Unable to Open Local .onetoc2 Notebook on iPad (Offline Files Window Is Blank)

Question

Unable to Open Local .onetoc2 Notebook on iPad (Offline Files Window Is Blank)

Lucas M 20

Dear Community,

I'm trying to open a .onetoc2 notebook on my iPad so I can work with it locally. I do not want to use SharePoint or OneDrive due to data protection requirements.

The notebook was created in OneNote on my Windows desktop PC and is stored on a Windows server. I can access the server from my iPad via SMB.

However, when I open OneNote on my iPad and go to More Notebooks → Search → Offline Files, the file browser is completely blank (see the screenshot below).

How can I resolve this issue? Is it possible to open a local .onetoc2 notebook on the iPad, or is this feature no longer supported?

Thank you for your help!

Kind regards, Luke

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Answer 1

Jayden-P 26,275 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hi @Lucas M

A .onetoc2 file is a OneNote notebook table-of-contents file that stores the notebook structure, including its sections and their order. It does not contain the actual note content, which is stored in separate .one section files, and it is not intended to be opened directly by users. While OneNote on Windows can use the .onetoc2 file together with the associated.one files to open and manage a local notebook, OneNote for iPad does not support opening traditional local notebooks directly from an SMB share. Therefore, if OneDrive or SharePoint cannot be used due to data protection requirements, the notebook would need to be accessed from a Windows device instead.

For example, New Section 1.one contains the notes, and Open Notebook.onetoc2 contains the notebook structure. Together they form a local OneNote notebook that can be opened in OneNote on Windows. OneNote on iPad does not support opening these local notebook files directly from local storage or an SMB share.

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I hope this information helps.

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Lucas M 20 Reputation points

2026-07-17T08:39:22.11+00:00

Okay. Thanks for your quick reply. Just out of curiosity: what is the “Search for local files” option in the OneNote app used for? Can you reproduce the error where my window goes blank when searching for files in OneNote?
Jayden-P 26,275 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-17T09:04:08.4666667+00:00

Hi @Lucas M

As a forum moderator, I do not have access to intervene Microsoft products, I can only provide information based on my testing.

Unfortunately, due to the lack of an equivalent test environment (Windows Server + SMB share), I am unable to reproduce the issue on my side.

I tried going to More Notebooks → Browse→ Offline Files and I see this description:

However, I couldn't find the Make Available Offline. There's only a sync option describe in this article. In conclusion, the Offline Files feature does not refer to files that are stored locally outside of OneNote. Instead, it is used to make cloud-based files or notebooks available when an internet connection is not available.
Lucas M 20 Reputation points

2026-07-17T09:06:11.37+00:00

Ok. Thank you! :)
Jayden-P 26,275 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-17T09:18:44.4766667+00:00

Glad I could address your concern; hope you're having a great day.