OneNote does not sync

To be honest, I was just testing everything I could.

I managed to delete the problematic sections on the desktop version, both the 2013 and the 2016 versions.

First to get the pages to sync, I would constantly tell it to sync (watching the task manager to see if there was actually any data transfer). Then on the other version i would try and sync as well and slowly the pages would appear and then their content.

I had also deleted some pages/sections and eventually these changes carried over as well. I'm not sure how I managed to do it, mostly by luck and repeated effort. This didn't always work either. I would also experience the phenomena of deleted pages  reappearing. It could be that it deletes the page and then it returns because it is re-downloaded or that it fails to sync/update and it just comes back.

Tell me if you have any luck. Hopefully this will help someone.

Hi everyone having the exact same problem I am having too. I appreciate hearing what others have tried already, even if it didn't work because I too am moving through troubleshooting steps to see what I can do to fix this from the user end. I am currently on hold with Microsoft Technical Support (via chat) waiting to hear back what I should do. I feel like perhaps walking away and trying again tomorrow, saving my files another way for today. I have noticed some changes are occurring randomly like I am now able to delete the broken sections. Only 1 page has been deleted, the one I was working on today before it was erased and replaced with an error message. 

This is the response I am getting in the chat: 

ME: I am also in the online forums and it appears there are a lot of other people having the EXACT same problem I am having

1:50 pm

"...The reasons why you're encountering this problem is you're using OneNote online and OneNote that is preinstalled application."

What I suggest you to use is the OneNote application in the latest version of Office.

1:54 pm

Me

So is everyone who is having the same problem also using online and preinstalled Onenote apps?

1:54 pm

Rose M

There is a possibility. What I suggest you to do use is the OneNote application in Office.

Me: "OK, IF I run into the same problem I will come back here and reference the number you gave me so you'll have it documented because it looks like other people have already tried what you are suggesting and it still is not working, I will share your answer with them so they know what to do."

2:00 pm

_____________________

I don't know if this will help me or anyone else but its worth looking into

Thanks this info you sent is helpful but the chat attendant's info is not a long term solution. Asking that we stop using the ONLINE version of OneNote and sticking to the DESKTOP version is not a longtime solution. Especially when you were able to use both online and a desktop version previously.

this situation and the fact that so many users are having trouble with OneNote as of this morning indicates a MAJOR glitch on their end! How can we get Microsoft OneNote to address this situation? Can someone Facebook, tweet or Instagram them because it seems there is no way to get a professional tech helper from their team to come here and help people resolve this!

Hi Onenotedown,

I have tweeted about this issue. See for @bartvanroey and my last tweet.

Got a reply from @microsofthelps where they refer me to this page:

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Fix-issues-when-you-can-t-sync-OneNote-299495ef-66d1-448f-90c1-b785a6968d45?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US

I think the best part in the page they refer to, is to copy pages from the corrupt section into a new section, and keep monitoring the synchronisation of the new section.

This process can I believe be improved by creating a section in anther OneNote(so not the same), and also don't copy all the pages at once. Because you might copy the issue into the new section. It helps then to know which was the last page you copied...

Now, next to us trying to save our information, the main questions remains: what is the root cause of this? And did MSFT already solved this root cause?

So can we now change and sync as happily as ever before, or should we be careful?

Bart

Reminder: Onenote has a backup on the desktop under: users--> <your name> -->AppData -->Local -->Microsoft-->Onenote-->14.0 or 16.00

You can open these in Onenote 2016 under the "Info" section and on the right-hand side is a backup button that leads you to the above. When you chose a section (it will not let you open entire folders unfortunately) it will open it in a "open section" outside the notebook structure. From their you right-click to copy/move to the new notebook or section you desire. 

Go ahead and copy that entire backup folder elsewhere if you are concerned that the original backup will be overwritten (depending on how frequent the backup is set).