r/OneNote

Find/search isn't working as expected!!!

Anyone facing a similar issue? Did anybody manage to search for a word in all of the pages/notes ?

I got two mainly notebooks, one for work stuff and the other for my personal notes,

And many sections, pages and sub pages,

What I was really trying to do, (i think it should as simple as is), to search for a specific sentence in all of those notes/sections/pages/sub pages, for some words it works fine and for other it doesn't work, i even can't find a pattern that really works

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u/This_Entertainment82 — 12 hours ago

All OneNote files disappearance

I opened OneNote today, as everyday, and I couldn't edit nor add any notes. I reinstalled the app (I'm always using an app on my tablet) and when I logged into my account all of my folders/notes were missing. Instead, all of my old (deleted in February!!!) notes appeared. I tried searching for my missing notes on every device I own (pc, phone..)...nothing... Finals are right around the corner and all of my notes are gone...Is there ANYTHING I can do to regain them?? I'm desperate..

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u/mydelkoFa2137 — 18 hours ago

Mouse cursor is not showing up all of a sudden

On Windows 11 and using OneNote desktop and my mouse cursor is not showing up all of a sudden. Anyone else having issues with this? I've never encountered this before.

Cursor is showing up everywhere else but OnenNote

Have tried:

  1. Pressing ALT

  2. Disabling the scratch out gesture while inking

  3. Reset mouse settings to see if it would flow through but it didn't

Perhaps this is a bug?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

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u/AdvisoryAlchemist — 16 hours ago

OneNote app not loading

So I'm using OneNote on Android and today my app doesn't show my notebooks at all. The actual page part of the screen just looks like it's loading, and the notebook part is empty. I'm definitely logged in, and I can access them on other devices. What should I try for getting access to my notebooks again?

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u/AnEnigmaticEngineer — 1 day ago
▲ 10 r/OneNote

One note slow down

There has been a massive slow down of one note on my android device, maybe since a few months ago or since a device change..

Its pretty unusable, any one noticed or have a fix? It seems to be downloading all notes each time I open, and needs network. Sync all page content is enabled.

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u/jakethesnake666 — 2 days ago

PSA: IF YOU ARE HAVING ISSUES WITH ANDROID ONENOTE / READ-ONLY OR UNSYNC'D NOTES, DO NOT LOG IN/OUT OR REINSTALL APP! [Onenote Android Sync Read Only 2026]

WARNING: IF YOU ARE HAVING ISSUES WITH ANDROID ONENOTE / READ-ONLY OR UNSYNC'D NOTES, DO NOT LOG IN/OUT OR REINSTALL APP. YOU WILL LOSE YOUR DATA.

As of last week, my android onenote app has marked all of my notebooks as "read only" for no apparent reason. My notebooks are not locked as "read only" on my PC or the web version... I have also discovered that all of my notes from the android app in 2026 are not sync'd.

While looking for a fix, I've found a couple posts discussing the same issue, except most of them have permanently lost data due to taking recommended/reasonable troubleshooting steps like logging in/out or reinstalling the app... This kills the unsync'd notes. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5861013/onenote-data-lost

The solution I have found: create a new notebook for a backup, and manually copy each page into it. Super tedious? yes. But at least you won't lose data.

By the way, does anyone recommend an alternative that is cross-platform and works well with the Samsung S-Pen? Never using onenote again after this.

u/piecat — 3 days ago
▲ 14 r/OneNote

Samsung Android has the worst version of OneNote?

I use one note across a windows laptop, macbook pro, ipad, and samsung S24.

It seems like one note on my samsung.Android has the worst:

  1. Sync

  2. Lagging (takes 3 taps to open an app)

  3. Unable to sort pages according to (macbook pro unable to do this too but pls lmk if thats incorrect)

  4. No button search to the next time a word is used

  5. Cannot copy paste more than 1 item

  6. Voice typing not accessible

Let me know if I got this right samsung users. And if you have workarounds would be super appreciated.😭

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u/firepaintedred — 3 days ago

Any way to prevent keyboard input while drawing?

I'm a teacher that uses OneNote to make notes live, using a HP Active Pen and a HP Pro Notebook (touch screen)

Every now and then whilst drawing, the page jumps to the bottom, messing up my drawing with a big line. I've worked out it's probably due to accidentally hitting a key on the keyboard whilst leaning on the screen, inputting a text box at the bottom of the printed pages.

I've already enabled the setting to ignore touch input whilst using the pen.

I also cannot disable the setting "Automatically switch between inking, selecting, typing, and panning". It doesn't feel great to use as it disables the bottom side button which is set to 'Erase', and I can no longer easily erase mistakes. I do not want to have to keep switching to the eraser manually, and switching to using the mouse/panning manually.

Enabling filter keys also didn't help as it would still input the first keystroke immediately even when I set it to the maximum time to accept keystrokes!

All I want is to stop this jumping from happening!

