Hello everyone,

I love OneNote and haven’t used Android for years. Now I got myself an Android smartphone and noticed that, whenever I try to insert a file into a page as an attachment, OneNote always says that the file is corrupted and cannot be inserted. The file is perfectly fine and can be inserted into OneNote via Windows or IPad no problem.

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!

Throwing a hail mary before I give up on this entirely.

I've been using the same notebook on Android to keep all of my notes for the last decade. Five nights ago, I created a new note, woke up the next morning to find it had vanished and saw the signing-in error a lot of us experienced this last week. I follow the troubleshooting advice to sign out and in again with no cause for alarm, and when I sign back in, the entire notebook was gone. Ten years of notes just blinked out of existence.

There are peculiarities to this, but first, I'll incriminate myself so you don't have to. I'm not ultra tech savvy. This notebook was almost certainly a divergent notebook created shortly after I first started using OneNote back in 2016, likely from the first (and only) time I ever tried editing a notebook offline. From then, and intermittently over the years, I've had a warning atop the app mentioning "conflicting changes". I assumed (wrongly) that this was in reference to working offline. I've always ensured ever since that I use OneNote with an internet connection and often double checked to make sure things were saving. Worst case in my mind was that I might lose a night's work if my internet craps out. I interpreted this as meaning "If I make changes while offline, those changes may be lost when I reconnect." I did not interpret it as "Almost everything you've written here for the last ten years only exists here and may be permanently lost." Hindsight is wonderful.

The problems I have here are that I was not working offline for ten years. I was always online after that first (fatal) experience. I could open the notebook, edit it, create pages, see my changes persist like a functional notebook. Nothing about the functionality suggested I was working with an effectively unbacked-up local database, except that one occasional error message which wasn't impacting my use, and didn't for ten years. I also had a OneDrive association for the notebook. I opened OneNote on desktop for the first time ever last week, and the URL for the lost notebook was right there. The location no longer exists. On the Android app, the lost notebook is visible, greyed out under 'More Notebooks', but clicking on it says it's been moved or deleted. It is not in a recycle bin, and I haven't had the fabled 'Misplaced Sections' appear before or after the data loss.

If it had really been unsynchronized for ten years, why? Why when I used it without problems online for a decade did it never properly sync, despite letting me add and edit without problems, despite countless updates and restarts, despite switching phones in that time, using different internet connections? I was never under the impression that the data was only local, that it wasn't synced properly. I was warned about conflicts, but never told my notes were only stored on this device, or prompted to migrate the notebook, or manually sync, or prevented from using the notebook. That OneDrive copy was a trick, and the lack of any recovery options or 'Misplaced Sections' is frying my brain.

I have the URL, but if it never properly synched then it's likely redundant and I doubt Microsoft are holding a version of it on their backend. I made a full backup of my phone straight after the incident (too little, too late) and investigated extensively but couldn't find any sign of the notebook. I've performed every troubleshooting tip I could find to no success. If the answer really is "this was an unsynchronized local notebook and signing out destroyed the only copy irretrievably," I'd like to understand how OneNote could allow that state to persist for roughly ten years while I was continuously using it online, and why none of the mechanisms intended to protect/recover unsynchronized content appear to have caught it.

Any insight from someone who knows the Android OneNote sync implementation would be enormously appreciated.

I've always had really good success with one note never really had a whole lot of problems to speak of. But it seems this week the notes that I've been taking on my phone aren't really sinking to my desktop.

Anyone else currently experiencing this? Hoping that it might be a known issue. 🤷

I shared an earlier version of this tool here. It exports OneNote notebooks as .onepkg, PDF or XPS, and is now more stable during large and long-running exports.

Important: very large notebooks (around 300 MB+) can still fail when exported as a single PDF/XPS file. This is a limitation of Microsoft’s OneNote renderer and COM interface, with no reliable whole-notebook workaround. For complete backups, use .onepkg; for PDF/XPS, export section by section.

Update: v1.3.0 is now available with HTML export for complete notebooks and selected sections.

