Working Around a Missing Feature in Apple Notes

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Summary

A blog post describing a workaround for the lack of read-only note functionality in Apple Notes by creating and maintaining a duplicate backup copy.

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Cached at: 04/20/26, 02:43 PM

# Working Around a Missing Feature in Apple Notes Source: [https://jimleff.blogspot.com/2026/04/working-around-missing-feature-in-apple.html](https://jimleff.blogspot.com/2026/04/working-around-missing-feature-in-apple.html) Annoyingly, you cannot make a Note in MacOS read\-only \(i\.e\. unalterable\)\. So if you have a note containing important information which you frequently open in mobile, a stray hand movement might alter its content and you might not notice in time to perform an "undo", leaving you "screwed" as they say in the tech world\. The standard workaround \(until Apple finally solves this\) is clunky: > Create a new Notes folderShare the Folder with yourself Set permissions to View Only Move the note into that folder That's a lot of work\. And I can't anticipate all the consequences, some of which will inevitably be painful in some unforseeable way\. I'm a fan of lazy, dumb, good\-enough solutions one might miss while trying to find a non\-existent perfect solution\. So here's my move: > Control/Left\-click the note in the sidebar of the Notes app\.Choose "Duplicate" Rename the newly created note so it sorts, alphabeticallly, just beneath the original version, but append the name with "\(xxxxBACKUP VERSIONxxxx\)"\. And never ever open that one\. Dumb\. Inelegant\. Lazy\. Sloppy\. Welcome to my world\!

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