Microsoft quietly ended support for its free OneNote for Windows 10 app on October 14, 2025, and as of mid-2026, the application is locked in read-only mode—you can view old notes but can’t edit or create new ones. For the millions who still have the older app installed, it’s time to switch to the current desktop OneNote app and make sure every notebook is safely stored in OneDrive or SharePoint before it’s too late.

Why you need to stop using the old OneNote now

The retired OneNote for Windows 10 app will no longer sync new changes, accept new notebooks, or let you edit existing pages. If you’re still relying on it, you risk losing access to notes the moment your PC signs out of the account or suffers an unexpected hardware failure. Even if the app opens, any offline edits you make are stuck and won't appear on your phone or other devices. The only way to keep working across Windows, Mac, the web, and mobile is to move to the supported OneNote desktop app—and put every notebook in the cloud.

What’s changed—the full list of retirements

  • OneNote for Windows 10 reached end of support on October 14, 2025 and is now in read-only mode.
  • Microsoft Lens for iOS and Android was retired in early 2026: support ended in February, and new scans stopped working in March. Microsoft now recommends the scanner built into the OneDrive mobile app for document capture.
  • The email-to-OneNote feature ([email protected]) was removed in March 2025. Use the “Send to OneNote” command in Outlook or the OneNote Web Clipper instead.
  • The OneNote desktop printer driver (for printing files into notebooks) remains available as “OneNote (Desktop)” or “OneNote (Desktop) - Protected” in Windows print dialogs, along with the newer “Send to OneNote” tool.

The upshot: all roads now lead to a single Windows desktop application—simply called “OneNote”—that updates through Microsoft 365, the Microsoft Store, or a standalone installer from Microsoft’s website.

How this affects your workflow (by user type)

Home users

You don’t need a paid Microsoft 365 subscription to use the desktop OneNote app; it’s free for personal accounts. But you do need to:
- Download and install the correct app (look for a File menu in the ribbon).
- Move any local notebooks to OneDrive using OneNote’s built-in File > Save a Copy or File > Share commands—never drag notebook folders manually into your OneDrive folder.
- Verify that every notebook shows “View Sync Status” as up-to-date before uninstalling the old app.

If you’ve already been using OneDrive notebooks in the old app, you just need to open them in the new desktop client. But play it safe: open every notebook once, compare a few recent pages, and confirm the sync icon shows no errors.

Power users and note-taking enthusiasts

The desktop OneNote app is more powerful than its Windows 10 predecessor: it supports page templates, richer tag summaries, local backups, and advanced ink-to-text conversion. That said, some workflows shift:
- The OneNote Web Clipper (Edge, Chrome) remains your best tool for saving web articles; Article mode produces searchable text, while Full Page captures visual appearance.
- Handwriting conversion (Draw > Ink to Text) works only on Windows; OneNote for Mac can’t convert ink.
- Audio transcription and dictation require an eligible Microsoft 365 subscription and an internet connection; they may not be available in every region or on every device.
- Copilot, if your license includes it, can summarize notes, create task lists, and rewrite text. On Windows, Copilot is available with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license or certain other subscriptions, but organizations control access through connected-experience policies.

IT administrators and business users

For organizations, the move to the desktop OneNote app is paired with a shift to SharePoint and OneDrive for Business as the authoritative notebook repositories. End-of-life for OneNote for Windows 10 means:
- You should deploy the current OneNote desktop app via Microsoft 365 Apps, Office LTSC, or the Store for Business.
- Ensure group policies direct user notebook creation to corporate SharePoint sites, not personal OneDrive accounts.
- Audit existing notebooks: any still living on users’ C: drives need to be migrated to a governed cloud location (SharePoint document libraries).
- Review Copilot and connected-experience settings through the Office cloud policy service, because the desktop app will honor those controls.

Company notebooks held solely in an ex-employee’s personal OneDrive are a governance nightmare—this migration is a good opportunity to centralise ownership under a service account or a Teams-connected SharePoint library.