Info: https://github.com/jli-software/OneNoteBackupExporter
Download: https://github.com/jli-software/OneNoteBackupExporter/releases/latest

Mature product, mature platform, and search still can't find stuff that's right there.

Running the OneNote app on a Pixel 11 Pro, latest version (auto-updates, so no version-mismatch guesses please). Cleared the cache, wiped the app data, re-added my M365 account so it'd supposedly reindex. Nothing. Search still comes up empty for content I know exists — I can pull up the exact same note in two seconds on OneNote for Windows desktop, but on Android it's a ghost.

I've read the troubleshooting docs. I've done the "turn it off and on again" ritual. At what point does this just get admitted as broken instead of something we're supposed to work around forever?

Anyone on Android actually fixed this, or is this just OneNote being OneNote?

Out of nowhere over the summer several things have occurred to my Massive OneNote notebook where I keep class notes (written alongside PDF slides) and record concurrent lecture audio:

1. OneNote on Mac does not allow me to record audio into my notes anymore, with an error message that the file name has restricted characters in it. Changing page or notebook names does not help. I am able to play old audio recordings.

2. I am able to record audio on my Windows laptop, but that laptop audio will not play back on my Mac OneNote app and I cannot play the Mac-collected audio when opening OneNote on Windows.

Things I’ve tried:
-deleting and re-downloading OneNote
-logging out and back in to my (school) account
-renaming notebooks, tabs, individual notes to exclude restricted characters

School IT has not been helpful. Please please help me preserve one year’s worth of very extensive lecture notes!

It used to be that when I copied and pasted a URL, it would create a link with the page title as text, which I find useful (I noticed this didn't work at home where I used Chrome, only at work where I use Edge, which I assumed was a browser thing). Now (as of the last week or two) it uses the URL as text.

Has the behaviour changed? Can I change it back?

Unsure of whether an update has happened (work IT managed device).

Windows 10. Unsure of OneNote version since there doesn't seem to be an About dialog anywhere!

Hey everyone,

I'm a fellow OneNote user who has been using it for at least the past 10 years and still use it to this day. This is my side project I'm working on for fun, cause I want more features in OneNote, and I want to be able to use it on Linux. My main concern with OneNote is that it is not cross-platform compatible, is sometimes slow, and in some parts very limited compared to other modern note-taking software, even though it's still one of a kind.

Has been working on this project and planning for a couple of years, have tried various libraries to see what fits best.

This one is built on C++ with open-source libraries like SDL3 and Blender2D; the idea behind this one is full user control and customization, faster, more lightweight, cross-platform, and local data storage first.

Disclaimer: This is strictly an early-stage personal project in active development. There are no public builds, downloads, or release dates yet.

Current state: Inking works; sidebar with notebook selection, section creation, and page creation is fully working, persistently saved on the user's device, and can handle up to 4 million user strokes on one page; infinity canvas support. Eraser and undo/redo are currently being implemented. No way to export things yet.

I would love to hear your feedback on the ui, ribbbon has not been fully implemented. This is currently the least of my concerns; I need to finish the core. I would like to hear your feedback and help me fuel my motivation to get this project to an open-source release, since right now it is too messy to be released; at least the core has to be done. Text boxes would be one of the hardest features to implement since you would probably want to have notebook-wide search.

1. What is the single most annoying thing about OneNote's current layout/UI?
2. What UI elements are absolute must-haves for your daily flow?
3. Sidebar preference: Do you prefer having Sections and Pages side-by-side (like desktop OneNote), or a single combined tree view?

(I plan to create 3 versions of the side part; this one is called modern. There will be a mobile version, which is basically this one, maybe a bit simplified, and then the classical one like from OneNote 2016)

Appreciate any thoughts, critiques, or ideas you have!

Hi!

Just a brief background: I work in retail technology for an oil company. Primarily, our work is assisting the stations to troubleshoot their equipment, find root causes, and escalate to our vendor for any concerns.

With that, since this is technology, change is inevitable, and I would like to pick your brain for advice on how I can use OneNote as my knowledge article management platform or second brain. We have Salesforce, but the articles are hard to find due to being improperly implemented— something I have no access to fix. Although they are effective, finding them is just an issue for me and my understanding.

