Recover deleted notes

Restore deleted pages or sections

You can recover a page or section up to 60 days after deletion. If you deleted a section group, you can recover the sections, just not the group.  

1. Select the History tab and select  Notebook Recycle Bin.

2. Right-click the page or section and choose   Move or Copy. 

3. In the Move or Copy dialog box, choose where to put the recovered content and select Move. 

4. To close the recycle bin, select   Notebook Recycle Bin again. 

Restore notes from a backup

1. Select the File menu and choose Info. 

2. Select Open Backups, navigate to the notes you'd like to restore, and select Open.

3. Right-click the restored section or pages and select Copy to place them in the desired notebook.

4. When your notes have been restored, right-click the backed-up section and select Close.

To just restore pages or sections, see Recover a deleted page or section.

Recover deleted notes with sensitivity labels

If your organization uses Sensitivity Labels, OneNote now preserves label protection when you delete labeled pages or sections.

When you delete labeled content:

• Deleted pages are moved to a dedicated deleted‑pages section in the Notebook Recycle Bin.

• The original sensitivity label is retained, and you can only view or restore the content if you have permission.

• Restoring a labeled page or section keeps its label, and if the destination has a lower‑priority label, the higher‑priority label will be applied.

Restore pages on a notebook in OneDrive

If you're working on notes that were stored in OneDrive, do the following:

1. Open the shared notebook where you lost recent notes.

2. Choose the View tab and Deleted Notes.

3. If your deleted notes are found there, right-click the page tab that you want to restore, and then use the Move or Copy command to put the notes back in their original location.

Any notes that were deleted during the past 60 days appear in the Notebook Recycle Bin, unless the Notebook Recycle Bin was emptied during that time.

To help protect yourself from future data loss, you can customize the automatic backup settings in OneNote.

Restore notes from backups on your computer

You may be in luck if you've deleted or lost some recent notes you were working on. OneNote keeps a limited set of automatic backups by default. Where you look for them depends on where your notes are stored.

If you're working on notes that were stored on your computer, do the following:

1. Open the notebook where you lost recent notes.

2. On the File tab, select Info and choose Open Backups.

3. In the Open Backup dialog box, note the folder names that appear. Each folder represents a OneNote notebook that's stored on your computer.

4. Double-click the notebook folder you want to open.

5. Select the notebook section backup file you want to open, and then choose Open.

6. If your deleted notes are included in the backup sections or pages, right-click the section tab or individual page tab that you'd like to restore, and then use the Move or Copy command to put the notes back in their original location.