OneNote is a great note taking tool which allows you to easily synchronize notebooks between the various devices you use every day: iPad, Android, Windows, etc. However, its synchronization capabilities can be a little confusing if you happen to have more than one SkyDrive account.

I recently ran into an issue with a OneNote user who had multiple SkyDrive accounts: one for work and another for his personal files. The problem was that he couldn’t remember which of his two accounts he was using to synchronize his files between his computer and cell phone. Each of his SkyDrive accounts was created under a different email address but the same full name, e.g., “Joe User.” So the name listed next to the Microsoft SkyDrive web location on the Share Notebook page (File –> Share) would be the same for both accounts. Surprisingly, Microsoft does not provide a simple method to determine which account is being used. This basically left us with two options:

1. Ask the user to log into each of his SkyDrive accounts and look for copies of the synchronized notebooks in the respective account’s documents folder, or
2. Look up the user name associated with the user’s SkyDrive cached credentials and compare that to the “cid-” string in the URL of the SkyDrive profile for each account.

Both options would work, but the second option would be more reliable. To identify the user name associated with the user’s SkyDrive cached credentials, use one of the methods discussed in the previous post on managing stored user names and passwords:

Managing Stored User Names and Passwords

Whichever method you choose, make a note of the alphanumeric string listed in the User name: field on the SkyDrive Cached Credential in the (legacy) generic credentials section. Compare that string to the string following the cid- at the end of the profile URL, e.g.,

https://profile.live.com/P.mvc#!/cid-##onlineIDnumber##/

This will give you an exact match for each account.