Issues with Onenote syncing on macbook

Question

Hi, i have been having syncing issues with my onenote on Macbook for the past 2 months.

It previously has been syncing well, but lately the changes are not reflected on my other devices (phone), and neither are they reflected on onenote web.
My onenote has been regularly updated to the latest version as well

When i hovered to my notebooks, i realized my notebooks are labelled as "offline" despite good internet/wifi connection. When i tried to manually sync by clicking sync notebook, nothing actually happens.

Would really appreciate any advice on how i could troubleshoot this

Thank you!

Answer 1

Hi WZ

Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A Forum.

Based on your description, since recent changes are not visible in OneNote Web, it’s likely that your notes currently exist only in the local cache on your Mac.

Note: Before taking any troubleshooting actions, it’s important to protect your data first. Please do not close the notebook, sign out, or reinstall OneNote yet, as doing so may result in loss of notes that have not synced. Instead, manually copy and paste your recent unsynced notes into a Word document or text file. For important pages, you can also use Print to PDF so you have a copy outside of OneNote.

Once your data is backed up, please follow the steps below in order.

1, Check OneNote Online connectivity

Sign in to https://www.office.com using the same education account, then open OneNote on the web and access the notebook that shows as offline on your Mac. Also, create a small test page directly in the browser.

• If the test page appears in OneNote for Mac, the cloud connection is working and the Mac app is likely stuck with queued local changes.
• If the test page does not appear, this may indicate an account‑ or storage‑related issue. Since this notebook uses an education account, please confirm that your OneDrive storage is not full or restricted. When storage limits are reached or an account is temporarily restricted by the school tenant, OneNote can enter an offline state and stop uploading new changes. You can check this by opening OneDrive in a browser and reviewing available storage and any warning banners, or by contacting your school’s IT administrator.

2, Refresh the notebook connection from OneNote Web

• If your data is backed up and the notebook opens successfully in OneNote Web, open the affected notebook in OneNote Web, then go to File > Info > Edit in Desktop App.
• Once it opens on your Mac, allow several minutes for the sync status to update.

3, Reset Office sign‑in

If the issue persists, you can try a deeper reset. Please note that this step affects all Office applications and may remove Outlook profiles, so ensure any local Outlook data is backed up before proceeding.

Quit all Office applications completely > Open Finder and go to: ~/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/ > Delete the Identity folder.

Next, open Keychain Access and remove entries related to:

• Microsoft Office
• ADAL
• MSOID

Restart your Mac, then open OneNote and sign in again with your education account.

4, Last‑resort cleanup

If syncing still does not resume, you can follow Microsoft’s official guidance to remove old or corrupted Office license files on macOS, then sign in again: How to remove Office license files on a Mac

Please let me know how things go on your side as your update can also assist others in the community who may be facing the same issue.

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