OneNote app issues on Android devices

Question

I use OneNote both from my Samsung Tab S10 taking notes with the S Pen and also from the usual Desktop app for Windows 11. I used to get the same layout from both, with no problem while syncing from tablet to PC, now I have noticed differences between the two. On my tablet, the first lines of the page are being cut resulting in shift of my notes that are now partially covered by the page's title. I also have problem while exporting my pages as pdf files, notes shift top left and the file shows empty space that was not part of the page while taking notes. I used to have the same problem on my old tablet (Samsung S6 Lite), I used to delete and reinstall the app and it was enough. Now, after doing that, I still have the some problem, I also deleted data and cache, nothing changes. Is it possible to "reset" the layout on mobiles app and sync properly from Desktop layout?

Answer 1

Hi, SR

It sounds more like an Android rendering/export issue than a normal sync problem. OneNote on Android does not always display or export long handwritten pages the same way as desktop, so a full “mobile layout reset” usually is not available.

Here are some suggestions you can try:

If PDF is important, it is recommended that you export from OneNote on Windows instead of the Android app. On desktop, set the page to a real paper size like A4 or Letter first, keep your notes inside that area, and if needed hide the page title before exporting.

It is also suggested that you test the same page in OneNote for the web on the tablet, preferably in desktop mode in the browser. For some users this behaves better than the Android app for printing/export.

If the affected pages are very long, try splitting them into shorter pages before exporting. OneNote’s infinite canvas is often what causes notes to shift, crop, or leave blank space in the PDF.

Thank you for your patience in reading, I hope this information has been helpful to you. 

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Answer 2

I appreciate your response, I checked on different devices if this was an Android issue. After opening them using browser on mobile and trying with OneNote app for iPads, my notes were in the right position, how I took them originally. I also searched online if others have problems with OneNote for Android and it seems to be a common problem among Android users. I found out that using a previous version of the app (version 16.0.19127 October 31 2025) solves it, moving back my notes how they are supposed to be. I also need to work with infinte canvas, being able to export them as pdf files. I would like to point out also that is not that easy to write notes displaying them using different pages, there is only infinte canvas layout on mobile app. I like to use OneNote, so I hope there will be improvements on the future updates. Thanks again for answering my question