Tenant wide OneNote issues

Simon Smith 0 Reputation points
2026-10-06T10:51:01.3+00:00

Hi,

I keep getting reports at my school where the teachers aren't able to use OneNote to distribute pages to pupils unsing the classnotebook system.

In Teams the Classnotebook tab is missing on some teams.

The Notebook is available in Onenote for the team. I have just sat with their device and tried to distribute a page and get the distribute page panel open with a Report and Close button and no option.

Yesterday the same user tried to distribute a page and the panel opened with 'Waiting to start' but they never does.

I deleted the cache on the device and tried to sync and get errors about he server is busy. 0xE01901AD

Earlier I deleted the cache and managed to distribute one page.. but it still showed up the one from yesterday underneath saying waiting to start.

Apologies if this is a little confusing but I'm getting so many random issues.

The user had the same issue at home on a different network with no firewall last night also.

Theres not enough log information I can find.

This is happening to quite a few users on my site.

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneNote | For education | Other
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  1. Julie Huynh 3,770 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2026-10-06T12:51:59.6066667+00:00

    Dear @Simon Smith,

    Good day! Welcome to Microsoft Q&A forum!

    First of all, I would like to clarify one point: this forum is intended for users to assist one another. No one, including myself, has access to the backend tools or diagnostics needed to investigate tenant-wide Class Notebook and Education service issues directly.

    Regarding your situation, given that the issue is affecting multiple teachers, occurs across different devices and networks, and involves Class Notebook functionality within an Education environment, this may require further investigation from the Microsoft Education support team.

    At this point, I would recommend raising a support request through the Education support channel here: https://support.microsoft.com/home/contact/education

    The Education support team has access to backend diagnostics and service-level information that are not available from the client side, which can be particularly helpful when investigating Class Notebook distribution issues, missing Class Notebook tabs in Teams, and jobs that remain stuck in a "Waiting to start" state.

    When submitting the ticket, it would be helpful to include:

    • The approximate number of affected teachers
    • Examples of affected Team/Class Notebook names
    • Any screenshots of the "Waiting to start" status or 0xE01901AD errors
    • The dates and times of recent failed distribution attempts

    I appreciate the troubleshooting you've already completed, especially testing across multiple devices and networks. Those findings will be valuable for the support team and should help accelerate their investigation

    Thank you for your kindness and understanding!

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  2. AI answer

    2026-10-06T10:51:23.7466667+00:00

    Because the issue affects multiple users, occurs across devices and networks, and distribution jobs are either blank, stuck at Waiting to start, or failing with server-busy behavior, this points away from a single-device cache problem and toward a broader Class Notebook service or notebook-permissions issue.

    Use this triage path:

    1. Check whether the notebook structure is intact
      • If Welcome, Collaboration Space, or Content Library are missing or misplaced, distribution can fail.
      • Go to the notebook fix page and run Fix Permissions for affected notebooks.
      • If the Collaboration Space exists but is not beneath Welcome, move it back to the top-level notebook location.
    2. Check Content Library access problems
      • If users have lost access to the Content Library, run Fix Permissions for that notebook.
      • This restores the special read-only permissions used by Class Notebook.
    3. Validate whether the problem is tenant-wide or service-side
      • Since the same users reproduce the issue on different devices and home networks, and several staff are affected, treat this as potentially service-side rather than local.
      • When distribution jobs remain queued at Waiting to start across OneNote desktop, web, and Teams, the supported next step is to have the school IT admin open a Microsoft support case.
    4. Collect diagnostics before escalating
      • In OneNote for the web, after the distribution error appears, press Ctrl + ~ to generate session information, then select Export Logs. A .csv file downloads for support.
      • On Windows devices, collect local Class Notebook logs from:
        • %tmp%\ClassNotebook
      • Attach those logs when submitting the support request.
    5. Use the official education support channel
      • Submit the issue through Get help or report a problem and include the exported logs and a clear description that:
        • multiple teachers are affected
        • the issue occurs on different devices and networks
        • jobs are blank or stuck at Waiting to start
        • some attempts return server-busy errors
    6. For missing Class Notebook tab in Teams
      • If the notebook itself is still available in OneNote, focus first on repairing the notebook permissions/structure and escalating the distribution failure.
      • The available troubleshooting guidance groups missing notebook components and distribution failures together under Class Notebook troubleshooting.
    7. Preventive step
      • Install the latest OneNote updates on affected devices where applicable.

    Given the scope described, deleting cache may provide temporary relief on a single device, but it does not address the likely root cause when the same behavior follows the user across devices and networks.

    References:

    AI-generated content may be incorrect. Read our transparency notes for more information.

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