How to back up Google Keep

Why back up Keep at all

Keep syncs your notes, which is not the same as backing them up. Sync copies every change to every device, including mistakes: delete a note by accident and it’s gone everywhere once it leaves the trash. And everything depends on one Google account. People lose access to accounts more often than you’d think: forgotten recovery details, a hacked password, or an account flagged by an automated system.

A backup is a copy that lives somewhere else and doesn’t change when your account does.

A one-off backup

Google Takeout is the only official way to get your Keep notes out. Go to takeout.google.com, click “Deselect all”, tick Keep, then “Next step” and “Create export”. Google emails you a download link. Our step-by-step export guide walks through every screen and what the download contains.

Automatic backups

On the same screen where you pick the file type, choose “Export every 2 months for 1 year” instead of “Export once”. Google then makes six exports over the next year and emails you each time. It isn’t fully hands-off, since each link expires after about a week and you still have to download it, but it means you’ll never be more than a couple of months out of date.

You can also send exports straight to a cloud drive (Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive or Box) instead of email. Choosing somewhere other than Google Drive is the better backup, for the reason above.

Where to keep it

• Somewhere outside Google. Another cloud drive, a computer, or an external disk.
• More than one version. Keep the last two or three exports, so a note you deleted before the latest one isn’t lost.
• Somewhere you’ll remember. A folder called “Keep backups” with dates in the file names is plenty.

A backup you can actually use

The export is a folder of HTML and JSON files: fine for reading one note, but no board, no search across notes and no way to carry on working. If your account disappeared tomorrow, a folder of 1,500 files wouldn’t feel like your notes.

Importing the export into Tack Notes turns it into a working copy: the same board, colours, labels and pins, searchable in a second. You can import again whenever you make a new export and only new notes are added, so it stays up to date without duplicates. And Tack Notes has its own one-click download of everything, so your copy is never locked in either.