OneNote: why does this message keep coming up: There are no sections open in this notebook or section group

Hi Everyone,

This may be premature but I could have a possible workaround for our OneNote 2010 issue.  So far it seems to be working for me today on my Windows 10 machine for the past 5+ hours.  Feel free to try this at your own risk and post a reply with your results.

Remove the OneDrive standalone client from your machine (assuming you're like me and don't use it).   You can follow the instructions on this web site starting with the section header labeled "Complete Remove and Uninstall OneDrive".  Here's a summary of what you will need to do:

Basically you'll need to run the following in an Administrator Command Prompt:

1. Terminate any process of OneDrive by running the following command:

    taskkill /f /im OneDrive.exe
   

2. Uninstall OneDrive app by running one of the following command: In 32-bit Windows 10 (x86):

    %SystemRoot%\System32\OneDriveSetup.exe /uninstall
   

   In 64-bit Windows 10 (x64):

    %SystemRoot%\SysWOW64\OneDriveSetup.exe /uninstall
   

Cleaning and Removing OneDrive Remnants

Important

Make sure that the following folders no longer contain any user data before proceeding with the following commands.

rd "%UserProfile%\OneDrive" /Q /S
rd "%LocalAppData%\Microsoft\OneDrive" /Q /S
rd "%ProgramData%\Microsoft OneDrive" /Q /S
rd "C:\OneDriveTemp" /Q /S

Delete and Remove OneDrive in File Explorer Folder Tree Registry Key

OneDrive has registry keys which add itself to the Navigation Pane of File Explorer in Windows 10. After uninstalling OneDrive, these registry keys are orphaned, and can be removed.

REG Delete "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{018D5C66-4533-4307-9B53-224DE2ED1FE6}" /f
REG Delete "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Wow6432Node\CLSID\{018D5C66-4533-4307-9B53-224DE2ED1FE6}" /f

After I completed those tasks, my notebooks sections in OneNote 2010 have remained!  If you try this, let me know if it works for you as well. Keep your fingers crossed that this is our solution until Microsoft comes up with a permanent fix.

Update: 9 hours later and my sections are still there!

EDIT: My sections disappeared again after 24 hours. This workaround seems to not be a permanent solution. :(

Upgrade to OneNote 2016 worked for me

I have been having so many delays with OneNote 2010 losing the notebooks on my Windows 7 desktop that I decided to try the upgrade.  The button was "Free Download" in the Notebooks display of my OneNote notebooks online.

The download file was called: "setuponenotefreeretail.x86.en-us_.exe".

I ran through the download and install process, and it installed OneNote 2016.  I also have OneNote 2010, as part of a Office Professional 2010 boxed set.  This seems to be a good version, and I have access to my notebooks from OneNote (personal edition via Outlook.com).

I can't guarantee that it will work for everyone; it may depend what version of OneNote 2010 you have.  I still have OneNote 2010 installed, though I haven't wanted to or tried to open it since I did the upgrade.

I hope that helps others.

Here's where I saw the upgrade "Free Download" link.

Sometimes this works, but not reliably. Sometimes closing and opening again works, not always. Sometimes opening from OneDrive works, but not always. I get this 10-15 times a day. Yesterday I was taking notes on the big screen in a client meeting, and the notebook disappeared and I couldn't get it back. Seriously embarrassing. 

I use OneNote for everything, but if this issue isn't fixed soon I'm going to have to look at other options. I can't spend so much time babysitting OneNote! 

This only happens with the Windows version (Office 2010) for me. I have a Mac at home syncing with the same notebooks and never see this issue, and don't on my iPhone or iPad either. Just Windows, which is kind of funny.

I use OneNote 2010 all day so this issue is a major problem. None of the suggested workarounds seem to fully address the issue. My URLs do not have the caret (^) symbol in them.  Performing a sync takes about 10min per notebook. Right now I see

   

It has bee this way for over 20min. If I click on the link, it go to my OneDrive with no problems. This only happens on my work laptop (Win 7, OneNote 2010). My Android phone and home laptop (Win 10, OneNote 2013) are both fine.