I am trying to delete a OneNote Notebook. I cannot seem to achieve it.

Anonymous
2023-03-27T13:35:35+00:00

I have OneNote for Windows 10. Over the course of its life it is getting filled with Notebooks that I do not require. How can I delete them?

I am told: "To delete a OneNote notebook, do the following: Go to your OneDrive account and navigate to the notebook that you want to delete (it's likely stored in Files > Documents). Right-click the name of the notebook, and then select Delete."

This doesn't work because OneDrive is empty.

Alternatively I am told: "In File Explorer, navigate to your Documents (or My Documents) folder, and then double-click OneNote Notebooks."

This doesn't work because the OneNote folder in my Documents is empty.

I am out of options.

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneNote | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-11-01T14:45:30+00:00

    In one drive I pull up the list of notebooks, right click and the only options are "open" and "share".

    Why would they program it this way, we created the folder in one note, we should be able to permanently delete in one note.

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-11-01T15:26:53+00:00

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-11-04T17:48:23+00:00

    This is what worked for me:

    1. Install the OneDrive app on your phone
    2. Search for the notebook you want to delete on the OneDrive app
    3. Select the notebook (long press), then tap the delete button

    You can also do this via onedrive.live.com. Proceed to steps 2&3. If the notebook appears on the Recent list, the option to delete isn't available. You need to search for that notebook and delete it from its location in your files. The right click context menu there will have the delete button.

    Note: On OneDrive desktop newly created notebooks with Microsoft365 appear as links.

    When I attempted to delete a notebook, it keeps coming back. (I only deleted the autogenerated link for the notebook, not the actual notebook). Deleting via OneDrive desktop just won't work for Microsoft 365 notebooks. Although older notebooks (created with OneNote 13) can easily be deleted on OneDrive desktop.

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  4. Anonymous
    2024-11-13T10:53:54+00:00

    This is the actual answer, thank youi!

    if you delete the file via windows explorer it re-appears in a moment.

    if you close the workbook it disappears out of onenote except from the "recent" list

    there is a "Notebook recycle bin" context menu option within OneNote when you right-click the notebook, but it's always disabled for me.

    i think if a software company set out to make it as difficult as possible to delete a notebook, they probably couldn't do as impressive a job as this 🤦‍♂️

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  5. Anonymous
    2025-01-17T20:25:14+00:00

    Right click:

    Microsoft nonsense: doesn't work on Home, only on My Files. (I think they changed this recently, not sure).

    THIS IS THE ANSWER

    1. Do above and delete your Notebook - my notebook links were in MyFiles->DOCUMENTS
    2. At this point the Notebook still appears in OneDrive (if you try and open Notebook you get you get an error)
    3. Go to OneNote desktop and sync notebooks
    4. Ghost notebook disappears from OneNote
    5. OneDrive link in local documents folder is gone

    Ridiculous workaround - MS FIX THIS!

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