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

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

145 answers

Sort by: Newest
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2016-09-22T17:30:55+00:00

    As soon as I noticed these problems with 2016 I immediately downgraded to 2013 (and have prevented the computer doing the update to back to 2016). 

    I have never experienced the disappearing ink problem with 2013.

    If you contact Microsoft they will tell you that you can't downgrade to 2013, but that is incorrect. If you are persistence that will give you a link 2013.

    Using Onenote on the Surface with the ability to take handwritten notes is one of the fundamental reasons for this product's (the surface) existence and it is astonishing that Microsoft have not rectified the disappearing ink issue as yet.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2016-09-22T16:58:38+00:00

    It's almost 1 year later and I'm having this issue intermittently.  Mostly in PPT, but also happens with other MSFT products.

    Not sure if it's related, but also MANY frustrating instances where I'll try to write notes on a PPT slide (or word or excel) and the pen toggles between Ink and Select, making it a non-option for marking up presentations - the primary reason I bought a Surface.

    Any advice?

    Tx.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2016-09-19T22:38:43+00:00

    Hi Kiwiengineer,

    Unfortunately, we don't have a bulletproof fix for this issue yet, though there is a large effort to try and end this.  My best advice to you is to disable Automatic Handwriting Recognition. You can disable handwriting recognition by going in OneNote into File->Options->Advanced and disable the box “Enable automatic handwriting recognition”. This should stop your ink from disappearing.

    In order to get your data back there are two different approaches that might help you restore your content:

    1. Right click on the page and hit "Show Page Versions" to explore different versions of the page that your content might be on.
    2. Go to File->Open Backups (on the right side of the UI) and look for a version of the page that has your content.

    I'm really sorry you have to experience this. It's been one of our largest problems in content and we hate to hear that customers are losing their data. Like I said, we are actively trying to remedy this, but for the time being those workarounds should fix the issue.

    Thanks,

    Brian

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2016-09-19T02:55:55+00:00

    Hi I am having the same issue with Onenote 2016 MSO 16.0.4432.1000 32 bit as part of the Office Professional Plus 2016 suite.

    I am running 

    • Surface Pro 4
    • Windows 10 Enterprise
    • Intel Core i7-6650U CPU @ 2.20GHz 2.21GHz
    • 16.0 GB RAM
    • 64 Bit operating system, x64 based processor
    • Pen and Touch Support with 10 Touch points

    I had already read about this issue and saw some people having success with turning off holding touch to right click.  So I did this, however, I am still having the problem.

    When inking in onenote doing diagrams and also hand written notes, some of the previous ink disappears.  It can also be on ink that is not in the current viewable area.  This is a big pain and makes the software unreliable.

    Is there a solution yet for this problem.

    Regards,

    Kiwiengineer

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  5. Anonymous
    2016-09-11T07:10:21+00:00

    Sadly , I have the same issue .

    Some part of My handwritten is suddenly disappeared , and I cant be able to recover it .

    Its totally frustrating.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments