OneNote ghost notebook keeps resurrecting after 10 years 👻📓 — deleted notebook reappears after clearing local Office MRU cache

AlexanderWidmer-2685 0 Reputation points
2026-05-08T02:41:58.6633333+00:00

Product:

Microsoft OneNote / Microsoft 365 / OneDrive Personal

Account type:

Personal Microsoft account / OneDrive Personal

Problem summary:

I seem to have a very persistent OneNote ghost notebook. 👻

A deleted OneNote notebook named “[Moderation note: PII removed]” still appears in the OneNote desktop app under older/recent notebooks. The notebook was deleted many years ago and no longer exists in OneDrive or OneNote for the web.

When I try to open it, OneNote shows an error saying that the storage location cannot be opened, does not exist, or that permission is missing.

The strange part: this ghost notebook has survived multiple PCs and notebooks over many years. So this does not look like a normal local Windows cache issue anymore. It looks more like an orphaned notebook reference stored somewhere in my Microsoft account / Office cloud recent metadata.

In other words: I deleted the notebook years ago, but the notebook apparently did not receive the memo. 😅

Affected notebook:

Name:

[Moderation note: PII removed]

Old path shown by OneNote:

https://d.docs.live.net/[redacted]/%5e.Documents/

or:

https://d.docs.live.net/[redacted]/^.Documents/

Current valid notebook:

[Moderation note: PII removed]_OneNote_Notes

Expected behavior:

The deleted notebook “[Moderation note: PII removed]” should no longer appear in OneNote’s notebook picker, recent notebook list, or “open notebook” view.

Actual behavior:

The deleted notebook [Moderation note: PII removed] keeps reappearing in the OneNote desktop app even after local Office/OneNote cache cleanup.

Opening it fails because the storage location does not exist anymore.

Debug odyssey already performed 🧑‍💻🛠️:

  • Checked OneNote for the web: Only the current valid notebook “[Moderation note: PII removed]_OneNote_Notes” is shown.
  • Checked OneDrive web: The deleted notebook “[Moderation note: PII removed]” is not visible as an existing notebook.
  • Closed OneNote and all Office apps.
  • Exported a OneNote registry backup before touching anything.
  • Searched the registry path: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\OneNote for: “[Moderation note: PII removed]” “[Moderation note: PII removed]%20” “[Moderation note: PII removed]_” 
    Result:

No active matching registry entries were found.
  • Searched local OneNote and Office cache folders.
  • Found stale references in: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Office\16.0\aggmru %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Office\16.0\MruServiceCache %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Office\16.0\ResourceInfoCache
  • Renamed / moved these MRU cache folders out of the active Office folder.
  • Verified afterwards that the active local Office/OneNote cache no longer contained: “[Moderation note: PII removed]” “[Moderation note: PII removed]%20” “[Moderation note: PII removed]_”
  • Restarted OneNote.
  • Plot twist: The deleted notebook immediately reappeared again. 👻📓

Conclusion:

The stale notebook reference appears to be re-synchronized from the Microsoft account / Office cloud recent notebook list.

This looks like a server-side orphaned OneNote notebook reference / ghost notebook entry.

Request:

Could you please escalate this and remove the orphaned OneNote notebook reference “Alex” from my account’s server-side OneNote / Office recent notebook metadata?

System:

Windows 11 Enterprise x64, version 25H2

OneNote desktop app / Microsoft 365 OneNote

OneDrive Personal

Additional note:

This issue seems related to other reports about OneNote ghost notebooks and old d.docs.live.net/%5e.Documents paths.

At this point, I have performed the local cache exorcism. The ghost still comes back. Please send help. 😄

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneNote | For home | Windows
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2 answers

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  1. CeyeN 0 Reputation points
    2026-06-14T07:01:36.58+00:00

    I finally fixed it!, thanks to this reddit thread:

    https://www.reddit.com/r/OneNote/comments/1nfvgv4/ghost_notebooks_that_wont_remove_from_list_and/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

    I had the exact same issue with OneNote ghost notebooks under:

    OneDrive » ^.Documents

    The notebooks were already deleted from OneDrive, they were not visible in OneNote web, and clearing registry/cache/MRU folders did not permanently fix it. They disappeared when I opened OneNote offline, but came back immediately after reconnecting to the internet, so it was clearly being re-synced from account-side metadata.

    What finally fixed it for me was using OneNote 2013 in a temporary Windows 10 VM.

    Simple steps:

    -> Create a temporary Windows 10 VM.

    -> Use a local Windows account in the VM. Do not sign into Windows with your Microsoft account.

    -> Install OneNote 2013 inside the VM.

    -> Open OneNote 2013.

    -> Sign into OneNote only with the affected Microsoft account.

    -> Go to File > Open.

    -> Find the ghost notebook under OneDrive » ^.Documents.

    -> Right-click the ghost notebook and choose Remove from list.

    -> Repeat for every ghost notebook.

    -> Close OneNote 2013.

    -> Open normal OneNote on the main PC and check again.

    After doing this, the ghost notebooks disappeared from my current OneNote as well and did not come back.

    My guess is that OneNote 2013 can still remove an old legacy “recent notebook” cloud pointer that newer OneNote clients keep re-syncing but cannot properly delete.

    Use a disposable VM only, because Office/OneNote 2013 is old and unsupported. I would not install it on the main machine.

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  2. Kai-H 28,065 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-05-10T07:13:34.3133333+00:00

    (Please note that our forum is a public platform, and we will modify your question to hide your personal information in the description. Kindly ensure that you hide any personal or organizational information the next time you post an error or other details to protect personal data.)

    Hi, AlexanderWidmer-2685

    From what you described, this does not sound like a normal local OneNote cache problem anymore. Since the old notebook comes back after clearing the local MRU/cache folders and even survives different PCs, it is most likely an old account-side “recent notebook” or orphaned OneDrive/OneNote pointer.

    Here are some suggestions you can try:

    First, open the full OneNote desktop app and check File > Open > Recent or More Notebooks. If “Alex” appears there, right-select it and choose Remove from list or Close this notebook.

    It is also recommended that you check OneDrive on the web and https://www.onenote.com/ for any “Recent”, “Manage and delete”, or old notebook entry, then remove it there if shown.

    If the notebook still reappears after that, I’d include the exact old d.docs.live.net/.../%5e.Documents/... path when contacting Microsoft Support. At that point, it likely needs Microsoft to clear the orphaned server-side notebook reference from your Microsoft account metadata, because normal local cache cleanup will not remove it permanently.

    Please be advised that this is a user-to-user support forum. Moderators and contributors, including external Microsoft employees, are not allowed to directly interfere with Microsoft product features or access back-end systems. Our role is limited solely to providing technical guidance on reported incidents, requests, or ideas.   

    Thank you for your patience in reading, I hope this information has been helpful to you. 

    If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment."    

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