How I Can See the Deleted Notes From Pipedrive? (w/Examples) + FAQs

Yes, you can recover deleted notes from Pipedrive — but only under certain conditions and within a strict 30-day window. Pipedrive’s Restore Data feature allows users to recover deleted items like deals, leads, people, organizations, and activities. However, notes operate differently than most other Pipedrive entities, and getting them back requires a clear understanding of how the platform handles deletions behind the scenes.

According to a report on CRM data quality, 44% of CRM users estimate their company loses more than 10% of annual revenue because of poor data quality — and accidental deletion of notes is one of the most common contributors. Missing CRM notes lead to broken follow-up chains, lost deal context, and poor handoffs between team members.

Here is what you will learn in this article:

• 🔍 How Pipedrive’s Restore Data feature works and whether it covers notes
• ⚙️ How to use the Pipedrive API and webhooks to track and recover deleted notes
• 🛡️ Which third-party backup tools protect your notes before disaster strikes
• ⚖️ What GDPR and U.S. data retention rules mean for your deleted CRM notes
• 🚫 The most common mistakes Pipedrive users make — and how to avoid them

How Pipedrive Handles Deleted Notes

Notes in Pipedrive are pieces of HTML-formatted text that attach to deals, persons, organizations, leads, and projects. Each note can hold up to approximately 100,000 characters (roughly 100 KB), and Pipedrive limits each deal to a maximum of 100 notes. Notes appear in chronological order on the record’s timeline, alongside activities and updates.

When a user deletes a note, Pipedrive does not treat it the same way it treats deleted deals. Deals get a “deleted” status flag that keeps them searchable through the API and the interface. Notes, on the other hand, are handled differently. According to Pipedrive’s developer community, deleted entities — other than deals — are “actually deleted” rather than kept in a soft-delete state.

This distinction matters because it means there is no built-in filter to pull up all deleted notes through the standard API list endpoints. You cannot pass a status=deleted parameter the way you can for deals.

What Happens to a Note After Deletion

Using the Restore Data Feature

Pipedrive introduced a “Restore Data” feature that gives users a centralized page to recover items deleted within the last 30 days. There are two ways to reach it. The first is navigating to Tools and apps > Restore data from the main menu. The second is clicking the “More” […] button in any list view and selecting Restore data.

The Restore Data page shows counts of deleted leads, deals, people, organizations, and activities. You can filter by deletion type (bulk deletion, import session, pipeline, or stage), by the user who performed the deletion, and by a specific time period.

What the Restore Data Page Covers — and What It Does Not

This is the critical nuance. The Restore Data page explicitly supports leads, deals, people, organizations, and activities. Notes are not listed as a standalone restorable entity on this page. However, notes that were attached to a deleted deal or contact may come back when you restore the parent entity.

For example, imagine a sales rep named Marcus accidentally deletes a deal called “Acme Corp – Q2 Proposal.” That deal had five notes attached to it, including call summaries and pricing discussions. When Marcus restores the deal through the Restore Data page within 30 days, those five attached notes restore along with it.

But if Marcus deleted only the note itself — without deleting the deal — the Restore Data page does not provide a direct way to bring that individual note back.

Recovering Deleted Notes Through the API

If you have developer resources or use integration platforms, the Pipedrive API provides some avenues for note recovery — but with significant limitations.

Accessing Notes by Direct ID

The standard GET /v1/notes/{id} endpoint retrieves a specific note by its ID. If the note was recently deleted and Pipedrive’s backend has not yet purged it, you might still be able to fetch the note’s content using this endpoint. According to a Pipedrive developer response, deleted items “will remain accessible via API when accessed directly by ID for 30 days after their deletion.”

The catch is that you need to already know the note’s ID. If your integration or middleware logs note IDs as they are created, you have a recovery path. If not, there is no list endpoint that filters for deleted notes.

Using the Recents API

Pipedrive’s Recents API tracks changes happening across multiple entity types, including notes. You can call GET /v1/recents with a since_timestamp parameter to see what changed — including note updates. However, the Recents API does not support a delete_log item type for notes. A developer on the Pipedrive community confirmed that delete_log is not a valid parameter for the items query.

This means the Recents API can tell you about note updates, but it cannot retroactively show you which notes were deleted.

Setting Up Webhooks to Catch Deletions in Real Time

The most reliable API-based method for tracking deleted notes is Pipedrive webhooks. You can subscribe to a deleted.note event that fires every time a note gets removed. The webhook payload includes the note’s content, the associated entity, and the user who performed the deletion.

To set this up, go to Settings > Tools and apps > Webhooks in Pipedrive. Select deleted as the event action and note as the event object. Then provide an endpoint URL where your server can receive and store the payload.

