How do I fix OneNote syncing issues?

This is just rediculas - it's been going on now for YEARS.

I'm only ever using onenote ONLINE - in the browser!

This needs to be fixed or OneNote is pointless.

I'm sick of loosing work.

Hello Imogen,

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community. Based on the description you posted, it seems like you're having issues with syncing notebooks with your account.

You should be able to add multiple accounts in OneNote, but if you wish just to save all notebook in one location, I advice to use just one of them. You can try to copy the notebook from one account to the account you wish to use, you can click this link as reference This is How to Copy a OneNote notebook - Microsoft Community.

To fix OneNote syncing issues, you can try the following steps:

1. Close OneNote and make sure it's not running in the background.
2. Go to your OneDrive account and make sure that the notebook you want to sync is saved in the correct location.
3. Open OneNote and go to File > Account > Switch Account. Sign in with the account you want to use for syncing.
4. Go to File > Options > Save & Backup. Under the Save section, make sure that the notebook you want to sync is selected and that the location is set to the correct OneDrive account.
5. Click on the "Back Up All Notebooks Now" button to create a backup of your notebooks.
6. Go to File > Info > View Sync Status. Check if there are any errors or warnings and try to resolve them.
7. Click on the "Sync Now" button to start syncing your notebooks.

If the issue persists, you can try resetting the OneNote cache by following these steps:

1. Close OneNote.
2. Press the Windows key + R to open the Run dialog box.
3. Type %localappdata%\Microsoft\OneNote\16.0 and press Enter.
4. Rename the "OneNoteOfflineCache.onecache" file to "OneNoteOfflineCache.onecache.old".
5. Open OneNote and try syncing your notebooks again.

I hope this helps. Please let us know so we can check more options for you.

Regards,

Nhiel T.

Microsoft Moderator

Hello Imogen,

Thank you for your update and I apologize for the late response. It's possible that the issue is with your old notebooks, since the new ones are working. I suggest to try creating a new notebooks. Please try these steps and see if it works just fine.

• Go to C:\Users<user>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneNote\16.0, check if any of your notebooks are here. If yes, select 1 and right click it, then click "Open with" and select Onenote.
• Once you have that notebook open in Onenote, check if that notebook is up to date and if it is, create a new notebook and copy that opened folder to the new notebook you created. It may take time to copy especially if you have multiple sections.
• after you copy, open Onenote web, and see if the new notebook is syncing fine. If yes, you can delete the notebooks with the same contents, those notebooks that's not syncing properly, to remove duplicates.

Most of the time, this will work, if its otherwise, I suggest to contact Microsoft Live support, so that they can provide you more option on how to get this issue sorted. To contact support, you can click this link, Contact Us - Microsoft Support.

I hope this will help. Please let us know if you have more questions.

Regards,

Nhiel T.

Microsoft Moderator

Hello Nhiel,

Thank you for your support, apologies for the late response.

So I made a copy of my first notebook and moved it to my personal Onedrive, and that one is still syncing fine, even to the new Onedrive account.

I tried making a copy of my second notebook as well (the one already saved in my personal account) to see if that would help at all, but when I tried to open and create the new copy it said 'OneNote cannot open the requested package file. The file may be corrupted or may contain no OneNote sections'. So I gave up on that and attempted to fix the sync issues, however nothing changed - no errors even come up, it just refuses to complete a sync.

So, I am trying what you suggested, resetting the cache. I typed the relevant path, and it took me to a page with three folders: 'Back up', 'cache' and 'ServerListings'. I am unsure where to find the particular file you mentioned which I should rename. The 'cache' folder is full of BIN files, the back up folder still seems to have my two original notebooks in it, and the ServerListings folder has one file with a long name made up of letters and numbers, and is a ONESRVCACHE file. Am I missing something?

Kind regards,

Imogen