Impossible to open PERSONAL notebook in OneNote

Hi Alberto,

I completely understand your concern losing access to a PERSONAL OneNote notebook and seeing only the generic message “Sorry, an error has occurred” on multiple devices is understandably alarming, especially when the notebook contains important personal data. The fact that you can still open the notebook on your old laptop is very important and reassuring because it means the data itself is intact and gives us a safe path to recover and restore full access.

The first and most critical step is to secure a full backup while the notebook still opens on that device. Please open the OneNote desktop application on the old laptop and export the entire notebook as a OneNote Package (.onepkg) by going to File select Export select Notebook select OneNote Package and save it to a local folder or ideally an external drive. This creates a complete restorable copy of your notebook. If possible also trigger a manual backup from File select Options select Save & Backup and click Back Up All Notebooks Now, then copy the local OneNote backup folder from C:\Users<YourName>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneNote<version>\Backup to a safe location. Once this is done you will have at least one secure copy of your data.

After the backup is secured the next step is to rule out external causes. Please sign in to OneDrive through a web browser and confirm that the notebook folder is visible and that your storage quota is not full, as quota or permission issues can prevent OneNote from opening or syncing. If you experience the same “Sorry, an error has occurred” message when trying to open the notebook in OneNote for the web, this often points to a service‑side or notebook‑association issue in which case checking Microsoft service health is recommended while we proceed with local recovery steps.

To restore access on new devices it is important to verify that OneNote and OneDrive are signed in using exactly the same Microsoft account. Mismatched accounts commonly cause notebooks to fail to open. If they differ please sign out of both OneNote and OneDrive, restart the device, sign in to OneDrive first and then sign back in to OneNote. On the desktop app you can then force a fresh sync by opening File select Info select View Sync Status and selecting Sync Now (or pressing Shift + F9). If the issue persists clearing OneNote’s local cache is a safe and effective step. Close OneNote completely, press Win + R, paste %localappdata%\Microsoft\OneNote, open the relevant version folder such as 16.0 and rename or delete the Cache folder before reopening OneNote and signing in again. If necessary you can also repair or reset the OneNote app from Apps & Features select OneNote select Advanced options or run an Office Quick Repair / Online Repair.

If the notebook continues to fail on the web or new devices a reliable workaround is to rebuild the notebook association. Create a new Personal OneNote notebook directly from OneDrive on the web, open it in the desktop app and then, from the old laptop where the original notebook still opens, right‑click each section or page and use Move or Copy to copy the content into the new notebook. This process often resolves corrupted links between OneNote and OneDrive. If any sections appear read‑only or behave unexpectedly you can instead re‑import content using the backup or the exported OneNote package created earlier. In rare cases where edits exist only in the OneNote for Windows 10 cache Microsoft also documents a last‑resort recovery method using the local cache folders, which can then be opened in the OneNote desktop app.

Finally if after all these steps the web version still shows the same generic error the remaining action is to escalate to Microsoft Support. In that case please use the OneNote Diagnostics Tool and provide the failing notebook link along with the steps already taken so the support team can repair the notebook association on the backend if the metadata in OneDrive or OneNote has become corrupted.

As a next step I strongly recommend starting with the full notebook export on your old laptop. Once that is complete please let me know whether the export was successful and whether any errors appear during that process

Since you still have access on the old laptop please start with Phase 1 step 1 (export .onepkg). Once you’ve saved that file tell me did the export succeed roughly how big is the .onepkg file and you using the current OneNote desktop app (not Windows 10 edition) on the old laptop?

I hope this answer is helpful if you have further questions feel free to reply back

Regards,

Marcelo

Hi Alberto,

Thank you for reaching out to us about the issue with opening your Personal OneNote notebook across multiple devices I understand that you are currently unable to access your Personal OneNote notebook from any new device or platform and that it only opens on your old laptop where OneNote is already installed. I can imagine how alarming and stressful this situation must be especially since the notebook contains important personal data and the error message does not provide clear guidance on what is going wrong.

Based on what you described this behavior can occur if the notebook sync information stored in OneDrive becomes corrupted or if the notebook has not fully migrated to the current OneNote service. This can prevent the notebook from opening in OneNote for the web mobile apps and newly installed versions of OneNote. Since the notebook is still accessible on your old laptop it strongly suggests that the data itself remains intact. As an immediate precaution we recommend opening the notebook on that device and exporting a full backup to a local location. After securing a backup please sign in to OneDrive through a web browser and verify that the notebook folder is visible and does not show any sync or permission related warnings. You may also try creating a new Personal OneNote notebook and copying or moving the affected sections into the new notebook from the working device which often resolves service side linking issues. If the notebook link continues to show a generic error when accessed on the web this usually points to a service level issue that requires Microsoft Support to repair the notebook association on the backend.

Could you please let us know whether you are able to export the notebook or copy sections from your old laptop without encountering any errors?

I hope this answer is helpful if you have further questions feel free to reply back

Regards,

Marcelo