Forum Discussion
OneNote Searching (Indexing ?) Problem (Bug)
Replying to my own post - BUT I FIXED IT! - BUT now have other problems.
Here's what I did.
First - Backed up OneNote (which I don't fully understand where, how that works)
Next - Found the Onenote location - then closed Onenote
Next - deleted all of the files in the Onenote cache
Next - Brought OneNote back up - and it came up EMPTY (with Errors)Jacked around with the Open Backups - AS WELL AS trying to use a New Notebook location
(where I had copied my Notebook files on the advice of another post).Anyway, I finally got Onenote back up and the Search function is now working and picking up recently added notes (which was the original problem).
However, WHERE AM I.
Onenote "Info" now shows 2 Notebooks (OneNote Notebooks 4 and OneNote Notebooks 2) - and the location shown for the OneNote Notebooks 4 is even worse
(https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?resid=C6E59%21s0bcbd9618347485ca665bf8f3012d298&id=documents&end=()&end).
OneNote is working (well, almost - another problem with the Search dropdown list showing a full path name instead of page names) - but things are still not right.
How do I get everything lined back up (notebook names, location, etc.) - plus I have a question about the locations in the "Save & Backup" Option.
Should I open another Post for these new problems.
ron in shawnee
Reffering the guidance below:
• Rebuild the Search Index: Microsoft’s official recommendation is to rebuild the index when search stops finding new content. In OneNote for Windows 10/11, this is done via Settings > Options > Search > Rebuild Index. This forces OneNote to re-scan all notes and refresh the search database.
• Limitations: Some enterprise-managed versions of OneNote (especially those deployed via Microsoft 365 with IT restrictions) may not expose the “Rebuild Index” option. In those cases, Microsoft suggests syncing notebooks fully, closing/reopening OneNote, or reinstalling the app if the index corruption persists.
• Notebook Size: Microsoft does not state a hard limit where search fails due to notebook size. Large notebooks (thousands of pages) are supported, but indexing can take longer and may stall if the cache or sync is interrupted.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5215798/onenote-search-function-not-working
Kidd-
Thanks for the response - and frankly I am at a loss as to what is going on.
Your suggestion sounds great, but as you noted my OneNote does not have the "Search or Rebuild" option in my Options dropdown. It does have a Sync in the dropdown, but nothing there - just a checkbox to "Sync notebooks automatically".
Closing and reopening Onenote doesn't work - and I have even tried rebooting my system. Nothing is working - Search still cannot find words in recently created notes.
And I updated the 365 stuff - and supposedly Onenote was updated as part of that update.
So not sure where to go from here - except OneNote is now practical unusable to me for any updates - or rather for any NEW additions - but all of the old stuff is still there and Searchable - and Onenote itself seems to be working fine. Hate to quit making new entries in OneNote.
Would still appreciate any other suggestions.
ron in shawnee