Export and import OneNote notebooks

No matter what version of OneNote you use, you can download a copy of any of your OneNote notebooks to your PC or Mac — either as a backup or to upload its contents to another account.

Note: Exporting and importing notebooks through OneNote for the web is only available for notebooks stored on personal OneDrive accounts, not for notebooks stored on OneDrive for Business or SharePoint. For information about exporting notebooks to PDF files from OneNote 2016 for Windows, see Export notes from OneNote as a PDF.

Export a OneNote notebook

To download a notebook from OneNote to your computer, do the following:

In any modern Web browser, go to OneNote for the web.

Tip: Exporting notebooks is not currently supported in Windows Internet Explorer. We recommend using Microsoft Edge on Windows 10, or any other modern browser in older versions of Windows.

Enter your credentials for the Microsoft account containing the notebook you want to download. (Skip this step if you’re already signed in.)

Under My Notebooks, right-click (PC) or Control-click (Mac) the name of the notebook that you want to export, and then click Export notebook.

On the screen that opens, click Export.

Follow your browser’s prompts to save the file in the location you choose.

Tip: If the notebook you’re exporting is very large or contains a large number of image or file attachments, it could take a long time to download your content. Make sure you have enough space on your hard drive to complete the download.

Each downloaded notebook is saved to your hard drive in Zip file format. If you want to later import a downloaded notebook, you’ll need to first unzip its notebook folder from the Zip file, and then import the folder to OneNote for the web.

Import a OneNote notebook

To import a notebook to OneNote that you’ve previously downloaded, do the following:

Unzip the folder found in the file you previously downloaded (see “Export a OneNote notebook” earlier in this article). This unzipped folder is your notebook folder.

In any modern Web browser, go to the OneNote Notebook Importer.

Tip: Importing notebooks is not currently supported in Windows Internet Explorer. We recommend using Microsoft Edge on Windows 10, or any other modern browser in older versions of Windows.

On the screen that opens, click Import.

On your computer, navigate to the location of your notebook folder (see Step 1), click to select it, and then click Open to import it.

Tip: If the import process begins but then appears not to finish, your OneDrive account might be low on available space. Manually delete any unnecessary files from your OneDrive storage (including any failed notebook uploads) and then try importing the notebook folder again.

Troubleshooting

If you’re running into any issues while exporting or importing your notebooks, try the suggestions below.

My notebook download doesn’t seem to finish

Over time, notebooks can significantly increase in size, especially if you use OneNote to collect embedded documents, image scans, PDFs, or video and audio clips as part of your notes. Before attempting to download large notebooks, make sure you have several gigabytes (GB) of available space on your computer’s hard drive. If a download is interrupted because you ran out of storage, you’ll need to restart the download again after you’ve recovered enough hard drive space.

My download contains only an “errors.txt” file, but no notebook folder

Whenever a notebook is downloaded successfully, it is saved as a Zip file that contains a folder with the same name as the notebook. In rare cases, it’s possible that a downloaded Zip file doesn’t contain any notebook folders but only shows a file called errors.txt. When this happens, something went wrong during the export process. To troubleshoot this issue, open the errors.txt file from the downloaded Zip file in a text editor and read its contents for more specific information.

OneNote doesn’t recognize the notebook I’m trying to import

If OneNote rejects a notebook file that you’re trying to import, it’s likely that you’re trying to upload the original Zip file that was created when you previously downloaded the notebook. To solve this issue, double-click to open the original Zip file, and then extract (copy) the notebook folder from the Zip file to any location on your hard drive (for example, the desktop). When the notebook folder has been successfully saved outside of its Zip file, you can import the folder into OneNote.

I got an error message saying I don’t have enough space to import my notebook to OneDrive

If your OneDrive account is low on available space, manually delete any unnecessary files from your OneDrive storage (including any failed notebook uploads) and then try importing the notebook folder again.

I got an error message saying my notebook is too large to export

Please move portions of your notebook into separate, smaller notebooks and then try exporting these smaller notebooks instead.

I’m still having trouble and need help

If you’ve tried the suggested troubleshooting tips in this article but are still having trouble exporting or importing your OneNote notebooks, please report your in the OneNote forums on Microsoft Answers so we can investigate the cause and help you find a solution. Thank you!

OpenFile function (winbase.h)

Creates, opens, reopens, or deletes a file.

Syntax

Parameters

The name of the file.

The string must consist of characters from the 8-bit Windows character set. The OpenFile function does not support Unicode file names or opening named pipes.

A pointer to the OFSTRUCT structure that receives information about a file when it is first opened.

The structure can be used in subsequent calls to the OpenFile function to see an open file.

