Microsoft Outlook Notes Missing? 6 Fixes to Try

So you won’t get in trouble with the boss

Outlook isn’t just an application for managing your emails. It’s your productivity hub, with your calendar, contacts,Teams messages, and important notes all accessible—if you can find them, that is. If your Microsoft Outlook notes are missing, you’ll need to figure out why and resolve the problem.

Your Outlook view can be modified (by accident or choice) to hide certain elements, including your Outlook notes. However, you can easily restore your missing notes using a few different methods. To restore your missing Outlook notes, follow the steps below.

1. Reset Your Outlook View Settings

If you’ve recently configured your Outlook view settings, you might have mistakenly hidden certain notes (or all of them) by applying a filter or sort. Tocheck and reset your Outlook view settings, follow these steps.

This will reset your Outlook view settings to the default configuration, which should ensure that your notes are visible in the notes folder. You can also use thesearch function in the notes folder to look through and identify specific notes.

2. Check the Deleted Items Folder

Can’t see your notes? You may have accidentally deleted them. If that’s the case, you’ll need to check whether or not the notes are still accessible in your deleted items folder in Outlook. If they are, you can restore them from there.

To restore your deleted notes in Outlook, follow these steps.

This will restore your deleted notes to their original location.

3. Open Outlook in Safe Mode

If you’re having trouble finding your notes in Outlook, but you think the application itself is at fault, you may need toopen Outlook in safe mode. This will disable any add-ins or extensions that could be having an impact on performance (and could cause your notes to disappear).

To open Outlook in safe mode, follow these steps.

This will launch Outlook in safe mode. With the default configuration visible and no add-ins activated, make sure you can see your notes in the notes folder or in the panel on the left.

If you can, then one of your add-ins or extensions may be causing the problem. Exit Outlook in Safe mode first, then disable the add-ins by selectingFile>Options>Add-insmenu and disabling them one-by-one to see if it has an impact.

4. Repair Your Outlook Data File

Your Outlook messages and configuration are typically saved in a profile file using the.pstor.ostformat. If your Outlook data file is corrupted or damaged, it will impact what you can see, and could result in you losing your notes.

There’s any number of reasons why the file could be corrupted. A rogue power outage at the wrong time could cause data loss, but don’t discount a malware infection either—make sure tocheck your PC for malwarein the first instance.

Thankfully, you can repair this data file to restore your Outlook profile (and any missing notes). To repair it, follow these steps.

This will repair your Outlook data file and fix any issues with it. You may need to restart your computer after the process is completed. If this doesn’t work, you may need to look atrepairing your Office installation.

5. Restore Your Outlook Notes from a Backup

If you have a backup of your Outlook data file, you may be able to restore any missing Outlook notes from it. This can be useful if your notes were deleted or corrupted during an unexpected power outage or hardware failure.

You’ll need a copy of your Outlook data file (in the .pst or .ost format) to be able to proceed.

To restore your Outlook notes from a backup, follow these steps.

6. Check for Outlook Updates

No software is free from bugs. If you think a fault in Outlook has caused your notes to disappear, it might be worth checking for any updates in Outlook’s software. If the bug is that serious, it’s quite likely that Microsoft has (or is in the process of) addressing the issue with a new update.

To fix this, you can try updating your Outlook to the latest version and see if that resolves the issue. To update your Outlook version, follow these steps.

Managing Your Notes in Outlook

Thanks to the steps above, you can quickly restore your Outlook notes if they go missing. You may prefer to use an alternative notes application likeMicrosoft OneNote. However, to ensure you always have a backed-up version of your notes in the cloud.

Having further trouble with Outlook? IfOutlook isn’t responding, you may need to look at more drastic fixes, or consider switching to anOutlook alternative like Gmailinstead.

Ben Stockton is a freelance technology writer based in the United Kingdom. In a past life, Ben was a college lecturer in the UK, training teens and adults. Since leaving the classroom, Ben has taken his teaching experience and applied it to writing tech how-to guides and tutorials, specialising in Linux, Windows, and Android. He has a degree in History and a postgraduate qualification in Computing.Read Ben’s Full Bio

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Microsoft Outlook Notes Missing? 6 Fixes to Try#

1. Reset Your Outlook View Settings#

2. Check the Deleted Items Folder#

3. Open Outlook in Safe Mode#

4. Repair Your Outlook Data File#

5. Restore Your Outlook Notes from a Backup#

6. Check for Outlook Updates#

Managing Your Notes in Outlook#