Quick Guide: How to Recover Deleted Notebook in OneNote?

Overview of OneNote

OneNote, a powerful digital note-taking application created by Microsoft, is designed to empower users in writing, organizing, and sharing diverse content across devices. With it, users are able to sync content via the cloud, ensuring that they can effortlessly access and manage their notes when needed. Additionally, OneNote also allows multiple users to work on the same notebook at the same time, making it a highly effective tool for team collaboration.

Files created with OneNote are typically saved with the .one extension, used to store your desired content. However, no matter how efficiently you use it, you may accidentally delete notebooks in OneNote due to some reasons. How to recover deleted notebooks in OneNote?

How Notebooks Are Deleted in OneNote

Before discussing recovery methods, it is essential to understand how notebooks are deleted in OneNote. There are some common reasons that may cause your notes to lose:

Accidental Operation: One of the most common reasons for losing notes is making errors while dealing with or organizing them. For example, you may accidentally delete your crucial notes by pressing the delete option unintentionally or selecting the wrong note.

Sync Conflicts: When multiple users modify the sync settings simultaneously, there might be conflicts in OneNote. Sometimes, these conflicts can cause your notes to lose, particularly when different versions of the same notebook are involved.

Software Glitches: Occasionally, software glitches or bugs might also result in some notebooks to disappear or be deleted inadvertently. This issue often occurs in scenarios where your notes are not saved properly.

How to Recover Deleted Notebooks in OneNote

While deleting notebooks in OneNote occurs frequently on account of various factors, we can still retrieve them using some suitable ways. Here, I’d like to introduce four reliable recovery methods. You can choose the one that best suits your needs.

Method 1. Recover Deleted Notebooks from OneNote Recycle Bin

How to recover deleted notebooks in OneNote once they are deleted? One of the most common ways to recover these notebooks is using the OneNote Recycle Bin. This feature is similar to the Recycle Bin or Trash on Windows and Mac, allowing you to restore deleted OneNote pages, sections, and notebooks temporarily. If you change your mind or realize you have made a wrong choice, you can effortlessly recover deleted OneNote notebooks with this method. 

How to find deleted notebooks from the OneNote Recycle Bin? Refer to the steps below:

Step 1. Open OneNote, click History in the top menu, and tap Notebook Recycle Bin.

Step 2. When you open the deleted pages tab, all deleted notes in the past 60 days will be displayed. Right-click the one you want to recover, and then select Move or Copy.

Step 3. Specify a location to store your recovered notebook and click Move.

Method 2. Recover Deleted Notebooks Using OneDrive Recycle Bin

If your OneNote notebooks are stored on OneDrive, they are safely backed up in the cloud. Therefore, when you have accidentally deleted notebooks in OneNote, you can use OneDrive to regain access to them. The OneNote deleted notes can be found from the Recycle bin of OneDrive, provided they have been less than 30 days since the deletion.

To recover deleted OneNote notebooks, follow the given steps:

Step 1. Open the OneDrive site and sign into your account.

Step 2. Click Recycle bin on the left panel and select the notebook you want to recover.

Step 3. Click Restore to retrieve the selected note to its original location.

Method 3. Recover Deleted Notebooks via Local Backups

Additionally, recovering deleted notebooks via backups is also a good option. OneNote automatically creates local backups of your notes if you have enabled the backup feature before. These backups are stored on your device in a specific folder. And you can also customize the frequency of these automatic backups in OneNote according to your needs—by default, it creates local backups every hour. That is to say, if your discover that your notes have been deleted, you can try to restore them from a backup file effortlessly.

Steps on how to recover deleted notebooks in OneNote via local backup files are listed as follows:

Step 1. Open the OneNote, click the File menu, and select Open Backups in the Info interface.

Step 2. Choose the notebook you want to restore in the backup and click on Open.

Step 3. Right-click the top note name and select Move or Copy, then you can restore your notes into an existing notebook.

Method 4. Recover Deleted Notebooks with Recovery Software

If you are tired of the tedious steps of recovery and seeking an easier and more efficient solution to recover deleted OneNote notebooks, using specialized recovery software can be an excellent choice. This method can not only simplify the operation process but also enhance the speed and success rate of retrieval.

Here, I’d like to recommend a reliable data recovery tool for you—AOMEI FastRecovery. It is designed to assist users in retrieving lost, deleted, or corrupted files on Windows PCs and Servers with ease. Whether your files were deleted by accident or due to other reasons, AOMEI FastRecovery can effortlessly retrieve them with its high performance and rich experience. 

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A step-by-step guide to recovering deleted OneNote notebooks. 

Step 1: Download and install AOMEI FastRecovery, and then choose the exact partition or disk where your files are located.

Step 2: Scan your disk to find the deleted files. It offers two modes, Quick Scan and Deep Scan:

• Quick Scan: Quickly searches for recently deleted files.
• Deep Scan: Thoroughly scans your storage device for finding lost data from more complex loss situations.

Step 3: Upon scanning completion, all missing files will be displayed. Kindly choose the desired file and then click Recover.

Step 4: Specify a path for the file and wait for the process to complete.

Tips for Preventing Future Loss

1. Ensure that automatic backups are enabled in OneNote. Regularly backing up your notes can significantly reduce the risk of data loss. It is advisable to back up your essential files at least once a day, so that you can recover lost notes in emergencies.
2. Prevent multiple users from modifying the sync settings simultaneously while using OneNote, which may arise sync conflicts to lead your notes to lose.
3. Be careful when handling and managing all kinds of files on a daily basis. Ensure that your actions do not lead to the accidental loss of important data.
4. Regularly update OneNote to benefit from the latest features and security improvements, which can help prevent potential issues that might lead to data loss.

FAQs

Q1: Where is the OneNote file stored locally?

By default, OneNote automatically saves your notebook files and quick notes on your system in C: drive. For example, in Windows 11, you can find them from the path below unless you change the saving location：

C:\Users\username\Documents\OneNoteNotebooks\My Notebook

Q2: Where do deleted OneNote notebooks go?

Deleted OneNote notebooks are usually stored in OneNote's own Recycle Bin temporarily. So if your notebooks are accidentally deleted, you can try to them from Recycle Bin first.

Q3: What is the easiest way to recover deleted OneNote notebooks?

When you find that your notes disappeared in OneNote, you can use the methods discussed in this post to get them back. But, in my opinion, the straightforward way is to use professional recovery software to recover the deleted notes. This method can help you address various scenarios of note loss and restore the desired notes within the shortest time.

Final Words

The deletion of your notebooks in OneNote can always result in inconvenience and massive loss for you or your team. Fortunately, there are several solutions available to recover deleted OneNote notebooks. This post covers how to recover deleted notebooks in OneNote and offers some measures to protect your data and prevent future loss as well. By staying informed about recovery options, you ensure that your notes remain secure and accessible during use.