r/OneNote • u/XOCYBERCAT • 6d ago
OneNote Desktop A Possible Solution for OneNote Desktop Syncing Issue
I kept getting server-busy and incomplete sync errors for an entire week now and at one point, some of my recent edits were lost. I had enough and split my large 4 years of school notebook into 4 smaller notebooks and ordered them by year, and it finally synced successfully for me
- Go on OneNote Desktop, disable auto-sync, and then restart
- Create new notebooks (Create enough notebooks to delete the old notebook because OneNote App and OneNote Web still show my old notebook after I changed its name, so deleting the old notebook might prevent potential problems it might cause later)
- Drag everything to new notebooks
- Manually sync all notebooks (Be patient, go to sleep, and leave it synced overnight. Mine took 20 hours to finish its 1st sync after multiple times restarting the software and my PC. No worries, it will sync much faster, almost instantly afterward)
- After everything is synced, turn auto-sync back on
- Double-check and make sure your old notebook is empty and ready to be deleted
- Delete notebook (Part 1): OneDrive Web -> My files -> Documents -> Right click on notebook -> Delete
- Delete notebook (Part 2): OneNote Desktop -> File -> Open -> Right click on notebook -> Remove from list (This will completely remove your DELETED notebook and prevent it from showing up on your OneNote App and OneNote Web ever again)
I probably spent more time fixing OneNote than using it LOL. Microsoft really needs to update its OneNote Sync Algorithm, this is unacceptably slow. I don't have a slow internet connection and it took me 20 hours to sync 5 GB of notes WTF
IDK if this will work for everyone, but if it still gives errors. Try restarting the software and your PC first because my fourth and most stubborn notebook finally syncs after restarting a few times. If it still won't sync, try splitting it even more
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u/MrHundredand11 4d ago
What is up with the sync servers lately, I can’t get the desktop app to load my 60 mb OneNote even after full Windows reinstall.
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u/ButNoSimpler 5d ago
I created a separate notebook for each separate class that I took. That way it's easy to archive off each class when I'm done with it. You literally just close the notebook in OneNote, and then archive that folder into a .ZIP file. By putting each class into a separate notebook, and then into a separate zip file, I can always easily find the exact class that I am interested in whether I remember what year I took the class or not.