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wkb1's avatar
wkb1
Copper Contributor
Sep 01, 2026

How to get rid of old Onenote files in Onedrive

I've been using Onenote for many, many years and over that time I have collected several unused files that seem to be un-deletable on Onedrive. I have deleted some of them within Onedrive from time to time but the names seem to remain. Here is what I see. When I click "Files" in One drive I see folders and under that documents which contains my only current Onenote database. The one I use. But, then I click "home" and see six old unused data base files that cannot be deleted. When I click on some of them the screen says "Sorry, something went wrong - Item may have been deleted by another person" Another file will say "This item might not exist or has been deleted". I am the only one who uses this account.

I'm not sure what HOME is or what its function is as it doesn't show any folders or files that are active. It only shows these abandoned Onenote databases that nothing can be done with.

So, Is there a way to clean this up or is it just not worth the effort. Since I don't know what the function of Home is I'm not sure if it matters.

Thanks for any enlightenment.

files
storage

1 Reply

  • Jamony's avatar
    Jamony
    MCT
    Sep 08, 2026

    The notebook names on OneDrive Home appear to be stale entries, because opening them reports the items no longer exist. Home is an activity view, while Files shows stored folders and documents. Before cleaning, open your notebook in OneNote for the web and confirm its pages are synchronized. In desktop OneNote, right-click each obsolete notebook and choose Close This Notebook; closing removes it from the list but does not delete content. Then use OneDrive Files and search to locate old notebooks. Delete only a notebook you can identify as unused, and leave it in the OneDrive recycle bin until you verify the current notebook again. If search finds nothing, there may be no file to delete, so do not treat the Home card as stored data. Refresh OneDrive in a private browser session; if stale cards persist, send account details and screenshots to OneDrive support rather than deleting unrelated folders.