Deleted OneNote notebooks remain in Recent list on Mac and web

Rajesh Naik 0 Reputation points
2026-08-26T03:22:46.0566667+00:00

I use OneNote for Mac and OneNote on the web with a personal Microsoft account.

Several notebooks that I created and then deleted from OneDrive still appear in OneNote’s Recent notebooks list. They are not shared notebooks. The actual notebook files no longer exist, and opening the entries returns an “Item does not exist” error.

The stale entries have remained for approximately six months and appear in both OneNote for Mac and OneNote on the web.

I have already tried refreshing, signing out and back in, using different browsers, and closing the notebooks in OneNote for Mac. In OneNote for the web, the menu has no “Remove from list” option; it only offers “Open in separate tab.”

Because the entries persist across the web and Mac versions after the notebook files were deleted, this appears to be a service-side Recent Notebooks synchronization issue.

How can these deleted notebook references be permanently removed from my account’s Recent list?

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneNote | For home | MacOS
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  1. Chloe-V 12,700 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-08-26T07:52:10.69+00:00

    Hi Rajesh Naik

    I understand how frustrating it is to continue seeing deleted notebooks in the Recent list, especially after you have already tried refreshing, signing out, using different browsers, and closing the notebooks in OneNote for Mac.

    Microsoft’s documented method is to delete the notebook from OneDrive and then close it in the OneNote desktop app. Since the notebook files no longer exist and the entries still appear in both OneNote for Mac and OneNote for the web, this appears to be a stale account-level Recent Notebooks reference rather than a local Mac issue.

    At this point, there is no additional removal option available in OneNote for the web. Please contact Microsoft Support while signed in with the affected personal Microsoft account and request assistance with removing the stale Recent Notebooks references from the account.

    Please note that this is a user-to-user support forum. Moderators, contributors including external Microsoft employees cannot directly intervene in Microsoft product features or access back-end systems. Our role is limited to providing technical guidance on reported issues, requests, or ideas only.

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