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
    2017-06-01T17:55:22+00:00

    I have had this problem also for the last two weeks.  It is a pain.

    This is what I do to get everything back again.

    • Right click on on one of your notebooks.
    • Select Notebook Sync Status.
    • Click on one of the hyperlinks to take you to the website.
    • Then click "Synch All" in OneNote on your desktop.
    • All the notebooks will now synch.  Without the website open in the background they won't synch.

    Hope this helps.  It's time consuming,  Sometimes I have to do this more than once a day.  I definitely keep OneNote deskop open all day.

    Good luck.

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-06-07T23:04:41+00:00

    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. :(

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-06-01T16:51:08+00:00

    Has there been any official word on this from Microsoft? I can't access my notes anymore on OneNote 2010.  All of my notebooks say "There are no sections open in this notebook or section group".

    Also, has anyone come up with a workaround?  I've tried forcing a manual sync with no luck.

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  4. Anonymous
    2017-05-31T23:20:30+00:00

    Seems to be a newly introduced bug on the server side.

    And: don't upgrade your 2010 Onenote. Nothing gets better.

    Bernd

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