Why am I not seeing my notes on the OneNote App on my iPhone

Kaibakai Jonmichael Haines 0 Reputation points
2026-09-24T15:20:18.61+00:00

I can view my notes on my Macbook Air and on the Web but when I downloaded the app on my iPhone and signed in, there aren't any notes to view OneNote. Why aren't my notes synced there as well?

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneNote | For home | iOS
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  1. AI answer

    2026-09-24T15:20:34.4766667+00:00

    Most commonly, the notes are not appearing on iPhone because the notebook is not opened there yet, the iPhone app has not synced the notebook, or the notebook format is too old to sync to iPhone.

    Try this in order:

    1. Open the notebook on iPhone
      • In OneNote on iPhone, tap More Notebooks at the bottom of the notebooks list.
      • Tap the notebook that contains the notes from the MacBook or web version.
      • If needed, tap Open more from OneDrive.
    2. Manually trigger sync on iPhone
      • Tap the Show Notebooks button.
      • In the notebooks pane, pull down on the notebooks list.
      • This starts a sync of open notebooks.
    3. Search for the notes in the iPhone app
      • On any page, tap Search on the bottom menu.
      • Enter a keyword from the missing note.
      • If the note exists in an opened notebook, it should appear in results.
    4. Confirm the notebook is stored in OneDrive and opens on the same account
      • Since the notes appear on MacBook and on the web, make sure the iPhone app is signed in with that same OneDrive account.
      • If the notebook was previously closed on iPhone, it will not appear in searches until reopened.
    5. Check whether the notebook is in an older format
      • Notebooks created in versions earlier than OneNote 2010 for Windows do not sync with OneNote on iPad or iPhone.
      • Those notebooks must be updated to the newer notebook format and moved to OneDrive.
    6. If sync still fails, verify where the problem is
      • Open the notebook in OneNote for the web.
      • If the notebook and latest changes are visible there, the issue is likely with the iPhone app sync state rather than the notebook content itself.
    7. Avoid signing out or reinstalling as a first step
      • Microsoft warns that signing in or out of OneNote, or removing and reinstalling the app, is not recommended during sync troubleshooting because it can cause data loss.

    If the notebook still does not appear after opening it from More Notebooks and pulling down to sync, use the iPhone troubleshooting resources or report the issue in the OneNote community forum.

    AI-generated content may be incorrect. Read our transparency notes for more information.

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  2. Kaibakai Jonmichael Haines 0 Reputation points
    2026-09-24T16:09:32.0766667+00:00

    There is no More Notebooks at the bottom of the notebooks list.

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  3. Thomas4-N 22,380 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-09-27T14:26:39.96+00:00

    Hello Kaibakai Jonmichael Haines,

    Thanks for reaching out. If More Notebooks isn’t there, you can try opening the notebook from the OneDrive app on your iPhone instead. Sign in with the same account you use to see the notes on the web, find the notebook, and tap it.

    Does it open in OneNote, or do you get an error?

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