The story behind the OneNote app split

Microsoft’s long OneNote saga helps explain why so many people still have the wrong app. In 2015, alongside Windows 10, the company shipped a new Universal Windows Platform (UWP) version called “OneNote for Windows 10.” It was lightweight, touch-friendly, and free, but lacked dozens of classic features. At the same time, the full-featured “OneNote 2016”—the Win32 desktop program—was available as part of Office. For years, both apps existed side by side, confusing nearly everyone.

In 2018, Microsoft reversed course and announced that the desktop app would become the primary OneNote experience. The UWP app was slated for eventual retirement, though it lingered for years. By 2025, with Windows 11 fully established and cloud-first features like Copilot demanding the richer desktop framework, Microsoft ended support for OneNote for Windows 10 on October 14, 2025. Four months later, the app became read-only, effectively forcing a clean break.

Today, the desktop app’s name has been simplified to just “OneNote,” and it’s installed via Microsoft 365 or the Microsoft Store. It syncs exclusively through OneDrive and SharePoint, tying the product tightly to Microsoft’s cloud—a deliberate move to ensure cross-device consistency and to lay the groundwork for AI features that ground themselves in your cloud content.

Your migration checklist: 6 steps to a clean switch

Before you uninstall anything, follow these steps. They apply whether you’re a single user moving a few notebooks or an IT pro scripting a department-wide transition.

  1. Open every notebook in the old app and check the sync status. Right-click each notebook, go to Notebook Sync Status, and confirm it shows “Up to date.” If any notebook shows an error, note its location and try to force a sync while you still have the app.
  2. Install the current OneNote desktop app from office.com or the Microsoft Store. Sign in with the same Microsoft, work, or school account you used before. The app’s ribbon should have a File menu—that’s how you know it’s the right version.
  3. Open each notebook from the cloud. In the new app, go to File > Open. Navigate to your OneDrive or SharePoint location and add the notebook. Do not try to open the notebook directly from a local folder unless you’re specifically managing a local archive.
  4. Compare content. Pick a few recent pages, check attachments, and confirm that images and printouts appear. For critical notebooks, open them side-by-side on both apps if possible.
  5. Move any stubborn local notebooks. If a notebook only lives on your C: drive, use File > Save a Copy (or File > Share if that option appears) to move it to OneDrive. Let OneNote finish uploading, then verify sync again. After confirming the cloud copy is intact, you can delete the local-only version.
  6. Uninstall OneNote for Windows 10. Once every notebook is safely in OneDrive and you’ve used the new app for a few days, go to Settings > Apps > OneNote for Windows 10 and uninstall it.

A few additional pointers:
- Do not drag the “.one” notebook file into your OneDrive folder via File Explorer. That bypasses OneNote’s synchronization logic and will almost certainly cause data loss.
- If you relied on Microsoft Lens for scanning, install the OneDrive mobile app and use its built-in scan function. Saved scans appear in OneDrive, and you can then attach them to OneNote pages.
- For IT-controlled devices, script the uninstall of the old UWP app with PowerShell: Get-AppxPackage *OneNote* | Remove-AppxPackage (test in a pilot group first).

What’s next for OneNote on Windows

Microsoft’s direction is clear: one desktop app, cloud-only notebooks, and deeper AI integration. Copilot in OneNote can already summarize notes, create task lists, and rewrite text, but the bigger shift is Copilot Notebooks—a new workspace that gathers selected files, pages, and chats into a single AI-grounded project view. It’s not just an ordinary OneNote notebook with a Copilot button; it’s a separate experience designed to reduce irrelevant context and sharpen AI output.

Mobile capture will continue to evolve. The retirement of Lens pushes users toward OneDrive scanning, which is more robust for document archiving, while OneNote’s built-in camera remains the fastest path to a note that needs immediate annotation. Expect Microsoft to improve automatic cropping, multi-page scanning, and text extraction directly inside OneNote.

For most users, the near-term outlook is stable: the current desktop app will receive monthly updates through Microsoft 365, and no further major app consolidations are expected. The key now is making the switch quickly, because a read-only app won’t protect your notes when it stops launching altogether.