Troubleshooting Access to OneNote Notebooks

Relevant to: faculty, staff, students

This article contains information considered accurate at the time of publishing. Technology updates, changes in University security practices, policies and procedures may effect the information in this article - updates to articles are scheduled on a periodic basis and will address any required changes.

Troubleshooting tips and suggestions when trying to access OneNote notebooks after an email domain change.

Confirming Sync Status/Permission Issue with a OneNote Notebook
Resume Sync by Changing the Storage Location of a OneNote Notebook
Open an Existing OneNote Notebook
Close an Old OneNote Notebook

Confirming Sync Status/Permission Issue with a OneNote Notebook

Some personal OneNote notebooks may show a warning message indicating that the notebooks are unable to be synchronized. 

Note: There may be similarly phrased messages that occur in a popup or other manner when launching OneNote or opening a notebook.

CRITICAL! – While those warning messages do not prevent editing or adding information to an existing OneNote notebook, any changes will not be synced which may result in Data Loss.

Alternative ways to view Sync Status: 

1. Click “File” in the upper left corner of OneNote.
2. Review the presented “Info” page that shows the Notebook Information page. 
3. The Sync status is displayed next to the Settings button. 
   
   Alternatively click the View Sync Status button for a more detailed explanation of sync status.

Resume Sync by Changing the Storage Location of a OneNote Notebook

Changing the location of a non-syncing OneNote notebook may be sufficient to resume the sync process. 

1. Select “File” in the upper left-hand corner.
2. On the Info page, select the “Settings” button next to the non-syncing notebook clicking “Properties.” 
   
3. In the “Notebook Properties” window that opens, click “Change Location,” and navigate to an appropriate folder in OneDrive as a new storage location.
   

Open an Existing OneNote Notebook 

The default storage location for a OneNote notebook is in a student/staff/faculty OneDrive. However, when creating a new notebook there may be the option to select an alternate storage location. When opening an existing notebook, you may need to know where the file was previously stored. 

Some detail about the previous storage location can be extracted by viewing the URL or path on the Notebook Information page. NOTE: This URL may be very long, copy and paste the URL into notepad to view the full URL.

To open an existing notebook:

1. In OneNote, select “File” in the upper left-hand corner. 
2. Select “Open” and begin navigating to the location where the OneNote notebook is stored to open it. 
3. After selecting the notebook to open, it may take a few seconds before a progress bar appears and the notebook opens. 

Close an Old OneNote Notebook

The old non-syncing notebook will remain in OneNote until it is closed by a user. 

1. Select “File” in the upper left-hand corner.
2. Click on the “Settings” button next to the non-syncing notebook.
3. Select Close.