Disappearing Ink problem in OneNote 2016 + Surface Pro 3

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

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

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.

1. Device Surface Pro 3
2. It has not occurred again since my original post a week ago

I did try to do all the think you suggested right after the ink disappeared. I was not able to recover any of my work besides 2 or 3 random lines and circles. I attempted to use the lasso select tool, scrolled up and down, zoomed in and out, moved to another page, and even closed and re-opened OneNote.

I will definitely let you know if this occurs again. Although, I hope it doesn't, because it is very frustrating to lose handwritten notes from a lecture.

atwsmu,

To strictly answer your question, handwriting recognition can be re-enabled at any time. Re-enabling the feature only requires navigating to the pages containing the ink introduced when the feature was switched off in order for you to be able to search your handwritten notes. 

Also, can you please tell me:

1. What device you were using when this happened?
2. Has that happened since that one time?

Based on the information you provided, I believe there is a threading problem that is not necessarily related to handwriting recognition.

Please let us know if you hit this problem again. If you do see ink disappearing again, please do the following 3 things:

1. Use lasso select where you know you used to have ink and see whether something shows up
2. Scroll up or down the page, or zoom into the page and see whether the ink shows back up
3. Navigate to another page and then go back to the one where the ink disappeared.

Please let us know if you hit this bug again and if any of these 3 steps do anything. If ink still does not appear back, please disable handwriting recognition and see whether the problem still occurs. All this feedback would help us narrow down the investigation and solve the issue quicker.

Thank you,

Laurentiu