OneNote automatically synchronizes shared notebooks at regular intervals. But sometimes, you may want to sync a shared notebook to make sure your changes get uploaded right away (for example, if you're getting on a plane and need to shut down your laptop).

  1. Click File > Info > View Sync Status.

    View sync status for OneNote on Windows.

  2. In the Shared Notebook Synchronization dialog box that opens, do either of the following:

    • Click Sync All to sync all of your shared notebooks.

    • Click Sync Now next to the specific notebook that you want to sync.

OneNote for Windows 10 automatically syncs all of your notes for you. If you prefer, you can choose to sync notebooks manually whenever you want. 

Do the following:

  1. Click the Navigation button near the upper left of the OneNote app window.

  2. In the navigation pane that opens, click the Notebooks dropdown arrow next to the name of the current notebook.

    Expanding the Notebooks list in OneNote for Windows 10

  3. In the list of notebooks that appears, right-click the name of the notebook you want to sync, point to Sync, and then choose either Sync This Notebook, or Sync All Notebooks.

OneNote for Windows 8 uses cloud-based storage, such as OneDrive and SharePoint, to keep your notebooks accessible from anywhere.

Note: This topic is about the OneNote app you can get from the Windows 8 Store. If you're using OneNote for Windows 10 or OneNote 2016, you can compare them and see the differences here.

OneNote automatically synchronizes your notes whenever you're connected to these services. The steps for sharing and syncing can vary, depending on where you store your notes.

Share your notes with other people

You can quickly share a single page or share an entire notebook with other people.

Share a single page of a notebook

  1. Navigate to the page you want to share, and then tap its page tab on the left to select it.

    A thick border appears around the page tab when it's selected.

  2. Swipe from the right side of the screen to the left, and then tap the Share charm.

  3. Select the share target (for example, Mail).

  4. Follow the necessary steps in the target application (for example, enter the recipient’s email address and a title for your message), and tap Share/Send.

    Note: The contents of your page will be shared in the body of your message. Recipients will not receive a link to the page in your notebook, or be able to edit the page in your notebook unless they already have permissions to do so.

Share an entire notebook on OneDrive

  1. Go to the OneDrive home page and sign in, if prompted.

  2. Tap the check box next to the folder that contains the notebook you want to share.

  3. Near the right side of the screen, tap Share. (Make sure you don't accidentally share the entire Documents folder on OneDrive.)

  4. In the form that appears, tap Get a link.

  5. If you want recipients to only view your notes, under View Only, tap Create. If you want recipients to view and change your notes, under the View and Edit heading, tap Create.

  6. When the link appears highlighted, copy it, and then paste it into an email message to let others know where they can access your notes.

Note: The following steps won’t work with notes stored on OneDrive.

Share an entire notebook on SharePoint

  1. Swipe upward from the bottom of the screen and tap Notebooks.

  2. Select the notebook you want to share, swipe upward from the bottom of the screen again, and tap Copy Link to Notebook.

  3. Switch to your favorite mail app, and then paste the copied link and a brief description into the message body.

  4. Add a subject and recipients, and then send the message. Recipients of your message will be able to access your notebook if they have permissions to your SharePoint site.

Sync notebooks automatically or manually

OneNote automatically keeps your cloud-based notes in sync at all times, but after a service interruption (for example, during a long flight), you may prefer to manually sync your notes.

  1. Open any page in the notebook that you want to sync, and then swipe upward from the bottom of the screen.

  2. Tap Notebooks, and then select the notebook you want to sync.

  3. In the app bar at the bottom of the screen, tap Sync.

In the list of Notebooks, a small sync icon to the left of a notebook’s name indicates its sync status. Here’s what the icons mean:

  • Green circular arrows: Notebook synchronization is in progress. You can edit your notes during this process.

  • A red circle with an X: One or more synchronization errors have occurred in your notebook. Tap the red sync icon to view specifics and to troubleshoot the issue. For more information, see Troubleshoot errors in OneNote.

  • A yellow triangle with an exclamation mark: Your connection to the server is lost and you’re currently working offline. Once your connection is restored, OneNote will automatically sync your changes again.

Manage sync settings

Use the Setting screen to view and manage your OneNote accounts.

  1. On any page, swipe from the right side of the screen to the left.

  2. Tap Settings > Options.

  3. Under Sync your notebooks, choose whether or not OneNote should automatically sync your notes. If you set this option to No, make sure you manually sync whenever you’ve made important changes to your notes.

Work with misplaced sections

Misplaced sections can appear when OneNote attempts to sync changes to a notebook section, but can't find the section file. When that happens, a Misplaced Sections icon appears in your Notebook list. Misplaced sections remain in a notebook until OneNote discovers the new location of the section, or until the misplaced section is moved or deleted.

