OneNote Password Issue

Issue¶

OneNote 2013 won't sync with SkyDrive. At the top of OneNote is a one-line panel that reads "OneNote needs a password to sync this notebook. Click here to enter your password." However, when you click this panel, nothing happens.

Resolution¶

Close OneNote
On Windows 7, navigate to Control Panel > User Accounts
Click the "Manage your credentials" link on the left pane
For each user with the name "MicrosoftOffice15_Data:Live:cid={numbers}"
- Expand the user listing
- Click the "Remove from vault" link
Re-open OneNote
Click the one-line panel that reads "OneNote needs a password..."
Enter your credentials for SkyDrive.

Underlying Cause¶

OneNote has issues with the computer going into sleep mode. Best practice is to close OneNote when placing your computer into hibernate or sleep mode, because when left open, OneNote goes into cache mode. Microsoft creates a cache user for your notebooks to be available in offline mode. This hoses OneNote when opening the program again out of sleep mode. OneNote is looking to the cached user for credentials and there are none. So when it tries to authenticate and you keep clicking on enter password it will never sign in.