iCloud Notes Recently Deleted Folder Moved

Hi hepto,

From your description, it seems clear that it's a bug. It should not be possible to move the "Recently Deleted" folder, which is why the logic for how to put it back is not in place, resulting in you seeing the "parentless child" phenomenon and suchlike.

You probably won't be able to return it to normal until the full release of El Capitan later this fall, but you might be lucky and a beta will reset it for you before then.

Anyway, you should report the bug if you can: https://bugreport.apple.com/

Max.

Thanks - this is what I suspected so really looking for some solidarity than a fix! I'm not sure it will get reset as feels like I've hit an edge case and the risk of data loss for a fix seems too high.

Will file that bug ...

You said that you weren't looking for a fix, but moving the following 2 plist files to the desktop will cause them to be created anew and should fix your issue. The procedure is reversible so there's nothing to lose. Close Notes then, from Finder, press shift+cmd+G and then copy-paste the following in:

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

Move the selected file to the desktop. Repeat with:

~/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.notes/Library/Preferences/group.com.apple.notes.plist

Restart your Mac and see if it's fixed. Let me know if it works 🙂

-Max.

Hi Max - thanks for your advice. Of course I would like a fix, but also concious we're messing with beta software here so some of these things have to be expected!

Anyway, I tried your advice, but unfortuantely it did not fix it. After reboot, I was asked to migrate Notes again, but after that it was just the same. 😟

Thanks for the thoughts though! Do you think there is anyway I could manually move the folder? I noticed a sqlite db on my travels, but couldn't find anything obvious ...

Okay, well the above was an attempt at a surgical fix. The following (slightly less surgical fix) is also reversible so there's still nothing to lose:

Close Notes then, from Finder, press shift+cmd+G and then copy-paste the following in, one at a time, and move the selected file/directory to the desktop as before:

• ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes
• ~/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.notes
• ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/Saved Application State/com.apple.Notes.savedState

Hey Max - thanks again for taking the time to reply.

Unfortuantely, still no dice. This just seems to reset locally, so on re-open Notes just re-syncs the same folders in the same location. On my iOS devices the folder remains as a child.

The problem is that the change has been synced back to the iCloud servers - so now any device that syncs will place Recently Deleted as a child of a different folder.

I suspect the restriction on moving the Recently Deleted folder is actually applied in Notes.app itself, and maybe there was a bug in a previous El Capitan beta that allowed you to move the folder, at which point I accidently did, then a later beta fixed the bug so that now I can't move it back. (Or maybe there is some 'window' where the restriction isn't applied and I happened to get in just in time!)

So feels like I am going to either have to manually affect a folder move by bypassing the UI restriction in Notes.app somehow, and then having that sync back to the servers and across my other devices, or try to get someone on the backend to make the change for me. What do you think?

Yes, all of your conclusions seem sound to me - I was assuming that it was unlikely that anything other than user created folders would be being synced - but evidently not.

I don't think it will be possible to bypass the restriction if the bug has been patched (not without going back to the beta you were on and figuring out how you did it anyway). I suggest you file a bug report together with the request that your notes preferences be reset here: https://bugreport.apple.com

You could also contact Apple Developer Support or call them directly.

Thanks Max.

Doesn't seem I can post a link to the bug, but the number is 22256420. I created it right at the beginning but have not seen any activity yet.

I'll consider contacting Apple about it one day, right now its more an annoyance that a major problem - at least the folder still functions as it should even though it's in the wrong place!