Forum Discussion
OneNote application not launching/opening (android)
Hi everyone,
A couple of days ago, my One Note andorid application was opening just fine, however, I have noticed since yesterday that the application simply doesn't launch and remain stuck on the app logo screen.
I tried clearing up the app cache and that didn't help.
Can someone share if they have faced this issue?
- This issue started for me about 10 days ago (7/9/2021). I tried clearing cache, restarting the app, restarting the device, etc. though that only resolved the issue for one use of OneNote, at which point the process needed to be repeated.
I uninstalled and reinstalled OneNote, same problem.
As I use OneNote extensively for work and personal - when I am away from my laptop, I access it on my mobile dozens of times an hour.
I couldn't be restarting my phone every time I needed to access OneNote.
So I resorted to a factory reset of my Galaxy S8, running Android v9.
Sadly, the issue has persisted, as described here by everyone else.
Hawaii_Mark's suggestion of switching to the 'sticky notes' tab before closing does work and is a useful workaround. Thanks Mark.
Hoping Microsoft fixes it soon though... as I don't always remember to switch (and shouldn't have to). - Thank you for the tip. That has solved the problem. But how do we all get MICROSOFT to respond to the problem and tell us when they will fix it. It has been over 1 month now. since 8 September!!!! I am paying for Office 365!!!
- It is fixed!!!!!! It only took them 6 months!!!!!
- Cool! In the meantime I have a new phone.... But glad it's now fixed for everyone
- Hi, if you uninstall then reinstall, does your note already saved remain? I dont want to do this incase I lose the saved notes, but at the same time I cant get into them anyway. Any advise or experience is appreciated
- Hi, if you uninstall then reinstall, does your note already saved remain? I dont want to do this incase I lose the saved notes, but at the same time I cant get into them anyway. Any advise or experience is appreciated
- Hi donna_h1966, Your notes should all be safely saved in the cloud on your Microsoft Onedrive. You can verify this by logging into your Onenote account at Onenote.com. Normally you can uninstall the app from your phone/computer without deleting your notes from the cloud. Unfortunately reinstalling the app on my phone didn't fix the problem. The only thing that seems to work is to Clean Data in the Onenote app.
- It happens several times when I try to open onenote on my cell phone with android 9. Every time I have to clean data and cash of Storage. How can I solve the problem permanently
- Hi Hamid_salari, I think I found a work around. Go ahead and Clear Data so you can start Onenote. Before you close Onenote click on the Sticky Notes button then close Onenote. Onenote will now open normally. If you forget to click on the Sticky Notes button Onenote will break and it wont start again. When this happens you'll need to Clear Data to get Onenote started. I use Onenote everyday and something changed last night. This is a little upsetting.
- Thanks Hawaai_Mark. Your graceful, yet sticky, exit will keep me limping along until they patch it. I was starting to feel like I was the only one on Earth with this exact problem. I too use OneNote everyday, mostly for my business, and this bug was a total thorn in my side. Coffee is on me. Cheers.
Not sure if this helps anyone, but I've figured out what seems to trigger this issue on my Samsung Galaxy Note 8, and that's using the "Close All" function on the App Switcher (press bottom-right button to open App Switcher, then press "Close All" button at bottom middle).
It does NOT do this if I do either:
- Use the App Switcher to JUST close OneNote
- Use the "Sticky Note" workaround documented elsewhere in this thread before doing Close All
I typically do use Close All once or twice a day just to close my usual twenty dozen open apps and start fresh, but I guess maybe that's not such a great idea.
Update: I take that back - it looks like it CAN happen after using the App Switcher to close OneNote only. Just... not every time, as seems to be the case so far with "Close All".- I'm having the same problem. I installed an older version and everything is working normally again. I've disabled automatic updates for OneNote for now. While I wait for Microsoft to fix the app I'll continue to use the older version of the app.
- Thanks so much summatix, that seems to be working for me.
Haven't been testing for long, of course.
Notes for others:
(you do this entirely at your own risk)
I also used APKPure as summatix suggested;
searched for OneNote, clicked on the result;
selected the August release and the arm64 architecture version (other versions https://itechify.com/2016/07/13/identify-correct-architecture-for-android-apk-arm-arm64/);
Stopped and uninstalled OneNote from Android settings;
Installed the new (older) version from my downloads folder - had to allow install from this location in Security settings;
Before running the app - I went into Google Play, searched OneNote, clicked on the onenote result, and then went into the menu (3 dots) and disabled "enable auto-update"
Have used the Android "close all" button, shut onenote, reopened a few times - so far, so good.
- I can confirm that as of 10/29 I am getting the purple screen of death and cannot even get back into OneNote after a total uninstall after clearing cache and data. So the sticky notes won't work for me as I can't even install it again. Will have to try going to an older version or, since I was converting from Google Keep, just stick with that (but it doesn't let me highlight and format text near as well as OneNote and as an Office265 user, I thought it would be nicer to have it all be Microsoft compatible
- I found Evernote's paid personal subscription a pretty good substitute for those who might not be comfortable installing an old version of OneNote. I think the unofficial app source such as Apkpure is pretty low risk though. I decided to go with using the old OneNote app since I need ongoing access to my past customer data, in addition to already being habitually trained to use it. It actually does everything I need it to do pretty well. An email button would be nice. Highlighting text for copy/cut and paste is a little challenging in Android OneNote. Select all doesn't really select all. Both OneNote and Evernote work well on a Win10 PC/laptop too. Highlighting with OneNote behaves strangely on Win10 as well. While trying to select a whole page it misses the odd word visually, yet captures them anyway, as evidenced by the resulting paste. Weird but acceptable. Maybe it's on Microsoft OneNote people's bug fix to do list.
My Samsung Galaxy S8 Active dreams of the exuberant day when it can flawlessly run a OneNote installation. Hopefully before it experiences complete obsolescence or the natural death of its battery. A small ceremony will be needed in all cases. Is it just me or is my battery discharging faster than normal. I can't afford a new phone. Good luck OneNoters. : ) Mayteam Just make sure before you close the app you are on a sticky note. Then close. You will not have a problem. This tip came from someone else in the long chain about this problem. And it works every time. Microsoft said they are working on a fix, but they still don't know when it will be available. But just stay on the sticky note page, close the app, and it always opens up again.
- Hello everyone. I have a Samsung Galaxy S8 with Android version 9. I was having the same problem that everyone else was having here. I was also closing One note from the sticky notes screen. I wrote to Microsoft through the OneNote app in the play store. Someone from Microsoft wrote me back on the 9th of November 2021. He said they made some recent updates to the OneNote app. He suggested I try to use the app again as I normally would. I was worried about trying to open and close the one note app from the notebooks page. But I tried it. I tried it several times. I can finally open and close one note from the notebooks page or from the sticky notes page. The app seems to be fixed. I did not download an earlier version of that. I did not try to download any other version of the app from any other website. I just simply updated the OneNote app from the Android play store. OneNote seems to be working fine again. Good luck everyone.
I ended up downloading the APK from an android police recommended site: https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/microsoft-corporation/onenote/onenote-16-0-14228-20202-release/microsoft-onenote-save-ideas-and-organize-notes-16-0-14228-20202-4-android-apk-download/ and that loaded right up once I gave the phone permission to download from an outside source from play store. Seemed less sketchy than the other one which the phone was more hesitant on....
- Hello the one note app is working again after a recent Microsoft update
I can open and close it from any screen now
Kathleen with a Samsung Galaxy S8, Android version 9.
