Can I work offline in OneNote?
If you temporarily disconnect from the Internet for any reason (for example, while traveling on an airplane), you can keep working offline in the cached (locally saved) copy of the notes on your Mac. While you work offline, OneNote will warn you that it cannot sync the notebook. As soon as you reconnect to the Internet, OneNote will automatically sync your changes to the notebook on OneDrive. After syncing shared notebooks, you’ll be able to see any notes from the other notebook authors that were added or changed during the time you were offline — and they will be able to see the changes you have made.
I used to get updates for OneNote, but they seem to have stopped. What’s wrong?
We’ve changed the minimum system requirements for OneNote for Mac to take advantage of the latest capabilities in macOS. In order to continue getting new OneNote updates from the App Store, your Mac must be running Mac OS X 10.10 or later. To check what version you have, click the Apple menu on your Mac, and then click About This Mac. If you’ve made sure that you have the latest version of macOS but are still having trouble getting app updates, see Check for updates in OneNote for Mac.
There seems to be no way to copy text from a picture I’ve inserted. I thought this was possible?
OneNote for Mac supports Optical Character Recognition (OCR), a process that recognizes text shown in pictures. OneNote can extract the text it recognizes in pictures so you can paste it elsewhere in your notes (or into another app), where you can edit and format the text as needed.
Note: Depending on the complexity, legibility, and the amount of text shown in the picture you’ve inserted, the Copy Text from Picture command may not be immediately available on the menu that appears when you Control-click the picture. If OneNote is still reading and converting the text in the image, wait a few moments and then try again. Learn more about copying text from pictures (OCR).
I’m searching my notebooks, but OneNote isn’t finding what I’m looking for.
If you’re certain that the keyword, search term, or phrase you’re entering in a notebook search should be found in your search results, make sure that the section containing those notes isn’t protected with a password. OneNote excludes the contents of password-protected sections from a notebook search in order to keep your protected notes secure. To include the pages in protected sections in a notebook search, you must first unlock those sections before searching.
Note: OneNote automatically locks each password-protected section after a few minutes of inactivity. Be sure to initiate a notebook search immediately after unlocking your password-protected sections.
I password-protected a section in my notebook but can’t seem to open it.
Passwords are case-sensitive. Make sure that the Caps Lock key is off before you apply or enter the correct password. If you recently changed the password for the affected section, try remembering and entering the password that you used previously to protect that section. Passwords to protect notebook sections in OneNote are not the same password you use to sign in to OneNote. Be sure you’re not accidentally typing the password for your Microsoft account.
Important: Unfortunately, if you forget your password, no one will be able to unlock your notes for you — not even Microsoft Technical Support.
Microsoft word mac color theme. Learn more about password protection.
Can I password-protect just a single page?
No. You can apply passwords to individual notebook sections, but not to an individual page. However, you can create a new section in your notebook and then move the single page you want to protect into that new section before locking it with a password. For more information, see Move or copy notes in OneNote for Mac.
Can I password-protect an entire notebook?
You can apply passwords to individual notebook sections, one at a time, but not to all of the sections in the same notebook all at once.
My question isn’t answered here. What can I do?
If you need additional assistance with OneNote for Mac, please try any of the following:
On the OneNote menu bar, click Help > Search to enter a keyword or a phrase that describes what you’re looking for. You can send us feedback about our documentation by answering the short survey provided at the end of this article.
View and post questions in the OneNote for Mac Community forums to get free technical assistance from experienced OneNote users and members of the OneNote product team.
Visit the Answer Desk for a list of additional Support options.
Last updated: November 7, 2017
ISSUE
If you use OneNote 2016 for Mac and OneNote for iPhone and iPad, you may be asked to sign in any time you open the OneNote app or when you switch between notebooks. Similarly, OneNote may require you to sign in repeatedly to resolve sync errors.
STATUS: INVESTIGATING
Please update to the latest version of OneNote for Mac, iPhone and iPad. If you've downloaded OneNote from the Mac App Store, launch the App Store and check for Updates. You should see the option to update OneNote there. If you installed OneNote as part of Microsoft Office for Mac, then open OneNote, go to the Help > Check for Updates menu to launch the Microsoft AutoUpdate app and follow instructions there. Update all of the Microsoft Office applications, since they all use the same keychain items. To learn more, see Check for updates in OneNote 2016 for Mac.
To download the latest version of OneNote for iPhone and iPad, check the App Store for automatic updates. If you also have other Microsoft Office apps for iOS (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook), you will need to update all of them.
If you are still experiencing the issue after installing the recent updates, the next step would be to clear your Office credentials, and recreate them by following these steps:
Microsoft Onenote Mac App
To clear your Office credentials for macOS
Sometimes your credentials can get corrupted, causing OneNote to continually prompt you to enter your password. To clean this up, do the following:
Quit from all Mac Office Applications, except for OneNote
In OneNote, sign out. This only logs you out, and all the notebooks will still be there.
Quit OneNote.
Launch 'Keychain Access' and search for all items that contain 'Office15'. There should be only a couple items, one for each account you have logged into.
The name will be a long alpha-numeric code and the kind will start with “MicrosoftOffice15…”
Delete these items. It is only deleting the authentication credentials, no data. Once you sign in again, they will be re-created.
Launch OneNote and sign into your accounts.
Since all the office apps share the credentials (Word/Excel/PowerPoint) you will have to sign in again with those apps as well.
To clear your Office credentials for iOS
Microsoft Onenote Mac App Store
Sometimes your credentials can get corrupted, causing OneNote to continually prompt you to enter your password. To clean this up, do the following:
Mac App Store Download Free
If you have other Office apps installed (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc), make sure you have updated this to be the latest version. Since we share the same Office identity, if there is a bug in any of those apps, it can corrupt the identity.
Clearing your credentials often helps. To do that, follow these steps.
Go to iOS Settings > OneNote > Reset OneNote > Delete Sign-In Credentials and turn the toggle on.
Make sure OneNote is not running. (Double tap the home screen to see all running apps and swipe up on OneNote to close it.)
Re-open OneNote and sign in again.
