OneNote search function not working

Dear Zoe,

Please first check whether you are using the latest version of the OneNote application in your environment. If no, I suggest you update the version number to the latest version number, restart the computer, relaunch OneNote and do a search to see if the issue disappears.

If it is convenient, I also suggest you go to Control Panel>Programs>right-click on the Office applications' icon>Change>check whether there is an Online Repair option. If yes, run it, restart the computer, relaunch OneNote and do a search to see if the issue disappears.

Meanwhile, I suggest you open the affected notebook in OneNote for the web and use Ctrl+F to see if the content can be searchable.

Moreover, I'd like you to upload a full screenshot of the Account page in the OneNote application you are using for our reference. You can access the page via clicking on File>Account.

Note: Remove any private information before uploading the screenshots.

Thanks for your effort and time!

Sincerely

Cliff | Microsoft Community Moderator

Hi there Cliff,

Thank you for your quick response. I have updated OneNote and relaunched it, but the is still there. I have also completed the Online Repair process but that hasn't fixed it.

I suppose that I will have to make do with using OneNote for the web for doing the searches for now until the problem is fixed.

Here is a screenshot of the Account page

Dear Zoe,

Thanks for your updates.

From the screenshot of the Account page, it seems that the latest version number of the Office applications in Current Channel is different from what is mentioned in Update history for Microsoft 365 Apps (listed by date) - Office release notes | Microsoft Learn.

I did a test with the OneNote application Version 2305 (Build 16501.20210 Click-to-Run) Current Channel in our environment and the Search feature works fine.

If it is convenient, I suggest you prepare a test device or a VM to only install the OneNote application Version 2305 (Build 16501.20210 Click-to-Run) Current Channel with ODT mentioned in Overview of the Office Deployment Tool - Deploy Office | Microsoft Learn in your environment to see if the Search feature works.

The configuration.xml file looks like the following.

Download the installation package:

setup.exe /download configuration.xml 

Install OneNote:

setup.exe /configure configuration.xml 

If yes and if you haven't done something at your side, I suggest you contact the administrator in your company to see if he deploys some policies at his side to change the version number settings and see whether he can help you change the version number.

Thanks for your effort and time!

Sincerely

Cliff | Microsoft Community Moderator

OneNote 2013 (version 15.x.x.x)

Had the same problem with OneNote 2013 Home and Student installed on my PC (Windows 11 23H2) where search through the notes didn't work anymore giving me as results only the section titles, and in my case the solution was:

1. (just to be cautious make a backup of the dir %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\OneNote)

2. quit OneNote and every other Office tool

3. from Explorer enter the directory %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\OneNote\15.0

4. rename/delete the file OneNoteOfflineCache.onecache and the directory OneNoteOfflineCache_Files

5. open OneNote again (don't worry if you see everything empty! Your notes and sub-notes will be repopulated quickly)

OneNote 2016 (version 16.x.x.x)

1. (just to be cautious make a backup of the dir %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\OneNote)

2. quit OneNote and every other Office tool

3. from Explorer enter the directory %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\OneNote\16.0

4. rename/delete the directory cache

5. open OneNote again (don't worry if you see everything empty! Your notes and sub-notes will be repopulated quickly)

If you have another version of Office and OneNote, try searching for *cache* folders/files in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\OneNote (and its subdirs) anyway, and re-adapt the same solution logic above to your installation.

Good luck!

P.S.

What version of Office/OneNote do I have (referring to the subdirectory path numbers above)?

• 2010 is "14.0"

• 2013 is "15.0"

• 2016 and newer, including recent Microsoft 365 Apps, should be "16.0"

Dear Hexaae,

As similar issues may have different root causes, I suggest you post a new thread on our forum for expert help.

Thank you for your time and effort.

Sincerely

Cliff | Microsoft Community Moderator

[Edited by Cliff MSFT at 2:36 AM on 12/22/2023 UTC]

This worked for me, ie renaming the cache folder so it makes a new one.

Thanks Hexaae

This worked perfectly for an issue I had to resolve for a user.

Thank you

Thanks Hexaae!
it worked for me on One Note 2016.

Good that some people like you are here to help instead of Microsoft who too often can't...

Hi, I had a similar issue and didn't want to try deleting the cache file directly. Instead, I closed out of the Notebook completely (File > Info > Settings > Close). I then used the HP repair [removed_js] > Advanced Options > Repair). When I reopened the Notebook it seems to have re-catalogued the data and now more comprehensively searches my Notebook (at least, pursuant to the test search terms I used that had previously been an issue). I think the fix is more likely attributed to simply closing out of the Notebook entirely rather than the HP "repair" function. Either way, this is a more conservative approach to fixing the issue than attempting to delete the cache file.

Hi, I had a similar issue and didn't want to try deleting the cache file directly. Instead, I closed out of the Notebook completely (File > Info > Settings > Close). I then used the HP repair [removed_js] > Advanced Options > Repair). When I reopened the Notebook it seems to have re-catalogued the data and now more comprehensively searches my Notebook (at least, pursuant to the test search terms I used that had previously been an issue). I think the fix is more likely attributed to simply closing out of the Notebook entirely rather than the HP "repair" function. Either way, this is a more conservative approach to fixing the issue than attempting to delete the cache file.

Well, I honestly think the repair function will actually also delete the cache 😉