OneNote 2013 crashes after some 30s when opening a specific database

Hi @Loïc Le Tersec

Thanks for your back and sharing.

I am glad that your OneNote does not crash.

By the way, since the Microsoft Q&A community has a policy that "The question author cannot accept their own answer. They can only accept answers by others.", and according to the scenario introduced here: Answering your own questions on Microsoft Q&A, I would make a brief summary of this thread:

Issue Symptom:

OneNote 2013 crashes approximately 30 seconds after opening a specific notebook database. This issue persists across multiple devices with OneNote 2013 installed. However, the notebook can be viewed without any problems on OneNote on mobile devices.

Current Status:

Solved by Loïc Le Tersec.

1. Open the problematic notebook and immediately suspend synchronization to prevent OneNote from crashing.
2. In OneNote, click "File" > "Export." Select "Notebook" and the .onepkg format to save your entire notebook to a local disk. Choose a meaningful name, such as OneNoteBackup.onepkg. Note that the process may take some time, and you might encounter error messages related to unsynchronized pages. Please continue the process regardless.
3. Close the old and problematic notebook. (Before doing this step, for notebooks that aren't fully synced across all your devices, make sure you copy and back up any unsynced recent notes on the originating PC or device.)
4. Create a new notebook on OneDrive or other cloud storage that you sync notebooks, for example, MyNewOneNote.
5. Open the OneNoteBackup.onepkg file you just created.
6. For each section in the OneNoteBackup.onepkg notebook, right-click on the section tab and choose the "Move or Copy" option.
7. In the next screen, select the MyNewOneNote notebook and click the "Copy" button. Ensure you select "Copy" and not "Move" to keep your backup unchanged, just in case.
8. Once all sections have been copied to the new notebook, close the OneNoteBackup.onepkg notebook.
9. On the other PC, close the old, problematic notebook and open the new one.
10. Finally, ensure that automatic synchronization is active on both PCs.

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Let me develop the process through which I think I get out of the problem - Open the rotten notebook and immediately suspend the synchro to avoid OneNote to crash - Right-click on a section tab and choose Export. Select "Full notebook" and the .onepkg format in order to extract your full notebook on a local disk (choose a significant name, ie OneNoteBackup.onepkg) and validate. The extract process can be long and ou may have error messages related to unsync pages, continue anyway. - close the old and rotten notebook - Create a brand new notebook somewhere else on the OneDrive (ie MyNewOneNote) - open the OneNoteBackup.onepkg you just created - For each section of the OneNoteBackup.onepkg notebook, Right-click on the section tab, and choose the option "Move or Copy" (this is an approx translation while I use the french version of OneNote). In the next screen, select the MyNewOneNote notebook and click on the Copy button (be sure to select Copy and not Move in order to keep your backup unchanged, just in case...) - when all the sections have been copied to the new notebook, close the OneNoteBackup.onepkg notebook. - on the other PC, close the old and rotten notebook and open the new one - In the end, check that the automatic synchro is active on both PCs. Your problem should be fixed, in my case, It worked

I tried the proposed solutions above to no avail - OneNote kept crashing on my PC and laptops. What fixed it for me was an update to the OneNote Android app released on Feb 25, 2025.

Hi,

Did you mean you add the OneDrive service in OneNote and try to upload Notebooks to the OneDrive account? This problem appeared when you are trying to sync Notebooks, is my understanding correct? If yes, please try this method to help you:

NOTE: Before making any changes, ensure you have a backup of your OneNote notebooks. You can do this by exporting your notebooks to a local drive.

1. Clearing the OneNote cache can sometimes resolve synchronization issues. To do this, close OneNote and navigate to C:\Users\<YourUsername>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneNote\15.0\. Delete the OneNoteOfflineCache.onecache file. Restart OneNote and let it resynchronize.
2. If the above steps don't work, you might need to recreate your OneNote notebook. Create a new notebook and copy the sections from the old notebook to the new one. This can help if the original notebook is corrupted. Then sync the new Notebook.
3. You can try repairing your Office installation. Go to Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features, select your Office installation, and choose "Repair."
   https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/repair-an-office-application-7821d4b6-7c1d-4205-aa0e-a6b40c5bb88b#ID0EBD=Windows_10

Just checking in to see if the information was helpful. Please let us know if you would like further assistance.

If the response is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it.

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.