OneNote notebooks gone

Question

OneNote notebooks gone

Pegah 0

Had all my notes from the previous 3 semesters of school on my OneNote with my school account on my android tablet. I have noticed that I wasn't able to see my school notes on any other devices connected to the same college account, but if I were to create a notebook from a different device, it would sync to my android tablet. I wanted to at least sync them so I have have my notes on other devices, or save them locally so I could have them once I wasn't a student anymore. I tried syncing and looking online but I found nothing that would be useful for me. I tried logging out and logging it again, and all my notes were gone. I also noticed that the cache and storage of the OneNote application went from 3.5GB to 230MB. I always knew they were saved locally but for the life of me I couldn't find the files for OneNote, and online everyone said that it's on the cloud, even though it wasn't syncing at all. Is there a way to recover my notes? There's nothing on the trash bin, no hidden notes. Now I'm trying to sync something from the tablet to other devices but doesn't work at all, but when I do it from my computer, I can see it on my tablet.

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Answer 1

Dear @Pegah,

Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A forum.

I'm truly sorry to hear about the issue with your OneNote notebooks. Losing semesters’ worth of notes is incredibly stressful, and I completely understand how concerning this situation is. As a forum moderator, I genuinely wish I could directly access your account or delve into the backend systems to diagnose and fix this for you. However, our role here is limited to providing general guidance and solutions that can be applied by users.

From your description, it appears that when you signed out of the OneNote app, the local cache that contained your unsynced notes was cleared. The reduction in the app’s storage from 3.5GB to 230MB strongly suggests that the locally stored notebooks were removed during the logout process. Because these notes were never synced to the cloud, signing back in did not restore them.

There is still a chance, although a small one that something may remain. You can check whether your school’s OneDrive contains any copies or items in its recycle bins, and it may also help to contact your school’s IT department to see if they can access any backups related to your account. Educational institutions sometimes retain snapshots or backups that are not visible to end users.

Additionally, the Global Admin in your organization can create a service request with Microsoft Support. A technical support engineer can perform a remote session to investigate the situation, verify the backend configurations, and run any necessary synchronization tools to resolve the problem. If the issue requires further attention, they can escalate it to a specialized team for deeper analysis. Ask The Global Admin in your organization to create a service request with Microsoft support to get advanced technical assistance and diagnostics. For detailed instructions on how to get support, please refer to Get support - Microsoft 365 admin. If you don't know who your IT administrator is, please refer to this article: How do I find my Microsoft 365 admin? - Microsoft Support

For additional assistance, use this link to find the appropriate contact number from your region: Global Customer Service phone numbers - Microsoft Support.

I truly hope you’re able to recover your notes quickly. Please know that even though I can't directly intervene, directing you to the correct, specialized support is the most effective help I can provide from my position. Thank you for your patience and understanding. I'm looking forward to your reply.

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