The OFSTRUCT structure contains a path string member with a length that is limited to OFS_MAXPATHNAME characters, which is 128 characters. Because of this, you cannot use the OpenFile function to open a file with a path length that exceeds 128 characters. The CreateFile function does not have this path length limitation.

The action to be taken.

This parameter can be one or more of the following values.

Value	Meaning
OF_CANCEL 0x00000800	Ignored. To produce a dialog box containing a Cancel button, use OF_PROMPT.
OF_CREATE 0x00001000	Creates a new file. If the file exists, it is truncated to zero (0) length.
OF_DELETE 0x00000200	Deletes a file.
OF_EXIST 0x00004000	Opens a file and then closes it. Use this to test for the existence of a file.
OF_PARSE 0x00000100	Fills the OFSTRUCT structure, but does not do anything else.
OF_PROMPT 0x00002000	Displays a dialog box if a requested file does not exist. A dialog box informs a user that the system cannot find a file, and it contains Retry and Cancel buttons. The Cancel button directs OpenFile to return a file-not-found error message.
OF_READ 0x00000000	Opens a file for reading only.
OF_READWRITE 0x00000002	Opens a file with read/write permissions.
OF_REOPEN 0x00008000	Opens a file by using information in the reopen buffer.
OF_SHARE_COMPAT 0x00000000	For MS-DOS–based file systems, opens a file with compatibility mode, allows any process on a specified computer to open the file any number of times. Other efforts to open a file with other sharing modes fail. This flag is mapped to the FILE_SHARE_READ|FILE_SHARE_WRITE flags of the CreateFile function.
OF_SHARE_DENY_NONE 0x00000040	Opens a file without denying read or write access to other processes. On MS-DOS-based file systems, if the file has been opened in compatibility mode by any other process, the function fails. This flag is mapped to the FILE_SHARE_READ|FILE_SHARE_WRITE flags of the CreateFile function.
OF_SHARE_DENY_READ 0x00000030	Opens a file and denies read access to other processes. On MS-DOS-based file systems, if the file has been opened in compatibility mode, or for read access by any other process, the function fails. This flag is mapped to the FILE_SHARE_WRITE flag of the CreateFile function.
OF_SHARE_DENY_WRITE 0x00000020	Opens a file and denies write access to other processes. On MS-DOS-based file systems, if a file has been opened in compatibility mode, or for write access by any other process, the function fails. This flag is mapped to the FILE_SHARE_READ flag of the CreateFile function.
OF_SHARE_EXCLUSIVE 0x00000010	Opens a file with exclusive mode, and denies both read/write access to other processes. If a file has been opened in any other mode for read/write access, even by the current process, the function fails.
OF_VERIFY	Verifies that the date and time of a file are the same as when it was opened previously. This is useful as an extra check for read-only files.
OF_WRITE 0x00000001	Opens a file for write access only.

Return value

If the function succeeds, the return value specifies a file handle to use when performing file I/O. To close the file, call the CloseHandle function using this handle.

If the function fails, the return value is HFILE_ERROR. To get extended error information, call GetLastError.

Remarks

If the lpFileName parameter specifies a file name and extension only, this function searches for a matching file in the following directories and the order shown:

1. The directory where an application is loaded.
2. The current directory.
3. The Windows system directory.

Use the GetSystemDirectory function to get the path of this directory.

The 16-bit Windows system directory.

There is not a function that retrieves the path of this directory, but it is searched.

The Windows directory.

Use the GetWindowsDirectory function to get the path of this directory.

The directories that are listed in the PATH environment variable.

The lpFileName parameter cannot contain wildcard characters.

The OpenFile function does not support the OF_SEARCH flag that the 16-bit Windows OpenFile function supports. The OF_SEARCH flag directs the system to search for a matching file even when a file name includes a full path. Use the SearchPath function to search for a file.

A sharing violation occurs if an attempt is made to open a file or directory for deletion on a remote machine when the value of the uStyle parameter is the OF_DELETE access flag OR’ed with any other access flag, and the remote file or directory has not been opened with FILE_SHARE_DELETE share access. To avoid the sharing violation in this scenario, open the remote file or directory with OF_DELETE access only, or call DeleteFile without first opening the file or directory for deletion.

In WindowsВ 8 and Windows ServerВ 2012, this function is supported by the following technologies.

Technology	Supported
Server Message Block (SMB) 3.0 protocol	Yes
SMB 3.0 Transparent Failover (TFO)	Yes
SMB 3.0 with Scale-out File Shares (SO)	Yes
Cluster Shared Volume File System (CsvFS)	Yes
Resilient File System (ReFS)	Yes

В

CsvFs will do redirected IO for compressed files.

