Move a OneNote for Windows notebook that you've shared with others

OneNote is a great collaboration tool. You can share a notebook with others so they can view or edit content and work together. If you want to move a shared notebook to a new location, it's good to make a game plan so other people can find the notebook in its new location and keep working in it.

Note: If you have a notebook that you haven't shared, but want to move to OneDrive so you can get to it on all your devices, you don't need to follow all the steps below. Simply choose File > Share and select the new location. For step by step instructions, see Move a notebook to OneDrive. If your organization uses SharePoint, you can create a notebook an SharePoint so others on your team can use it too.

A notebook that's already on one shared location, can't be moved wholesale to a new location. You can move its contents section by section by following these steps

Tip: Consider moving notebooks only during times when you know that shared editing activity will be at a minimum. It's also a good idea to first back up all of your files before you make significant changes, especially if you or others are in the middle of important work.

Step 1: Preparing to move

1. Create a new notebook (File > New) in the location where you want your existing notebook to be.

2. Notify people with whom you're sharing the old notebook that it's being moved, and that they should open the new notebook. You can do this in one of two ways:

   • In the original notebook, create a new section with a page containing instructions and the link to the new notebook.

   • Send them an email with the instructions.

     For info about how to get sharing links, see share a notebook with others.

Step 2: Moving your notes

1. In the old notebook, right-click a section tab and choose Move or Copy.

2. Choose the new notebook from the list of notebooks, and choose Move.

3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 until all the sections are in the new notebook.

   Note: If you previously created a section in the old notebook to tell others that the notebook was being moved, leave that section in the old notebook without moving it. That way, anyone who opens the old notebook will be able to see where the notes were moved.

4. Press Shift+F9 on your keyboard to manually sync all notebooks and wait for the synchronization to finish. If you're using a touch device without an external keyboard, you can sync through the File menu. For more info, see View the synchronization status of shared notebooks.

   When OneNote is done syncing the changes, everyone will see the new notebook structure when they next log into the new notebook.

5. Close the old notebook. Doing so doesn't delete it, but it will prevent you from going back to it out of habit.