My OneNote is not working "run into an error that is preventing from working correctly."

Ymereg Mabborang 0 Reputation points
2026-11-09T13:24:44.5233333+00:00

Please fix it now. I have important information there.

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneNote | For home | Windows
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  1. Vikki-T 14,115 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-11-10T10:39:43.9066667+00:00

    Hi Ymereg Mabborang,

    Since the previous answer already covers protecting your notebooks and repairing Office, I suggest checking whether an add-in or an outdated Office installation is preventing OneNote from starting.

    First, install any available Office updates. Then, if you are using the desktop version of OneNote, hold down the Ctrl key while opening OneNote and confirm that you want to start it in Safe Mode. If OneNote opens successfully there, disable its add-ins one at a time under File > Options > Add-ins, and then restart OneNote normally.

    Please also let me know which OneNote version you are using and whether other Microsoft 365 apps, such as Word or Excel, open correctly. This will help determine whether the issue is limited to OneNote or affects the Office installation more broadly.

    Microsoft’s instructions for opening Office applications in Safe Mode are available here. Thank you so much for your understanding.     

    Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

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  2. AI answer

    2026-11-09T13:25:28.4866667+00:00

    Confirm that your important notebooks are available in OneNote for the web, then run Online Repair on Microsoft 365 or OneNote.

    1. Protect access to your notes

    1. Open https://www.onenote.com in a browser and sign in with the same Microsoft account used in OneNote.
    2. Open each important notebook and check that the latest pages and changes are present.
    3. If recent changes are missing, do not reset, uninstall, sign out, or close the notebook yet. Unsynced changes can be lost during those actions.^1^

    If the browser contains the current notes, continue with the repair.

    2. Run Online Repair

    Close OneNote and all other Office applications.

    Windows 11

    1. Right-click Start and select Installed apps.
    2. Find Microsoft 365, Microsoft Office, or the standalone OneNote entry.
    3. Select the three dots beside it, then Modify.
    4. Approve the User Account Control prompt.
    5. Select Online Repair → Repair.
    6. Complete the prompts, restart Windows, and open OneNote.

    Windows 10

    1. Right-click Start and select Apps and Features.
    2. Select Microsoft 365, Microsoft Office, or standalone OneNote.
    3. Select Modify.
    4. Choose Online Repair → Repair.
    5. Complete the repair, restart Windows, and test OneNote.

    Online Repair repairs the entire Office suite when OneNote is part of Microsoft 365; the quicker repair option only detects and replaces corrupted files.^2^

    If Online Repair does not fix it

    Only after confirming that the current notebooks are safely visible online:

    1. Uninstall Microsoft 365 or Office using Microsoft’s uninstall troubleshooter.
    2. Restart the computer when prompted.
    3. Reinstall Office using the Microsoft account associated with the subscription.^3^
    4. Open OneNote, sign in with the same account, and allow the notebooks to synchronize fully.

    If the browser copy is missing important recent edits, avoid reinstalling or resetting. Preserve any locally available OneNote backup before proceeding; classic OneNote backups are normally under:

    C:\Users\<user-name>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneNote\<version>\Backup

    Copy that entire Backup folder to another drive or folder before taking destructive recovery steps.^4^

    References

    1. [Web](https://support.microsoft.com/onenote/onenote-help-and-learning/fix-issues-when-you-can-t-sync-onenote#notebooks-not-syncing)
    2. Repair an Office application | Microsoft Support
    3. [Windows 10](https://support.microsoft.com/office/lifecycle/something-went-wrong-error-when-you-try-to-start-a-microsoft-365-app)
    4. Change the default storage location for backup files | Microsoft Support
    AI-generated content may be incorrect. Read our transparency notes for more information.

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