Cannot customise QAT

Question

I have just updated to OnenOte 2016 and I cannot:

1. Import the previous customizations from an export form my Surface Pro One NOte 16 (which works fine). Says that "it could not update the customization file. Please ensure it is not in use and try again"

or even

2. Customize the QAT from scratch. When I reopen OneNote all the changes have gone.

VERY frustrating.

Any thoughts on how to fix?

People do suggest to clear the cache but which one: C:\Users[USER]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneNote\14 or 15 or 16.0\cache???

Answer 1

Take a look at this 1 year old problem. It most likely does not apply, but I suppose it may ...

2016 01 02- Unable to customize Outlook Today, QAT or the ribbon since the last Windows 10 update

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2010-outlook/unable-to-customize-outlook-today-qat-or-the/de3be9f0-c4b8-4212-800a-8ca110d12a6e

Yes, the QAT file may be locked by mistake. The first thing to try is just restart the computer. This will close out any locked file indicators. 

If that doesn't work, this article tells you where to find the file that contains QAT customizations.  Try renaming the file. This will wipe out all of your current customizations, then you can try starting over.

Backing up all Ribbon and Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) customizations at once

https://www.msoutlook.info/question/backup-ribbon-and-qat-customizations

After making several changes to the Ribbons and Quick Access Toolbars in Outlook, I wanted to make a backup of my customizations.

There is an export button for this in the “Customize Ribbon” and “Quick Access Toolbar” section of the Options dialog but this only backs up the customizations for the current item window and not all the item windows which are available in Outlook. This makes the exporting process quite cumbersome.

Answer 2

Try this, make at least one change to the QAT, then export the change.  At least that way you can recover your changes quickly until you can find a fix.

Answer 3

I have the same problem...  also with OneNote 2016 on Windows 10 (with all the latest updates)

When I make a change to the Toolbars or QAT it silently fails (no error message), and any customization I made are not shown in the UI (I see the Toolbar flicker after dismissing the customization dialog as if it attempts to make the changes).

And when I try to import a customised UI it fails with the error  "Could not update the customization file. Please ensure it is not in use and try again"

The error message suggests the customization file has been locked or is read-only.  But the error message gives no hints as to which file this might be, nor where it is.  Sigh.

Any ideas on how to fix this problem?

Thanks

Answer 4

Hi

I actually deleted the 14, 15, 16 folders to no avail. I tried onenote /safeboot but it just starts up up normally (ie no option to clear cache etc). I have rebooted.

Any other thoughts?

Cheers

BC

Answer 5

Office 2016 is also V16.0, so that is the first cache to try clearing.