One important caveat: a developer on the Pipedrive community reported that note deletion webhooks fire only about 80% of the time. This is not 100% reliable. If your compliance or audit requirements demand perfect tracking, webhooks alone are insufficient — you need a backup layer.

Real-World Example: Webhook-Based Note Archiving

Sarah runs a 15-person sales team and wants to make sure no critical call notes disappear without a trace. She sets up a webhook that fires on deleted.note, sends the payload to a simple Node.js server, and stores every deleted note in a PostgreSQL database. When a rep accidentally deletes a note about a $50,000 deal negotiation, Sarah searches the archive, finds the content, and re-creates the note manually in Pipedrive.

Contacting Pipedrive Support

If the Restore Data feature and the API do not get your notes back, your next step is reaching out to Pipedrive’s support team directly. To do this, log in to your Pipedrive account and click the question mark icon in the top-right corner. Select “Chat with Pipedrive”, then click “Messages” and “Send us a message.”

Pipedrive’s support team has access to internal backup systems that regular users do not. According to Pipedrive’s security documentation, the company performs nightly backups and retains data for as long as the account is open — plus three months after the account closes. While users cannot access these internal backups directly, support agents can sometimes retrieve recently deleted data from them.

Be specific when contacting support. Provide the deal or contact name the note was attached to, the approximate date it was created, the user who created it, and any text you remember from the note. The more detail you give, the faster support can locate it.

What Support Can and Cannot Do

Third-Party Backup Tools

Relying on Pipedrive’s built-in recovery alone is risky. The 30-day window is short, and notes are not always included in the standard Restore Data feature. Third-party backup tools add a safety net that protects your data before something goes wrong.

Skyvia

Skyvia is a cloud-based backup and integration platform listed on the Pipedrive Marketplace. It connects to your Pipedrive account via API token or OAuth 2.0 and runs automated daily backups of your entire CRM — including notes. Backups are stored in Microsoft Azure with AES-256 encryption, and restoration is done through a browser-based interface.

Skyvia is GDPR-compliant, HIPAA-compliant, and PCI DSS-compliant, making it suitable for teams handling sensitive customer data. You can restore individual notes, entire deal records, or full account snapshots from any backup point.

MyCRMBackup

MyCRMBackup offers automated daily or weekly backups of your Pipedrive data, regardless of which Pipedrive plan you are on. The key advantage is that it stores backup copies in your own storage, giving you full control and access to your data at any time. This is especially useful for organizations that must demonstrate data ownership for regulatory audits.

Other Options

Several other tools in the CRM backup space work with Pipedrive, including OwnData, Acronis Cyber Protect, and Veeam. Acronis adds cybersecurity layers like ransomware defense on top of backup functionality. Veeam is popular for enterprise-level recovery needs with comprehensive restore options.

Backup Tool Comparison

GDPR and U.S. Data Retention Considerations

Understanding why notes get deleted — and when they must be deleted — is just as important as knowing how to get them back. Two major regulatory frameworks shape this: the European Union’s GDPR and various U.S. state and federal rules.

GDPR’s Right to Be Forgotten

Under the GDPR, individuals have the right to request permanent deletion of their personal data. If a contact asks your company to erase their information, you are legally required to delete all personal data — including CRM notes that contain their name, email, phone number, or any other identifiable details. Pipedrive’s privacy documentation confirms that the company supports data subject requests for deletion and processes them through the user interface or in-app support.

Failing to comply can result in fines of up to €20 million or 4% of annual global revenue, whichever is higher. A guide to GDPR compliance in Pipedrive recommends creating a saved filter for “GDPR-Sensitive” data and tagging relevant records in advance to speed up the deletion process.

Before deleting any records to comply with a GDPR request, back up essential business data that is not subject to the deletion request. For example, if a customer requests erasure of personal notes but you need to retain anonymized transaction records for tax purposes, you can keep the transaction data while removing the identifiable information.

U.S. Data Retention Rules

In the United States, there is no single federal equivalent of the GDPR, but several laws and regulations affect how long you must (or may) keep CRM notes. The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) gives California residents the right to request deletion of personal information. Pipedrive’s Data Processing Addendum confirms that the company complies with CCPA requirements and will not sell, share, or use personal information beyond the stated business purposes.

Beyond the CCPA, industries like healthcare (HIPAA), finance (SOX, SEC record-keeping rules), and legal services have their own retention requirements. If your notes contain information subject to these regulations, deleting them prematurely could violate record-keeping obligations — even if a customer requests it.

