Recover note exports you already downloaded.
Use NotesRetrieval when you already have the export or backup, but still do not trust retrieval across the resulting files.
Find the right note fast and trust the source.
NotesRetrieval is a local-first recovery companion for exports, backups, scans, PDFs, and Finder-visible folders that you explicitly choose on your Mac. It helps you search across the mess without pretending it is one clean library.
Find useful note content inside scans and PDFs.
NotesRetrieval helps recover note-adjacent content that is no longer trapped in a clean notes format.
Search across Finder-visible note sprawl.
When note artifacts already live in folders on your Mac, NotesRetrieval gives you one trustworthy local search surface across them.
What makes it trustworthy
- local-first indexing and OCR on your Mac
- user-selected folders, exports, and backups only
- provenance-aware search results
- open-original clarity before you leave the app
What it is not
- not another notes app
- not a direct Apple Notes sync client in the public build
- not a hidden crawler of private Apple Notes storage
- not cloud sync or server-backed note storage