How to Undo in Notes on Mac in 2026: Text, Notes and Folders

To undo in Notes on a Mac, press Command-Z or choose Edit > Undo. Press Shift-Command-Z to redo. If you deleted a whole note or folder, open the Recently Deleted folder in the Notes sidebar and drag the note back to another folder; iCloud notes and notes stored on your Mac wait there for 30 days before they're removed.

The moment usually goes like this: you select a paragraph to move it, a stray keystroke replaces it, and the text you spent twenty minutes on is gone. Or you clear out old folders and realize a day later that one of them held the note you needed. Both are recoverable most of the time, and the fix depends on what you lost. This guide covers undoing and redoing edits, getting deleted notes and folders back, what Notes can't recover, and a few habits that make the next slip cheaper.

How to undo in Notes on Mac

Notes uses the standard Mac undo: Command-Z reverses your last change, and the same command is in the Edit menu. Apple's Mac keyboard shortcuts page describes Command-Z as undoing the previous command and notes that some apps support multiple undo and redo steps. If one press doesn't take you far enough, press it again and watch what changes.

1. Click inside the note you were editing, so Notes is the active app and the cursor is in that note.
2. Press Command-Z once. The last change disappears.
3. Still not right? Press Command-Z again and check the note after each press.
4. If the keyboard shortcut does nothing, choose Edit > Undo in the menu bar instead, as How-To Geek's walkthrough shows.

It's worth trying on more than typing. When I tidied a long meeting note and accidentally turned three paragraphs into a bulleted list, two presses of Command-Z put the plain text back faster than reformatting by hand.

Undo before you move on

Apple doesn't document how many steps Notes remembers or whether the undo history survives switching to another note or quitting the app. I treat it as fragile: if I notice a mistake, I undo before clicking anywhere else, and only then go looking at other notes.

How to redo in Notes on Mac

Redo reverses an undo. Press Shift-Command-Z, or choose Edit > Redo. Apple's shortcuts page pairs the two: press Command-Z to undo, then Shift-Command-Z to redo and reverse the undo command.

Use redo before you type anything else. In most Mac apps, new typing after an undo clears the steps you could have redone, so I wouldn't count on Notes keeping them. When I'm unsure how far back I need to go, I undo slowly and look at the note after each press, rather than tapping Command-Z ten times and hoping.

How to recover a deleted note on Mac

Deleted notes go to the Recently Deleted folder in the Notes sidebar, and you get them back by moving them out of it. Apple's guide to deleting notes says notes stored on your Mac and upgraded iCloud notes can be viewed and recovered there for a month (Apple's figure is 30 days).

1. Open Notes on your Mac.
2. In the sidebar, click Recently Deleted. If you keep notes in both iCloud and On My Mac, look under each.
3. Find the note. Click it to check it's the right one.
4. Drag the note from Recently Deleted onto another folder in the sidebar, such as Notes.

The note is back in that folder with its contents. If you deleted it seconds ago, try Command-Z first; if that doesn't bring it back, Recently Deleted is the reliable route.

Watch the clock on this one. For upgraded iCloud notes, Apple says notes in Recently Deleted are removed from all your devices after 30 days and permanently deleted from iCloud after 40 days. Deleting a note from inside Recently Deleted skips the wait and removes it right away, so only do that when you're sure.

Why don't I see Recently Deleted in Notes?

Recently Deleted only appears for iCloud notes and notes on your Mac. Apple's delete guide says notes in a non-upgraded iCloud account or a non-iCloud account (for example, a Gmail or work account you added to Notes) aren't kept there; they're removed permanently from every device using that account. (An Upgrade button next to iCloud in the Notes sidebar means that account's notes haven't been upgraded yet.) Apple's iCloud guide adds one more reason it can be missing: if you don't see Recently Deleted, there's nothing in it to recover.

This is the case I'd check before it matters. If your important notes live in a Gmail or Exchange account inside Notes, a deleted note has no safety net in the app. Moving those notes into iCloud or On My Mac gives them one.

How to recover a deleted folder

Deleting a folder doesn't delete its notes immediately. Apple's folders guide says the notes in a deleted folder move to Recently Deleted and stay there for 30 days. The folder itself doesn't come back, so the fix is to make a new folder and drag the notes into it.

1. Make a new folder with Shift-Command-N (it's on Apple's Notes shortcuts page) and give it the old name.
2. Open Recently Deleted in the sidebar.
3. Select the notes that came from the old folder. Command-click to pick several.
4. Drag them onto the new folder.

