OneNote iPad Split View – Navigation Button Obstructed

Question

In Split View on iPad Mini, the top-left navigation button (back to notebooks/sections) is covered by the iPadOS window controls (red/orange/green). It’s not tappable.

This makes it impossible to navigate within OneNote without leaving Split View.

This is a layout/safe-area issue. The UI isn’t respecting the system window controls.

Answer 1

Hello Shasark!

Based on what you described, OneNote on your iPad Mini appears to be in Split View where the top‑left navigation button (to go back to notebooks/sections) is hidden under the iPadOS window controls, making it difficult to tap and navigate within the app.

At the moment there isn’t a confirmed fix for this behavior, but you can try the following workarounds:

• Switch OneNote to full screen when you need to navigate
• Adjust the Split View divider (make OneNote slightly wider)
• Rotate the iPad to force the layout to refresh
• Close and reopen OneNote
• Check for updates to both iPadOS and OneNote

If the issue continues, it’s very likely related to how the app adjusts its layout in that mode. In that case, I recommend sharing feedback through the app (tap your profile > Help & Feedback > Send Feedback) so the product team can review and consider improvements in a future update.

Disclaimer: Since this is a user‑to‑user community forum, we can only share suggestions based on our findings and personal experiences. We can’t directly intervene in Microsoft product features or access back‑end systems.

Thank you so much for your time and patience. Hopefully this issue will be looked into and kept an eye on for future improvement!

Best regards.

Answer 2

The described issue is not covered in the provided material. The context only documents how to navigate OneNote’s notebook, section, page, and notes views (including with screen readers) and mentions unrelated bugs that were later fixed by app or OS updates.

No information is available here about Split View layout problems on iPadOS, safe-area handling, or a fix/workaround for the navigation button being obscured by the iPad window controls.

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References:

• Use a screen reader to explore and navigate OneNote
• Navigate your notes with OneNote
• White screen when returning to ONE Note on my IPAD - Microsoft Q&A
• Build 27971.1. Widgets is missing the setting gear and the Sign in button is not working. - Microsoft Q&A
• My Microsoft365 Office Package no longer works with my iPad Pro - Microsoft Q&A
• since the office upgrade, my title bar overlaps my ribbon bar, this is a major **** and quite annoying - Microsoft Q&A
• style separator causes heading number to disappear - Microsoft Q&A