OneNote app does not sync on Windows 10

6. Fix misplaced sections on OneNote

A section of your notebook could get misplaced when you’re trying to share it with other users. This happens when OneNote tries to sync the changes made to the section but cannot find the section file.

When this happens the notebook gets marked with an icon in the Notebooks list. There are two solutions to this problem, move the misplaced section to another notebook, or delete that section.

Move the misplaced section

OneNote lets you manually resolve the problem of a misplaced section by letting you move the particular section.

1. Right-click on the tab for the misplaced section.
2. Select Move or Copy.
3. Select the target notebook as the destination.
4. Click on Move or Copy depending on what you would like to do.

Delete the misplaced section

If you’re sure that you do not need the section that has been misplaced, you could simply delete it to resolve the issue. Follow these steps:

1. Under the Notebooks list, select Misplaced Sections.
2. Right-click on the misplaced section you would like to remove and click on Delete.

7. Check if the notebook is accessible on the web

1. Go to File then Info.
2. You should find the link right below the notebook. Select the link then right-click on it and click Copy.
3. On the web browser of your choice, enter the link you just copied and hit enter to open the notebook.

Note: If your notebook is accessible via the web browser then this confirms that there is a problem with the desktop app. If not, it could be a service error.

If the problem is with your desktop app, one of the simplest solutions to get your notebook to start syncing again is to close and reopen it. This should reset the connection, and get your notebook to start syncing again.

8. Check the sync status

If you were able to access the notebook online, but the changes you recently made weren’t added to it, you should check the sync status of the notebook to confirm whether or not it was synced. 

To check the status, go to File then Info, and from the right side select  View Sync Status. In the new windows, you will see an error message below the notebook with the issue.

If possible, click on the Get Help button in order to access more troubleshooting steps. If that’s not available,  note the error message and do a quick online research.

10. Check the service status

If you were not able to access the notebook online via a web browser, there could be a problem with the OneDrive service itself. To confirm this, open a web browser of your choice and proceed to the Office portal.

If the services are up and running, you should see a green screen with a tick mark, and the message  In case there is nothing wrong with the services, you should contact Microsoft for further assistance on your issue.

Make sure that you keep OneNote open and signed-in during the troubleshooting process. You could potentially lose your data otherwise.

11. Fix content sync conflict on OneNote

When two or more people try and edit the same piece of text simultaneously, this will result in synchronization conflicts. These conflicts are automatically detected by OneNote which then proceeds on to creating multiple copies of the same page. This will be indicated via a yellow message that appears on the top of the page.

To prevent this issue from showing up in the future, make sure only one user is editing a page at a time. Or you could co-ordinate who edits which section.

To resolve this issue, you will need to copy the edited content to the main page and then proceed to delete the other page. To do this, click on the yellow message, copy the content from the temporary page, and paste it on to the primary page.

12. Fix storage sync conflicts on OneNote

You may occasionally run across error code 0xE00015E0. What this means is, either your file is too big to sync, or that your local device is low on space. Usually, it’s because OneNote has a lot of backups stored.

Here’s how you can resolve these issues.

Remove unnecessary backups

1. Press the Windows key + R to open the Run dialogue.
2. Paste the following and hit enter: %localappdata%.
3. Double click on the Microsoft folder, then OneNote.
4. Here click on the folder with a name corresponding to the version of your application (16.0 for OneNote 2016, for instance),
5. Open the Backup folder.
6. Delete all the backup files that you no longer need.

Optimize files and reduce automatic backups

1. Go to File then Options.
2. Select Save & Backup.
3. Under Optimizing files, select Optimize All Files Now.
4. Under Backup, reduce the number of backup copies to keep.

All of the above steps should help you out when OneNote is giving you troubles with synchronization.

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You can also sync all your files instantly between your computer, phone, and tablet using pCloud Drive. Read more about this great software in our pCloud guide.

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Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in September 2017 and was revamped and updated in January 2021 for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.