OneNote 2016 Application issue with "Quick Notes" stuck loading

I am also experiencing this issue of the "Quick Notes" item at bottom of "Notebook List" is stuck "Loading...".   Does not hang OneNote 2016 completely, but can't open the default Quick Notes location using the normal method as described on this OneNote QuickNotes help page. 

I'm using OneNote 2016 (16.0.7167.2055 on Win10 Pro ver 1607 build 1439) with only local notebooks (not syncing with One Drive)  and the problem is very easy to reproduce.  I believe the bug occurs when the default location for saving Quick Notes is changed. Steps to reproduce. 

1. Start with clean profile, launch OneNote 2016.  Quick notes location should be defaulting to %USERPROFILE%\Documents\OneNote Notebooks\Quick Notes.one
2. Create a new section called "My Quick Notes" in a local notebook (could be in default "My Notebook" or create a new local notebook).  
3. File > Options > Save & Backup > Save (near top) > select "Quick Notes Section" > click [Modify..]  then select the new Section created in #2 above ("My Quick Notes"). 
4. Now try to use the "Quick Notes" item at bottom of "Notebook List" (upper left dropdown), and see if the notes sections loads or not. 

For me, the above is all it takes to break this access method to Quick Notes.  Alternatively,  you can "Move" the content of the default "Quick Notes" section to a local notebook, which will move any existing Quick Notes and update the "Quick Notes Section" save path automatically.  That is how I originally stumbled upon this issue.  

Recovery for me was fairly brute force, but painless because I have very little actual data in OneNote.  Closed all notebooks from withing OneNote (select notebook, right click, "close this notebook").  Then close OneNote AND close OneNote's Quick Note tray icon(right click, "close").  Now basically force OneNote to rebuild and reset it's directories and Notebooks by move(rename) the entire Documents\OneNote Notebooks\ tree to a new path.  Then launch OneNote and create a quick note.  The Quick notes should return to same location as for empty profile.  Then I had to open each old notebook and move/copy the sections back to the default locations.  

Alternatively, if the original Quick Notes file is still accessible, I was able to open the file in OneNote (File > Open > Browse > to default original location Quick Notes.one (select "One Note sections" in drop down to right of file selection dialog).  With that section open, I was able to change the default Quick Notes save location back to the original file, basically reversing step #3 above.  Then no more issues, and back to defaults.

Hopefully if developers can fix the loading issue, that could help clear up others confusion and potential syncing issues.

I have finally solved my problem.

My situation: Office 365 x64 and Office 2013 Retail co-exist in the same computer. OneNote 365/2016 could not load quick notes. OneNote 2013 works fine.

I have tried to re-locate quick notes, no use.

I have tried deleting all cache of OneNote to force OneNote re-sync all Notebook, no use.

Here is what I have done, I guess only the removal of Office 2013 and reinstall office 365 is necessary.

I suggest you to uninstall Office 2013 and do an Online Repair for Office 365.

1. I uninstalled Office 2013. After all, the co-existence of Office 2013 and Office 365 has left me lots of problems. The default app for xlsx and pptx changed frequently. Some time it is Excel 2016, some time it is Excel 2013. Some time it take several minutes for Office 2013 to start for it would start installation configuration again. And my Office 2013 is automatically changed to Office 365 license instead of their original Retail license.

My conclusion: although Microsoft says you can have both version in the same computer, in practice it is a disaster. Office 2013 and Office 365 could not co-exist well like Office 2007 and Office 2010.

After this, my OneNote 2016 is still problematic. So I go on.

2. I cleared OneNote 2016 cache and delete all data of OneNote 2013 under C:\Users\username\Appdata\Local\Microsoft\OneNote

This will force OneNote to re-sync all notebooks. It took me quite a long time to sync all notebooks but didn't solve the problem.

3. I went to control panel "uninstall or change a program" and right clicked on Office 365, then select "change", then "quick repair". Nothing helped. (Note: you may have to manually quit OneDrive or it would stuck on "Closing Office Apps". ) Not helpful.
4. I went to control panel "uninstall or change a program" and right clicked on Office 365, then select "change", then "online repair". Basically, this is a reinstallation but keep all your data. It would download Office 365 from Microsoft all over again and reinstall every office app.

After this, the problem is solved! And Office 2016 now start much more quicker than before! You really should not install more than one version Office on your computer.

PRL, Thanks for the update. I only began using OneNote a few days ago so I have scarcely looked at the mobile apps.  I have been concentrating on importing and re-organising my notes from Evernote.

I will follow your advice and check the configuration of my mobiles.

It is reassuring to know that this problem is common to all users - I was afraid the the  "Evernote Importer" utility had created a corrupted note-base.

Now that I am storing Quick Notes in a dedicated single-section notebook, the Quick Notes button is largely redundant. It is just as easy to open the notebook directly from the notebooks list.