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.

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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

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  1. Anonymous
    2022-05-20T15:15:25+00:00

    @ Steven, BrightMole, FoolOnSpringHill,

    I'm glad to hear you have received the Backups update; it gives me hope.

    As of this writing, I still do not have the update.

    I am curious as to how many others may have received it.

    I think it would be prudent customer service if Microsoft comments with possible reasons that some of us receive the update and others do not; it certainly would reduce tension. For example...

    • Is this issue a bug?
    • Is the problem due to a setting made within the user's MacBook?
    • Is the update being rolled out in batches?
    • Is the rollout done geographically?
    • Is it some form of timed release?
    • Is there a process we can try, i.e. uninstall OneNote, reboot, reinstall OneNote, face the East & open OneNote, etc.

    Some kind of explanation or help would be a great olive branch.

    I think the major frustration is being kept in the dark, especially since Microsoft's announcement on the App Store was written as if the release was immediate, and available to all.

    Customers promised something + customers not receiving the something + customers raising issue + plus no response from company who made promise = more customer frustration = bad PR for company.

    Well, complaining does no good; I will continue to wait.

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-04-20T21:54:26+00:00

    I am having the exact same issue. MacBook Pro 16", Intel i9 processor, App Store version of OneNote, signed in with my fully licensed Office 365 Microsoft account. No backup options are showing. I have confirmed I have the most recent version of the software, and that my version and build number aligns with those posted here. Would love to get this feature working!

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-04-20T09:40:24+00:00

    Igor,

    Thank you for the suggestion. I tried turning off Rosetta and also turning it back on; neither caused "Backups" to appear.

    Thank you,

    dlant

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  4. Anonymous
    2022-04-19T03:18:54+00:00

    Hello dlant,

    We’re terribly sorry for all inconvenience caused by this issue.

    As this is a new feature for OneNote for Mac, there could be the minor issues. We are currently investigating and trying to find a source of this behavior and we will let you know as soon as we find a solution.

    Meanwhile, may I know what version of MacOS do you have installed on your device?

    Best Regards,

    Igor

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