OneNote not functioning, 'Read-only mode'

Question

OneNote not functioning, 'Read-only mode'

Smita Manilal 30

"This notebook is in read-only mode because it is broken. A backup has been created. To continue editing, please copy the content into a new notebook and close this one"

Why?

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5 answers

Your answer

Answer 1

JaradC 0

The solution for me in OneNote on Windows 11 with Microsoft 365 was:

File > Account > Under "Account Privacy" click "Manage Settings" button > under "Connected Experiences" check the box that says "Turn on all connected experiences" under "All connected experiences".

I must have turned it off when trouble-shooting another Microsoft product.

Andrew Rem 0 Reputation points

2026-06-30T16:20:34.43+00:00

mine was checked, so I unchecked, rebooted, then re-checked and rebooted again. This worked, but doesn't change sync status for notebook and the next day I'm back to read-only.

Answer 2

Sam 0

I don't know why the notebook is broken or who broke it, but I pressed Shift + F9 to manually sync and the error simply disappeared.

Smita Manilal 30 Reputation points

2026-03-27T06:05:47.16+00:00

I have a microsoft surface pro 9, does this info make a difference?

Answer 3

stan cardwell 0

can't delete these broken pages

can't move them to a new working section

CAN copy them (which I don't want to do) - especially if I can't delete them!

then the link "Fix issues when you can't sync OneNote" is broken

so . . . I have $hitty OneNote notes but I can't clean them up.

same lame statement - "This notebook is in read-only mode because it is broken. A backup has been created. To continue editing, please copy the content into a new notebook and close this one"

copying adds to the duplicates I am already trying to delete. PLEASE provide a WORKING SOLUTION

0 comments

Answer 4

It seems that if special characters are used, such as +, OneNote is unable to sync.

My troubleshooting steps consisted of closing the notebook, which led to a misplaced section being created. I noticed that it had the + character in the section name. I didn't have much in this misplaced section, so I just deleted it.

I was able to edit the notebook via the browser via no issue.

I got a similar error message before: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5765660/onenote-cant-sync-one-of-my-notebooks-code-9zu13 and I noticed that this time I had a section group name containing the + character. I renamed the section group and the notebook was able to sync successfully without error.

I seemed to have resolved my issue, but once again, why does OneNote allow me to name sections or section groups with illegal characters? This error is non-obvious.

The AI suggested answer to just create a new notebook and copy the contents over doesn't really solve the problem if there are illegal characters to begin with.

Answer 5

The message indicates that OneNote has detected corruption or another serious issue in that notebook, so it has automatically switched it to read-only to prevent further damage and created a backup copy. When a notebook or page is broken or corrupted, OneNote can no longer safely sync or edit it, so it protects the data by:

Marking the notebook as read-only (“because it is broken”).
Creating a backup so existing content is not lost.
Requiring content to be copied into a new, healthy notebook for continued editing.

Similar behavior occurs when OneNote encounters problems that prevent normal editing (for example, corrupted pages or unsupported content), in which case the affected content cannot be edited directly and must be recovered or copied elsewhere.

To continue working, follow the prompt: create a new notebook, copy the pages/sections from the broken notebook into the new one, verify everything is present, and then close the broken notebook.

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