Microsoft OneNote: Save Notes reviews
What users love and hate · 500 reviews analyzed · ★ 3.5
Microsoft's digital notebook with sections and pages — great with a stylus and for shared lists, ideal for students and people working across phone and desktop.
What users love
One unified note library across all devices
Notes sync across phone, tablet, and desktop — everything is accessible anywhere, no more losing things on scraps of paper
I like it, but I don't find the formatting user friendly. but overall it's useful and I like how it syncs with my computer and I can organize things
Good across devices
Nearly perfect app for me. Has replaced dozens of note pads over the years. Can check back on any note, any time, anywhere. For business and personal use I have found no better note app, and I've tried lots. the oen support on android was as good as it it on iOS. I love how easy it is to insert a line and drag down inserting blank space into a note on iOS. I also wish handwriting recognition worke
Flexible structure with notebooks, sections, and pages
The notebook → section → page hierarchy keeps school, work, and personal life organized; paragraphs are easy to drag around and content is easy to find
Very helpful to organise daily task.
so organized! love ❤️ it
on good i love it.. such an intuitive and reasonable app.. geniuinly helped me feel more organised
Free and ad-free — a real edge over paid alternatives
The full feature set is free with no ads, which stands out against paid apps like Evernote and Goodnotes
It's good but limited in functions. For example, try reorganizing a list to group items! It would be useful but I've not found a way to do it! And you can't colour code either. That said, it's free and advert free too.
it is a wonderful app , and it is 100% free, it works smoothly, and you get a lot of features. You can also sync your notes to pc , so that you don't have to open ur pc, again and again. It is a pleasure using this. Thanks to microsoft onenote team.
Free,and does its job at a high-level, u caint ask for anything more
Clean, intuitive interface — easy to pick up from day one
Minimal design, everything feels natural from the start; praised by students and non-technical users alike
I love everything about it. always with me very easy to use. Great app.
Really useful. Very easy interface. It has become a part of my daily life. Thank you!
It is easy and intuitive in formatting - helping the writer to concentrate on the writing part!
Rich content support: text, images, audio, drawings, and files
A single page can hold text, images, audio, drawings, tables, and attachments — great for studying and visual planning
Only time I have an issue is if I'm not attached to the Internet. Otherwise, love it!
Microsoft OneNote is a note-taking app for organizing ideas in a flexible and easy way. It allows you to write text, add images, and draw diagrams in one place. It helps organize study and work notes and keeps everything neatly stored for easy access anytime.
It's helping me keep things more in order because I do have attention deficit disorder and I love this app! As I mentioned before I was not much on technology until I found out a lot more about it which can uncover the true things that have happened throughout my years and I can put them in a safe space. Thank you for AI thank you for Gemini Thank you for Gemini/pro notebook files all of it Thank
Deep integration with Microsoft ecosystem and Outlook
Works with OneDrive, Microsoft 365, and Outlook: drag emails into notes, turn a page into an email, or connect Excel tables
Replacement for Evernote because of integration with OneDrive, Microsoft 365, and Windows file mgmt ecosystem. One unresolved issue: unable to delete some notebooks.
I find Outlook features Onenote helpful and easy to use.
The app is fantastic for breaking down notes into organized sections. You can crop images and save them, drag and drop emails from Outlook into it, Save files, and have linked spreadsheets from excel. If you have a perfectly formatted page explaining something, you can click the "turn page into email" button and it will turn that page as is into an Outlook email. They've done a great job with this
Replaced paper and became a daily second brain
Shopping lists, recipes, study notes, tasks, and important records — people have used it for years; it replaced stacks of paper and fits into everyday life
A great app! I've been using it for years and have been very happy with it.
Nearly perfect app for me. Has replaced dozens of note pads over the years. Can check back on any note, any time, anywhere. For business and personal use I have found no better note app, and I've tried lots. the oen support on android was as good as it it on iOS. I love how easy it is to insert a line and drag down inserting blank space into a note on iOS. I also wish handwriting recognition worke
Really useful. Very easy interface. It has become a part of my daily life. Thank you!
Works offline
The ability to read and write notes without internet is seen as a clear advantage over competing apps
Great and functional even at offline mode
very effective for notes making and versatile, specially its feature of working offline that makes it preferable over other apps and it is free of cost 😁👍
Great at keeping organized for extended trips and daily planning. And the fact that it works offline is a plus
What users hate
After an update, the entire library goes read-only
Notes lock en masse into read-only mode: editing, adding pages, and creating sections all stop working — clearing cache and re-syncing don't help
The app has become pathetic. Not letting me edit my notes and only showing read only even after doing everything I could from the setting. If this is not taken care of then I'll have to search for other apps which get things done without giving me a headache
App is showing all Notebooks as Read Only on Android (fine on desktop)
Last update bricked this app. It supposedly stuck in the sync mode, and while "syncing" it is in read only mode and will not allow you to edit anything. Previously it let you do that, because it synced after some time at last. Not anymore! You can only look at the outdated notes with it. Sad to move to the other app, because at one point (a decade ago) this one was perfect.
