OneNote Search Results not pinning

Krajewski, Todd 10 Reputation points
2025-07-23T17:46:04.84+00:00

When attempting to click the "pin search results (Alt-O)" or by pressing ALT-O, the pinning action does not work.

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneNote | For business | Windows

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  1. Krajewski, Todd 10 Reputation points
    2025-07-23T17:46:41.4766667+00:00

    Try signing out of your active account within OneNote and sign back in.

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  2. Ian-Ng 14,180 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2025-07-23T20:05:41.32+00:00

    Hi @Krajewski, Todd,

    Good day! Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A forum and sharing the detail.  

    Thank you for reporting the issue with the “Pin Search Results” function in OneNote. This behavior can be caused by several factors, and in order to investigate further and provide an efficient solution, please follow the troubleshooting steps below and share your observations: 

    1. Confirm the OneNote and Office version by checking if your OneNote and Office suite are fully updated. Go to File > Account > Update Options and select Update Now.  User's image
    2. Test different pinning methods by trying both the mouse (clicking the pin icon) and the keyboard shortcut (Alt+O). Note whether either method works or if both fail. 
    3. Attempt in a different environment by testing the pinning feature using OneNote Online via a web browser. Let me know if the same issue occurs there or if the function works as expected. 
    4. Clear OneNote cache by closing OneNote completely. Locate and rename or clear the OneNote cache folder on your device. After this, restart the app and try pinning the search results again. 

    Your cooperation in the above steps is greatly appreciated, as it helps us isolate and resolve the issue more quickly. Please provide any results after trying each step.  

    I look forward to your response. 

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

    Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread. 

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  3. Biagio Mazzucco (bjm) 5 Reputation points
    2025-08-20T16:16:37.46+00:00

    Microsoft broke search in OneNote. In order to make it more streamlined, they now require extra clicks to perform a search. Someone told me to use Search in OneNote online since the search box remains, but Microsoft doesn't search notebooks in OneNote Online - you need to know where what you're looking for is because you can't search more than a single section.

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  4. Krajewski, Todd 10 Reputation points
    2025-09-12T20:41:00.9033333+00:00

    I am not sure what changed. I recently had the Office applications updated on the workstation and under went numerous reboots for an OS update. Testing this issue again today, shows that the "click on pin" option works, the ALT-O option does not.

    I did not clear cache. I did not get a chance to verify with the on-line version.

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  5. L U 26 Reputation points
    2025-12-22T00:35:53.2666667+00:00

    I had the problem. I found a string in all notebooks (desktop 365 app). Accidentally clicked "Find on page". Realised mistake, and then below the results I clicked "Pin search results" but it did not work (wanted dated long list).

    Cleared search (x in search box) and re-input search, directly clicked Pin search results - did not work.

    Closing and restarting OneNote app did not fix - searched something else, and then clicked Pin search results, did not work.

    Might have stuffed something up by choosing Find before Pin in the same search?

    Remedy:

    =======

    Anyway, closed OneNote.

    Cleared (renamed-aside) the "cache" folder here:

    C:\Users\mckayl\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneNote\16.0

    Re-opened OneNote (waited for all Sync to come good).

    Searched - the list took a little time to arrive - clicked Pin search results, and a little wait, and I got my dated search results, pinned OK.

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