Permission & Access Issues

How to Transfer Ownership of a OneNote Notebook After an Employee Leaves

Muhammad Talha Oct 9, 2026 869 views

Question details

A shared OneNote notebook needs to be recovered and its ownership transferred after the original owner departs the organization.

How to Transfer Ownership of a OneNote Notebook After an Employee Leaves

Product: Microsoft OneNote
Device & OS: not provided
Scenario: An employee has left the company, leaving behind a shared OneNote notebook in their personal OneDrive for Business that the team still needs to manage.
Observed behavior: Team members are unable to manage or fully control the shared notebook, requiring an administrator to step in and transfer the files to a new owner.

Before you start

Ensure you have contact with your organization's Microsoft 365 IT administrator, as high-level admin privileges are required to access a departed user's OneDrive for Business account.

Solution 1Recommended

Transfer Notebook Ownership via SharePoint Admin Center

Use Microsoft 365 administrator privileges to access the former employee's OneDrive and move the notebook to a shared SharePoint library.

When an employee leaves, their OneDrive for Business data is typically retained for a limited time before permanent deletion. To save team resources like a shared OneNote notebook, an IT administrator must grant themselves access to the departed user's OneDrive and migrate the file to a secure, shared location.

Verify OneDrive Account Status

Ask your organization's IT administrator to verify whether the former user's OneDrive for Business account still exists in the Microsoft 365 admin center.

Grant Site Collection Access

The administrator must log into the SharePoint admin center, locate the user's profile, and grant another active user (or themselves) site collection administrator access to the departed employee's OneDrive.

Access the Former User's OneDrive

Open the generated URL to access the former employee's OneDrive account directly from the web browser.

Move the OneNote Notebook

Select the specific OneNote notebook in the files list, click 'Move to' in the top command bar, and choose a destination such as a shared SharePoint document library or a new owner's OneDrive.

Reshare the Notebook

Once the notebook has been successfully moved to its new location, right-click the file to share it again with the appropriate team members and grant them the necessary editing permissions.

Transfer Notebook Ownership via SharePoint Admin Center

Time-Sensitive Action: This process must be completed before the organization's data retention policy permanently deletes the former employee's OneDrive account (usually 30 days after account deletion).

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Frequently Asked Questions

How long is a former employee's OneDrive data kept before deletion?

By default, Microsoft 365 retains a deleted user's OneDrive data for 30 days, though administrators can extend this retention period up to 3650 days. It is crucial to recover the OneNote notebook before this period expires.

Can I access the shared OneNote notebook if I am not an IT administrator?

No. If the user account has been deactivated or deleted, only a Microsoft 365 administrator with the appropriate permissions can grant access to the former employee's OneDrive to retrieve the notebook.

What happens to the notebook if the employee's account is permanently deleted?

Once the retention period expires after an account deletion, the OneDrive data, including any stored OneNote notebooks, is permanently deleted and cannot be recovered without a previously established third-party backup solution.

Document & File Issues