Onenote sync error for "recyclebin" notebooks. error code 0xE4010640.

Question

Hello. I keep getting the error message pop up as shown in the screeenshot. The TMJ notebook was deleted a long time ago, and I currently use the Anatomy notebook. I am wondering why Onenote wants to sync from a recyle bin?

I use Onenote 2016 on both my Dell laptop and my ipad mini 3. I checked through my laptop recycle bin and there was nothing related to one note. I also made sure my notebook was saved in the notebooks folder on my pc. Has anyone ever received this error message before?

Thank you

Answer 1

Hi WlilHB,

I am an engineer on the OneNote team.  Sorry to hear you’re experiencing this error from OneNote's Recycling Bin.  For clarification, OneNote keeps its own Recycling Bin that is different from the Windows Recycling Bin and is Notebook specific.  So, if you have a OneDrive or O365 Notebook that is shared with others, the Recycling Bin is also shared, such that deleted Pages or Sections can be restored regardless of who deleted them.  Also, OneNote's Recycling Bin automatically cleans up Pages or Sections after 60 days assuming the Notebook is opened by at least one OneNote client.

In order to get out of the situation you described, you currently have two options:

1. Wait until OneNote client detects the past due Recycling Bin contents, and automatically deletes them permanently
2. Manually delete the Recycling Bin content (note: unfortunately, this functionality is only available on OneNote Windows Desktop).  To do this, you would:
   1. Open OneNote on Windows
   2. Click on "History"
   3. Click on "Notebook Recycle Bin"
   4. Select the Section or Pages you want to delete, Right Click, and choose "Delete"
   5. Optionally, you could choose to Empty Recycle Bin in Windows on Step 3, by using the Drop Down.

After the changes have automatically sync'ed to OneDrive or O365, you should no longer see the error.

Thanks,

Brian

Answer 2

Hi,

Since an answer was provided to this thread, I would highly suggest you to post a new thread for us to assist you better. Please make sure that you put the correct tagging so that your thread will be easy to find.

Regards.

Answer 3

Hi Brian,

I have had such a nightmare with my OneNote over the past few days. There were multiple sync errors appearing for each of my notebooks, so after much internet searching I ended up creating new notebooks and copying each page over (a very laborious process

• I have a lot of notes). I lost a few pages and had lots of failed attempts but finally it worked okay.

Now however, one of my notebooks has come up with the same message as above:

Error code: 0xE4010640

 I have checked the recycle bin multiple times and have emptied it multiple times - there is nothing in there! But I am still getting this error message.

PLEASE HELP!

I have exams coming up and I seriously can't afford to lose my notes/spend hours trying to figure this out.

Best wishes,

Emily