Where are the OneNote App local files stored in Windows 10? (Surface 3)

I have been using OneNote for a long time with relatively no issues. I recently got a surface 3 to take out into the field with me and got my first taste of the OneNote App that comes pre-installed on the device. As far as performance in the field is concerned it worked great. The problem now is I cannot seem to get some of the note sheets that I created to sync. My thought is that the syncing is getting mixed up as they are extremely large because contain many pictures. What I would like to do is find the files locally on the device, copy them using an external hard drive or something, and open them on my Desktop or even in the OneNote 2016 on the Surface 3. Problem is I can’t find the local files for the app. Please help.

TLDR; I want to find where the App Stores the local files so I can open them in the Desktop Version.

I appreciate your help.

Replies (11) 

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I want to find where the App Stores the local files so I can open them in the Desktop Version.

The local files, as you call it, are local cache files, not the real notebook.

But you can try to outwit Onenote 2016.

The cache files for Onenote 2016 are in a file and in an additional folder in

The corresponding files of the App you’ll find in

Before overwriting the Onenote 2016 files close all notebooks in Onenote 2016 and then close it.

On your own risk 😉

EDIT:

The 1st structure is valid only for Onenote 2010 and 2013. Onenote 2016 has the same structure as the App.

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I have a similar problem I hope you can help with.

I use one note 2016 (not the desktop version) to survey, sketch and measure buildings on site. Recently I opened one note to find they were not there. My onedrive storage wasn’t large enough, but it appeared to save the files locally as evertime I opened onenote they were listed in the left hand column so I left things as they were. So the situation is I don’t have copies on one drive and cannot find them locally on my windows surface.

How do I actually open files in the cache folder, the extension they have is .bin and one note does not recognise them.

WI don’t understand how/why they have suddenly disappeared??

Thank you in advance

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At first you need an installed Onenote 2016.

Then you can try to copy the cache folder in the App’s 16.0 folder over the cache folder of Onenote 2016’s 16.0 folder. The paths you see in my last reply.

Then start Onenote 2016.

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I’m having the same issue. Followed the instructions (which I found very helpful) I loaded Outlook 2016 on a new machine, and logged in with my Microsoft account. I closed all the notebooks that where open and copied the cache from the OneNote APP to the OneNote desktop 2016. It says «OneNote cannot access the notebook cache file. It may be corrupted. OneNote will restart and create a new cache file.» I pulled the cache folder from a backup I did a month ago. I believe the files are good. is there any rights or other files I need to move?

Thanks in advance.

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I’ve been messing around with it some more I think the problem has something to do with the header file located in the cache directory. If you copy the header over it doesn’t work. If you use the one that is currently there it still doesn’t open but doesn’t provide a corrupt error winder either. If you delete it all together and open Onenote, No issues but opens all blanks.

TLDR; what does the header do and can it be modified to open?

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I have been using OneNote for a long time with relatively no issues. I recently got a surface 3 to take out into the field with me and got my first taste of the OneNote App that comes pre-installed on the device. As far as performance in the field is concerned it worked great. The problem now is I cannot seem to get some of the note sheets that I created to sync. My thought is that the syncing is getting mixed up as they are extremely large because contain many pictures. What I would like to do is find the files locally on the device, copy them using an external hard drive or something, and open them on my Desktop or even in the OneNote 2016 on the Surface 3. Problem is I can’t find the local files for the app. Please help.

TLDR; I want to find where the App Stores the local files so I can open them in the Desktop Version.

I appreciate your help.

Me too was not able to sync some of my OneNote APP notebooks. That’s little tricky to create new empty notebook in OneNote app and then moving the sections from our problematic notebook to this newly created notebook. But if we do so, one may be able to sync the new notebook with all the required sections. However, still sometime one simply can not move a required section to the newly created (empty) notebook.

Hence, instead simply follow the steps.

1. Go to OneNote App cache files from C:\Users \AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Office.OneNote_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\AppData\Local\OneNote\16.0
2. Copy all the (three) folders inside the folder ‘16.0’.
3. Now go to OneNote 2016 (.exe program) cache file location C:\Users\ \AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneNote\16.0
4. Paste all (three) the copied folders to this location and overwright all the files already available there.
5. Now try to sync all notebooks.
6. Some notebooks (most probably the ‘same’ notebooks) may not be able to sync. It will show the error0xE0190190.
7. But as now you got the notebooks (at least offline) into the .exe program, it’s quite easy to play with anything of it.
8. Now it’s not that hectic to create a new ‘Offline’ (Windows Explorer (/file Manager) ‘browsable’) OneNote-notebook file and move your required (screwed) sections to it.
9. After that done, simply move this file to OneDrive.
10. Now again try to sync it with OneNote 2016 (.exe program) (press shift+F9), it should work!

And then, F***ing OneNote APP would have no b*als to make it offline (again!).