Does the OneDrive Change in Win 10 (1709) Affect OneNote?

The Fall Creators update of Windows 10 has brought a change to OneDrive. Files are only downloaded to the local folder on demand. How does this affect OneNote?

One of the new features in 1709 Windows 10 changes the synchronization of files via OneDrive: If, for example, files have been added from another device, their names are displayed in Windows Explorer, but they are not yet downloaded. This change is primarily targeted at the limited storage capacity of subnotebooks, tablets or computers with small mass storage devices.

But what does that mean for Onenote and notebooks stored on OneDrive?

Don’t worry, the change to OneDrive synchronization has no effect at all on OneNote. The reason is, that OneNote does not use the OneDrive sync client at all. All OneNote versions use an internal sync mechanism, that “talks” directly to OneDrive or OneDrive for Business. What does look like notebook files in your local OneDrive folder happen to be just place hilders without any actual note content.

So you don’t have to change anything in the current Windows 10 regarding OneNote, everything will work exactly as before.