Sick of Notion & Claude Dropping Your Connection? Here’s How to Fix It
Z
Zack Saadioui
8/11/2025
Sick of Notion & Claude Dropping Your Connection? Here’s How to Fix It.
Hey there. If you’ve been pulling your hair out trying to get the Notion MCP (Model Context Protocol) to play nice with the Claude Desktop app, you are DEFINITELY not alone. It’s one of those things that promises to be a game-changer—connecting your AI assistant directly to your beautifully organized Notion workspace. But when it works, it’s magic, & when it doesn’t, it’s a soul-crushing cycle of "MCP server is disconnected" errors, dropped connections, & lost work.
Honestly, it’s a super frustrating problem. You follow all the steps, you edit the config files, & you’re ready for some AI-powered productivity, only to be met with constant connection drops. It seems to happen at the worst times, often right in the middle of a thought. Based on what I've seen floating around online, this is a pretty common headache.
But here’s the good news: a lot of the time, it's fixable. It often comes down to a few finicky details in the setup process that are easy to miss. I’ve spent a good amount of time digging through Reddit threads, developer forums, & technical guides to get to the bottom of this. So, let’s walk through the most common culprits & how to get your Notion MCP connection stable once & for all.
First Things First: The Usual Suspects
Before we dive into the more obscure fixes, let’s cover the basics. Sometimes, the simplest things are the problem.
Restart Everything: I know, I know, it’s the oldest trick in the book, but for real, have you tried completely quitting both Claude Desktop & your Notion MCP server, & then restarting them? Not just closing the window, but a full quit (Cmd+Q on Mac, or right-clicking the icon in the system tray on Windows & selecting "Quit"). Sometimes, that’s all it takes to clear a weird state.
Check Your Internet Connection: This one seems obvious, but network stability can be a bigger deal than you’d think. Some users have reported that Claude’s connection seems particularly sensitive to even tiny network hiccups or packet loss. One person on Reddit even found that the issue only happened on their primary home internet but worked fine on a different network. It’s a long shot, but if you have a mobile hotspot, it might be worth trying to see if the connection is more stable there. If it is, that points to an issue with your main network’s configuration or provider.
Update Claude Desktop: Make sure you’re running the latest version of the Claude Desktop app. They’re constantly pushing updates, & a fix for your specific issue might have already been released. You can usually check for updates from the app’s main menu.
The Deep Dive: Fixing Your
1
claude_desktop_config.json
Okay, if the basic stuff didn’t work, it’s time to roll up our sleeves & get into the configuration file. This is where most of the problems hide. The
1
claude_desktop_config.json
file is what tells Claude Desktop how to launch & communicate with your Notion MCP server. A single typo or incorrect path here can bring the whole thing crashing down.
Here are the most common mistakes I’ve seen people make in this file.
The BIG One:
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NOTION_API_TOKEN
vs.
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NOTION_API_KEY
This is, without a doubt, the most frequent cause of the "MCP server is disconnected" error. It’s a tiny detail, but it’s CRITICAL.
When you set up your Notion integration, you get a secret token. In many tutorials & even in some people’s initial setups, they label the environment variable in their
1
claude_desktop_config.json
as
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NOTION_API_KEY
. However, the Notion MCP server code itself is actually looking for a variable named
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NOTION_API_TOKEN
.
If these don’t match, the server will fail to authenticate with Notion’s API, & Claude will report it as disconnected.
Here’s what your configuration should look like. Pay close attention to the