How to Back up Google Keep Notes

26 Jan 2022

4 min read

Gopika Krishnan

Article at a glance

Google Keep has significant limitations in data recovery, leading to potential risks of permanent loss:

Deleted notes in Google Keep are only recoverable within a 7-day period from the trash; after that, they are permanently deleted.

Google Workspace lacks native options for automated backup and recovery of Google Keep notes, leaving data vulnerable to accidental or malicious deletion.

Google Keep is a note taking service with over 500 million users, that’s bundled with Google Workspace. Google Keep allows users to jot down notes, create lists or add audio clips or photos and keep all of this information organized. For business users, backing up Google Keep can ensure important data is always available.

What happens when a Google Keep note is deleted?

When a Google Keep note gets deleted, it will remain in the Trash folder for 7 days. The note gets permanently deleted after the 7-day period and there is no way to restore it.

Below are a few methods that the users and admins can use to ensure a second copy of these notes are accessible in case of an outage or deletion.

How to backup Google Keep notes

The chart below illustrates the different ways users can secure their Google Keep notes

Share Google Keep notes with another user

Although sharing personal Google Keep notes with another user might not always be a great option, users can use this method when they know they are about to lose access to their Google account for some reason.

Follow the below steps to share Google Keep notes with another user

Step 1: Visit Google Keep.
Step 2: Click the note that needs to be shared.
Step 3: Click the “Collaborator” icon.

Step 4: Enter the name or email address of the user that the notes need to be shared with.
Step 5: Select the user, click the check mark.
Step 6: Click “Save”.

Limitations of sharing notes with other users:

Sharing notes with other users may not always be reliable option because of privacy concerns.
Each note needs to be individually shared with the specific user(s). There is no way to share all notes or multiple notes at once.
If a Keep note gets accidentally deleted, it automatically gets deleted for the shared users as well.

Backup notes using Google Takeout exports

Users can export Google Keep data using Google Takeout and store a copy of all the notes in their local device to be accessed in case of accidental deletion or outage.

Follow the below steps to export Google Keep data using Takeout:

Step 1: Visit Google Takeout.
Step 2: Click “Deselect all”

Step 3: Scroll down and click the checkbox next to “Keep”.

Step 4: Scroll down and click “Next step”.

Step 5: Select the file type, frequency of export, and the destination.
Step 6: Click “Create export”.

Once the export is completed, the files will be available for download. Go to “Manage your exports” page and click the “Download” option available next to the Keep export.

Once done, Google Keep data will be available in the Downloads folder in the user’s local device as a .zip folder. The content of the notes will be downloaded in HTML and JSON formats.

Limitations of exporting notes using Google Takeout:

Keep notes downloaded using Takeout cannot be imported back to Google Keep.
Exporting Google Keep using Takeout is not a comprehensive backup solution.
Users would need to manually keep track of the downloads on their local device.
Not all users have access to Google Takeout by default. Managing and regulating access to Google Takeout would become another task in the long list of administrative tasks for the organization’s IT admin.

Users can also backup Google Keep notes using third-party backup solutions and access the backed-up notes whenever needed.

In this article

What happens when a Google Keep note is deleted?
How to backup Google Keep notes
Share Google Keep notes with another user
Backup notes using Google Takeout exports