How to Recover Notes from Disconnected Email Accounts

Connecting email accounts to our smartphones saves time and makes accessing and replying to emails quick and easy. Many email accounts also support a notes feature which offers a convenient way to save thoughts or ideas for later. Notes created on a phone can be stored locally or synced with specific email accounts.

Occasionally email accounts can get disconnected on our smartphones even when the password has not been changed. If the account is truly locked out, new email will not be delivered and notes attached to that account will stop syncing. Rebooting and re-entering the email password will not fix an account in this state. The only way to fix the issue is to remove the email account and add it back.

Luckily, there is a way to recover the notes attached to a disconnected account.

How to Recover Notes from Disconnected Email Accounts

An account that has been disconnected will have a request for the password, and connected features like notes will be grayed out as in the image above. To check the issue find this screen:

• Open the Settings app.
• Select "Mail".
• Select "Accounts".
  
  
  


• Click on the name of the email account with the issue to verify the account is disconnected.

The steps below will protect the notes in the orphaned email account.

Before removing a disconnected email account with notes attached to it, move the notes to a different folder on the phone. This is an important step because those notes have not synced with the account and could otherwise be lost. Moving the notes protects them while the email account is removed and added back.

• Open the Notes application.
• If inside of a note, go back until you see the Folders view like the image above.
• The Folders view lists the different email accounts that have notes attached to them as well as the built in notes folder.
• Click on the notes folder listed under the disconnected email account.
• Once inside the notes folder, click the "Edit" button in the upper right corner.
• Select individual notes to move, or click the "Move All" link in the bottom left corner.
  
  
  
• Select another folder on the phone to move the notes to by clicking the name of the folder when prompted.
• The notes will be removed from the disconnected mailbox and will now be located in the new notes folder.

Once this process is complete, the issue with the email account can be resolved without any risk of losing notes.

Having an email account locked to the point where it will not accept the correct password can be frustrating. Luckily this issue can be fixed within a few minutes by removing the email account and adding it back. If there are notes connected to this account, it is important to move them to a different notes folder to ensure they are not lost during the process of fixing the email account.

As always, it is better to be safe than sorry when it comes to our data as it can be impossible to regain creative thoughts!

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