Office Settings & Configuration

How to Stop OneNote from Opening All Notebooks Automatically

WPS Editor Sep 27, 2026 869 views

Question details

The user wants to prevent OneNote from automatically opening and synchronizing hundreds of personal and shared notebooks when setting up a new computer.

How to Stop OneNote from Opening All Notebooks

Product: Microsoft OneNote
Device & OS: Windows 11
Scenario: Setting up Microsoft OneNote on a new or temporary computer connected to multiple accounts.
Observed behavior: OneNote automatically opens and attempts to synchronize every notebook associated with the user's OneDrive accounts, causing unnecessary background syncs and cluttering the workspace.

Before you start

Ensure that any local changes in your currently open notebooks have successfully synchronized to OneDrive before you begin closing them to avoid accidental data loss.

Solution 1Recommended

Manually Close Unwanted Notebooks

Because OneNote natively reopens previously accessed notebooks and lacks a 'close all' button, you must close unnecessary notebooks individually.

Microsoft OneNote is designed to remember the notebooks you had open previously. When signing into a new device with an account that has many active notebooks, it may attempt to load them all. You will need to manually curate your workspace.

Open OneNote

Launch the Microsoft OneNote application on your new or temporary computer.

Locate the Notebook

Navigate to the left-hand panel where all your active notebooks are listed.

Close the Notebook

Right-click the name of the notebook you do not need right now, and select 'Close This Notebook' from the dropdown menu.

Repeat as Necessary

Repeat the previous step for all hundreds of unwanted personal and shared notebooks until only your currently needed notebooks remain open.

Preventing Future Clutter: In the future, when setting up OneNote on a temporary computer, log into OneDrive via the web browser first, and selectively choose 'Open in Desktop App' only for the specific notebooks you wish to sync.

Solution 2

Reset OneNote Cache and Selectively Open Notebooks

If OneNote continues forcing all notebooks open even after closing them, clearing the app cache will give you a clean slate to manually open only the ones you need.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a single button or command to close all OneNote notebooks at once?

No, Microsoft OneNote does not currently have a 'Close All Notebooks' feature. You must right-click and select 'Close This Notebook' for each one individually.

Why does OneNote automatically open notebooks on a new computer?

When you sign into a new device with your Microsoft 365 or OneDrive account, OneNote attempts to restore your previous workspace state by opening the notebooks that were marked as actively open in the cloud for that account.

Can I prevent shared notebooks from automatically appearing?

Shared notebooks behave similarly to personal ones. If they were previously left open in your OneNote environment, the application will attempt to load them. You can prevent this by explicitly closing them in the desktop app before logging into a new temporary computer.

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