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Question
Monday, March 3, 2014 8:05 PM | 4 votes
Greetings All,
I am running OneNote 2013 and get the message that my notebook cannot sync because it needs a password. I click and receive a dialog indicating "We are unable to connect right now. Please check your network and try again later.". However, I am connected to the Internet without any issues; it seems to be isolated to OneNote.
This is a notebook that is stored one my OneDrive.
Any suggestions?
Thank you in advance...
Bob Mixon
All replies (36)
Tuesday, March 4, 2014 4:43 AM âś…Answered | 3 votes
Hi,
If we try to open the notebook from OneNote web app, will it open properly?
Please also try to switch to another live account and check if this issue persists.
In addition, please go to Control Panel > All Control Panel Items > Credential Manager > Windows Credentials > Generic Credentials > Find the entry start with 'MicrosoftOffice15_Data', remove it and then open your OneNote to check the result.
Hope this helps.
Best Regards,
Steve Fan
Forum Support
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Tuesday, March 4, 2014 6:25 PM | 1 vote
Hi,
If we try to open the notebook from OneNote web app, will it open properly?
Please also try to switch to another live account and check if this issue persists.
In addition, please go to Control Panel > All Control Panel Items > Credential Manager > Windows Credentials > Generic Credentials > Find the entry start with 'MicrosoftOffice15_Data', remove it and then open your OneNote to check the result.
Hope this helps.
Best Regards,
Steve Fan
Forum Support
Come back and mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help.
If you have any feedback on our support, please click here
Hi Steve,
Thank you for the response. Yes, the notebook opened correctly in the OneNote web app without issue.
I ended up going to the control panel and removing the credentials. I was then prompted for my username and password and all is working again.
Thank you again for the suggestions.
Bob
Monday, February 16, 2015 3:58 PM
This worked for me too. Thanks for posting!
Wednesday, July 15, 2015 6:30 PM | 1 vote
Hi Steve,
I removed the generic credentials, as you have explained. The only change is that a window is opened only containing the message "We are unable to connect right now. Please check your network and try again later."
any idea?
Thanks
Babak
Friday, August 7, 2015 12:28 PM | 1 vote
I am getting the same thing, did you find a solution?
Wednesday, December 30, 2015 2:58 PM | 1 vote
I recently installed some new updates to microsoft office on my work computer and noticed the same problem with onenote giving me an error about not being able to connect to the internet. After extensive troubleshooting, deleting credentials, uninstalling onenote, etc.
I was finally able to resolve the problem by uninstalling OneDrive for Business and Lync (Skype for business), and then re-installed onedrive personal. I deleted all stored office credentials, and when I opened onedrive and logged in, Onenote seems to be able to sync again. I'll probably skip re-installing onedrive for business entirely since apparently they don't play well together. Fingers crossed that I can still re-install and use Lync without sync issues.
Strangely, Onenote is STILL giving me an error about not being able to connect to the internet under the file menu, but it still lets me open my onedrive notebooks anyway? Throughout this process, microsoft support was exactly not helpful at all, but did waste a bunch of my time, only to then tell me that they don't provide that level of support. Great job, Microsoft! And I mean that entirely facetiously.
Wednesday, January 6, 2016 8:48 AM
got same issue, so frustrated after long time troubleshooting and still couldn't solve to. I decided to gradually get rid of all Office products and start to use similar one like google docs...
Tuesday, January 12, 2016 7:27 PM | 3 votes
Hi!
I have been racking my brain about OneNote 2016. My work computer currently uses all Microsoft Office 2010. I did have OneNote 2013 installed and it had been working flawlessly. I also had OneDrive installed (regular not Business).
I update OneNote 2013 to 2016, and began to get the messages: You're not connected to the internet." I only have the option to hit "I'll Come Back Later."
I have uninstalled and reinstalled OneNote 16. Same message.
I saw a response from another user who said uninstalling OneDrive seemed to work for him. Did not fix my issue.
I then saw a response that mentioned the Windows Credentials. I did have credentials here from Office 2015. Removing these credentials did not fix the issue. Same message.
Today I tested removing everything related to Microsoft Office off the machine (Office 2010 suite, OneDrive, and OneNote (which still doesn't open).
Once everything was removed, I just installed OneNote2016. Same message. You're not connected to the internet." I only have the option to hit "I'll Come Back Later."
I did go back to the Windows Credentials and say a new credential there referencing Office 2016, I removed that as well. Attempted to launch OneNote 2016, and got the same message.
I currently have nothing installed on my machine but OneNote 2016 and I very well have an internet connection.
Is there anything else I can try? 2013 worked fine. I was able to get OneNote 2013 reinstalled with no problem.
Any ideas as to why I cannot update to OneNote 2016 or something I can do to prevent these issues?
Please Help! Thanks!
Thursday, April 21, 2016 12:33 PM | 2 votes
I had the same problem.
Deleting the credentials didn't work.
I followed the later post to repair the office installation, this just broke all the other office applications and removed my activation. I couldn't reactivate because office reported 'No Internet Connection'.
