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All iPads Backing up Apple Notes outside of iCloud

flobach

flobach

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 23, 2008
144
133
Germany
Hello all,
I really like and prefer using my iPad and iPhone over my MacBook, but there is one final thing why I can't get rid of macOS: backups. It's been playing on my mind for months how to solve the issue, maybe one of you has an answer or an idea?

All my data in iCloud, and use Apple Software. I realise that some may see iCloud as a backup, but I would like to have the data somewhere else as well separately. I am starting my own business, and would hate if important data went missing because of an issue with iCloud, even if the chance it happening is tiny.

I can back up contacts, calendars, photos, files and reminders manually or via some shortcuts I set up. That leaves me with Notes - for the life of me I can't figure out a way of backing them up on iPadOS, apart having to go through each note and saving it manually as a PDF. What I've tried so far:
  • selecting all notes in Notes app, and dragging them to "on my iPad" location in Files. It only copies 10-13 notes over, although I have selected a few dozen.
  • Writing a shortcut to grab all Notes, making a .zip archive, and saving them to Files. Always comes up with the error message "Couldn't communicate with a helper application." if I try and get more than about 7 notes. I have about 150 notes I would like to backup.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated, then I could happily get rid of my Mac and not worry about not having good backups. Thanks!
 
The app iMazing does an excellent job of saving your Notes. It also saves attachments albeit in a separate folder. Notes can be saved as PDF or text. It does a better job than the app Exporte, in my opinion.
 
Apple_Robert said:
The app iMazing does an excellent job of saving your Notes. It also saves attachments albeit in a separate folder. Notes can be saved as PDF or text. It does a better job than the app Exporte, in my opinion.
Click to expand...
Thanks, but imazing is a Mac/PC based solution, and I'm looking to go iPad only.
 
It’s a Mac app

apps.apple.com

‎Exporter

‎Export notes from Notes.app - Notes can be exported to markdown or HTML format. - Creation & modification dates of notes are preserved. - Notes are stored in directories named after the notebooks in which they are stored in Notes.app. - Notes in same notebook having same name are renamed to...
apps.apple.com
 
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flobach said:
Writing a shortcut to grab all Notes, making a .zip archive, and saving them to Files. Always comes up with the error message "Couldn't communicate with a helper application." if I try and get more than about 7 notes. I have about 150 notes I would like to backup.
Click to expand...

I wonder if the "type" of Note might be causing problems. Attachments? Password protected? Extremely large?

I hover around 45-55 Notes at any given time and have not had issues with finding all Notes, but yes, not close to 150.

What I've been doing for years now is just backup the changed Notes. Did an initial dump of everything and then setup automations to find all Notes changed since last backup (save a timestamp in Files to track last successful backup) and just export those Notes. Doesn't do attachments or password protected, but sufficient for my needs (these type of things are not "originals" in Notes and can be re-created easily; alternate reference location).
 
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