Unable to open a new qucik note

Question

Unable to open a new qucik note

Daksha P 5

When I use the windows + alt + n shortcut to create a new quick note I get an error saying "We can't create a new Quick Note because we can't find your Quick Notes section. Please tell us where to put Quick Notes by going to File > Options > Save & Backup"

I've followed these steps and provided a location for quick notes to be saved in the documents folder on my desktop but still the error persists. What's strange is that every time I create a new quick note, I get this error on the pop up, but in my OneNote window I can see a new untilted page being created in the quick notes section.

How can I fix this? I love using quick notes to... well take quick notes while I work!
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Rolo 5 Reputation points

2026-02-15T22:37:10.08+00:00

I have the same issue this morning. My pc restarted itself after auto installing Security Update (KB5077181) (26200.7840) on 14.2.26. Up until then quick notes was working fine.
Eric Parent 0 Reputation points

2026-02-22T18:01:50.2733333+00:00

Yann Causeur's answer below worked perfectly for me.

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Rolo 5 Reputation points

2026-02-15T22:37:10.08+00:00

I have the same issue this morning. My pc restarted itself after auto installing Security Update (KB5077181) (26200.7840) on 14.2.26. Up until then quick notes was working fine.
Eric Parent 0 Reputation points

2026-02-22T18:01:50.2733333+00:00

Yann Causeur's answer below worked perfectly for me.

Answer 1

Yann Causeur 5

Hello,
Have you tried this :
Close all notebooks (and the Quick Notes section) in OneNote.

Close OneNote.

In File Explorer, go to %localappdata%\Microsoft\OneNote\16.0\cache (adjust 16.0 to your Office version if needed) and delete the contents of the cache folder.

Reopen OneNote, open your main notebook again, repeat the step you already did to ensure Quick Notes points to your chosen section, then test Windows + Alt + N.

This forces OneNote to forget any stale Quick Notes mapping and use the new section.
Have a good day,
Yann

Eric Parent 0 Reputation points

2026-02-22T17:59:55.11+00:00

Thank you! This worked perfectly for me!
Daksha P 5 Reputation points

2026-02-23T09:21:03.0333333+00:00

Hey Yann, this isn't workinig for me. When I follow these steps 1) I am not able to delete the cache (they appear to be deleted but just reappear in the folder later), 2) after I delete the cache and open OneNote the quick notes section disappears, 3) to get quick notes back I have to quit OneNote and reopen (and when I do this the cache reappears in the folder too).

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Unable to open a new qucik note

1 answer

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