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u/bardthrowaway212 — 1 day ago

I have several notebooks across Windows and Android, but 1 notebook edited in Android is locked at read only and not updating anywhere else

Hi, I have several notebooks that I use both with a tablet and a Surface. I thought all was working fine, when I suddenly 1 notebook that I mainly use in the tablet is locked as read-only and all of last months sections are no longer appearing anywhere else, including in the online website nor in the One Drive folder.

This is scaring me that I'll lose all these notes, which are important.

Yet, changes done in this tablet to other notebooks update just fine.

Also, a recent section of another notebook that appears everywhere, is not appearing in this tablet, and if I try to open it through One Drive it says I don't have permissions for that.

I have a personal and a university account, but I'm using the personal one in all devices.

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u/-Exocet- — 1 day ago

One note says it’s synced but isn’t actually?

I have two devices, both logged in with the same Microsoft account: my ipad and my dell laptop.

Both of them say they are up to date and fully synced yet they each have different notebooks. My laptop only has data from back in February ish while my ipad is up to date and what I want. Does anyone know how to fix this issue? I tried logging out of my laptop and logging back in, tried deleting and redownloading the app but nothing works.

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u/bunzinio — 2 days ago

Searching all notebooks is much slower

When searching for text across all notebooks in OneNote on my previous Surface Pro 7, it would take up to 5 seconds - not a problem. Now on my Surface Pro 11, it can take up to 30 seconds. On top of that, I can search the same string of text within seconds of the last, and it'll take just as long. It's as if it doesn't index anything and starts from scratch with each search.

My SP11 has 500 GB storage (~25% full) and 16 GB RAM (way more than my SP7) so I don't think that's an issue. I also imported the same notebooks into my SP11 from my SP7 so it's an equal comparison.

Is this an x64 vs ARM issue?

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u/I_Am_Awesome_O — 3 days ago
▲ 10 r/OneNote

It only took 3 hours, but all my files are synced across all devices (solved)

This app is anything but seamless. But if you're as frustrated as I was, fear not. Here are the issues and solutions:

  1. I had pages and pages of journaling on my tablet that refused to sync to the server.

Solution:
A) Manually copy-pasted the new sections to Google Drive and then copy-pasted from Google Drive to my desktop OneNote. Paste function didn't work in my Android Chrome browser. Consider just using Google drive instead of OneNote.
B) Signed out, deleted app data and cache, signed back in (after a million security measures), reopened the notebooks.

  1. My new notebooks would not show up in the server.

Solution:
Opened the File tab, found that the unsynced notebooks are the only ones stored in Documents/OneNote Notebooks. From the File tab, clicked "Share". In order to share, the notebook is manually forced into the server. Done.

  1. Changing notebook names locally does not change them in the server.

Solution:
None. Any ideas? Previously, I've just made a new notebook with the desired name.

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u/Turbulent_Swimmer900 — 4 days ago
▲ 11 r/OneNote

How do download all books to refer later?

I just finished school, made all my notes for 8 terms in 8 different notebooks with 4-5 sections each with each section having 10 pages. Now I wish to keep these notes handy for later, because school wil shut my email off. How do I download and keep them, maybe in pdf, or any format which is easily accessible later on my mac. I am currently using ipad and mac, please guide.

TIA

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u/Delicious_Pound_4034 — 6 days ago

OneNote web bug

Hi everyone, I need help with a bug in the OneNote web app (onenote.cloud.microsoft). When I create a new OneNote file, its default name is something like “Note_53245_3245”, but after I rename it, a new file is created with the name I chose, and the previous one with the default name remains there bugged, with no way to delete it (since it doesn’t appear among the OneDrive files).

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u/Cool_Panic_2886 — 2 days ago

Is it not possible to paste formatted text on the Android app?

Check the difference between OneNote and Word on Android on how it displays what y copied and pasted.

u/Pearl_Jam_ — 5 days ago

Cursor backs up after punctuation on Android

I forever blamed this on my Boox tablet... and then the keyboard... before finally accepting that this issue is an Android plague. If I hit a period or comma, the cursor backs up a few spaces. Suddenly, what I had typed is being pushed in front of what I am currently typing. Absolutely annoying. I finally accepted it when I was typing on my phone's virtual keyboard and it did the same thing. So many college lectures ruined...

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u/Turbulent_Swimmer900 — 4 days ago

Weekly Post: What did you do with OneNote this week?

Welcome to our weekly post! We are trying something new to try and tie the community together and learn from one another.

Did you come across anything new? Find a different use case? Improved workflow? Streamline digital organization? Fixed a problem? Just started?

Anything is welcome, even if it's the smallest thing. Please share tips, tricks, and anything else that might be useful to our community!

Thank you!

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u/Chobitpersocom — 5 days ago

Searching in Onenote needs an option to open all Locked sections at once prior to searches.

Right now if I search for something that I know is in my notebook and it doesn't show up in the results there needs to be a way to unlock all of them easily and quickly. Right now I need to figure out which ones are locked and then unlock each one individually. It's like someone who never used Onenote is in charge of the dev team.

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u/BigBillSD — 7 days ago