One Note Corrupted Page - does not open -

Question

I was taking notes, and suddenly i clicked on a page in bookmarks, after i realized i pressed BACK, and when OneNote page was reopened, the page i was writing on, appeared to be corrupted. I tried to open OneNote Desktop app but still, doesnt work the apps shut's down after i try to acces the corrupted page.

Now the page is not working with my password. the other pages open.
What can i do in this case?

Answer 1

Good day Silviu Dudu!

From what you described, it appears that after navigating away from a OneNote page you were editing and then returning to it, the page became corrupted and displayed the error messages mentioned above. This behavior may be related to corrupted cache data or a stuck OneNote process.

First, try ending all OneNote-related processes:

• Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager
• Look for any instances of OneNote.exe or Microsoft OneNote
• Right-click each one and choose End Task

Next, clear the OneNote cache (this won’t delete your notebooks, only temporary files):

• Press Win + R
• Type: %localappdata%\Microsoft\OneNote
• Open the folder that matches your version (for example, 16.0 for Office 2016 or Microsoft 365)
• Delete the cache folder, or rename it to something like cache_old as a backup

Hope this helps! Please let me know how it goes!

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Answer 2

The corrupted page itself cannot usually be repaired, but there are several recovery options to try:

1. Open in OneNote desktop for recovery
   • If the issue happens in OneNote for Windows 10, open the same notebook in the full desktop OneNote app (OneNote 2016/2021/OneNote 2024).
   • The desktop app has notebook recovery options that may allow restoring the damaged page or section.
2. Restore from OneDrive/SharePoint version history
   • If the notebook is stored on OneDrive or SharePoint, use the service’s version history to restore an earlier version of the page/section:
     • Go to OneDrive or SharePoint in a browser.
     • Browse to the notebook location.
     • Use Version History on the notebook/section to restore a previous version from before the corruption.
3. Check OneNote Online
   • Open the notebook in OneNote for Web (via OneDrive/SharePoint).
   • Sometimes the web version can show content that the desktop app cannot open, or lets you copy content from the problematic page to a new page.
4. Search for moved content
   • Use Ctrl+E (search across all notebooks) in OneNote desktop.
   • Search for unique text that was on the corrupted page. If the content was accidentally moved to another page, this can locate it.
5. Restore from local backup (desktop OneNote)
   • In desktop OneNote, go to File > Options > Save & Backup > Backup Folder.
   • Open the backup folder and look for backup copies of the affected section.
   • Restore the section and check if the page opens in the restored copy.

If the page is already synced in its corrupted state and no earlier version or backup exists, recovery is limited; OneNote does not maintain a separate “trash” for individual page containers.

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References:

• Troubleshoot errors in OneNote for Windows 10
• Some column from my OneNote completely disappeared while i was using it - Microsoft Q&A
• Do I need to save my OneNote notebook?