This is why we need to be careful with the cloud. Losing data is devastating especially if it’s something personal like photos or notes
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My Apple Notes deleted? Bug?
- Thread starter -BigMac-
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78GB of messages!! Messages is the one thing I always delete.
BigMcGuire
macrumors G4
Most of it from friends and family with kids. 🙂 I think all my film baby pics my parents took are less than a week of what I see of my nieces and nephews.
I wiped all my messages in 2019 too. lol.
Might try saving as HTML. Preserves a lot of the formatting. And can do RTF as well iirc.
I'm doing HTML (Make HTML from <repeat item> --> Save <HTML from Rich Text>). Every hour, via iPhone Automation, find all Notes that changed since last save (keep a timestamp in a file of last successful save of a Note) and export them to cloud. Not a true snapshot as not capturing every change, but at least something should some sort of disaster strike.
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adrianlondon
macrumors 604
I actually sorted it by saving it as rich text, as some of my notes stripped the text colours and size even using html.
Weirdly, I noticed that the note had to be open for rich text to actually save it correctly with all the correct formatting. So now I have a loop which basically opens the note, saves it, then closes the note.
I then zip all the note files into one file and delete the individual exports. I don't even need to export notes; I just enjoyed the process of creating this shortcut prompted by this thread. As hobbies go it's not the most exciting - luckily it didn't take long 😁
oo - I think I've learnt how to share shortcuts! I make no promises that the link (or even the shortcut) works ... 😉
DCIFRTHS
macrumors 68000
Pardon my inexperience... When clicking on a link to a shortcut, what happens? Does the shortcut attempt to run, or do we get to view it?
Would it be possible for you to post it here as you did in a previous post? I would love for it to be peer reviewed publicly. Please don't take offense to my post. It's not meant to question your integrity or honesty. I am so programmed to be cautious, that it is automatic when clicking on any link.
Definitely appreciate your work on this, and sharing it with others 🙂
You can view it or import it into your Shortcuts app.
When you click on the link, Shortcuts will launch and can click/tap on three-dots to view the Shortcut before importing. Attached is on MacOS but will see similar on i*OS.
Nothing runs, nothing gets imported. You need to explicitly add the Shortcut to your device/account and explicitly run it for anything to happen.
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DCIFRTHS
macrumors 68000
adrianlondon
macrumors 604
Nothing runs at all automatically. As NoBoMac says, you click on the link and then click the three dots to see the contents.
Also, you can select to add the shortcut and it still won't run. Once you've added it, you can click it to see the contents (but if you click on the play icon, it will run).
It'll probably ask lots of permission questions the first time you run it. Mine look like my screenshot below. You can, of course, select "always ask".
I must say though, if you've absolutely no idea about shortcuts, you may find this all a bit confusing at first. I did, although I now have around 50 shortcuts so I'm used to all its quirks now.
Also, you can select to add the shortcut and it still won't run. Once you've added it, you can click it to see the contents (but if you click on the play icon, it will run).
It'll probably ask lots of permission questions the first time you run it. Mine look like my screenshot below. You can, of course, select "always ask".
I must say though, if you've absolutely no idea about shortcuts, you may find this all a bit confusing at first. I did, although I now have around 50 shortcuts so I'm used to all its quirks now.
DCIFRTHS
macrumors 68000
Awesome information - yes, I am new to shortcuts. I briefly looked at them a while back, but remember nothing lol
Thank you!
adrianlondon
macrumors 604
To learn, I suggest you (if using a laptop!) open mine, and open a blank one, and create your own shortcut copying mine as best as you can (and as much as you want).
Do note that you sometimes have to click on the variables to change the format - for example, the "Save Repeat-Item" action, click on "Repeat Item" and you'll see I changed it from the default to "Type: Rich Text".
Another example, "Save Archive to folderName" - click the arrow and you'll see I have a filename "Notes CurrentDate". Click on current date and I changed the format to yyyy-MM-dd to make the filename look nice.
Have fun! Shortcuts are either addictive, or you'll give up quickly and never write one again 😁
DCIFRTHS
macrumors 68000
I do have a laptop, and I’m going to give it a shot. I was trying to write one that involved turning on / off Private Relay automatically when I started a program that didn’t work with PR enabled, then enable PR when I closed the program that didn’t work with PR. This was on iOS.
It was hard because there was no documented way to do it at the time. I found ways to do it online, but it wasn’t reliable or I was doing it wrong (more likely) lol
It frustrated me, and I lost interest. I think I may give shortcuts a shot again.
I was doing it on my phone. Never tried it on the Mac. Is it a different process? I guess I’ll find out soon enough…
Can a shortcut for iOS be written on the Mac (and the opposite)?
adrianlondon
macrumors 604
I find it much easier on a Mac because (a) bigger screen so can have multiple windows open and (b) keyboard!
Assuming you've not disabled the iCloud Shortcuts sync, when you create/edit one on MacOS it will update it on iOS and vice versa.
Automations don't sync at all, so you need to create them on the device on which you want them. In your case, you'd create two automations on your phone - one for opening the app and one for closing. However, Private Relay offers no actions for Shortcuts so you won't be able to do what you want anyway.
Assuming you've not disabled the iCloud Shortcuts sync, when you create/edit one on MacOS it will update it on iOS and vice versa.
Automations don't sync at all, so you need to create them on the device on which you want them. In your case, you'd create two automations on your phone - one for opening the app and one for closing. However, Private Relay offers no actions for Shortcuts so you won't be able to do what you want anyway.
BigMcGuire
macrumors G4
That was 8x simpler than I thought it would be. And quick.
It produced a 487 KB zip file. (Before running this I made sure to unlock the protected notes manually).
Then I unzipped to make sure everything was there - check.
Then used terminal to zip -er it into an encrypted zip file. Makes me feel a lot better about using Apple Notes.
A late thank you to @NoBoMac for the help (in another thread). 😛
It produced a 487 KB zip file. (Before running this I made sure to unlock the protected notes manually).
Then I unzipped to make sure everything was there - check.
Then used terminal to zip -er it into an encrypted zip file. Makes me feel a lot better about using Apple Notes.
A late thank you to @NoBoMac for the help (in another thread). 😛
adrianlondon
macrumors 604
Nice and simple, BigMcGuire.
I wish that worked for me! I set my Notes to "Rich Text" after which either my Notes app crashes (I have to open it to unlock a note) or it works but all the formatting is stripped.
It's just one of my notes which causes this, and it's the one full of font sizes, different colours etc etc.
If I was happy to export in plain text - like a normal person would be 😁 - then your shortcut works perfectly and is much simpler than mine.
I wish that worked for me! I set my Notes to "Rich Text" after which either my Notes app crashes (I have to open it to unlock a note) or it works but all the formatting is stripped.
It's just one of my notes which causes this, and it's the one full of font sizes, different colours etc etc.
If I was happy to export in plain text - like a normal person would be 😁 - then your shortcut works perfectly and is much simpler than mine.
ivanwi11iams
macrumors 601
Honestly, for a while now I have been considering moving to OneNote. At this rate, I might just do it.
Ugh, so much copy and paste in my future...
Ugh, so much copy and paste in my future...
BigMcGuire
macrumors G4
I’m lucky. Im an old fart. So most all of my notes are plain text. lol.
I use OneNote every day for work and have for a long time. It’s really good and I really like the iPad app.