Thursday, April 21, 2016 12:38 PM | 14 votes
So I have managed to fix my issues.
My office runs with high security, this includes the use of a VPN.
By disabling the VPN OneNote is (and the remaining Office Applications are) able to activate and to access the internet.
This maybe an obvious answer, but none of my web searches came up with it.
Saturday, April 23, 2016 8:56 PM | 1 vote
Bingo! That was it for me. Thx
Friday, June 24, 2016 1:13 PM | 3 votes
That was it for me. Now the million dollar question, how to fix so that it will work with VPN. I want to continue to run the VPN. Especially when on public networks.
Wednesday, July 27, 2016 5:57 PM | 1 vote
VPN was the problem for me too. After disconnecting, then restarting OneNote, OneNote now shows I have an internet connection. Microsoft needs to fix this. I was going to switch from Evernote to OneNote, but I have to be signed into VPN to access my work resources from home or while traveling. If I can't take notes while signed into OneNote, then OneNote is useless to me.
Thursday, August 4, 2016 3:34 AM
Thank you!!
Saturday, August 6, 2016 5:12 PM
Thanks so much dbeachy1! This fixed the problem. Disconnected VPN, synced OneNote (successfully), reconnected VPN, no error messages so far! You rock!
Thursday, August 11, 2016 7:17 PM
So does anyone know the fix for VPN? Want to be able to sync OneNote to OneDrive while on VPN. This is a business applications and a lot of people work remotely and need to sync while on VPN.
TIA
Tuesday, September 20, 2016 7:29 PM | 1 vote
Same situation as Velani. All of the OneNote work I do is saved to the SharePoint 2010 site on my work network, and I can't sync that without being connected to VPN. Hopefully there's a solution.
Tuesday, December 6, 2016 6:49 PM
I only did this and wella, problem solved.
Go to Control Panel > All Control Panel Items >Generic Credentials > Find the entry start with 'MicrosoftOffice15_Data', remove it and then open your OneNote to check the result.
Thank you!!!
Sunday, January 1, 2017 7:43 PM
I found a solution that worked for my situation. I was using a block list which blocks various domain names for ads, tracking and the like. I was watching the hits on my block list when I opened OneNote and found a few domains that were being blocked. After un-blocking them, OneNote now recognizes that I really do have an internet connection and will let me sign in and sync once again. I had tried the steps mentioned above (re-installed OneNote and removed saved identities) without much luck until I unblocked the sites.
Here are the important domains that got OneNote working for me:
.officeclient.microsoft.com # MS OneNote Access
.config.officeapps.live.com # CNAME for (officeclient.microsoft.com)
.prod.configsvc1.live.com.akadns.net # CNAME for (officeclient.microsoft.com)
So for those with a VPN, I suspect if you don't send traffic destined for those three domains through your VPN, OneNote will likely work. One way that this can be done is with the 'route' command. So after connecting to your VPN, add an entry similar to the following:
route add 137.116.74.190 mask 255.255.255.255 192.168.1.1 metric 0 if 0x3
As of today, 137.116.74.190 is the address for officeclient.microsoft.com. Mask is the netmask. 192.168.1.1 should be changed to your router IP address. The metric tells Windows in which order the routes should be followed so a 0 means it will be at the top of the list. 0x3 is whatever your interface name is.
This solution is a bit annoying since the route commands will have to be run each time following the VPN connection and the IP address could change. Hopefully someone smarter than me can post a more useful solution!
Thursday, February 16, 2017 8:32 PM
How did you disable the VPN OneNote? I have the same problem and deleting the credentials did nothing to help.
Thank you,
Sunday, February 26, 2017 8:21 PM | 2 votes
So we're supposed to disable VPN protection to sync OneNote? Does anyone think that maybe this is a bad idea and perhaps a security risk? Is there a fix that can get OneNote syncing through the encrypted VPN connection? When I'm travelling I use tools that watch my local connection and there's virtually always someone (probably a bored 16 yr old) spoofing ip addresses and recording everyone's data with wireshark, etc. At least with a VPN I have some protection. But I'm certainly not going to disable my VPN connection to sync my sensitive OneNote data over an insecure connection. Is there a way to sync OneNote over a VPN?
Sunday, February 26, 2017 8:36 PM | 3 votes
So the fix to get OneNote working through a VPN is pretty easy. It turns out that most VPNs don't setup the gateway properly. So you need to manually give the TAP network adapter for your VPN connection a DNS setting like google's DNS ips at 8.8.8.8 & 8.8.4.4.
In windows 7 open network and sharing & click on change adapter settings find the TAP adapter & right click it & choose properties. Click on Internet Protocol Version 4 & click on properties. In the lower section choose the radio button next to "use the following dns server addresses" & enter the google DNS ips above. Then click the ok buttons until all the pop up dialog boxes are gone. Then start onenote & sync. I just tested it & it works on my system.
Friday, April 14, 2017 9:42 PM
I discovered that it was the VPN about a week ago after working with both Office level 3 tech support and communicating with OneDrive support (who just referred me back to the Office support people). The folks at Microsoft support seem oblivious to this or they are just ignoring it.
