Restore or permanently delete from Trash
Deleted notes stay in Trash for 30 days. Restore them in that time, or delete them forever right away if you need to.
Applies to Web · Mac · iPhone app · note owners only
Deleting a note doesn’t remove it straight away — it goes to Trash. Trash is personal: only notes you own go there, and only you can see them. After 30 days they are deleted automatically.
Move a note to Trash
- Right-click the note in the note list → Move to Trash, then confirm with Move to Trash.
- Or select the note and press ⌘⌫. This only works when you aren’t editing text, and it moves the note without asking.
Only the note’s owner can move it to Trash. Notes shared with you don’t have this option.
If you trash a note you shared, it disappears from the other people’s lists too. Any handoffs and review requests on the note that haven’t been answered yet are canceled.
Restore a note
- Open Trash in the sidebar.
- Click Restore on the note’s row.
- The note goes back to the notebook it came from.
You can open and read a note in Trash, but it stays read-only (“This note is in the Trash — read-only until restored.”) until you restore it. To find something in Trash, use the search box above the list — Global search doesn’t look in Trash.
Delete forever
| Option | How | Undo? |
|---|---|---|
| One note | In Trash, click Delete forever on the row, then confirm with Delete forever | No |
| Everything | Click Empty trash at the top of the Trash list, then Delete all | No |
| Automatic | Notes that have been in Trash for 30 days are deleted overnight | No |
When a note isn’t deleted
- Locked notes: you have to unlock them in this session before you can move them to Trash or delete them forever. Empty trash skips locked notes you haven’t unlocked and tells you how many it left, and the 30-day cleanup skips them too.
- Notes whose attachments are used elsewhere: if another note or a saved record refers to the same attachment, the note is kept and you’re told why.
Good to know
- Deleting a notebook doesn’t send its notes to Trash. Delete notebook (keeps notes) moves them to No notebook.
- To roll back part of a note rather than the whole thing, use version history instead.
- While a note is in Trash, its attachments still count toward your storage. Deleting the note forever deletes its attachments too. See Plans and storage.