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

UPDATE from the Microsoft Q&A site (which will replace this Answers forum soon - no new posts will be allowed here after July 16)

"The current floating position of the OneNote search bar has been a common point of feedback, especially from users working with limited screen space or relying on the ability to quickly glance at page titles while searching. I appreciate how clearly you've described the impact on your workflow. 

While there’s currently no built-in option to revert the search bar to its previous position in the page list, I’d like to offer a few steps to help ensure your feedback reaches the right teams and contributes toward meaningful improvements:

• Leaving a constructive comment on this official blog post helps reinforce that this issue is affecting everyday users.
• Send in-app feedback directly from OneNote app through Help > Feedback then make a clear suggestion. This routes your feedback straight to the OneNote team.
• Microsoft has responded to user comments on this Feedback Portal. You need to describe your experience in more detail: what kind of tasks it interferes with, or how it impacts your workflow. The more context Microsoft sees, the better.

For further reference: Send feedback to Microsoft

(This page may not be in your preferred language, please consider translating it or switching to a supported version).

While we await official updates, here are some workarounds that may temporarily help: 

• Maximize your OneNote window when searching to reduce visual overlap
• Hide the notebook/page list temporarily in case you need more space
• Minimize the search bar when not in use, though I know this isn’t ideal "

SOURCE https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/4370967/i-want-to-put-the-floating-search-bar-in-onenote-b

this sounds remarkably like it was written by Copilot... especially the bit where it says Microsoft has responded to comments on the Feedback thread, because there are no responses and it's not even tagged as in progress.

Hello,

Welcome to the Microsoft Community Forum. Please accept our warmest regards and sincerest hope that all is well despite the situation you find yourself in.

To move the Search bar back to its original position in OneNote, you can try the following steps:

1. Open OneNote on your Windows 11 device.
2. Click on the "View" tab in the top menu bar.
3. Look for the "Search" group.
4. Click on the "Search" dropdown menu.
5. Select "Dock to left" or "Dock to right" to move the Search bar back to its original position on the side of the pages list.

If the above steps do not resolve the issue, you may need to check for any updates for OneNote or Windows 11 that could potentially address this problem.

Hope this helps.

Best Regards,

Fordy B.

Microsoft Community Moderator

There is no Search group in View. I can't see my note unless I make my OneNote much larger, which means I can't see other windows I need.

If I try to put the Page tab in to get to a Search group, it shows as checked in the customized ribbon window, but it doesn't show on the OneNote ribbon itself.

Please provide a viable option to move the Search back. I can see from other commentors that your solution above does not exist for them either.

Yep, the above instructions are for the OLD version of OneNote from BEFORE Microsoft put out the update that broke the search bar. Yet another example of a lazy and inept "Microsoft Community Moderator" vomiting out a copy/paste response before doing any actual work to research the issue to which they are replying. Totally unaware that this is a NEW issue caused by a recent app update and not an old app version "how to" question. It was made very clear in the original post that this is a new issue as a result of a recent change. I would bet money on they just put the word "SEARCH" onto an old outdated help file and copy/pasted the first thing they found without ever actually reading even the entire title of the post, let alone a single word of the body of the post.

Hey Fordy

You be wrong! Please please, put an URGENT request in to put the Search field BACK up at the top...

Audrey_773

ONLY if you are in full page view. That does NOTHING if you use it in normal view. And switching to full page view also removed 99% of the other buttons and features. That is NOT a fix for the issue.

Sigh, it ain't broke... then they go break it with an unnecessary fix. Now I have a search bar on the top above the menu tabs... and one in the midst of my actual notes obscuring my notes 😒... please make it make sense 🤦🏻‍♀️

I reached out to them since it first appeared and to date no response. Sometimes I feel like someone at Microsoft hates it when people actually enjoy using a product... so they deliberately mess it up. Why? Who knows 🤷🏻‍♀️