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Some column from my OneNote completely disappeared while i was using it

Harrison Hottes 0 Reputation points
2025-09-29T03:24:40.99+00:00

I was studying and zoomed into the "market efficiency" column (on the right). i went back to check something from the "covered interest arbitrage..." section (in the middle) and everything under the title was gone (the column was 4x longer than the "two-point..." column [on the left]). How does this even happen? i zoomed out of the notebook to see if it has moved and it was completely gone. I've tried checking deleted history and undoing everything but nothing.

Is there any other way i can recover this? I've tried checking on my phone but it has already synced.

I'm using windows 10

Screenshot 2025-09-29 131147

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneNote | For education | Windows
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  1. Darren-Ng 9,265 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2025-09-29T05:03:11.6833333+00:00

    Dear @Harrison Hottes

    Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum.

    I'm glad your issue was resolved. Additionally, here are some more alternative methods you can do when you have similar issue in the future:

    1. Search the Notebook
      • Use Ctrl+E (search across all notebooks) for a unique keyword from the missing column. If the container was moved to another page accidentally, this will find it.
    2. Check OneNote Online
      • Open the notebook in OneNote for Web (via OneDrive/SharePoint). Sometimes the web version shows unsynced or older content.
    3. Restore from OneDrive/SharePoint
      • Go to OneDrive → Documents → OneNote Notebooks → [Your Notebook] → Version History.
      • Restore an earlier version of the entire section or page.
    4. Local Backup (if enabled)
      • In OneNote desktop: File → Options → Save & Backup → Backup Folder.
      • Check for .one backup files and restore the section.

    Kindly note: If the page synced after the deletion and no backup/version exists, recovery is limited. OneNote does not have a “trash” for individual containers.

    I hope information above can be helpful, if you have any other questions, please feel free to reach out

    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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  1. Harrison Hottes 0 Reputation points
    2025-09-29T03:56:47.4266667+00:00

    I manage to access it.

    For those wondering how:

    1. right click on the note section you want to restore previous history
    2. click on "show page versions" at the bottom (this screenshot shows "hide page versions" as I'm already displaying them).
    3. it will now display the history of the note section (the green sections). Screenshot 2025-09-29 135227
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