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OneNote Troubleshooting: File not opening error after migrating from SharePoint 2010 to 2013

  • Article

Issue

  • Upgraded SharePoint sites from 2010 to 201
  • In 2010 version, a couple of OneNote files which are used extensively for documenting various information.
  • The upgrade was completed but during evaluating the 2013 site, I was unable to open the OneNote files.

Error

I used to get the errors like "We couldn’t open this file location" and "You don’t have permissions to open/edit this document" when I click on the Name of the document

Solution

To overcome these issues, I have followed this approach:

  1.  Check if Site Notebook feature is activated
  2.  Open the document and edit it in browser. During this process, users might get an error "You are required to sign in to upload your changes to this location". Click "Sign In" button and enter the credentials if prompted
  3.  Edit the document and it might take a while to sync the document. Follow the breadcrumb and go back to the library. However, the Modified by section will not yet reflect the user who modified it
  4.  Now open the file by clicking on the Name of the document, which will now open in file OneNote application
  5.  Modify the content, sync it and once done, the Modified by section reflects the name of the user who modified it

Note:

  1.  This is for the OneNote files that were upgraded from SharePoint 2010 to 2013 version
  2.  If users cannot see OneNote in the document library then please add the OneNote content type to the library
  3.  By default, only the "Documents" library has the OneNote added as content type
  4.  Office web apps and Site Notebook feature should be activated. Office web apps is done at Central Admin level and Site Notebook feature can be activated only by Site collection administrators
  5.  Users can create new workbooks in 2013 site as usual