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

Anonymous
2017-05-31T20:12:42+00:00

Hello,

I have OneNote 2010 downloaded from a CD onto an upgraded Windows 10 pro -- from Windows 8.1 pro -- and it's been working okay, but for the past two weeks I've been seeing a message that states, "There are no sections open in this notebook or section group," regarding all three of my Notebooks, which in fact contain many sections, and have for years. The first time I saw the message I became scared because I thought it meant that my OneNote Notebooks' sections were all missing, with all my work and research gone, but then -- lo and behold -- the sections reappeared, usually after I synced -- sometimes, however, the syncing didn't work right away, and so I would repeatedly try it and anything else that came to mind.

This "disappearance" has happened over and over, but, again, only for the past two weeks. I don't know what's going on, and I'm a bit concerned that one day my Notebook sections might never reappear again.

I might add that I've also been seeing a message repeatedly pop up up asking if I want to upgrade my OneNote 2010, but I always decline; I don't know if this has anything to do with the "disappearance" problem.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Thanks

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneNote | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2017-06-07T22:00:39+00:00

**Update 6/9 6PM PDT:**According to the OneDrive team they've fixed this issue. Please let me know if it recurs.

OneNote Engineer here: We're aware of this problem and working to get it resolved ASAP. Thanks for letting us know!

6/9: We've narrowed it down to a problem with receiving an updated authentication token from OneDrive. This results in OneNote believing you don't have permission to the sections and removing them from display.

Update 6/8: As mentioned above, if you open the notebook in Edge and restart all processes, OneNote 2010 appears to properly get the auth token and sync properly.

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-06-02T01:26:10+00:00

    Thanks for writing in, so I see it's not only happening to me. Mine, though, do seem to reappear after I sync them. Haven't seen anything from Microsoft.

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-06-02T01:31:24+00:00

    My notes, like the other users here, do reappear for an hour or so if I use the workaround that @QuilterC suggested in his post. However the sections disappear again after just a few hours and I have to start the whole process all over again.  Additionally, I noticed that my notebook section order changes which is quite annoying because I like to sort them a specific way.

    I haven't seen anything official from Microsoft either other than them promoting their new version of OneNote.  However I do see some other people in this forum encountering similar issues.

    Here's a screenshot for reference sake of what OneNote looks like for me when I'm missing all my sections:

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-06-02T12:47:01+00:00

    My notes, like the other users here, do reappear for an hour or so if I use the workaround that @QuilterC suggested in his post. However the sections disappear again after just a few hours and I have to start the whole process all over again.  Additionally, I noticed that my notebook section order changes which is quite annoying because I like to sort them a specific way.

    I haven't seen anything official from Microsoft either other than them promoting their new version of OneNote.  However I do see some other people in this forum encountering similar issues.

    Here's a screenshot for reference sake of what OneNote looks like for me when I'm missing all my sections:

    The same issue here

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  4. Anonymous
    2017-06-02T16:17:36+00:00

    Same issue here!

    I hope they solve it soon...it just started happening a month ago and is extremely annoying.

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