OneNote Syncing but "Not Connected" (red X) and NO error message

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DougCote-5620 asked Jan 25, '22 AndrewH commented Jun 23, '22

OneNote Syncing but "Not Connected" (red X) and NO error message

Greetings,
I've been working on an issue for a couple of months now and not getting anywhere with premier support. Hoping the general population can help. I am having an issue that's also impacting several other users where OneNote notebooks saved to OneDrive are showing a sync failure (red X overlay) and indicating that the notebook is 'not connected'. The odd thing is that synchronization is actually occurring because I can make changes in the OneNote web app and have it appear in the desktop app and vice versa. Yet OneNote is showing the notebook as being in a disconnected/non-syncing state. I'm at a bit of loss here. Believe me, all of the usual troubleshooting has been tried and then some so this is kind of a last resort. This issue ONLY occurs with notebooks saved to OneDrive. Any other notebook, including those saved to a traditional file share are syncing just fine. The complicating factor is that OneNote won't even post an error to at least provide a clue. It just drops a red X on the notebook icon. When it does try to sync, it will change to the usual green sync icon, and then go back to the red X. Again, it is actually syncing changes. The other odd aspect to this is that for notebooks that I create and own, OneNote will eventually change the text background color on my notes and tag it with my initials. It's almost like it sees me as another user? I don't know, I'm hoping someone else has seen this and can comment.

Thanks,
Doug

office-onenote-client-itpro

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AndrewH · Mar 16 at 02:12 AM

Hey @DougCote-5620

I'm running into the same issue did you manage to get to the bottom of it?

Thanks

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DougCote-5620 AndrewH · Mar 16 at 02:30 AM

Yes, we got an update just yesterday. It appears that v2108+ has some issue that causes OneNote to display the failed sync icon if one of these values is set:

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\Internet\DisableServerReachability=1
HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\Internet\DisableServerReachability=1

We happen to have the policy key value set, and is tied to this policy: https://admx.help/?Category=Office2016&Policy=office16.Office.Microsoft.Policies.Windows::L_OpenDocumentsFromOfficeDocumentCacheFirst

If you change the reg value to 0 or set the policy to enabled, it will resolve the OneNote behavior. Still waiting to see when a fix might be available.

Doug

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AndrewH DougCote-5620 · Mar 16 at 03:06 AM

@DougCote-5620

Awesome thank you so much, we only have the one registry set but setting it to 0 has resolved the issue.

Thanks for the reply and your time

Cheers
Andrew

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RogersWilliam-2119 · Jun 08 at 01:59 PM

I was having a very similar issue (just started today using OneNote for Windows 10) and I was able to get the X's to go away by clicking on the "Recent Notes" Notebook. Almost like maybe going there resent data/refreshed something that cleared the error? The Recent Notes button should be the first option in the part of the ribbon where you choose which Notebook to open.

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AndrewH RogersWilliam-2119 · Jun 23 at 12:45 AM

interesting my issue has returned after the round of patching. both registry settings are set, this is only an issue for notebooks on onedrive local shared drives are fine.

back to the drawing board i guess......

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Answer 1 · 2022-01-26T07:12:01.443Z

emizhang-msft answered Jan 26, '22

Hi @DougCote-5620,
Could you provide the screenshot about your problem? You can post the screenshots here.
I suggest you check the Connected Services, go to File- Account, you can check if you have several Connected Services in list:

Try to sign out the account and remove all services from list, then re-sign in and check the result.

Just checking in to see if the information was helpful. Please let us know if you would like further assistance.

If the response is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it.
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Answer 2 · 2022-01-26T13:57:20.493Z

DougCote-5620 answered Jan 26, '22 emizhang-msft commented Jan 27, '22

Hi,
Thanks for getting back to me. I've included some screen shots of the issue...

I signed out and signed into my account but I'm not sure how one would "remove all services from list". As soon as you sign-out, there are no services listed. Anyway, that did not help.

Thanks,
Doug

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emizhang-msft · Jan 27 at 07:58 AM

Hi @DougCote-5620,
There is an article about OneNote sync issue, you can read this article first:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/fix-issues-when-you-can-t-sync-onenote-299495ef-66d1-448f-90c1-b785a6968d45

Then, I also suggest you create a blank new Notebook for connecting to OneDrive. You can check if the blank Notebook work, as far as I know the content may cause sync problem.

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