Orphaned one note notebooks

If the notebooks show in OneNote but opening them says they no longer exist, the usual cause is that the notebook file was already deleted or moved in OneDrive, but OneNote still has a stale notebook entry.

Try this in order:

1. Check whether the notebook still exists in OneDrive.
   • Open OneDrive.
   • Go to My files > Documents.
   • Open the Notebooks or OneNote Notebooks folder if present.
   • If the notebook is there, select the circle beside it and choose Delete from the top toolbar.
   • Then go back to OneNote, right-click that notebook, and choose Close This Notebook.
2. If the notebook is already gone from OneDrive, remove the stale entry from OneNote.
   • In OneNote, right-click the notebook and choose Close This Notebook.
   • This is important because otherwise OneNote can keep trying to sync a notebook that no longer exists and continue showing errors.
3. If it still remains in the notebook list as a ghost entry, clear the local cache entry.
   • Quit OneNote completely.
   • In Finder, go to the OneNote cache location and remove the folders related to the stuck notebooks.
   • Restart OneNote.
   • This is the accepted guidance for notebook entries that were already deleted but still appear.
4. If there is no file in OneDrive, no delete option, and the notebook cannot be opened, shared, or removed, this is likely an orphaned metadata issue.
   • In that case, it is not fully fixable from the OneNote app.
   • The next step is to contact Microsoft support and continue or reopen the existing support case so the escalation status can be checked.

Warning: deleting a notebook permanently removes all sections, pages, notes, images, files, and attachments. If the notebook was shared, notify other people first so they can back up anything important.

• Delete a notebook from OneDrive
• How to delete notebooks in OneNote that 'don't exist' but still show up - Microsoft Q&A
• I cannot delete one note book. - Microsoft Q&A
• OneNote orphaned metadata issue escalated to developers, no response after 7–9 days - Microsoft Q&A