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
    2025-06-12T23:27:53+00:00

    The new position of the search bar is terrible and a software failure!! I cannot find a way to reposition it. Does Microsoft actually test their product changes before rolling them out as the gospel?

    Unfortunately, in recent years, no - instead of internal QA they now just roll it directly out to paying customers and use them as the QA instead. If enough people complain about something, they'll fix or revert it. But it's a terrible model when it comes to customer service/user experience, even if it may be more "efficient" from a business perspective. Thus it's no surprise that quality and stability of much of their software has dropped in recent years.

    (I know this was probably a rhetorical question but felt the need to answer it anyway because the answer is so ridiculous...)

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  2. Anonymous
    2025-06-13T14:14:14+00:00

    Someone at Microsoft PLEASE put our search notebooks button back where it is supposed to be. This new spot is ANNOYING!!! It makes no sense.

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  3. Anonymous
    2025-06-13T14:47:59+00:00

    The new search bar location now covers an area of all of my pages that I have standardized as a location for specific information that I use every day. Now I cannot read that information on any of my pages. This is absolutely egregious.

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  4. Anonymous
    2025-06-17T00:16:21+00:00

    Just press "ctrl+e" on your keyboard for the mean time.

    I also have the same situation and still can't see the option to add search bar again on the upper right of my screen.

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  5. Anonymous
    2025-06-17T08:06:19+00:00

    This is getting really annoying!

    As a septuagenarian, by the time I have found the search bar each time I need it, I have forgotten what I was going to search for :( .

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