Eric Keathley
asked on
OneNote Sync Issues in Large Shared Folder Structure
I'm looking for advice on how to resolve a OneNote performance issue where OneNote fails to finish synchronizing across all the folders in a very large shared folder structure. Can someone tell me if what we're trying to do is possible, or advisable? Here are the salient points:
1. We want to use OneNote for multiple reasons, including reference information for what types of information & files are in different folders at each level of the infrastructure. Of course, we want this information to be searchable at every level.
2. There are currently 3500+ folders, and it will probably grow to more than 15,000 folders as we consolidate multiple share drive locations into a single structure.
3. Whenever a user opens OneNote files in the new folder structure, s/he just waits and waits, and most of the time OneNote is not able to return any content. (This issue holds true in most situations unless we create a OneNote Notebook manually in a subfolder - in that situation, if a user opens that notebook, only subfolders are synchronized and any OneNote files in folders above it are ignored.)
4. We are starting to look at using SharePoint as the backend to OneNote. The purpose here is to see if we can make OneNote sync with SharePoint and not scour the entire folder structure looking for changes. Has this been done, or is this a worthwhile direction to explore?
Any comments, questions and advice are welcome.
Eric
1. We want to use OneNote for multiple reasons, including reference information for what types of information & files are in different folders at each level of the infrastructure. Of course, we want this information to be searchable at every level.
2. There are currently 3500+ folders, and it will probably grow to more than 15,000 folders as we consolidate multiple share drive locations into a single structure.
3. Whenever a user opens OneNote files in the new folder structure, s/he just waits and waits, and most of the time OneNote is not able to return any content. (This issue holds true in most situations unless we create a OneNote Notebook manually in a subfolder - in that situation, if a user opens that notebook, only subfolders are synchronized and any OneNote files in folders above it are ignored.)
4. We are starting to look at using SharePoint as the backend to OneNote. The purpose here is to see if we can make OneNote sync with SharePoint and not scour the entire folder structure looking for changes. Has this been done, or is this a worthwhile direction to explore?
Any comments, questions and advice are welcome.
Eric
ASKER
Thanks for the feedback - we'd actually come to the same conclusion that we could create multiple notebooks that would update and synchronize independently of the larger structure. However, that doesn't solve the whole problem - we would like to have a fully-populated folder structure with OneNote files at every level so that people could view notes & documentation wherever they are, as well as search through that documentation regardless of where they are in the folder structure. I'm thinking we'll have to step back from that goal and only use OneNote for specific purposes (e.g., the OneNote notebooks in specific places further down the folder tree).
Just my two cents - I have never used One Note via the file system. I know it creates folders and files, but I always let the software manage that. I have also never recommended that users access via the file system, but instead always use One Note. This avoids a lot of confusion. It sounds as if you want to use One Note as a content management system. That is not really the intent of One Note. It could be used for a CMS, but might take some additional planning.
Good luck...
btw.. I have used One Note for about 15 years and it is a great tool for sure!
Good luck...
btw.. I have used One Note for about 15 years and it is a great tool for sure!
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I use multiple One Note notebooks and have good performance and a logical and understandable structure.
Hope that helps...