I deleted my Gmail account and now all my Notes are gone. Please help!!

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I deleted my Gmail account and now all my Notes are gone. Please help!!

Hi guys.

So last night I deleted my old student university Gmail account, and I was horrified to see that all of my Notes were also deleted!!

I am sure many people have experienced similar disasters, but my situation is slightly more complicated than that.

My student email address has been suspended since 5/5/15 as I graduated back in 2008, and neither myself nor the uni needed the account anymore (hence yesterday I finally deleted it from my iPhone 6!)

I contacted the university and they have temporarily restored my account, and so I was able to obtain all of my notes up until the date the account was suspended on the 5/5/15. This is great, but to be honest the more recent notes are of greater value to me. So what I need to know is where to find the most recent notes and how to restore them? I have added the email account back on my phone but it has only restored the Notes up until the 5/5/15. Any ideas?

It is worth mentioning I have not backed my phone up using iTunes for at least a month or two so that will not solve my issue either. iCloud won't work as I never had that set up and presumed all of my notes were saving directly to my handset.

Thanks very much in advance.

Jordan

Posted on Sep 1, 2015 7:25 AM

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Answer 1

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Sep 1, 2015 7:29 AM in response to jk baby

The notes were on Gmails servers, where they are now is something you need to ask Google. iCloud has nothing to do with Notes stored in Google, it has its own Notes storage but as you didn't use it that is of no value here.

Backup is a good thing if you do it regularly enough.

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Answer 2

ChrisJ4203

Level 10

230,347 points

Sep 1, 2015 7:29 AM in response to jk baby

Your notes were being saved to the Gmail account. What happened to the ones after that would be indicated in Settings>Notes and see where it showed them going after that. If you do not have a current backup of the device, then you would only have a chance at restoring to that last backup, if they are there. I know it doesn't help now, but your gmail had the setting for where your notes were going. In the future, check Settings>Notes and see where you have them now. I also suggest that you set up syncing them to another application on the computer or iCloud to ensure their safety.

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Answer 3

Limnos

Level 10

411,217 points

Sep 1, 2015 7:34 AM in response to jk baby

Notes are basically part of e-mail.

iOS: Syncing Notes - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4191

"Notes are associated with an IMAP email account or iCloud account. To sync Notes, enable Notes for each account in Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars or Settings > iCloud."

iCloud: iCloud storage and backup overview - http://support.apple.com/kb/PH12519

"Your iOS device backup only includes data and settings stored on your device. It doesn’t include data already stored in iCloud, for example contacts, calendars, bookmarks, mail messages, notes, shared photo albums, iCloud Photo Library beta, My Photo Stream, and documents you save in iCloud using iOS apps and Mac apps."

Given all that, and what you post, I suspect they are gone. Your account was restored up to May this year (question: If it was suspended how did you get anything more recent than that anyway?)

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Answer 4

jk baby Author

Level 1

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Sep 1, 2015 8:54 AM in response to Csound1

Ok great thanks I'll contact Google asap and see if there is anyway to retrieve them

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Answer 5

jk baby Author

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Sep 1, 2015 8:57 AM in response to Limnos

I didn't get anything more recent, that's the exact problem. Regaining access to the student email account has allowed me to retrieve my Notes up until the 5/5/15 but none more recent than that. I really want to get the Notes I have written in the last few days/weeks but as my email account was deactivated I have no idea where Google/Notes was storing them so I guess I need to speak with the Gmail tech team

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Answer 6

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Sep 1, 2015 9:33 AM in response to jk baby

If they were written after the account was suspended they are probably not on Googles servers (and never were) they are most likely to be gone.

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Answer 7

jk baby Author

Level 1

0 points

Sep 1, 2015 9:50 AM in response to Csound1

But that doesn't make any sense. Where would they have been stored then? I have turned my phone off and restarted it many times since May of this year and my newest notes have always remained there. As soon as I deleted the Gmail account last night every single one of my notes was deleted along with it...

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