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
    2025-07-03T22:56:14+00:00

    This does not seem to work on the desktop verion. This is the only version that I have. Any other suggestions?

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  2. Anonymous
    2025-07-09T14:43:54+00:00

    the search feature in the ribbon/toolbar is for searching the commands inside OneNote (and will look online for help as well); to add insult to injury, it can search quick notes but not pages! it's useful and it's where it belongs but we STILL need a search field that we can actually work with that doesn't sit right on top of the title and text any time your OneNote is in a smaller window for, you know, taking notes!

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  3. Anonymous
    2025-07-09T15:14:42+00:00
    1. another vote for letting us put the search box back where it was because it's in the way
    2. The OneNote team say in the blog comments "Thank you all for taking the time to share your feedback! Our team is prioritizing making this experience better. I'll report back when it's rolling out." but it sounds like the fix is just to minimise the search box in place rather than to move it back where we found it useful and logical
    3. this Answers web site will be going away (in a week you won't be able to make any new posts here) so folks should check out the new places to ask for OneNote features/get support
      1. https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/forum/c06dcc30-2e1c-ec11-b6e7-0022481f8472 is the extremely memorable URL for the OneNote section on the Microsoft feedback site
      2. the official new support site is Q&A but Q&A doesn't have a dedicated OneNote section, just tags inside the Microsoft 365/Office section and there is only a tag for the Windows version of OneNote for business users (you have to pick all four levels of tag and those are the only OneNote tags available) https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/tags/803/m365-office-office-onenote-business-platform-windows
      3. so I made a Q&A post covering this so we can keep the feedback going https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/4370967/i-want-to-put-the-floating-search-bar-in-onenote-b

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  4. Anonymous
    2025-07-10T07:40:53+00:00

    Hi,

    This change makes no sense, and is so annoying; step 3: there is no search group, I cannot see where to moved search back to the right, so all page titles are highlighted instead of left view

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  5. Anonymous
    2025-07-10T07:42:47+00:00

    Thank you but your missing the point, we want it back far right, your article say far right, it's no far left and works differently; everyone here s trying to move it back right to work as it was before the update.

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