When I cleared out old project folders before a new quarter started, I deleted one that still held a client's onboarding checklist. Recently Deleted had every note from it, and rebuilding the folder took a minute. Apple also notes that deleting a shared folder removes it from every participant's devices, so ask before you tidy a folder other people use.

How to recover a deleted note on iCloud.com

If your Mac isn't to hand, iCloud.com has the same Recently Deleted folder. Apple's iCloud guide gives the steps:

1. Open icloud.com/notes in a browser and sign in, if it asks.
2. Select Recently Deleted in the folder list.
3. Select the note, then click Recover in the toolbar. The note moves to the Notes folder.

On a computer you can also drag the note from Recently Deleted to a folder you made. Anything you recover on the web shows up on your Mac and iPhone too, because they all read the same iCloud notes.

What happens when you delete a shared note

A shared note you don't own doesn't go to your Recently Deleted folder when you delete it. Apple's iCloud guide says so directly, which means you can't restore it from your side. The note's owner still has it, so the fix is to ask them to share it with you again.

If you own a shared note or folder and delete it, it's gone for everyone you shared it with, per Apple's folders guide. For notes a team relies on, I'd rather leave an outdated note in place with "Old" in the title than delete it and find out someone still needed it.

Can you see earlier versions of a note?

No. Apple Notes has no version history, so there's no way to open last Tuesday's copy of a note. Many Mac apps that save files offer File > Revert To > Browse All Versions, but MacMost explains that Notes doesn't, because it keeps everything in its own database instead of separate documents.

That gap catches people who expect Notes to work like Pages. When someone asked on Apple's community forum how to get back text lost inside a note, the answer was that Notes can recover deleted notes, not text deleted from inside a note. Once the undo history is gone, an edit you saved over is gone too.

Is Time Machine an option?

Only as a last resort, and not for a single note. Notes keeps all its notes in one database inside your user Library, so restoring from a Time Machine backup means swapping that whole database, which replaces every note with the backup's version. Replies in that same forum thread warned that the risk of corrupting the Notes database is unknown and suggested copying the current folder before trying anything. I wouldn't do this for a paragraph. For a note that holds months of work and is past the 30 days, it may be worth asking Apple Support first.

Undo isn't working: what to check

When Command-Z does nothing, the cause is usually where the cursor is, not a broken app. Check these, top to bottom:

• Is Notes the active app? The app name next to the Apple menu should say Notes. If another app is in front, Command-Z goes to that app.
• Is the cursor in the right note? Click inside the note you changed, then try again.
• Is Edit > Undo grayed out? Then Notes has nothing left to undo in this note. Move on to Recently Deleted (for a deleted note) or accept that the edit is final.
• Is the note just somewhere else? Press Option-Command-F to search all notes, a shortcut on Apple's Notes shortcuts page. A note dragged into the wrong folder looks deleted until you search for it.
• Is it in a different account? If you use iCloud and On My Mac, each has its own folders and its own Recently Deleted. Check both.

If notes are disappearing on their own, or Notes won't open or keeps quitting, that's a sync or app problem rather than an undo problem. Start by checking that Sync this Mac is on in System Settings > your name > iCloud > Notes, then look at Apple's own Notes troubleshooting from there.

How to undo in Notes on iPhone and iPad

Notes on iPhone and iPad has no Command-Z, but it has gestures. Macworld's guide lists them: swipe left with three fingers to undo, swipe right with three fingers to redo, or double-tap with three fingers to undo. How-To Geek also describes shaking the iPhone to bring up an Undo Typing prompt. The iPhone has its own Recently Deleted folder too, and a note you recover on one device shows up on the others through iCloud.

Habits that make the next mistake cheaper

Since Notes keeps no versions, the protection has to come from you. These take seconds:

1. Duplicate before a big rewrite. Select the note and press Command-D (Apple's shortcuts page lists it as Duplicate note). Before I rework a note I've shared with a client, I make a copy so the old wording is one click away.
2. Keep important notes in iCloud or On My Mac. Those get Recently Deleted. Notes in a Gmail or other account don't.
3. Don't empty Recently Deleted early. Let the 30 days run unless you need a note gone now.
4. Export a snapshot of notes you can't lose. A PDF of a note is a fixed copy outside the Notes database; the steps are in my guide to exporting notes on Mac.
5. Undo first, click second. The undo history is the cheapest recovery there is, and it's most dependable before you switch notes.

The same thinking applies beyond Notes. Most Mac apps give you a short window and a trash folder, and the window is what people forget. My guide to recovering deleted emails on Mac covers the equivalent for Mail, Gmail and Outlook. And if most of what you lose is call notes, a meeting note taker such as Granola is built for that job.