How to Export / Import OneNote Notebooks

Objective

The objective of this article is to tell users how to export and import OneNote Notebooks. No matter what version of OneNote you use, you can download a copy of any of your OneNote notebooks to your PC or Mac — either as a backup or to upload its contents to another account. 

Note: Exporting and importing notebooks is only available through the application. 

Process

Export OneNote Notebook 

  1. Open the OneNote application, login if needed. 
  2. Navigate to File> Export > Choose page, section, or notebook) > select format, then click Next.  
    1. Suggest saving in OneNotePage format. 
  3. On the window that opens, click Export. 
  4. Follow your browser’s prompts to save the file in the location you choose. 
Note: If the notebook you’re exporting is large or contains many attachments, it could take a long time to download your content. Make sure you have enough space on your hard drive to complete the download. 

Each downloaded notebook is saved to your hard drive in Zip file format. If you want to later import a downloaded notebook, you’ll need to first unzip its notebook folder from the Zip file, then import the folder to OneNote for the web. 

Import OneNote Notebook 

  1. Unzip the folder found in the file you previously downloaded- this unzipped folder is your notebook folder. 
  2. Navigate to OneNote.
  3. Select File > Open, then click on the export from the file location. 
Selecting Notebook to import.
 
Note: If the import process begins but then appears not to finish, your OneDrive account might be low on available space. Manually delete any unnecessary files from your OneDrive storage (including any failed notebook uploads) and then try importing the notebook folder again. 
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