Open a notebook in OneNote

With OneNote for Windows 10, you can store and sync your notebooks on a OneDrive account or on a SharePoint server. OneDrive is a free cloud-based storage option that's great for personal use, and SharePoint is typically used in larger organizations.

Open an existing notebook from OneDrive

To open a OneDrive-based notebook in OneNote, do the following:

1. On any page, select the icon in the upper-left corner.

2. Under Notebooks, tap the notebook you'd like to open. If you don't see it listed, tap More Notebooks and then choose from the list.

If you have a OneDrive-based notebook that is not listed under More Notebooks, do the following:

1. Go to the OneDrive home page and sign in with your Microsoft account, if prompted.

2. Tap and hold on the notebook you want to open and then select Open in OneNote from the context menu.

Note: Only one OneDrive account can be associated with OneNote. To open a notebook from another account, make sure it's shared with your primary OneDrive account. As soon as it's been shared, you should see the notebook listed under Files shared with you in your primary OneDrive account. Tap and hold on the notebook and select Open in OneNote from the context menu to open the notebook in OneNote.

If you have multiple versions of OneNote installed on the same computer, notebooks you try to open in this way may not recognize your preferred app version unless you tell Windows your preference. For more info, see Use different versions of OneNote on the same computer.

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Open an existing notebook from SharePoint or Office 365

OneNote supports SharePoint 2010 or newer, so you will experience problems if you try to open and sync a notebook stored on any earlier version of SharePoint. Contact your SharePoint administrator if you don't know which version of SharePoint your team is using.

If you have a SharePoint-based notebook that you or someone else previously created and you want to use it in OneNote, do the following:

1. Go to the SharePoint location in the desktop version of Windows Internet Explorer.

2. Open the notebook you want in the OneNote Online

3. In the OneNote Online, click Open in OneNote.

If the previous steps open the notebook in the desktop version of OneNote instead of the mobile version of OneNote for Windows 10, follow these steps as a workaround:

1. Open Desktop and then, using Internet Explorer, visit your organization's SharePoint site. If you don't know the exact location, ask your SharePoint administrator or a co-worker.

2. Navigate to the document library location containing the notebook you want to use.

3. Tap Library > Open with Explorer.

4. In the Explorer window, open the notebook you want, and then copy the URL from the Explorer window's address bar (for example, http://<servername>/<foldername>/<notebookname).

5. Display the Run window by pressing Windows Key + R on your keyboard, type onenote: and then paste the URL that you copied from step 3. Your full URL should look something like onenote:http://<servername>/<foldername>/<notebookname.

6. Press ENTER to open the notebook in OneNote.

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Open a notebook stored on your computer or on a network file share

A OneNote for Windows 10 notebook can't be stored on your computer. It needs to be cloud-based so you can get to it on all your devices.

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