How to Backup and Restore OneNote

Amy Dennis

Nov 11, 2024 • Filed to: Take Data Backup • Proven solutions

OneNote is a tool for daily use to create notes in an orderly manner and share them with others with ease. This is the reason why it is a very popular program to coordinate work teams in companies or schools. However, all digital files are vulnerable to failure and this can pose a big problem. For this reason, it is highly recommended to make backups of your information but this is usually a headache due to the constant changes that are made to the files every day. Fortunately, there is a method to automate this process.

Part 1: How to Backup and Restore OneNote

Q: I plan to format my notebook but I don't want to lose my OneNote information, is there a way to create a backup?

Backing up the information in your OneNote, as well as any other program you use, is possible, however, you should consider that there are some programs that you use more frequently than others, therefore, you will need to make constant backups to avoid losing any changes. OneNote is a program that is usually updated several times a day and therefore if you are thinking of backing up your information manually, you have probably realized how difficult it can be. It is highly recommended to use specialized software that allows you to perform backup processes automatically several times a week or even during the day, depending on how often you make changes to your OneNote.

Part 2: Why It's Necessary to Create Backups of OneNote?

OneNote is a very useful tool that allows you to organize and share notes in a practical way. This program is often used to manage teamwork in companies or even in the school environment. Most of OneNote documents are for working or academical purposes, which makes it very important to have a backup of them, just think how serious it would be if a company or a student lost all their OneNote files, of course, it would be fatal so it is necessary to back them up.

This software has a very dynamic and intuitive user interface that allows you to create notes with strokes made with a pen device or with a touchscreen function, making it extremely easy to share your ideas. For this and several other reasons, Microsoft OneNote is one of the most popular note creation tools, where you can enter text by keyboard or handwritten, as well as attaching drawings, diagrams, photos, multimedia elements, audio, videos, and scanned images.

Taking into account all of the above, OneNote is of great importance for many people and work teams in their day today. Having this information backed up is of utmost importance as it serves users to manage their time and projects efficiently.

Part 3: How to Backup and Restore OneNote from Backup

Backing up and restoring the information on your OneNote is extremely simple and depending on the circumstances, you can choose between a one-time backup of your OneNote information or constant backups that allow you to be prepared in the event of a problem. There are two practical methods that I will show you below.

Method 1. Manually Backup OneNote

This method will be the best if you need to perform a one-time backup, in case you need to export your information to another computer or if you plan to format your hard drive.

Step 1: Go to "export"

Go to the "File" menu and click on "Export" in the "Select Format" section, here you can select a page, section, or the entire Notebook to make a backup in a specific location of your choice. Click on "OneNote Package" and then click on "Export."

Step 2: Set the export location

Here you can set the export location using the left panel. Once you've selected the location, name the file as you want and click on "Save". Then, the exportation process will automatically begin.

Method 2. Back up & Restore OneNote with Professional Software

This option will allow you to always have backup copies available, in the event of any inconvenience or accident that causes you to lose your information.

Identify the place where the OneNote files are stored

Step 1: Go to "Options"

First of all, you need to identify the place where the OneNote files are stored. You can do this by clicking on "File" and then click on "Options."

Step 2: Go to "Save & Backup"

Once you've opened the "Options" menu, go to the "Save & Backup" section. Here you can see where your files are stored. In this case, the location is "C:\Users\ (User name) \AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneNote

With UBackit data backup you can schedule automatic backup processes for the folders you want, minimizing the risk of information loss and data corruption, while keeping your information well organized. It is highly recommended to have this software because in this way you will forget how annoying it is to do manual backups continuously. Using this program is very simple, below I will show you how to back up a folder using this software.

Step 1: Go to "File Backup"

Once the tool is downloaded and installed successfully, launch the app and go to the Create New section. Now click on the option "File Backup."

Step 2: Select Files to Backup

After that, select the files or an entire folder you want to backup. Here you will have to select the folder where your OneNote backup files are stored. Then, click Select to continue.

Step 3: Customize the filter settings

You can also set filter preferences to make your experience much more efficient by clicking the Filter option at the right corner of the screen.

Step 4: Select the backup destination

At this point, you can select a target location to store the backup of your files. Then click Select to start the backup process.

Step 5: Complete the backup process

You have to wait a few seconds or minutes to let the process completes, which depends on the file size and volume. Once it finishes, you will receive a notification from the tool.

Step 6: Set up Schedule

You can find this option by clicking on the "Schedule" option at the bottom of the backup folder. Here you can set the schedule preferences. You can schedule automatic backups by day, week, month, and real-time.

As mentioned above, having OneNote documents backed up is a very helpful task; in these files, there can be very important information with which you work and you have very useful data for companies and users. Having software such as UBackit installed not only ensures that your OneNote files will be backed up, it makes you work more smoothly without having to worry about backing up from time to time.

How to Restore OneNote from Backup?

To restore your OneNote information from backup, you should go to the folder where the program information is stored. For this, you will have to open your OneNote and repeat the steps to "Identify the place where the OneNote files are stored."

Once you know the location of the OneNote files, you must replace the files in that folder with the ones generated by your backup process (remember that the files must have the same name and for this reason, Windows will ask you for permission to replace them). Please note that if the names of the documents do not match, the process will not work.

Once you have replaced the files in the folder with those generated by your backup process, you must reopen your OneNote to confirm that everything is working correctly; otherwise, you must verify that you have correctly carried out all the steps.

Conclusion

OneNote is an extremely useful program that helps millions of people daily to manage their time correctly and greatly facilitates teamwork both in companies and in the school environment. There is a big difference between performing a single backup and using a tool that automatically performs backups. Automating the backup process is a great way to keep all your important files safe and with the right tools, a couple of minutes will suffice to definitively solve this problem. Also, the best thing about UBackit is that you can automate multiple backup processes to keep backed up with any kind of information.