Do you want to know how to backup Apple Notes on Mac? Notes app is one of the most commonly used applications on Mac. The tendency of people to forget or lose track of things and the need to remind themselves of important events and activities have led to the wide usage of the Notes app. It has become a safe place for all your essential things – deadlines, significant events, important dates, strategy plans, to-do lists, etc. But what if you were to lose all of your Notes one day? What if you don’t have a backup for Notes?
If you are an avid user of the local Apple Notes App, you must know that the backup option is not as automatic in this Notes App as in iCloud Notes or Time Machine. Thus, knowing how to backup Apple Notes on Mac is essential for every Mac user. This blog provides a detailed step-by-step guide on the three most effective ways to backup Apple Notes on your Mac.
How to Back Up Apple Notes on your Mac:
1. Exporting Notes as a PDF File
Exporting notes as a PDF file is one of the simplest ways to backup Apple Notes on a Mac. As it ensures that the content in notes maintains its present state in a PDF format. When an Apple Note is exported as a PDF, the structure, format, and layout stay the same.
To create a PDF backup for Apple Notes on Mac:
- Open your Notes App on your Mac.
- Open the Note file that you want to backup.
- From the top Menu bar > click the File option.
- Click on the Export as PDF option from the drop-down list in the File menu bar.
- Save the PDF file in the desired location on your Mac after naming the PDF.
Once you complete these steps, your Apple Notes will be backed up, and the exported PDF will be available in the location you chose to save it.
The disadvantage of backing up Apple notes as PDF files is that you can only export one note simultaneously, making this process time-consuming. Not only that, the restoration of the original note from the PDF file is not possible. And suppose you lose the original note; you will also lose the option of editing the PDF in the Notes App on your Mac.
2. Copying the Notes Directory to your Mac
Copying the Notes directory and shifting it to another location is a complicated process. But it is pretty simple when the proper commands are given and necessary steps are followed.
To copy Notes Directory and create a backup for Apple Notes on Mac:
- On your Mac, Open the Finder tab.
- From the top Menu bar > Click on the Go menu.
- Select the Go to Folder option from the drop-down list in the Go menu bar.
- Enter the command path:
~/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.notes/
- Press Enter. You will be directed to a folder with all your Apple Notes stored on your Mac and iCloud.
- Copy the entire Note Directory.
- Paste it to another safe location/ external hard disk.
After you paste the contents of the entire folder, your Apple Notes will be backed up and available at your chosen safe location.
The disadvantage of backing up your Apple Notes using Notes Directory is that you’ll have to repeat this process over and over if you have additional information to write down in your notes. Because the copied directory will only contain the content created before or during the backup time, it won’t have any new changes or updates you made to the notes after copying the directory.
3. Copy content from Notes and Paste it into an RTF or Word Document
Copying all the content from Apple Notes and pasting it into a word processor like TextEdit or Microsoft Word is another simple way to backup Apple Notes on Mac.
To create an external Word File backup of your Apple Notes on Mac:
- Open your Notes App on your Mac.
- Open the Note file that you want to backup.
- Copy the entire content of the Note
- Paste the content in MS Word or TextEdit.
- Save it as a Word Docx or RTF file respectively.
While saving the note as a Word Docx or RTF file, you must save it along with its backup date for easy finding when in need.
Even though these saved file formats are easy-to-read and edit, copying and pasting them to the Notes App for edit and then backing up again is a hectic procedure.
Frequently Asked Questions-
Q1. Is there a way to backup notes on Mac?
Yes, there are multiple ways to backup Apple Notes on Mac. You can save the notes directly as a PDF file. You can copy-paste the content in Notes to another word processor like Microsoft Word/TextEdit and save them as a document/RTF file, or you can choose to backup the Notes directory on Mac to another folder or an external hard drive.
Q2. How do I save all my notes on my Mac?
You can manually navigate to a hidden folder on your Mac that stores all your Notes data. You can copy and paste the entire Notes directory to another safe folder or external memory disk.
Q3. How do you backup your notes?
To backup your notes, you can directly export the Notes as a PDF file or copy the Note’s content, paste it to another word processor, and save them as a word document.
In Conclusion,
Backing up Apple Notes on your Mac is extremely important as the Notes App is used to write all the essential data and information. If you use iCloud Notes, the backup process is easy for you. But, if you use the local Notes App available on your Mac, you will have to go through the ways mentioned above, which have proven effective for backup.
We hope the article was helpful for you in learning different ways to backup Apple Notes on Mac. We would like to know your views on this post to make it more useful. Your suggestions and comments are welcome in the comment section below. Share the information with your friends and others by sharing the article on social media.
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