Example: When You Must Not Delete a Note

David works at a financial advisory firm that uses Pipedrive. A client emails asking David to delete all records. David’s firm is required by SEC Rule 17a-4 to retain client communications for at least three years. David must keep the CRM notes that document investment discussions, even though the client wants them gone. David’s compliance team archives the notes in a separate, restricted system and removes the client’s personal details from the active Pipedrive account.

Pipedrive Plans and Recovery Capabilities

Your Pipedrive plan tier directly affects what you can restore and who can perform the restoration. Here is how the recovery permissions break down across plans.

Essential and Advanced Plans

On the Essential ($14.90/month annual) and Advanced ($24.90/month annual) plans, any user can restore items they have permission to see. There is no distinction between restoring your own deletions and restoring deletions made by others, as long as visibility rules allow it.

Professional, Power, and Enterprise Plans

On the Professional ($49.90/month annual) plan and higher, the rules tighten. Users can restore their own deleted items. To restore items deleted by other users, a user needs the “edit items owned by other users” permission under global features permission sets. This permission is managed on the manage users page by an admin.

The Professional plan and above also offer more granular permission groups and visibility groups. Professional includes 2 permission groups and 3 visibility groups, Power includes 10 and 15, and Enterprise offers unlimited groups.

How Plan Differences Affect Note Recovery

Three Common Scenarios

Scenario 1: Accidental Deletion by a Sales Rep

Jake is an account executive who accidentally deletes a note containing a client’s budget breakdown while cleaning up an old deal. The deal itself is still active. Jake panics.

Takeaway: When a note is deleted independently from its parent deal, the Restore Data feature will not help. Contact support immediately to maximize recovery chances.

Scenario 2: Bulk Deletion During a CRM Cleanup

Lisa, a Pipedrive admin, runs a bulk delete to remove 200 old deals from the pipeline. She does not realize that those deals collectively contain over 500 notes with historical client interactions.

Takeaway: When notes are deleted as part of a parent deal deletion, restoring the deal brings everything back — as long as it is within 30 days.

Scenario 3: Data Loss Discovered After 30 Days

Tom’s team notices that critical negotiation notes from a major deal are missing. After investigating, they find out a former employee deleted the notes six weeks ago — well past the 30-day window.

Takeaway: Without a third-party backup tool, data deleted beyond the 30-day window is gone forever. Prevention is the only real protection.

Mistakes to Avoid

These are the most common and costly errors Pipedrive users make when it comes to notes and data recovery.

• Not logging note IDs in an external system. If your integration or middleware does not store Pipedrive note IDs, you lose the ability to query deleted notes by ID through the API. Set up your integration to log every note ID at creation time.
• Assuming the Restore Data page covers notes. Many users believe all entity types are listed on the Restore Data page. Notes are not a standalone entity there. If you deleted only the note (not the parent deal or contact), the Restore Data page will not help.
• Waiting too long to contact support. Pipedrive’s internal backups are time-limited. Every day you wait reduces the chance that support can recover your note. Contact them the same day you discover the deletion.
• Relying on webhooks alone for compliance tracking. Webhook delivery for note deletions has been reported at roughly 80% reliability. If your industry requires complete audit trails, use webhooks plus a daily backup tool.
• Running bulk deletions without exporting first. Before any mass cleanup, export the affected deals and their notes to CSV. Go to Tools and apps > Export data or use the API’s GET /v1/notes endpoint with appropriate filters.
• Ignoring permission settings on Professional+ plans. If only admins can restore data but your admins are unavailable, your team is stuck. Assign the “edit items owned by other users” permission to at least one additional trusted user.
• Deleting GDPR-requested data without checking retention rules. Before honoring a GDPR deletion request, confirm whether any of the notes are subject to legal retention requirements (SEC, HIPAA, SOX). Delete personal identifiers but archive regulated content separately.

Do’s and Don’ts

Do’s

• Do set up a third-party backup tool like Skyvia or MyCRMBackup before you need it. Recovery is only possible if a backup exists.
• Do configure webhooks for deleted.note events and store the payloads in a database. This gives you a searchable archive of every deleted note.
• Do export your notes regularly using Pipedrive’s built-in export or the Notes API. A weekly export to CSV creates a rolling backup you control.
• Do contact Pipedrive support immediately when you discover a missing note. The sooner you act, the better your chances.
• Do train your team on the difference between deleting a note and deleting a deal. A deleted deal can be restored with its notes. A deleted note alone cannot be restored through the standard interface.

