OneNote fingerprint unlock is not working

I had the same frickin' issue when I switched to my new phone, so I felt it was an issue with the current version of onenote and "EURAKAH" I found a solution.

All you have to do install a previous APK version of onenote and then update it to the latest version through play store and the fingerprint unlock works. I installed the January 19, 2024 APK version from apkmirror. I recommend others as well to download from this website as it is malware free and has authentic apps.

Worked for me on Samsung Galaxy S21 5G. Thanks for the tip

LKR307 Solution Worked for me - thank you!

But APK Mirror is a scary site and difficult to navigate around all of the ads that seem to be walking you through their process. Be careful!

Sure would be nice if Microsoft would repair this problem with their app so we would not have to go to possibly questionable sites to download possibly questionable files. But Microsoft does not seem to want to do that, and instead risks people abandoning their software, as they should. Safe to say there are probably a few alternative note-taking apps out there!

On January 2nd, 2025 I contacted Samsung Care about this issue via that link you provided. After following their instructions to clear the app's cache on my phone, they directed me to contact the Microsoft support for OneNote.

I contacted Microsoft support via the live chat widget from support.microsoft.com . My case number was 7062560408. The agent I spoke with directed me to check the fingerprint settings on my device to ensure they were registered, ensure the OneNote app was updated to the latest version, clear the cache again, and finally try to re-enable the fingerprint unlock feature through an option that wasn't listed on my settings page. After having done all this the agent said the issue required me to be redirected to another agent with more tools. After waiting about 10 minutes she said that the agent wasn't in and then provided me with a link which leaded me back to the Microsoft Support page. I typed in the search bar again what my issue was, and it led me to the Microsoft live chat widget again.

So this time, my case number was 7062560408, which is the same as last time. There was a new agent that handled my issue who would take longer response times between messages, with the longest delay being 7 minutes. He told me to repeat the steps I took with the last agent and then told me to see if there were options listed in my phone settings that were not there. After the 3hour and 30 minute mark with dealing with this issue. I decided to give up and tell the agent that I don't think he could solve this issue. He offered to give me a call but I declined and hung up on the chat board.

Overall, I went through what you and your agents told me to do and yet I could not find an answer to this solution, which was frustrating since I use the feature to access hospital codes for work. I came to the conclusion that I will still use the app and just trust in my phone's lockscreen security.

I've now tried this with 6 old versions from APKmirror, from between 2019 and 2024, with no success. I have an old Galaxy S8, and my fingerprint works to unlock both the phone and various apps on it, including Microsoft Authenticator and several banking apps.

This is worse than inconvenient, because none of the passwords that I kept in a separate file is working on any of my locked notes, so currently the content is all inaccessible.

Surely there is some way round this? Any help very gratefully received!

Having the same issue on my Galaxy S22 in 2025. Tried a previous solution of installing an apk and updating via the playstore but no luck. Tried a couple different apk versions. Not able to use my fingerprint to unlock