Copy and paste ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.notes/Data/Library/Notes/ and hit enter. You will be presented with the following folder which usually contains about three files. (Our lost data was stored in the "NotesV1.storedata-wal" file.)

Step 3. Make a backup of these files to a folder on your desktop, renaming each file to ".html". When asked if you would like to add the extension, click "Use .html". Once this is done, the files should look something like this (with your browser icon as the file icon – my browser in this instance is Firefox hence the orange icon).

Step 4. Double-click the files to open them up in your default browser, and you will be presented with the notes text in HTML format. Simply Cmd + F to find and recover the note text you are looking for.

How to Recover Disappeared Notes on Mac from iCloud

iCloud makes you sync notes among your Apple devices possibly. That is to say, if you delete notes on your Mac, you may retrieve them on iCloud backups.

Step 1. Disable the Internet access as quickly as you can once you discover the notes disappearing on your Mac. (Or go to "Preferences" > "iCloud"> uncheck the box next to Notes.)

Step 2. Go to icloud.com, and sign in with your Apple ID. Choose Notes. And find out the deleted notes and save them into a local file.

If this method doesn't work, use EaseUS software to recover your notes from iCloud.

How to Recover Notes on Mac from Time Machine

You can use Time Machine, the built-in backup feature of your Mac, to automatically back up all of your files, including apps, music, photos, email, documents, and system files. When you have a backup, you can restore the notes from your backup.

Requiring no additional apps, using Time Machine is a quick and easy solution to recovering disappeared, deleted, and lost notes, which was nowhere to be found. To perform Mac note recovery, follow the guidance provided below. 

Step 1. Connect the backup drive to your Mac. Start Time Machine. 

Step 2. Open the backup files and find the notes files you need. 

Step 3. Choose the note and click the "Restore" button. 

Why Did My Notes Disappear on My Mac

But the mishap of Mac notes disappearing always happens. Many people would get stuck in a situation where:

• Notes disappeared from Mac after a major macOS upgrade
• They've accidentally deleted a note
• Turn off the iCloud backup 
• Software problem because of a macOS bug
• Store notes with a third-party account 

Don't worry. You can quickly recover lost notes from the Recently Deleted folder if you have not emptied it. Or you probably get the notes back from iCloud or Time Machine if you have made a file syncing/backup.

Bonus Tip: Where are Notes Stored on Mac

Usually, your Mac notes are restored from the recently deleted folder, iCloud and Time Machine backup, and third-party software will be saved back to its original location. To check and view the recovered notes you've retrieved, you should know where Mac stores the notes. This is where Notes are stored on Mac, iMac, Macbook Pro, Macbook Air, etc.

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/Notes/

To access the Notes location in Finder, you can easily make it by following these steps.

• Pull down the Go menu from the Finder and choose Go To Folder.
• Enter the path ~/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.notes/ and find the exact file called NoteStore.sqlite. This is where actual Notes data is stored.

Mac Notes Disappeared FAQs

Read the questions and answers below to get additional help on Mac Notes recovery.

1. Where did my Notes go?

Where do deleted files go? It depends on the device and the way you delete your files. On Mac, deleted files go to the Trash. If you are deleting files from an external hard drive, the deleted files won't go to the Trash. They remain on the drive marked as empty.

2. Where are notes stored on Mac?

You can go to ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/Notes/ to view the temporary notes.

3. Why did my Apple notes suddenly disappear?

The notes on Mac may be missing due to account issues, software crashes, system problems, human error, or other causes.