Don’ts

• Don’t assume Pipedrive’s nightly backups are accessible to you. Pipedrive performs internal nightly backups, but users have no direct access. Only support agents can query them.
• Don’t delete notes to “clean up” a deal. Instead, unpin them or move the information to a separate, archived record. Deletion is permanent after 30 days.
• Don’t skip the permission review on Professional and higher plans. If your restore permissions are too restrictive, team members cannot recover their own mistakes.
• Don’t forget to check linked entities before bulk deletion. Deleting a deal also deletes its activities, and restoring it brings back linked items. But individual note deletion is a one-way action in most cases.
• Don’t ignore GDPR and CCPA obligations when recovering notes. If a note was deleted to comply with a data subject’s erasure request, re-creating it violates the law. Only recover notes that were deleted accidentally, not those deleted for compliance reasons.

Pros and Cons of Pipedrive’s Note Recovery System

Pros

• 30-day recovery window for parent entities. If a deal or contact is deleted, restoring it within 30 days brings back attached notes automatically. This is a solid safety net for accidental bulk deletions.
• Restore Data page is easy to use. No technical knowledge is required. Any user with the right permissions can find and restore deleted deals and contacts in a few clicks.
• API access enables custom recovery solutions. Teams with developer resources can build webhook-based archiving systems and query notes by ID through the API.
• Support team has access to internal backups. When self-service options fail, Pipedrive’s support agents can sometimes retrieve data from nightly backups — a last resort that has saved many teams.
• Third-party marketplace offers backup integrations. Tools like Skyvia are available directly in the Pipedrive Marketplace, making setup straightforward.

Cons

• Notes are not a standalone restorable entity. The Restore Data page does not list notes as an entity you can restore independently, which is a major gap.
• No “deleted notes” filter in the API. Unlike deals, you cannot query a list of deleted notes. You must know the exact note ID to attempt retrieval.
• Webhook delivery for note deletions is unreliable. At roughly 80% delivery rate, webhooks alone are not a dependable audit trail.
• 30-day hard cutoff is unforgiving. If you discover a missing note on day 31, it is permanently gone from Pipedrive’s systems.
• Users have no access to Pipedrive’s internal backups. Despite nightly backups running in the background, users must go through support to request recovery — which adds time and uncertainty.

Step-by-Step: What to Do Right Now to Protect Your Notes

1. Go to Tools and apps > Webhooks in Pipedrive. Create a new webhook with Event action: deleted and Event object: note. Enter your server’s endpoint URL. Click Save.
2. Set up a backup tool. Visit the Pipedrive Marketplace and install Skyvia or MyCRMBackup. Connect it via API token (found under your Personal Preferences > API tab). Schedule daily backups.
3. Export your notes now. Use the API’s GET /v1/notes endpoint or Pipedrive’s built-in export under Tools and apps > Export data. Save the file to a secure location.
4. Review permissions. If you are on Professional or higher, go to Manage users > Permission sets and ensure at least two users have the “edit items owned by other users” permission. This prevents recovery bottlenecks.
5. Create a team protocol. Document that deleted notes cannot be individually restored through the Restore Data page. Instruct team members to contact support immediately if they accidentally delete a note.

FAQs

Can I recover a deleted note from Pipedrive after 30 days?
No. After 30 days, deleted data is permanently purged from Pipedrive’s systems and cannot be recovered through the interface, API, or support.

Does the Restore Data feature work for individual notes?
No. The Restore Data page covers deals, leads, people, organizations, and activities. Notes are only recovered when their parent entity is restored.

Can Pipedrive support recover a deleted note?
Yes. If you contact them quickly, support agents can sometimes retrieve notes from internal nightly backups that users cannot access directly.

Do I need a paid plan to use the Restore Data feature?
No. All Pipedrive plans — Essential through Enterprise — include access to the Restore Data page, though permissions vary by tier.

Can I use the API to find all deleted notes?
No. The API does not support a deleted-notes list endpoint. You can only retrieve a deleted note by its exact ID within 30 days.

Do webhooks capture every note deletion?
No. Webhook delivery for note deletions has been reported at approximately 80% reliability, so some deletions may not trigger a notification.

Is Skyvia free for Pipedrive backups?
Yes. Skyvia offers a free tier with basic backup capabilities. Paid plans provide higher limits, faster scheduling, and more storage.

Does GDPR require me to delete CRM notes if a customer asks?
Yes. Under the GDPR’s right to be forgotten, you must delete all personal data — including notes containing identifiable information — unless a legal retention obligation overrides it.

Can I prevent team members from deleting notes?
No. Pipedrive does not offer a permission setting that specifically blocks note deletion. Any user who can edit a note can also delete it.

Should I use webhooks or a backup tool?
Yes — use both. Webhooks provide real-time tracking of deletions, while a backup tool gives you a restorable snapshot of your entire CRM at any point in time.