Why is my OneNote moving my writing

Question

Why is my OneNote moving my writing

Bator, Grace 5

I use OneNote for taking notes for school and I have noticed that if I am not on a page for a couple of days I will go back and the annotations I have made (i.e. highlighting, drawing diagrams, and writing notes) have been completely shifted. I have not edited any of the documents and I have noticed it with multiple pages. It’s making it extremely hard to read, and I can’t follow any of my handwritten notes that were essential for my note taking. Has anyone else had this problem and how can I solve it without going through pages and retaking my notes? I have noticed that the app did update about 5 days ago.

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JCBC 0 Reputation points

2026-02-18T14:05:42.61+00:00

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2 answers

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JCBC 0 Reputation points

2026-02-18T14:05:42.61+00:00

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Answer 1

Bator, Grace 5

So do I have to manually go in and fix all of it? I never added/removed/edited any text I just opened the page and everything was shifted over.

Ryan-N 13,335 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-02-14T17:25:44.71+00:00
Hi @Bator, Grace,

Thank you for your response.

I would like to provide you with some information as follows:

This is the default design behavior of OneNote on the OneNote for iOS application.

In this case, I recommend that when you highlight text, draw diagrams, you use OneNote for the web.

Please access the following link: https://onenote.cloud.microsoft/en-us/

When you highlight content in the web version of OneNote, the highlights are applied directly to the text instead of appearing as a floating overlay.

You can refer to the illustrative images below for comparison:

This is how highlighting appears in OneNote Web:

This is how highlighting appears in OneNote for iOS:

I hope this information is helpful.

Thank you for your patience and your understanding. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please feel free to share them in the comments on this post so I can continue to support you.

I look forward to continuing the conversation.

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

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Bator, Grace 5 Reputation points

2026-02-15T15:06:15.3+00:00

So is there a way that I am able to fix this on my previous notes without having to go back and rewrite everything?
Ryan-N 13,335 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-02-16T16:10:48.19+00:00

Hi @Bator, Grace,

Thank you for your response. I would like to provide you with the following information:

Since you are using an Education account, your data is typically stored on OneDrive. In this case, please follow the steps below to check and restore a previous version of your OneNote file:

Step 1: Go to https://onedrive.live.com and sign in with your Education account.

Step 2: Locate and select the OneNote file that you want to restore to a previous version.

Step 3: Right-click the file and select Version history.

Step 4: The system will display earlier versions of the file. Please review them and select Restore to recover the desired version.

You can also refer to the related documentation for more guidance:

Restore a previous version of a file stored in OneDrive - Microsoft Support

If the Version history option is not available, it is very likely that your school’s IT department has configured a policy that disables this feature. In that case, please contact your school’s IT department directly for assistance with these steps.

I hope this information is helpful.

If you have any questions or need further assistance, please feel free to share them in the comments on this post so I can continue to support you.

I look forward to continuing the conversation.
Bator, Grace 5 Reputation points

2026-02-18T14:08:24.29+00:00

It does the same thing on the web browser as well.
Ryan-N 13,335 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-02-19T15:30:28.24+00:00

Hi @Bator, Grace,

Thank you for your response.

I would like to ask whether you have tried restoring the file on OneDrive yet. Normally, OneDrive keeps previous versions of a file before and after changes are made, allowing you to restore the file to an earlier state when needed.

Since this issue has only occurred within the past few days, there is a high chance that the versions from before the changes are still saved on OneDrive.

If you are unable to restore the previous version of the file on OneDrive by yourself, you can contact your school’s IT department or administrative office for assistance with this process.

I would like to share the steps to restore a file on OneDrive as follows:

Step 1: Go to https://onedrive.live.com and sign in with your Education account.

Step 2: Locate and select the OneNote file that you want to restore to a previous version.

Step 3: Right-click the file and select Version history.

Step 4: The system will display the previous versions of the file. Please review them and select Restore to recover the desired version.

You can also refer to the related documentation for more guidance:

Restore a previous version of a file stored in OneDrive - Microsoft Support

If you have already contacted the IT department and followed the steps above but the issue still persists, you can ask the IT department to create a support ticket with Microsoft Support.

Once the ticket is received and assigned to a technician, they will proactively contact you using the contact method you provided (email or phone number) to assist with restoring the file from the system.

If you have any updates regarding this issue or any additional questions, please feel free to share them in the comments on this post so I can continue to support you.

I look forward to continuing the conversation.
Bator, Grace 5 Reputation points

2026-02-19T15:37:00.9466667+00:00

It is still shifted on the previous versions as well
Ryan-N 13,335 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-02-19T18:08:52.9066667+00:00

Hi @Bator, Grace,

Thank you for your response.

If you have already tried restoring the notebook using OneDrive version history but the issue still persists, I recommend that you contact your school’s IT department for further assistance. They can help you create a support ticket and submit it to Microsoft Technical Support. The IT team has access to more advanced tools to investigate and assist with restoring your OneNote data back to its original state (if the data is still retained in the system).

Please ask your school’s IT department to follow these steps:

Step 1: Go to admin.microsoft.com

Step 2: Select Help & Support

Step 3: Enter the subject: Request support to restore OneNote

Step 4: Select Contact Support

Step 5: Choose the most appropriate contact method

After the school tenant administrator completes the steps above, a Microsoft Support engineer will proactively reach out to check and assist in determining whether your OneNote data can be restored from the system.

If you have any questions or need further assistance, please feel free to share them in the comments on this post so I can continue to support you.

I look forward to continuing the conversation.

Answer 2

Hi @Bator, Grace,

Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A forum.

Thank you for contacting us.

I would like to provide you with some information as follows:

Currently, OneNote processes handwritten ink, highlights, symbols, and text boxes as floating overlays rather than as content that is embedded directly within the text flow. As a result, annotations may shift out of position when text above them is added or removed, or when the application is updated.

In this case, I recommend that you share your experience and feedback with the Microsoft development team through Microsoft’s official Feedback page:

https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/forum/c06dcc30-2e1c-ec11-b6e7-0022481f8472

User's image

After accessing the link, you can create a post to describe your experience and clearly explain the issue to the OneNote product team.

When a feedback post receives a high level of engagement, it has a better chance of being reviewed by the development team and may be considered for improvement or updates in the near future.

If you have any additional questions or need further assistance, please feel free to leave a comment on this thread so that I can continue to support you.

I look forward to continuing our discussion.

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Why is my OneNote moving my writing

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