OneNote on iPad OS 16 no longer allowing scribble (write-to-text)

Anonymous
2022-10-28T14:49:19+00:00

Hi. I had been using OneNote on iPad Pro with scribble so I could write notes by hand using the Apple Pen and they automatically convert to text. I've just updated to iPad OS 16 and the feature doesn't work anymore. When I select the pen with the letter "A" on it (what I did previously), and start writing, it immediately reverts to Text Mode when I touch the Apple Pen to the surface of the iPad. I can choose a "pen" and take notes like normal, but the scribble feature no longer works. It doesn't convert to text. Is this a known issue as a result of iPad OS 16?

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneNote | For business | iOS

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Anonymous
2022-10-28T18:40:20+00:00

Hi there,

I'm a Product Manager on the OneNote team.

First, let me apologize for the disruption you're experiencing with Scribble on OneNote.

We have currently turned off Scribble on OneNote for all users on iPadOS 16. We encountered some unusual behavior with this new OS and are working on a fix ASAP. We hope to have the feature restored very soon.

Thank you for your patience. I will follow up on this thread once I have more news to share.

Best,

Greg

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-01-17T15:23:18+00:00

    I think I'm just going to send a note everyday until we get a valid response. The reality is there is no way it would take this long to release to all iPad devices in the modern tech era. I'm not buying the concept that this is still being pushed out to users.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-01-17T16:42:16+00:00

    agreed.

    In an unrelated attempt to understand what determines the availability of iOS OneNote advanced functions for MS365 corporate account (ie: is it the account who created the notebook, the active user or the OneDrive location of the file -- btw, still not able to get a response), I threw in that I'm wondering is this has an impact on the scribble to text availability.

    Interestingly enough, the response given included the following statement:

    "The scribble-to-text function is now only available for OneNote for Windows 10"

    (as if there users out there that are dreaming they're using this feature!)

    It just shows that they're throwing anything at users as if any response is better than a delayed, accurate response.

    This is the new norm of customer service... (!)

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-01-17T17:23:56+00:00

    Hey Stuart - apologies for the delay, we're trying our hardest to get this into your hands. We've rolled out the feature to 50% last week to verify the feature is working as expected. It will be released to 100% in the coming days.

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-01-17T17:27:22+00:00

    Hi there! We rolled out the feature to a random 50% of users to do some final testing to ensure the feature is working as it should. We'll be expanding this to 100% very soon!

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