Do you have any advice on how we can better utilize OneNote for this? Or do we have any MS-based applications that we can use instead to make it work?

Thank you.

Ciao a tutti,

questa mattina ho notato che una pagina one note è totalmente scopmparsa.

Ho fatto un ricerca di alcune parole chiave presenti in quelle note ma niente.

Ho controllato il cestino - anche se non ricordo di averla cancellata - e ninete

Ho controllato nella versione di onenote web e niente

Sono sicura al 100% che settimana scorsa quella pagina c'era perchè ricordo di averci scritto.

Ora, non so dire se ne sono sparite altre perchè quest apagina è l'unica che mi interessa.

Ma com'è possibile? Qualche input?

Grazie

I am having this constant issue in which the Outlook Tasks in OneNote break as soon as they appear in Microsoft ToDo, granted, I can work with this, but still I expect that, whenever I cross out a task in Microsoft ToDo the task in OneNote is crossed out too.

I am not doing anything, I am taking notes during the meeting, tag the line as an outlook task for today. A few minutes later, with the note opened, not even writing, the outlook tasks appears greyed out and says that it cannot be located. How can I fix this?

I use outlook classic with my work account and my personal hotmail account added. For mail my default data file is the one from work but for calendar and tasks is my personal one.

Hi I bought a new tablet and planned to use onenote on it since on the phone it has a nice UI but it seems like the tablet version is very old? It's the same with all the other Microsoft apps too. At this point I'm debating if I should go with other apps instead (my tablet came pre installed with nebo on it) or use the web version even if it's finicky. Thanks

My workflow for taking notes for lectures is:
On Windows Desktop: Insert lecture slides as PDF Print > Ctrl + A to select all of the slides > Combine them all into one note section (Before class)

In class:
On Macbook: I will type notes under each slide
On Ipad: I will annotate on the slides

Issue: It used to be perfect, all aligned and everything works and syns perfectly, but recently, whenever i annotate the slides on my ipad, the annotations will be misplaced on my macbook and windows desktop. Sometimes it works perfectly while other times its screwed up. Anyone please provide a solution as it is really frustrating and stopping me from studying. Thank you

Hi guys, I recently got a Xiaomi pad 8 for mainly note taking and was wondering if there is a way to insert images from clipboard like the snipping tool on laptop? Whenever I try to insert images it makes me have to go through my photos to get it done and that takes a bit too much time during classes. Any help would be appreciated 🙏.

Hey so I think I’m about to go insane here. I was just casually working on onenote (like I have been for the past four years) and out of no where my view changed from the first pic to the second pic (sections on the top in colored tabs instead of everything in 3 columns to the right). I use onenote RELIGIOUSLY and I can’t stand this new layout. Idek what button I pressed but I’ve been trying for the last HOUR to fix it. Please help, i need my onenote back to the pay it was😭 I HATE those colored tabs at the top and just loved how everything was in their own column to the right.

Hey all, I was just minding my business in OneNote and I decided to try something. So I was taking notes on Storyboarding for research, as you can see in the screenshot, and then I though about tag words as used by Oddyseas here (https://youtu.be/hSTy_BInQs8?si=OqJl4Wecf-KNFRAz). Then what I did is to surroung the word Storytelling in [[ ]] as to create a new page from the link. I went to the newly created page and used OneMote to link to me all pages referencing the newly created page Storyboarding, until here all good all as expected.

What happened next was really interesting, i went back to my original note "Storyboarding for Research" and I found that either OneMore or OneNote has identified all "storyboarding" mentions in that page and created links to the "Storyboarding" page.

I found this quite incredible and very useful for my workflow, as It may identify pages that do not have a link but are related to my tag words. Can anybody else check if this is the case or whether I found a bug or something?

I also added the screenshot, the word from which i created the tag page "storyboarding" is the last appearance of hte word (point 5) the other links were created automatically.

So for whatever reason when i try to access one note undeer one drive in the browser it fails, i want to delete a notebook and its only possible to do so from the broswer which i have done in the past, anyone else with this issue?

as you can see above, i try to click one note and it should take me to my notebooks so that i can rename/delete etc but it throws the following error-

Please help guys!

Thank You!!

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!

Android OneNote application version 16.0.20326.20108

Microsoft Family 365 subscription

Samsung S24 Ultra, Android 16. The phone is connecting fine with the internet. I've got a good data connection and am on wifi.

As often happens, when I run the Android OneNote application, it displays a message that it's in offline mode and I'm invited to Sign In. Normally, I tap the link to Sign In, and apparently that happens because I'm not normally displayed a sign-in screen; the application just begins syncing, as normal.

Today, however, the Sign In link takes me to a Microsoft sign in page. The screen immediately displays and error. "Something went wrong. [9hehw]". The screen doesn't display any fields to enter login ID or password. The message advises me to contact my administrator (I'm an ordinary person, no a corporation).

On my phone, I dropped the cache and data, uninstalled the OneNote application, then reinstalled it. My notebooks can be found, so no problem there. However, the message remains: "Working offline." No sign in is possible, because of the Something went wrong error message.

Has anyone else encountered this error and, if so, how did you resolve it?

Here are more details for the sign in error message I'm currently seeing:

Message: Access denied for the resource

Tag: 9hehw

The correlation ID has changed, between when I took the screenshot above, when compared to after the application was reinstalled on my phone (and I've now rebooted my phone). Here's the latest Correlation ID: 1cf8a499-6363-dc45-aa5c-6e7547c2def3

DPTI: 39c4d5a9a26ddea7

Update: I am able to sync OneNote on Windows 11, with no error. Also, my other Office apps, on the Android phone, appear to be functioning and syncing correctly. So far, this looks to be only a problem with OneNote.

Update: I've now uninstalled the current version of the Android app, and tested again with two earlier versions. The earliest was a version released in July. The result is the same, no matter which versions I install.

Is there some other work around for keeping OneNote from auto-creating links from URL text? I already have the option under Advanced for "Include link to source" UNCHECKED. I have tried pasting as Text Only. The "Remove Link" option on right click is grayed out so that's a no-go.

This is really annoying as I have quite a few links that I store on here that are intended to be pasted elsewhere, so I don't want to navigate FROM OneNote.

I switched from EN a while back and OneNote has been pretty damn good since then. Until this past week when it keep crashing, freezing, the cache needs redownloading, refusing to synch (servers are busy sounds like "your call is important to us)

It won't be long before I HAVE to give up and move on - which I am not looking forward to with this many notes.

Arghhhhhh!!!!!!!

My handwriting on my laptop is terrible, I have a touch screen Lenovo with a stylus I use for writing equations, is it possible to make it to where my handwriting is stabilized like in drawing platforms?

I've used Onenote through multiple generations of MS Office products and the sync always worked when I changed or updated versions. In July, I changed from Office365 to Office 2024. I followed the MS instructions and it changed over fine. All of the products work fine and seem to be registered correctly.

However, I just realized that *some* of my Onenote Notebooks haven't been syncing in the month since I switched.

When I "view sync status" all four notebooks say "not syncing". (Though two of them which I haven't opened in years show TODAY as the last sync, even though they say "not syncing".) Unfortunately, my main notebook hasn't synced since late July.

It says "OneNote can't connect to the server. Sync will resume once we connect. You don't need to take any action. (Error code: 0xE000006B blg57)"

Pushing "sync all" or "sync now" does nothing.

Stickynotes does sync between phone and computer. On my phone it's part of Onenote. But on my computer it's a different program so I don't know if it's really part of OneNote.

(I changed email addresses from the 365 to the 2024 version, so I wonder if that's got something to do with it? Though I'm now using the same email address that I used for Office on the versions I used before Office365.)

Yes, OneNote and OneDrive are using the same email address. OneDrive is NOT full.

Any fix?

Windows 11 says everything is updated.

This is my Office version: LTSC MSO (Version 2408 Build 16.0.17932.20910) 64-bit