MICROSOFT, THIS IS SERIOUS AND YOU NEED TO FIX THIS IMMEDIATELY. i GET THE SAME INTERNET CONNECTION ISSUES WHEN TRYING TO SAVE WORD DOCUMENTS TO MY ONEDRIVE.
We all need to be able to connect via a VPN AND USE/SYNC with our Office 2016/365. STOP TRACKING ALL OUR USAGE AND RESTRICTING CONNECTION TO SPECIFIC to IP ADDRESSES that Microsoft may have registered to the applications! I can access and transfer files directly to OneDrive through my VPN, but I can't sync. HOW STUPID and UNSAFE IS THAT!
Friday, April 14, 2017 9:56 PM
This did not work for me. Why the Google DNS isp's? Should that work for any VPN
MICROSOFT NEEDS TO FIX THIS! WHAT GOOD IT USING A CLOUD SERVICE IF YOU CAN NOT ACCESS IT FROM LOCATIONS OTHER THAN THE HOME IP LOCATION? MY COMPANY REQUIRES REMOTE ACCESS THROUGH a VPN.
Friday, April 14, 2017 9:59 PM
How did you see the domain names being blocked in OneNote?
How do you get to the place(s) you entered this?
Friday, May 19, 2017 1:55 PM | 1 vote
I found this MS Hotfix and it resolved the issue of OneNote failing to sync over VPN on Windows 7 SP1 ONLY!
Hotfix KB2964643
Hope this helps some of you! Was very frustrating for me to have this popup continually disrupt my workflow.
Cheers,
Mark
Monday, June 26, 2017 6:10 PM | 1 vote
This Hotfix fixed my ability to synch through a VPN.
Tuesday, November 7, 2017 8:25 PM
Thanks for taking the time to share the "obvious" ... it solved my problem! Thanks again.
Monday, December 4, 2017 4:14 PM
One more vote of appreciation!!! That nailed it!
Saturday, December 30, 2017 10:36 AM
This fix worked 100% for me (Window 10, PIA). I've had problems with this for ages, and never thought to check the DNS. Nice one, Sir Scalawag!
Thursday, January 4, 2018 8:54 AM
Turning off my VPN did the trick for me - thanks!!!
Thursday, May 24, 2018 4:05 PM | 1 vote
Wonderfully simple solution that works -- even for those not working on a VPN.
[Begin technical hypothesis]
I assume OneNote uses the logical names in the back-end instead of IP addresses so their servers can handle redundancies better. I also assume the IP addresses stored during a previous connection still technically belongs to MS, so it gives an error instead of failing -- which, in turn, leads the computer and OneNote to believe this is the correct IP address, but there's just something wrong with the connection.
By providing the google DNS lookups, the computer no longer associates the back-end names with the IPs previously generated and will grab new ones. All is good and well, except -- Now that I've written this out, I hypothesize that at some point the sync will fail again with a similar message. Despite the new DNS lookups, as soon as the server switches IP addresses again, our locally-stored addresses will remain valid but useless. Perhaps a better solution is to clear the DNS cache?
Granted, that assumes the VPN gateway was set up correctly, but the issue persists.
[/End technical hypothesis]
Saturday, June 15, 2019 11:41 PM
This is already set on the VPN server, but only OneNote is not able to connect to internet. If VPN is disconnected then sync OneNote once, it will sync successfully. Subsequently OneNote will sync successfully after this via VPN. IT just apparently has to sync via internet before it can use VPN, which is strange Behaviour.
Outlook, OneDrive, and other Office 365 apps have not displayed this behaviour yet.
Saturday, June 15, 2019 11:53 PM
Maybe that explains why if VPN is disconnected, sync OneNote, then connect VPN OneNote syncs after that. Since I'm cynical it might also have something to do with telemetry or authentication. Although I don't see why that just wouldn't happen via VPN.
In any case there is a reason I would like to use a VPN when I'm using mobile internet/Wifi/Public Wifi. This leaves my transactions and network traffic exposed on airwaves. This is a serious problem in my opinion. Maybe it is not a big deal for general public, and that may be why Microsoft does not care about this and this is still an ongoing issue.
On the other hand OneNote is unencrypted on the cloud anyways (as far as I know), so maybe this is splitting hair for nothing useful or effective. I would have liked end-to-end encryption, but that is not happening anywhere yet anyways.
Saturday, December 7, 2019 5:27 PM | 1 vote
So I have managed to fix my issues.
My office runs with high security, this includes the use of a VPN.
By disabling the VPN OneNote is (and the remaining Office Applications are) able to activate and to access the internet.
This maybe an obvious answer, but none of my web searches came up with it.
End of 2019 and this still is the best solution.
Sunday, March 8, 2020 6:32 PM
I'm glad I stumbled across this. I didn't even realize that my VPN connection was causing a sync issue (0xcaa70004). Read your post.... shutdown the vpn client.... now syncing. Thank you.