iCloud primary account

I am working on a MacBook Air using Yosemite 10.10.5

As my notes weren't syncing from phone to MacBook Air I checked the iCloud in preferences, I noticed there was a second inactive iCloud account which wouldn't accept my password as "this is not your primary account" so I highlighted this inactive one and clicked the "-" to delete it AND

now that inactive one is still there, still not accepting my password, and my iCloud account which was working disappeared from this list --- along with all my calendar, contacts, notes SO now I am asking what do I do. I don't want to lose these from my iPhone thus don't want it to sync and delete all from my phone. I did back up with time machine a couple of days ago and am happy to go back to that but don't know the process.

Any help is very very gratefully received.

thanks

Maz