Lengthy re-sync blocks access to notes when you need them most
You can't open a list or create a note while sync is running — and it can drag on for up to half an hour even with just a few dozen entries
I'm excited to use this tho.. but what happen? what's wrong? I can't even open/use this app. what's wrong? I'm too excited to use it before and now.. so please in a fact that I can't open/use this please do something to repair the mistake. thankyou, waiting for response.
It often decides it needs to resync your notes, which takes up to 30 minutes. During that time you can't open anything or create new notes, rendering the app useless. Not good when you're in a store and just trying to open your shopping list. I only have a couple of dozen notes, so it's not like I have a huge amount of data.
Little slow on the network side the sync takes forever andd getting a notebook from cloud really tests your patience. Sometimes app is slow. There is a chance of improvement.
Page conflicts on shared notebooks can only be resolved from a desktop
"Page conflicts detected" appears regularly, duplicate versions pile up, and there's no way to fix them without switching to the desktop or web app
App keeps shutting down immediately after I open it. I checked to ensure I have the latest version. App also frequently reports page conflicts. I depend on this app for making notes, schedules, and lists, but now I cannot access any of them. Please fix it!
Constant page conflicts. I use One Note for shared notes. At least once a week I go to open one and get a message about page conflicts that requires opening the note in a desktop browser to address. Now the app also tells me I can't use sticky notes because I'm not signed in when I have no sticky notes. I am signed into this and every other MS app without issue. edit: the issue is not my network.
and after it being ok for a release, you push out another and now nearly every page is once again giving a page conflict - including one that has only existed on this phone as my laptop is switched off and has no way to replicate and even cause a conflict FFS. get a real dev to look at and fix and stop using copilot to try to fix things
Data loss: forced sync overwrites notes with an old backup
Users lose years of notes — the app rolls back to an old copy or silently deletes notebooks, and following support advice wipes unsaved work
yea, I love losing all my notes when syncing my tablet to other devices!!!!
buggy as f. accidentally wiped my years of notes cuz i thought it's in cloud! dumbest notes ever. and old notes that is already deleted still keep coming up in list of notes and cannot be cleaned up. shame on the dev
Horrible app. I've lost my stuff for the last time I'm going back to the old way pencil and paper! This is complete BS the amount of stress it is put me through is just unreal. I should have known not to trust a stupid app having anything to do with computers. It was convenient but not if it's going to keep losing your stuff!
Noticeable typing lag after updates
Input lags by a second or more, copy-paste stutters, and large notes load sluggishly — while the desktop version stays snappy
Very choppy when you have large data.
On my S25 Ultra, it is very lagging and then just stops taking pen input. It is not responsive, then sometimes reads my finger as a pen when I try to scroll. It makes it very difficult to sync my laptop notes with my phone. I am now looking for an alternative product. Sad, because I enjoy using this on my laptop.
worst app extremely slow why anyone would want to 2-3hr just to login ,guys download other apps but not this i am literally pissed off
Long-standing input bugs: cursor jumps before commas, capitals double
After a comma the cursor jumps backward; at the start of a new line the first letter duplicates (especially outside English) — bugs unfixed for years
Very helpful and can sync across devices.
error on writing note. the cursor error
Dear onenote developer, please fix the issue of double uppercase whenever I type Indonesian word in a new line (after end of a sentencr with an enter or in the first word of the notes). EExample, this is the first sentence of the note. [enter] TThe first word in the new line will also double caps / double uppercase the 1st letter I type, should be only "The", but it becomes "TThe". When I type an
You can't delete a notebook or old note from the app
Notebook deletion isn't available, closed notebooks linger in the list, and deleted notes keep coming back — cleanup requires going through the cloud
nice but it was very best but! they have to improve the system that to delete the notebook that is bad
Replacement for Evernote because of integration with OneDrive, Microsoft 365, and Windows file mgmt ecosystem. One unresolved issue: unable to delete some notebooks.
buggy as f. accidentally wiped my years of notes cuz i thought it's in cloud! dumbest notes ever. and old notes that is already deleted still keep coming up in list of notes and cannot be cleaned up. shame on the dev
Mobile feature set is well behind desktop
No sub-pages, no in-page image placement, no keyboard shortcuts, no formula input, and no proper formatting — half the features are desktop-only
only AI features left
Without features like windows version it's just junk. Poor quality, not user friendly 👎👎👎 add : zoom lock in, more better pens options page template more drawing tool options, shapes scale, user friendly type and drawing with pen currently it's too delicate to use
I really think that it'd be great to have a Math editor in the mobile app as well as in the windows version, since I use it with my tablets keyboard and I study mathematics. It used to be helpful when I used my computer. It was already kind of a problem to use the Math symbols instead of simple laTeX. I think ya'll should add a laTeX Compiler that's in all versions, specially for users in STEM. Al
In-note search is weak
No way to jump to the next match in a long note, search hits partial words, and the promised handwriting search doesn't work
Great app! I use it many times daily. Just the search function that can be improved.
