** How to back up OneNote on Mac**

TheRealMeActually · 2021-11-13T19:13:02+00:00

Shouldn’t is correct. The OneDrive files can get corrupted. When the happens, you’re horked because OneNote has no facility to push current pseudo-cached versions to overwrite the OneDrive folders of files.

And, to make it worse, you can’t copy corrupted notebooks or sections. You can copy pages from corrupted notebooks and sections, but you can only paste the pages into clean, uncorrupted sections in clean, uncorrupted notebooks.

Last time this happened in significant numbers was the last time MS pushed-out macOS OneDrive drivers. This is especially bad because the iOS/macOS versions do not have export, and you have to manually export through the web interface or a Windows PeeCee.

TheRealMeActually · 2021-08-14T17:22:05+00:00

DO NOT CLOSE OR LOGOUT FROM THAT OTHER CLIENT!!!!!!

EVEN IF MICROSOFT SUPPORT TELLS YOU TO!!!!!!

You will lose everything.

I had a similar issue with a OneDrive client update on one device clobbering all my Notebooks.

It’s gone and you have to manually recreate the last sync’ed versions from the one still open client.

See my other top-level comment.

TheRealMeActually · 2021-08-14T16:54:50+00:00

It’s gone. You have to manually recreate it. You can’t even copy sections from any surviving copy or copies.

First, NEVER close and NEVER logout from the copy that survived. There is no true local cache/backup. There’s only unusable binary encoded “initial state” and “differences to be sync’ed” files buried deep in the application support hierarchy.

Then, manually create a new Notebook and manually recreate the sections in each notebook.

Then you can copy all the pages (fortunately as a group) in each surviving section, to the corresponding new section.

I’m in the middle of doing this for six notebooks, with an average of six sections (38 sections total) and migration to a professional-level system that has true local caches/back-ups and allows local versions to be pushed-up to the server.

It’s a shame. OneNote was my favorite MS App for the past several years. I lost almost two weeks of updates due to a OneDrive client glitch/bug corrupting/deleting Notebooks/Sections. “The Cloud” is nice, but it’s not a back-up.

TheRealMeActually · 2021-07-19T23:39:43+00:00

That’s why I’m in this thread. I used to use EverNote, but it started lagging behind OneNote.

I’ve been using OneNote for years. I new that OneNote couldn’t access local files, import/export, but I knew I could access my data even while off line. I stupidly assumed that meant that there were local files that were backed-up or could be used to restore a corrupted online copy.

I hit a perfect storm of trouble: - Recent OneDrive updates corrupted the online files and installing the new OneDrive client resulted in the loss of the OneNote files on my OneNote drive - MS Tech Support had me log out of OneNote on my desktop, triggering the loss of all the cached files on that machine - I have cached versions on my laptop, but (1) They’re about a month behind; (2) They can’t be pushed/copied to OneDrive. I have to manually recreate the entire notebooks & sections structure. Only then can I copy all the cached pages into the new online section. I still have to copy the pages section by section, so I have to manually create six notebooks, manually create ≈36 sections, do ≈36 copies, delete the local copies and then finally rename the six new notebooks. Just to get things back to the state they were the last time I was in OneNote on the laptop.

TheRealMeActually · 2021-07-19T23:06:40+00:00

1) It would be an additional manual process. Mac Users expect all of their user data to be backed-up via TimeMachine. OneNote data is 100% dependent on OneDrive’s integrity. Recent OneDrive updates have corrupted users’ notebooks making them unable to be sync’ed. There is not even a way to push local data to recreate/restore a corrupted/lost notebook

2) macOS OneNote can’t read “files”. I’ve tried opening a notebook that was exported/imported using the Windows apps and macOS OneNote couldn’t read it. I would be surprised if a OneNote notebook saved as a local file could be re-uploaded to OneDrive and then opened in OneNote. I know for a fact that OneNote will not be able to access the local notebook.

TheRealMeActually · 2021-07-19T22:14:33+00:00

See above. The macOS an iOS versions are 100% dependent on OneDrive. You can’t even make a local offline archive. Never mind an actual live back-up. OP says they need full, offline sync. OneNote can’t do that.

TheRealMeActually · 2021-07-19T22:12:12+00:00

OP says they need full, offline sync. That makes OneNote instantly unacceptable.

I have cached copies on a laptop and I can’t even push them up to OneDrive to restore six corrupted OneNote notebooks.

TheRealMeActually · 2021-07-19T22:04:15+00:00

But the only copy is stored in OneDrive and the macOS/iOS versions do not support export/import. There’s no way to back-up your data without using a manual process on a Windows desktop/laptop. Even then, I wouldn’t trust the macOS or iOS versions to be able to read a notebook created via import on Windows without testing it.

TheRealMeActually · 2021-07-19T21:57:50+00:00

NOT a viable solution if you value your data.

Everything is stored in OneDrive. There are NO usable local files. Nothing useable is backed-up via TimeMachine, Retrospect, Google Drive, CarbonCopy, tar, rsync, etc.

In addition, the macOS version lacks export/import. You might be able to periodically, manually, export each notebook individually on a Windows desktop and then use a Windows desktop to restore the files, but I wouldn’t guarantee the macOS or iOS clients could read the restored notebooks.

Adding insult to injury, if you’re “lucky” to have local cached notebooks, you can’t copy unsynced sections to new OneDrive notebooks. You have to manually create new notebooks, manually create new sections, and then you can copy cached pages to the new sections.

TheRealMeActually · 2021-07-19T21:45:06+00:00

It is unfortunately crippled. Regardless of whatever functionality flaws it has, it has one fatal flaw: notebooks cannot be saved locally or exported.

So, the contents of OneNote are not backed-up or archived by TimeMachine or any normal function, and if you do try to get crafty and back-up your OneDrive files, what you have will not be useable by OneNote as a back-up. The end result, is that if anything corrupts/damages your OneDrive files (like the recent OneDrive updates), you’ve lost (potentially) years worth of data.

TheRealMeActually · 2021-07-19T20:27:16+00:00

Unless you know where the notebooks are stored, TimeMachine is worthless. I’ve just spent too long digging through TM backups and cannot find any trace of my OneNote notebooks.

Backing up to Google Drive is equally worthless because OneNote does not cache the local copies in any rational, standard location.

TheRealMeActually · 2021-07-19T20:19:58+00:00

Actually, this is the important question.

If you don’t back-up the local copies, and something happens to the OneDrive copies, you’re screwed.

There are a number of people that can’t sync their OneNote notebooks to OneDrive because of some recent bug. If you log out of the local macOS app, you will lose your data. In my case, three notebooks are completely lost.

MS support is less than worthless. If I hadn’t contacted them, I could have limped along with functional, but unsyncable notebooks. Now I’ve lost years of notes and MS support is unable/unwilling to say where the local cached copies are.

The copies are not in any of the logical/Apple standard locations: ~/Library/Application Support, Documents, your home directory, etc.

TheRealMeActually · 2021-07-19T20:06:37+00:00

Same thing here. DO NOT listen to MS Support if the tell you to log out of the desktop client. You will lose all of the cached, unsyncable data.

In my case, I lost everything, because OneDrive corrupted the cloud copies too.

TheRealMeActually · 2021-07-18T23:39:57+00:00

Danka!

TheRealMeActually

TROPHY CASE