Apple Notes backup

[circatee]

I have Apple Notes in iCloud, and I have Time Machine running on one Mac mini that I own. Additionally, I access my Apple Notes from quite a few Mac devices.

Is there a way to back up Apple Notes? I see no export option, well, except one at a time.

 

[BrianBaughn]

Notes are stored in a database form and I think the Time Machine backup is the easiest way to back them up…although I don't know how easy it would be to restore them and deal with all the syncing.

I use Notes now and then but I wouldn't want to store anything important in there as its only location.

 

[Madhatter32]

If they are in iCloud, the are backed up.

 

[chown33]

Example of problematic recovery of Notes data.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/restoring-an-individual-note-from-the-notes-app-via-tm-backup.2444792/

How it ended: I am just going to say Sayonara to that long-ago deleted note

 

[ignatius345]

If they are in iCloud, the are backed up.

Synced, but not really "backed up". AFAIK revisions are not kept, and once a note is overwritten, accidentally changed, etc and that is synced back to iCloud, you're out of luck.

Given the excellent support for individual document revisions in apps like Pages, it seems really surprising that Notes remains a big monolithic database without access to versions of individual notes.

 

[ipaqrat]

I have Apple Notes in iCloud, and I have Time Machine running on one Mac mini that I own. Additionally, I access my Apple Notes from quite a few Mac devices.

Is there a way to back up Apple Notes? I see no export option, well, except one at a time.

Found this in my notes, kinda old, 3-ish years. I have not personally tried the file backup/restore method. Test with care, mileage may vary, blah, blah. https://osxdaily.com/2022/04/28/create-local-backup-notes-mac/

 

[gilby101]

Is there a way to back up Apple Notes? I see no export option, well, except one at a time.

For exporting to PDF, I have had some success with Exporter https://apps.apple.com/us/app/exporter/id1099120373 But I wouldn't be confident that all notes would export to PDFs accurately. Try it.

The difficulty is that Notes uses a database. Backing up of the whole database using Time Machine works well. And restoring is fine if you need to restore ALL your notes. A complete fail if you need to restore a note you deleted a week ago. To enable a robust backup and restore of individual notes requires export of each note to a format which can be reimported without loss - that does not exist (please, someone tell me I am wrong).

I now only use Notes for fairly ephemeral notes. I prefer to use a note writing app that a) keeps each note as a separate document, and b) in a format that be read (and preferably) written by alternative apps.

To meet those requirements, I use markdown format for notes with each note in a separate file. As an App, I use Typora. But there are lots of other apps which can read and edit documents in markdown format.

Consider moving away from Notes as your note taking app to a markdown editor.

Edit: Looked again at the spec for the current version of Exporter. It can export notes from Notes to markdown or html. That makes it even more useful.

 

[circatee]

For exporting to PDF, I have had some success with Exporter https://apps.apple.com/us/app/exporter/id1099120373 But I wouldn't be confident that all notes would export to PDFs accurately. Try it.

The difficulty is that Notes uses a database. Backing up of the whole database using Time Machine works well. And restoring is fine if you need to restore ALL your notes. A complete fail if you need to restore a note you deleted a week ago. To enable a robust backup and restore of individual notes requires export of each note to a format which can be reimported without loss - that does not exist (please, someone tell me I am wrong).

I now only use Notes for fairly ephemeral notes. I prefer to use a note writing app that a) keeps each note as a separate document, and b) in a format that be read (and preferably) written by alternative apps.

To meet those requirements, I use markdown format for notes with each note in a separate file. As an App, I use Typora. But there are lots of other apps which can read and edit documents in markdown format.

Consider moving away from Notes as your note taking app to a markdown editor.

Edit: Looked again at the spec for the current version of Exporter. It can export notes from Notes to markdown or html. That makes it even more useful.

...thanks for sharing!

I am still thinking about this Notes process as a whole. Initially, I was adamant I was going to move back to OneNote.
Over the weekend, as I started to research the move, I remembered why I started to use Apple Notes, and moved away from OneNote, the simplicity of it.

Alas, still thinking.

 

[gilby101]

Initially, I was adamant I was going to move back to OneNote.

I can understand why you didn't. 😉

I almost moved to Bear (in Mac/iOS App Stores) and you should include it as a potential change. All notes are in a database (which I was not happy about), but internally uses markdown (with some additions?) for the notes and has a backup and restore which (with a bit of effort) does allow for recovery of individual notes. Has lots of export choices. Runs across all Apple devices with iCloud sharing. I like the interface style - but others might not! I was put off by the annual price - which really is ok if you make lots of use of it.

My other reason for liking notes stored as individual files is that the notes are then fully searchable in Finder. That has been a key driver in my leaning towards markdown as individual files.

 

[circatee]

I can understand why you didn't. 😉

I almost moved to Bear (in Mac/iOS App Stores) and you should include it as a potential change. All notes are in a database (which I was not happy about), but internally uses markdown (with some additions?) for the notes and has a backup and restore which (with a bit of effort) does allow for recovery of individual notes. Has lots of export choices. Runs across all Apple devices with iCloud sharing. I like the interface style - but others might not! I was put off by the annual price - which really is ok if you make lots of use of it.

My other reason for liking notes stored as individual files is that the notes are then fully searchable in Finder. That has been a key driver in my leaning towards markdown as individual files.

...thanks for the breakdown.
I need to research 'markdown'.

 

[splifingate]

My other reason for liking notes stored as individual files is that the notes are then fully searchable in Finder. That has been a key driver in my leaning towards markdown as individual files.

This.

I need to research 'markdown'.

My Notes are copied/mirrored all over the place, and I have no concern that they will suddenly disappear.

That being said--while I use AAPL Notes extensively--my blog is flat-file using unique-filename.md

Markdown is just another way of doing things, and fluency comes from repetition.

For example:

If I were making a blog post/note to show how using the the <video> tag on an iOS device requires one to start the video on the second frame with the "#t=0.1" suffix to avoid showing just the initial still-frame image, I would create a <code> block (three back-ticks (I follow this by a language descriptor, as I use prism.js to highlight code)):

```html

Dynastes tityus, The Eastern Hercules beetle larvae.

<!--more--> // keeps front-page posts concise

Unearthed as I was digging-out some Solomon Seal in an area soon-be-occupied by some large rhododendrons in Somewhere, USA last week.

Amateur-entomologist-bliss 🙂

[Dynastes tityus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynastes_tityus)


They sure were some fatties <smile>


<video controls alt="dynastes tityus grubs in action"><source src="../media/videos/dynastes-tityus.mp4#t=0.1">Your browser does not support the video tag.</video>
```

Markdown is can be semantically awesome, once your fingers get the hang of it 🙂

I'd suggest reading the README.md (see: Preview, then Code) on various Github projects to get a feeling of what Markdown can do.