Almost perfect but missing my most important note taking need. When searching through long notes with keywords, there are bound to be some duplicate words. I need to be able to search for a word, and have the all of instances that duplicate word is listed throughout my note. Then be able to skip right to the next time that word comes up in the document through all the duplicates. This is my number
Says it can search handwritten notes, but it doesn't.
Handwriting and stylus input misbehave on tablets and Samsung S Pen
After updates the pen lags, fingers are mistaken for a pencil, palm rejection breaks, and erasing stops working — handwriting has become frustrating
On my S25 Ultra, it is very lagging and then just stops taking pen input. It is not responsive, then sometimes reads my finger as a pen when I try to scroll. It makes it very difficult to sync my laptop notes with my phone. I am now looking for an alternative product. Sad, because I enjoy using this on my laptop.
For several years, I was using t Goodnotes5(paid) version and I recently switched to MS OneNote. I am giving 4 star because of the following: 1. There is not an option to change the pen width smoothly just like GN5(Pen width increased by 0.5 mm). 2. A differe type of pen option is missing(Ball pen, Pencil, Ink pen etc). 3. Syncing between Ipad and Web version is a mess especially handwritten notes
cannot erase my handwriting. I used samsung S26 ultra
Too few pen colors and stroke types for writing and drawing
No custom pen or text colors, the palette is fixed (three shades of pink, but no yellow), and there's no smooth control over line weight or pen style
Sync is both good and bad More options for pen writing and fonts would be helpful
should add more colour options for writing and typing
It may be better than most apps for note taking but it still feels lacking. Something as simple as a restricted choice of colors in the draw tab can become annoying when trying to color code some notes. Why are there 3 shades of pink and blue but no yellow? It also gets buggy the more you write on the page, on a tablet it struggles to load and sometimes even crashes if you went past some arbitrary
Poor experience on tablets, Samsung DeX, and foldables
Doesn't scale in desktop mode, windows can't be resized, sections overlap each other, and mouse-and-keyboard use feels clunky
Great, but as usual with Microsoft synchronization is poor, not robust, not reliable. Landscape mode on a tablet Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 is terrible, portrait mode is just OK - both should be improved considerably.
Doesn't actually show my most recent notes in the recents tab. Doesn't display well on a foldable (Pixel 10 fold)
Unusable in Samsung DeX/Android Desktop Mode. Does not scale properly at all. What can Microsoft do right?
No password lock for notes
Users want private notes protected by a password and page lock, so accidental taps while reading don't change anything
I would like to see the app have a locking system to keep my things private. Other than that, I love this app!
Downgraded to 2★ because I can no longer add a new page inside a section (Android) I can see “Add Section” button in notebooks, so editing is not completely blocked. But inside an existing section, I only see the existing pages and there is no “Add Page” button anywhere. The three-dot menu only shows “Send feedback to Microsoft”. Is it a bug, or “Add Page” button has been moved somewhere else? Thi
add page lock option in your onenote so that While revising the notes , unnecessary clicks can be avoided.
Users want lightweight sticky notes instead of a heavy notebook
There's demand for a quick widget like Google Keep; current stickies disappear, don't sync, and require constant sign-in
Please add a sticky note widget or a dedicated stick notes app
sticky note syncing issue is so irritating. constantly have to sign in over and over again.
my sticky notes vanished. where's the sticky notes option? nokia T10
PDF export comes out messy
Converting a page to PDF produces sloppy output — not suitable for printing for school or work
can't make pdf properly
I would have given it 5 stars, just that the PDF conversion is very awful. How will I print that for my assignment?
List organization and item management inside notes are limited
You can't reorder list items, there's no color-coding or alphabetical sort, lists themselves are bare-bones, and content containers can't be disabled
really helpful in my day to day work. One improvement that I would want is to have the ability to switch off the containers
It's good but limited in functions. For example, try reorganizing a list to group items! It would be useful but I've not found a way to do it! And you can't colour code either. That said, it's free and advert free too.
It may be better than most apps for note taking but it still feels lacking. Something as simple as a restricted choice of colors in the draw tab can become annoying when trying to color code some notes. Why are there 3 shades of pink and blue but no yellow? It also gets buggy the more you write on the page, on a tablet it struggles to load and sometimes even crashes if you went past some arbitrary