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How to fix my OneNote‘s Storage-Size of 7GB?

J 20 Reputation points
2026-04-05T16:32:57.9066667+00:00

IMG_0444

As you can see my documents and files are almost 7GB big, but I don‘t have any Offline-Files. How do I fix this?

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneNote | For education | iOS
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Answer accepted by question author

Jay Tr 12,290 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
2026-04-05T17:33:17.15+00:00

Hi @J,

Good day, hope you are doing well.

I understand the concern about OneNote using nearly 7 GB of storage, especially when you don’t have any notebooks set for offline use. On iOS, OneNote stores cached notebook content locally to improve performance. This data is shown under Documents & Data and can grow over time, even without offline notebooks enabled.

To reduce OneNote storage on your device, you can safely free up space by offloading the OneNote app. This removes the app and its locally cached data without deleting your notebooks, which remain safely stored in OneDrive.

To do this, please follow these steps:

  1. Open the Settings app on your iPad.
  2. Scroll down and tap General > iPad Storage,
  3. Locate and tap Microsoft OneNote.
  4. Choose Offload App.

After offloading, you can reinstall OneNote from the App Store and sign back in. Your notebooks will resync from the cloud, and the local storage size should be significantly reduced.

I hope this information is helpful. Please follow the steps above and let me know if it works for you. If not, we can continue working together to resolve the issue.  

Thank you for your patience and understanding. If you have any questions or need additional assistance, please don’t hesitate to reach out so I can continue to support you. If you found the response useful, please consider marking it as accepted, as this may help other community members who are looking for similar guidance.  

I look forward to continuing the conversation.  

If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment". 

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  1. AI answer

    2026-04-05T16:33:22.3333333+00:00

    On iOS, the “Documents & Data” size for OneNote or OneDrive is mainly local cache, backups, and older versions of notebook pages and attachments. Even if no sections are marked as “offline,” cached content can still grow to several GB.

    To reduce it, remove old versions and backups in OneNote so less data needs to be cached and synced:

    1. Optimize the notebook files (Windows desktop client):
      1. In OneNote, select File > Options.
      2. Select Save & Backup.
      3. Select Optimize All Files Now.
      4. Optionally lower Number of backup copies to keep to reduce future storage use.
    2. Delete existing OneNote backups (Windows desktop client):
      1. Open File Explorer.
      2. In the address bar, type %localappdata% and press Enter.
      3. Open Microsoft > OneNote > 16.0 > Backup.
      4. Delete backup files or folders that are no longer needed.
    3. If OneNote shows sync errors like 0xE0000025 (File Too Large) or 0xE0000796 (Quota Exceeded), clean up large content so it no longer needs to be stored or cached:
      1. Empty the Notebook Recycle Bin: History > Notebook Recycle Bin > Empty Recycle Bin.
      2. Delete page history: History > Page Versions > Delete All Versions.

    These steps reduce the amount of notebook data stored in the service and in backups, which in turn reduces what the iOS app needs to cache. After cleanup and a full sync, iOS should eventually report a smaller “Documents & Data” size for OneNote/OneDrive.

    If notebooks are stored in OneDrive or SharePoint and space there is also tight, manage that storage separately (for example, by deleting large or unneeded files and then emptying the OneDrive Recycle Bin).

    References:

    AI-generated content may be incorrect. Read our transparency notes for more information.

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