Mac OneNote ver. 16.60 "Backups" does NOT show in Preferences

Anonymous
2022-04-15T23:57:37+00:00

PROBLEM

With the release of version 16.60, the Mac OneNote development team stated in the Mac App Store:

...Starting now, your notes on Mac will be automatically backed up on your Mac and not just in the cloud." "...go to OneNote preferences and select Backups. From there, you can customize your backup preferences and access your backed up notes."

The problem is there is no "Backups" section in preferences.

MY ACTIONS

I have uninstalled and reinstalled OneNote multiple times. Rebooted. Signed out and back into my Microsoft account. Nothing I have done has revealed the new Backups section.

I do not know if it makes any difference, but I am a license holder for Microsoft 365 Family edition of which OneNote is a part. I originally downloaded OneNote from the Microsoft site. Today, when I could not find "Backups," I uninstalled OneNote, and re-installed from the Mac App Store; that did not work either.

FOR THE RECORD

I'm a fanatical note-taker, organizational, planner, outliner type of person; OneNote is the best tool I have ever used. I have used OneNote daily since it was first released on Windows. I have gladly moved to Mac and continued to use the Mac version of OneNote. I have also regularly tried other note apps to see if there is anything better. By "better" what I actually mean is if there is another notes app as excellent as OneNote AND allows me to save my data locally. There has only been one contender and it is hardly supported anymore.

QUESTION

Does anybody have a solution?

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneNote | For home | MacOS

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
Answer accepted by question author
Anonymous
2022-05-25T13:51:48+00:00

I am glad to report I received the Backups feature.

If you haven't yet received the Backups feature...

I suspect you will receive it in the near future. I wouldn't waste time to determine the cause of delay or to force the feature to appear.

  • April 16th, 2022, I saw in the App Store, the Devs announced the new Backups feature available
  • May 24th, 2022, I received the Backups feature
  • I have no idea why it took that long
  • I tried every tactic I know to force the Backups feature to appear--nothing worked. If it matters to you, look back in these posts and you'll find a post in which I listed everything I tried.

Backups works...

  • The Backups feature works quickly and well
  • I have not yet tried to restore data; I'll report my findings when I try it

Hope for the future...

Assuming the restore feature works properly, then my only hope for future abilities is to allow users their own local destination for backups. As of now, backups are forced to Microsoft's preset location, which is:

/Users/*your user name*/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.onenote.mac/Data/Library/Application Support/Microsoft User Data/OneNote/15.0/Backup

Was this answer helpful?

1 person found this answer helpful.
0 comments

46 additional answers

Sort by: Newest
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2022-05-02T16:40:33+00:00

    Before you started your rant you should have looked at my profile statistics.

    I made my ironic/sarcastic comment because I know these discussions about local backup for years, all too well.

    Bernd

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2022-05-02T16:13:10+00:00

    This thread is getting surreal, people are discussing a phantom feature 🤔

    https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/onenote-for-mac/42f9d6d7-d5f4-443e-a721-b71e6a4bd649?LastReply=true#LastReply 

    Bernd

    Lol, what an amazing combination of ignorance and arrogance Bernd, where you come into this thread clearly not understanding what it’s about and still want to act like you’re smarter than everyone else here.

    Since you clearly can’t be bothered to read the thread, I’ll clarify for you that there was a new version of OneNote for Mac that, in the patch notes, explicitly states that it’s adding a feature where users can make local backups of their Notebooks, yet we can’t seem to get this feature to work for us. This has nothing to do with web export, and it has nothing to do with any version of OneNote other than the one for the Mac.

    This is a tech support forum for people helping each other. Since you don’t understand the problem at all and obviously also do not like Macs, I don’t think you’re capable of helping anyone here. Please go away and stop wasting everyone’s time with your useless comments. Thanks in advance.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2022-05-02T15:44:02+00:00

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2022-05-02T14:08:00+00:00

    I did not want imply Macs are the centre of the world. I use Windows and Mac but this thread relates to a Mac problem.

    Backup should be in Preferences but not on my 16.60 version.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments