SOLVED

OneNote lagging while typing

Copper Contributor

OneNote for Mac has become really slow and lagging while I try to type notes on lecture slides. I normally import a PDF on a page and write notes over it, but it cannot keep up with even short bursts of typing without freezing. Currently running OneNote 16.42.20101102 on macOS catalina 10.15.7. I've tried closing the notebook and reopening and shutting the program down etc. - any help would be much appreciated!

9 Replies

@lbarr99 

 

I am likewise experiencing similar problems across my mac devices (MacBook Pro 2017 & Ipad 6th gen).

 

Currently running Mac OS Catalina 10.15.7. 

 

This is becoming enough of a nuisance that I will switch to a different note-taking platform if this isn't resolved. It has been ongoing for the past 3 weeks now. 

Hi,
You've posted your topic in Cortana hub,
You can click/tap on Community Hub (shown at the top of every page) -> Browse All Community Hubs to view the full list of all product related Hubs.

OneNote Community Hub:
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/onenote/ct-p/OneNote
best response confirmed by ChrisR (Microsoft)
Solution

@lbarr99 

I had the same problem, running on Windows 10. I realized the problem started when I turned the "text cursor indicator" on. This is a setting in Windows 10 (Settings >> Ease of Access >> Text Cursor) that makes the text cursor much more prominent. I turned it off and OneNote stopped lagging. I assume there is a similar setting for Macs.

This is amazing! I registered just to thank you for posting this. OneNote has been unusable for me for nearly 18 months. I tried clearing the cash, repairing the app, disabling auto sync, and even uninstalling and reinstalling a fresh copy to no avail but turning off the text cursor indicator worked. Thank you!
Glad I could help.
This is the one! Thank you DHall1375.

@DHall1375 OMFG! THANK YOU!!! This took me over two hours to find and it fixed it IMMEDIATELY. Good Karma coming your way

 

Here years later, still an issue. Problem is I kind of need that cursor turned on. Doesn't look like it's going to be fixed any time soon. Literally each key press was taking about 5-10 seconds. Thanks for the tip.
Thanks for posting however, my Onenote is practically unusable due to lagging and that's with the text cursor indicator off. It seems to happen if there is a lot of text in a note e.g. in my most recent case, 910 words and one image of size 25kb.

I've just switched from using Evernote because it was forcing me to upgrade. It thought it wise to avail of OneNote as I'm already paying for office 365, however, if it can't handle notes of this size, it won't work for me and I'll have to revert to Evernote and suck up the cost.

I'll wait to see if Microsoft can suggest a solution first. Please advise.
1 best response

Accepted Solutions
best response confirmed by ChrisR (Microsoft)
Solution

@lbarr99 

I had the same problem, running on Windows 10. I realized the problem started when I turned the "text cursor indicator" on. This is a setting in Windows 10 (Settings >> Ease of Access >> Text Cursor) that makes the text cursor much more prominent. I turned it off and OneNote stopped lagging. I assume there is a similar setting for Macs.

View solution in original post