Will I lose unsynchronized OneNote books owned by already deactivated Microsoft accounts that are still on my desktop if I log in using a new Microsoft account?

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Will I lose unsynchronized OneNote books owned by already deactivated Microsoft accounts that are still on my desktop if I log in using a new Microsoft account?

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I have switched Microsoft accounts several times from school accounts to private ones to switching offices accounts on the desktop OneNote app on my mac. There are some numerous valuable notes on them which would be hard to copy the contents of and reformat onto the browser version of OneNote as backup. I get the Sync Error within the app which also sometimes prevents me to edit or copy those contents which keeps asking for me to log in to continue accessing those books. If I sign in, following that prompt, would those OneNote books (that were created and owned by previously existing mentioned accounts which of some already were deactivated such as the school account), still remain accessible?

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Answer 1

Hello,

Welcome to Microsoft Community.

Regarding your question about OneNote notebooks linked to deactivated Microsoft accounts:

Local notebooks remain on your Mac
If the notebooks were saved locally (not fully synced to the cloud), they will stay on your device even if you log in with a new Microsoft account.
Sync and access depend on the original account
Since those notebooks are owned by now-deactivated accounts, sync will fail, and you won’t be able to access updated versions from the cloud or sync changes.
Editing may be limited by the app
If OneNote prompts for the original login and the account is deactivated, it may block edits or copying to protect data integrity.
Sign-in with a new account won’t link old notebooks automatically
Logging in with a new Microsoft account does not grant access to notebooks owned by previous accounts.

Recommendations:

Export or copy your local notebooks ASAP when you still have access.
Use OneNote’s “Export” feature to save notes as PDF or OneNote package files.
Avoid relying on cloud sync for these notebooks since the original accounts no longer exist.

If access is blocked, try opening OneNote in offline mode to copy content manually.

Best regards,

Tina L - MSFT| Microsoft Community Support