OneNote making my text invisible!

Anonymous
2017-03-08T20:19:19+00:00

I imagine this is some sort of bug...

OneNote in Office 365 on Windows 10 

I use OneNote for a lot of notes, including one section that is password protected. All of a sudden a few days ago, it has this very annoying glitch where the text I type is invisible.

It basically allows me to type / click check boxes, etc., but it is all invisible. As in, it creates space for the words but there is nothing there. I mostly have been using the password protected section, so I notice it there. If I close OneNote and open it back up, the previously invisible words then show up. Sometimes it lets me type regularly again, or sometimes it just makes any new text I type invisible also. 

If I press backspace, for example, the cursor moves backwards but the deleted words are still visible (until I close the program, for example).

If I switch to a non-password protected section the words are usually invisible while typing also- but if I keep typing gibberish then after a few seconds, this seems to reset and do the same thing as closing / reopening the program.

Any ideas? This is quite annoying!

Thanks!

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 No comments
Answer accepted by question author
Anonymous
2017-03-10T02:24:31+00:00

Hello,

This issue is also occurring for me. I will type text and the cursor will move as if it is typing but the text does not appear. A short-term solution I have found is that switching to another section and then switching back to the "trouble" section then displays the text when typing.

I have tried both Quick and Full Repair.

The version is Office 365 Home Edition OneNote 2016 desktop app on Windows 10.

Help appreciated!

Thanks,

Jeff

Was this answer helpful?

70+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments No comments

67 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful
  1. Anonymous
    2017-09-05T17:07:10+00:00

    I'm an IT manager for a small company. I've done extensive testing on this issue and have one work around that fixes it for us.

    I'll start with the work around and the list my tests to try to fix this.

    Workaround: I have moved my OneNote users to OneNote 2010.

    Information:

    I have users with the office 365 subscription so they are always on the latest edition. This commenced when they upgraded from Office 2010 to Office 2016. It did not occur for all my users (myself) but many of them. All my users who use a shared OneNote notebook (On onedrive) have experieinced this problem irrespective of their computer OS (windows 10 or windows 7). 

    If they run office 2016 (version 1701 (7766.2092)) then they have this problem.  Rebuilding office, updates, remove and add again don't fix the problem. It seems to me to be a bug in office 2016. The computers that the users run OneNote on are varied. Laptops and desktops with different manufacturers and video cards.

    Was this answer helpful?

    3 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments
  2. Anonymous
    2017-08-08T15:18:45+00:00

    Or the original:

    Was this answer helpful?

    3 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments
  3. Anonymous
    2017-07-22T01:09:27+00:00

    I've read the thread up to 7/21.

    Microsoft, this appears to be a widespread bug. Can you please provide the bug # and actions Microsoft is taking to resolve it? No one on this thread is interested in the "turn the computer off/on" replies. We need resolution! Before you respond, PLEASE read the ENTIRE thread and stop providing canned responses. We are NOT going to keep uninstalling/reinstalling or run commands that have little to do with fixing this issue. Our time is valuable and we ask that you respect that with thoughtful responses.

    It is very clear: The issue is intermittently when changing the scope from another app to OneNote text becomes invisible. The workaround is to change to another section then back. This appears to be occurring across differing versions of Windows (7 and 10) and Office 2016/O365. I have not tried (nor am interested in trying) in the web version.

    Please provide an estimate for when you can validate the bug and when a permanent fix/update will be released.

    Was this answer helpful?

    3 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments
  4. Anonymous
    2017-05-16T20:45:56+00:00

    Thank you! I read this whole thread. Your workaround works!

    None of Microsoft's posts are useful: just boilerplate configuration questions and instructions to reinstall. Clearly this is a bug in OneNote affecting a bunch of users.

    Was this answer helpful?

    3 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments