"To sync this notebook, sign in to OneNote."

Anonymous
2020-02-26T18:45:21+00:00

When I open one particular notebook in OneNote 2016, OneNote displays the message:

"To sync this notebook, sign in to OneNote"

and the Shared Notebook Synchronization window shows this error:

"We need the password to sync this notebook. (Error code: 0x803D0005) There was an error communicating with the endpoint at [my OneDrive]; The server returned HTTP status code '401 (0x191)' with text 'Unauthorized'.; The requested resource requires user authentication.; The operation identifier is not valid."

Error code 0x803D0005 means that OneNote is unable to communicate with the OneDrive server where my notebooks are stored, and the reason is HTTP status code 401, which means that OneNote's request to my OneDrive lacks valid authentication credentials - my password. The error message does not reference any Section in particular.

According to File > Account > User Information in OneNote 2016, I am in fact signed in to my Microsoft account. Nevertheless, if I open the affected notebook in OneNote for the web (with the notebook's URL) I can see that recent changes have not synced.

Manually syncing my notebook solves the problem (and I'm not asked to enter my password.) I want to know why this one notebook won't sync automatically - why I must sync it manually?

It's not an issue with OneDrive, since according to Microsoft's Service Status web page OneDrive is up and running.

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To anyone who likes to answer by copying URLs for me to read: I have already read and performed the steps in Troubleshoot synchronization errors in OneNote 2016 for Windows and Fix issues when you can't sync OneNote. In addition, please know that my OneNote notebooks are not stored on Sharepoint and no one else collaborates on any of my Notebooks. Also, please know that I have already uninstalled and re-installed OneNote 2016.

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneNote | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-01-31T03:46:41+00:00

    Typical Microsoft inaction.  You get their useless reps come in here purely for PR damage control without a clue of what is going on and then send people off to try procedures that never work.  This annoying popup has been around for years now without a proper fix.  I mean I could literally write a script that automatically detects it and clicks on it to make it go away and it would be better than what Microsoft has managed.  Fix your bugs FFS!

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  2. Anonymous
    2021-01-24T16:57:58+00:00

    This problem has just started up on one of my yeargroup notebooks in a secondary school.  Copying 188 student areas into a new notebook to test it out is not happening, Microsoft you are the biggest barrier to students' learning at the minute! Teams is running like a bag of spanners, in lockdown 1 I was able to move/recreate dozens of lessons on OneNote to distribute to students, now it's missing students out, full of 'Content not available yet' errors, syncing errors, students saying their Class Notebook work has disappeared and 'empty' Class Notebook student pages that are actually populated in OneNote on Chrome but empty in the Teams Windows app.. oh yeh and you've decided to charge for live events, nice!

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  3. Anonymous
    2021-01-04T14:49:20+00:00

    I have just formatted my PC and installed a Fresh New Windows 10 Pro ver 20H2 and just downloaded the Office 365 and still the same problem...

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-12-27T13:59:59+00:00

    Same problem for me. Deleting cache actually made it worst. Just lost a bunch of notes, unable to re-open the notebook. 

    Interestingly, when I right-click the notebook and select 'Notebook Sync Status...', I am showing the following error message for the problematic notebooks - "We need the password to sync this notebook. (Error code: 0x52E)" and the date to the right of the message is 01/01/1980....

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  5. Anonymous
    2020-12-24T14:41:07+00:00

    Deleting the cache only worked for me one time.  The next day when I restarted OneNote, I still got the "To sync this notebook, sign in to OneNote" message.

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