If a section in a shared notebook can't be synchronized, but you want to keep the information it contains, move the unsynchronized section to another notebook.

Move a misplaced section to another notebook

  1. Tap to select the tab of the misplaced section that you want to move.

  2. Drag the section into the notebook you want.

If you intentionally delete a section and you no longer need to synchronize or save your changes, you can delete the misplaced section.

Delete a misplaced section from your notebook

  1. Tap to select the tab of the section, and then tap Delete Section on the app bar.

  2. Acknowledge the warning message, and then tap Delete Section.

Note: Deleting a section is permanent. If you aren’t sure you want to do that, move the section to another part of your notebook instead.

This article details best practices for moving and syncing OneNote notebooks, as well as issues that may arise if notebooks are moved or synced in ways that are not recommended. In general, OneNote notebooks should always be synced and moved by the OneNote application, and not by file based synchronization systems such as a client application (such as the OneDrive or DropBox local client) or offline folders. Reasons for moving and syncing notebooks via OneNote include:

  • Web Apps and Mobile Sync - The built-in sharing functionality correctly sets up the notebook on the server so that OneNote Web App will be able to open it. Also, the mobile versions of OneNote (iOS, Android) can only open notebooks that are shared through this mechanism.

  • Offline edits - OneNote creates a local copy of the notebook for offline editing in the Local Settings folder, and merges the changes to the cloud when a connection is re-established. Unlike other file synchronization methods however, OneNote is able to merge the changes without creating conflicts within the notebook.

  • Efficient syncing - OneNote has built-in sync logic with OneDrive allowing it to synchronize only the changes, which is significantly more efficient than file synchronization mechanisms like the OneDrive Desktop app or DropBox as it knows about the file format and can sync only the changes.

If you have a notebook stored locally on your computer that you wish to move to the cloud, go to File > Share in OneNote and pick a web location such as OneDrive, and then click Move Notebook.click Move Notebook OneNote will upload the notebook to OneDrive and set up direct sync.OneNote After the notebook has been moved, the local notebook in the previous location is no longer connected or synchronized and should be deleted. You may use the OneDrive client application to move and synchronize other files, and OneNote will handle the syncing of notebooks within OneDrive automatically. Do not use Windows Explorer to move folders containing .one files to OneDrive. If notebooks are moved to the local OneNote client folder in this manner, when they are opened in OneNote 2013 you will receive the error "This notebook may not sync correctly because another program is syncing these files. Click here to re-open this notebook from the correct location."  Not Recommended Clicking on this error message in OneNote will let you move the notebook to OneDrive and establish a sync relationship. As a part of this process, OneNote will delete the original folder and all .one or .onetoc2 files and replace them with an internet shortcut file. This behavior is by design, as all OneNote notebooks are represented as internet shortcuts within the OneDrive client application so that the OneDrive client allows OneNote to perform the syncing of the file. However, no data is lost during this process.Test1 Previous versions of OneNote were created prior to the existence of the OneDrive client application. As such, no error messages are surfaced in this scenario and the user can potentially encounter the issues described above when OneNote is not responsible for syncing content. Users with older versions of OneNote should move notebooks into OneDrive to resolve this problem.

More information

Placing OneNote notebooks on Windows Offline File shares is also not recommended. Windows Offline Files introduces a file cache separate from the cache that OneNote already uses for offline editing. In this scenario, OneNote may sync changes to the Windows cache while the Windows file is offline, in effect syncing to a local copy instead of the server copy. When the Windows share is back online, the user may be prompted to keep two copies of the file or replace one copy. Choosing to keep two copies of the file will result in duplicate sections within OneNote, while opting to replace a copy of the notebook could result in data loss. Microsoft recommends that users of Windows Offline Files place their OneNote notebooks in a separate location that is not synchronized by Windows Offline Files. Users with notebooks currently in an Offline Files share should move their notebooks to a new location.

Turn off automatic notebook synchronization

  1. To sync manually, click File >View Sync Status.

  2. In the Shared Notebook Synchronization dialog box, click Sync manually.

    Important: When you work offline, OneNote no longer attempts to synchronize any notebook changes that you make on your computer, even if you exit and restart OneNote at a later time. No one else can see your changes to the notebooks until you turn the automatic notebook synchronization feature back on.

Turn automatic notebook synchronization back on

  1. To restore automatic sync, click File >View Sync Status.

  2. In the Shared Notebook Synchronization dialog box, click Sync automatically whenever there are changes, and then click Sync All.

  3. Click Close when synchronization is finished.

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