notes all gone after emptying gmail mailboxes

By Betsy, 6 January, 2018

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

I'm writing this mostly as a heads up for those who, like me, didn't know that if you clean out your gmail mailboxes you lose all your i-device notes that were associated with your gmail email address. I was on my macbook a while ago where its much easier to clean out gmail mailboxes than it is on iphone or ipad. And I went overboard emptying my boxes of years of messages. But then found out I had also deleted years worth of valuable notes. Thankfully I did not lose any contacts even though they too are associated with my gmail account. I don't get why the notes disappeared and the contacts did not. Anyway just wanted to put this out there so maybe someone else can avoid this horrendous mistake.

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Comments

By Piotr Machacz on Saturday, January 27, 2018 - 05:42

You can see all of your notes that you store on a Google account in Gmail. It makes a label for it, simply called notes. You will see this as a folder in any Email client and you can view all your notes from there. And of course it also means you can delete them. So next time you go on a perging spree, just make sure not to clear out the notes folder as well. Either that, or switch to storing your notes in iCloud which also enables some of the more advanced features of notes like attaching files, adding checklists, headings and tables.

By Betsy on Saturday, January 27, 2018 - 05:42

I will indeed leave that label alone in the future. I do have notes turned on for icloud backup. What more do I need to do to store my notes in icloud?

By Betsy on Saturday, January 27, 2018 - 05:42

I expanded my gmail using the native ios mail app on an ipad. There is no notes folder. Is it only viewable when using a computer?

By Roxann Pollard on Saturday, January 27, 2018 - 05:42

I have this folder visible in my GMail account, while using the native EMail app on the iPhone. perhaps the Notes folder was deleted at some time in the past? One thing you can try is deleting and reestablishing your GMail account on the phone. This may restore the Notes folder. This can be done inside the Settings area of the phone, under Mail.

HTH