Smart storage management is the key to OneNote’s full functionality. From the number of backups to the use of the OneNote cloud storage, there are many different aspects to consider.
How much storage does OneNote take up?
The first step towards better storage management is to check your OneDrive account. Go to www.onedrive.live.com and sign in with your Microsoft password. Now navigate to the top right corner and select the ‘Compact List’ or ‘List’ view. You will then see the amount of OneNote cloud storage space used by your various notebooks. Good to know: OneDrive offers 5 GB of storage for free. If you need more space for your notebooks, you can click on the ‘Buy storage’ button to get more OneNote storage.
Under the storage path ‘C:\Users\\Documents\OneNote Notebooks\’, you can check the local disk space used by OneNote.
Also read: Microsoft OneNote: What is it?
Avoid too many embedded files and close unused notebooks
A big key, apart from all the measurements below, is to consider what you really need to store in your OneNote notebooks. Embedded files in particular take up a lot of space and can quickly reduce your OneNote storage space. For example, if you use OneNote to save PDFs, the software creates embedded copies that take up a lot of space. Printouts are even worse because OneNote saves PDF printouts as image files, which are much larger than the original document.
Need to free up local storage quickly? Closing cloud-based notebooks and restarting the software can be a solution. Simply launch OneNote, click ‘File’ and check which notebooks you are not currently working with. In the list, navigate to the name of the notebook you want to close and click ‘Settings’. Now select ‘Close’ and restart OneNote for the changes to take effect – this will remove the locally cached version of that notebook’s content and immediately free up some local disk space.
However, make sure that these notebooks are fully synced with your OneDrive account before you close them.
Optimization of backup settings for more OneNote free storage
Backing up your notebooks allows you to restore them whenever you need to. The software can automatically back up all your data using the Microsoft OneNote cloud storage. If you do not use the cloud-based solution, these backups can take up a lot of your local disk space. Each backup takes up the same amount of space on your system drive as the original notebook.
If you want to reduce space, turn off automatic backups and create manual backups on an external drive. To do this, go to ‘File’, ‘Options’ and then click on ‘Save & Backup’. Here you uncheck ‘Automatically back up my notebook at the following intervals’. Now navigate to the ‘Cache file location’ section and select an external drive to save space on your system. To create a manual backup, simply click the ‘Back up all notebooks now’ button.
If you have turned off automatic backups, you should set a reminder so that you do not forget to create manual backups from time to time. By default, each backup contains two separate backup copies. This means that each notebook takes up three times as much space as the original. To reduce the number of backups, click on ‘File’, ‘Options’ and select ‘Save & Backup’. Here you will find the entry ‘Number of backup copies to keep:’ and you can adjust the number as you wish. Confirm your change by clicking ‘OK’.
Bonus tip: You can also move existing backups to another drive or USB stick.
Improve managing locally saved notebooks
On your PC, OneNote notebooks are stored locally as files and folders. If your PC has multiple partitions, you can easily move some of this data. To do this, simply navigate to the file path ‘C:\Users\\Documents\OneNote Notebooks\’. Here you will find the related files, which you can move to another hard drive if you wish. Alternatively, you can use external storage media such as USB sticks, memory cards, or external hard drives.
Do you also want to define a new location for new locally saved notebooks? Navigate to ‘File’, ‘Options’ in OneNote and click on ‘Save & Backup’. In the ‘Save’ section, you will find a list with three default paths. The entry ‘Default Notebook Location’ is the one we are looking for. If you click on ‘Modify…’ you can instantly change the default location for newly created notebooks.
If you do not have any additional storage media, you cannot use these measures. In this case, it is advisable to minimize the number of locally stored notebooks and primarily use the Microsoft OneNote cloud storage.
Take care of the cache
OneNote creates an additional copy on your system drive for each notebook that is currently open. This local cache is based on a special format that divides all content into small portions. Each time you make changes to your notes, the changes are made only to the cache copy, not to the normal storage version of your notebooks. OneNote then synchronizes these changes with the actual files in the background. The cache copies are therefore essential and should never be deleted. The solution is to change the location of the cache files.
The first step is to close all open notebooks. Now go to ‘File’, ‘Options’ and navigate to ‘Save & Backup’. Here you will find the ‘Cache file location’ section at the bottom and click on the ‘Modify…’ button. Select the new location (for example, an external hard drive) and restart OneNote.
Important to know: For OneNote to work properly, the associated storage device must always be connected.
How to fix synch errors in OneNote
When you work with OneNote, you may receive error codes such as ‘0xE000000796 (Quota Exceeded)’ and ‘0xE00015E0’. These error messages occur when there is not enough disk space to synchronize correctly. There are several steps you can take to resolve these issues. First, you should navigate to the ‘Save & Backup’ menu via ‘File’ and ‘Options’. Tap the ‘Optimize All Files Now’ button to immediately create more free space. The next step is to manually delete unneeded files from Windows Explorer and use the OneNote cloud backup.
If the error messages still reappear, you should consistently use the options for more OneNote free storage described in the previous sections. These include permanently reducing the number of backups and adjusting the location of the cache files.