In OneNote the Search bar has moved, How do I put it back to where it was?

Anonymous
2025-05-22T20:51:54+00:00

Version 2504 Build 16.0.18730.20122 on Windows 11.

I have been using OneNote for years, all of a sudden when I opened it up today, the Search bar has moved from its correct place on top of the pages list on the side, to now being in the upper right corner of the actual notes main page.

When I type in a search, the list of pages where the search term shows up now covers up half of the notes field, meaning you can't read half of the page to see if the search result is actually what you are looking for or not, making the entire search function pretty much useless.

How can I move the search box, and more importantly, the list of pages that contain the search result, so that it no longer covers up the actual notes page that I need to read?

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneNote | Other | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2025-07-14T12:52:58+00:00

    I will CERTAINLY be giving this a try… thanks for posting 😉...

    Update

    Kept getting error message 😒

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  2. Anonymous
    2025-07-14T03:36:20+00:00

    I just ended of rolling back to an earlier version of OneNote.

    Here are the steps: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-to-revert-to-an-earlier-version-of-office-2bd5c457-a917-d57e-35a1-f709e3dda841

    Basically download the Microsoft Office Deployment tool (and run it so it will expand the two files) https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=49117

    Paste the following into a Notepad document and save as Config.xml in same location as setup.exe of the Office Deployment tool. (18227.2016 will install the Jan 2025 version of Office)

    Then open a command line with admin privileges. (Click Start, type cmd in search box, right-click cmd.exe, and click Run as administrator.) Go to where your 

    setup.exe /configure config.xml

    Then start an Office program go to File > Account and select Install Updates. This will roll back your version of Office.

    After updates run an Office program again and go to File > Account and select Disable Updates

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  3. Anonymous
    2025-07-14T02:55:01+00:00

    I think Microsoft is trying to kill OneNote for some reason. Maybe they have some other AI garbage they want to shove down our throats.

    I wish someone else would make a program similar to OneNote so we wouldn't have to keep dealing with Microsoft removing features and making OneNote as annoying to use as possible with their garbage AI "assistant" and covering up the note area with a useless and redundant Search box.

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  4. Anonymous
    2025-07-11T20:25:20+00:00

    Because of this and the fact that links to my own folders now don't work (one of the my most used features), I am now actively looking for an alternative. There are quite a few available but I haven't found one in which I can import my OneNote content yet. I guess I should never have been too reliant on one software. I have built up years of content on OneNote as it's been central to the way I use my PC, not just a note taker.

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