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Sync Problem On OneNote, Even Misplaced Sections notes are corrupted, please help me recover

Anonymous
2025-07-09T14:41:37+00:00

I use OneNote for Windows 10.

I sometimes turn on VPN and onenote stops syncing, in order to sync it again, I clicked on sync but I quickly clicked on cancel during syncing by mistake and my Notebook got corrupted.

So now some of my pages are missing, and some of my pages are 1 month old, not updated. Also there is "QE" and "OA" written on the right-most side of certain pages, Gemini says its because they are corrupted. https://i.imgur.com/QuNxPZS.png

"QE" and "OA" are not shown on web version "https://onedrive.live.com/". What is "QE" and "OA"? They are shown even in pages that have nothing missing.

Misplaced Sections have the missing pages, I did copied them into a new Notebook that I created, but some Misplaced Sections pages also have "QE" and "OA" written on the right-most side of them after I copied them into a new Notebook.

Also Misplaced Sections don't have some sections, you'd think that it's because those sections are not corrupted and succesfully synced to my main notebook but no, some pages in sections that are not in Misplaced Sections also are corrupted with "QE" and "OA".

I don't have complicated pages. No pictures, no tables, no colored texts, it's all simple regular texts.

I had this problem too https://www.reddit.com/r/OneNote/comments/1ev8idf/i_cant_install_onenote_on_windows/

I want my sync to go back to "9 July 2025 01:00". Is it possible? Or can I force it to check Misplaced Sections to finish the sync? What do I do? Gemini wasn't very helpful and this sub doesn't have much info either.

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  1. Anonymous
    2025-07-10T04:29:49+00:00

    Hi,

    Thanks for posting in the Microsoft community.

    I understand you're facing a sync issue in OneNote for Windows 10 where some pages are missing or outdated, and others show unusual labels like "QE" and "OA". You also mentioned that some content appears in Misplaced Sections, but even those pages seem partially corrupted.

    This likely happened due to a sync interruption that corrupted your local cache, causing OneNote to create Misplaced Sections and lose sync consistency.

    Here are some steps to help recover your notes and restore sync:

    1. Check OneNote Online for the latest version of your notes

    This helps confirm whether the cloud version has more recent or complete content.
    >> Visit OneNote Online and compare it with your desktop version.

    2. Manually move pages from Misplaced Sections to the correct location

    This gives you control over what gets restored without overwriting entire sections.
    >> Open Misplaced Sections > Right-click each page > Move or Copy > Select the correct section in your notebook.
    For more details, see Resolve misplaced sections in OneNote 

    3. Use the “Merge into Another Section” feature

    This allows you to combine Misplaced Sections with existing ones without losing content.
    >> Right-click the Misplaced Section tab > Merge into Another Section > Choose the correct section.

    4. Clear OneNote cache to remove corrupted local data

    This forces OneNote to re-download clean data from the cloud.
    >> Close OneNote
    >> Press Windows + R to open the Run dialog.

    >> Type the following command and press Enter
    >> Type %localappdata%\Microsoft\OneNote\16.0 
    >> In the folder that opens, locate the folder named cache.

    >> Right-click the cache folder and select Rename.

    >> Rename it to something like cache_backup.

    1. You can also try restoring notes from a backup if available.

    Important Notes:

    • OneNote does not support automatic merging or syncing based on note names or content. See Fix issues when you can't sync OneNote.
    • The “QE” and “OA” labels are not standard OneNote features and may be local corruption artifacts. They should disappear after cache reset or content migration.
    • Unfortunately, you cannot revert sync to a specific timestamp like "9 July 2025 01:00".
      Microsoft does not offer a feature to roll back an entire notebook to a specific date/time. The only supported recovery method is through manual page version history or restoring from backups, as explained in Restore notes from a backup

    Best wishes,

    Peter | Microsoft Community Support

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