Disappearing Ink problem in OneNote 2016 + Surface Pro 3

Anonymous
2015-09-23T06:58:32+00:00

Hi,

I just upgraded to Office 2016 via the Office 365 subscription. Working on a Surface Pro 3 and Windows 10. I am mostly using OneNote 2016 to take handwritten notes using the Surface Pen.

The disappearing ink issue, (that was a problem in the OneNote 2013 edition, until it was fixed), seems to be back: parts of written stuff disappear. I was writing in OneNote 2016, and out of nowhere, parts of what I had written earlier disappeared. Though the issue is not as severe as it was earlier, when the disappearing was very frequent.

This needs to be fixed ASAP, it renders OneNote not very useful for note-taking!

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneNote | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-12-12T05:03:25+00:00

    Hi

    We released a new update to C2R that has a change that targets a case where we found that could ink disappear. Currently it is available for the C2R version, and I will reply on this thread when it becomes available on the MSI version.

    For C2R: To get the update (currently it may not update automatically):

    1. Go to File->Account->Update Options->Update Now. Wait for the installation to complete
    2. Confirm you are on version 16.0.6366.2036. The version is listed in File->Account->About OneNote.

    Please run the above update and let me know if you hit any issues. If you continued to see ink disappearing on 16.0.6001.1038, let me know if this update resolved it.

    Thanks

    Mavis

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-12-12T04:37:38+00:00

    Update:

    The latest MSI version of OneNote now has the change that was in the C2R version 16.0.6001.1038 (My post on Nov 11th). The update (KB3114388) is available via Windows Updates and you can manually download it through the below link. It should change the version number of OneNote to 16.0.4312.1xxx.

    Download Link (MSI only):

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3114388#bookmark-prerequisite

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-12-08T21:36:42+00:00

    My worst fear has come true. When you turn off 'handwriting recognition', the new ink is no longer indexed and searchable. Now I have to open every page I have inked since turning off the 'handwriting recognition' to make those inks searchable again. I have to not only turn the 'handwriting recognition' back on but also be forced to enter a search term in the search box (otherwise OneNote wouldn't automatically index them even if the page contains non-indexed ink)!

    To me, this solution (turning off 'handwriting recognition') is worse than nothing. Or at least I could go back to 2013 instead of corrupting my index database. Any rescue to force OneNote to rebuild the index and ink recognition for all my notebooks?

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-12-08T20:51:51+00:00

    Hi Mavis,

    What happens when I turn off 'handwriting recognition'? Does that mean ink will no longer be recognized as text and no longer indexed and searchable? If that's the case, it is a serious problem and not a solution at all!

    I am asking this because I found my handwriting notes were not searchable. I selected my inking and clicked 'ink to text' in the right click menu. But nothing happened! This meant the handwriting recognition engine was completely off and none of my recently inked text were recognized and indexed. 

    If I turned 'handwriting recognition' on, would those ink be automatically recognized and searchable again? Do I have to open every page of my recent inks to make them searchable (that would be a nightmare)? Or does OneNote know which page has non-indexed ink and automatically index them for me? 

    This issue has caused me considerable inconvenience and the fix for corporate versions is no where to be seen after a month when the fix for C2R version was released. I will migrate back to 2013 right now. There is no update in the 2016 version that is not in the 2013 version as far as I know.

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  5. Anonymous
    2015-12-06T11:33:49+00:00

    I am currently on version 16.0.6001.1041 (Windows 10 Pro on a Surface Pro 4) and for me ink is still disappearing randomly. Can't say if it is more or less frequent than before, because I immediately turned 'Automatic handwriting recognition' off when this problem first occurred.

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