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Notebooks showing in open tab but not opening in One Note

Raheef Aowal 0 Reputation points
2025-11-10T03:53:17.0233333+00:00

I have been using OneNote since 2014 and as such I have many notebooks with important information and ideas over the years. I had been using an android phone which had the App and I used it to take notes. However today I am unable to access my notebooks which have been listed in the notebook page. The error We couldn't open that location. It might not exist or you might not have permission to open it. Please contact the owner of for more information." pops up.

I have been frantic trying to troubleshoot the problem and have tried:

  1. Reinstalling
  2. Clearing Cache
  3. Checking OneDrive
  4. Trying older version in desktop

but no avail. Please help me as it contained years of research and notes.

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneNote | For home | Android
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  1. Edward Schlobohm01 9,240 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2025-11-10T06:43:07.6+00:00

    Hi,

    Thanks for explaining your situation so clearly. I can tell how much your OneNote notebooks mean to you, especially with years of research and personal notes stored in them. That error message "We couldn't open that location. It might not exist or you might not have permission to open it" , usually points to a problem with how OneNote is connecting to the notebook’s location, either due to sync issues, permissions, or account mismatches.

    Since you've already tried reinstalling, clearing the cache, checking OneDrive, and using older desktop versions, the next thing to try is accessing your notebooks directly through OneDrive.com or OneNote Online. If they open there, the issue is likely with the app itself.

    Make sure you're signed into the correct Microsoft account, especially if the notebooks were shared or synced from another source. If you can find the notebook’s link in OneDrive, you can also try opening it manually in the desktop app.

    There’s a chance OneNote stored a local cache of your notebooks. On Windows, you can check under C:\Users<YourUsername>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneNote\ for backup files.

    If none of this works, you might be able to restore older versions of your notebooks using OneDrive’s version history or the full restore feature available with Microsoft 365. And if recovery still isn’t possible, I recommend contacting Microsoft Support via this link- https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/contactus and using the live chat option, they may be able to help recover your notebooks from server-side backups.

    Looking forward to hearing how it goes. Happy to help anytime.

    Warm regards,

    Edward

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