→ Search Indexing

October 11, 2026

 

OneMore can keep a search index of your notebooks so that the Search command finds text almost instantly, even in a very large collection of notebooks. It is optional and off by default.

 

Why it was added

 

OneNote's own search can be unpredictable: it may miss text you know is there, depending on its internal indexing, and it can't search with AND, OR, NOT, substrings, phrases or wildcards the way OneMore's Search can.

 

Previously, OneMore's Search command has always been reliable, but it worked by reading every page in the scope you choose, one at a time, through OneNote. That is fine for a section and slow for a big notebook, and slower still across all of your notebooks.

 

The search index removes that wait. OneMore keeps an index of your page text in its own database on your computer, brought up to date in the background, and searches that copy instead of reading the pages.

 

The results are the same. The index uses the same query syntax and the same matching as the live search. It only changes how quickly the answer arrives. If a page has changed since it was indexed, OneMore reads that page from OneNote as before, so you never get out-of-date results.

 

What it does and doesn't do

 

• Your pages are never changed. OneMore only reads your pages. Nothing is added to them and no page is marked in any way.
• It stays on your computer. The index is stored in your OneMore database, OneMore.db, in %LOCALAPPDATA%\OneMore. It is not synchronized to OneNote, OneDrive or other computers; each computer builds its own.
• It contains your text. The index holds the text of your pages, unencrypted, in that database file. Treat the file as you would any other file of your notes.
• It uses disk space. The index can take a few times the size of the text itself, so a large collection can need hundreds of megabytes. The Settings page shows how much it is using.
• It's built gradually. After you turn it on, OneMore indexes in the background, a few seconds of pages every couple of minutes, so that OneNote isn't slowed. A large collection can take an hour or more to finish the first time. You can build it right away instead, which typically only take a few minutes; see Build the index now.

 

Turning it on

 

There are three ways, and any of them can be undone.

 

1. While installing. The installer has a page, Full text search, with a checkbox, Enable full text search indexing. Checking it turns indexing on, for all notebooks, as the starting default on that computer. Administrators can do the same silently with INDEXING=1.
2. In Settings. Open OneMore → Settings → Search Index and check Keep a search index of my notebooks up to date, then click OK.
3. Later, from the same page, to change which notebooks are covered.

 

Indexing starts within a couple of minutes, in the background, with no further action.

 

Turning it off

 

Open Settings → Search Index, uncheck Keep a search index of my notebooks up to date, and click OK.

 

• Background indexing stops and Search goes back to reading pages directly, as it did before.
• The index is not deleted. It stays on disk, unused, so that turning it on again only has to catch up with what changed. To get the space back, use Delete the index.

 

Settings reference

 

Settings are under OneMore → Settings → Search Index.

 

 

If the index cannot be used on your computer for any reason, the master switch is turned off and disabled, and the page says so. Search keeps working as it always did.

 

Build the index now

 

Reading every page takes time and can make OneNote a little sluggish while it runs, so the background indexing is deliberately slow. Build the index now is the quick way: it indexes everything that's missing immediately, and shows progress.

 

• Click Cancel in the progress dialog to stop. What was indexed so far is kept, and the background indexing carries on from there.
• Background indexing pauses while a build is running.
• It's fine to run it again; it only does the pages that aren't indexed yet.

 

Choosing notebooks

 

If you only search a few notebooks, index only those: it's faster to finish, and uses less disk space. Searching a notebook that isn't indexed still works; it is just read page by page, as before.

 

Searching with the index

 

You don't have to do anything differently. Use Search as usual, with the same options and the same query syntax: AND, OR, NOT, parentheses, quoted phrases, * wildcards, Match case and regular expressions.

 

• In all notebooks. The scope list now includes In all notebooks, since an index makes that practical.
• The summary line. After a search, the dialog shows a line such as 1,904 pages from the search index, 85 read from OneNote. Pages read from OneNote are ones that hadn't been indexed yet, had changed since, or are the page you're on.
• Always read directly: the page you're currently viewing (it may have edits OneNote hasn't recorded yet), searches limited to On this page, and searches with Search text in table of contents checked, because generated tables of contents aren't kept in the index.
• Short terms. A term of one or two characters can't be looked up in the index. OneMore still gets the right answer; that part of the search is done on the indexed text rather than looked up, so it's a little slower.

 

Questions

 

Will it slow down OneNote? Indexing runs in short bursts every couple of minutes and pauses between pages. Most people don't notice it. If you do, uncheck the switch; you can always use Build the index now at a time that suits you.

 

Why does the status line show fewer pages than I have? Only chosen notebooks are counted, and only the pages that have been indexed so far (which may exclude locked sections). The first build takes a while; use Build the index now to finish it.

 

I closed a notebook. Is it still in the index? Its text stays in the index while its notebook remains chosen, but a closed notebook is not part of any search. Pages are removed from the index when you stop choosing the notebook or when OneMore sees they were deleted.

 

I reopened a notebook and everything is being re-indexed. OneNote gives a notebook's pages new internal IDs each time it's opened, and OneMore has to read them again to keep its links to paragraphs correct. It happens gradually in the background like the first build.

 

Does it work on all computers? It needs a database component that ships with OneMore. If it can't load on your computer, the page tells you and Search carries on without it.

 

How do I start over? Uncheck the master switch, click OK, reopen the page, click Delete the index, then check the switch again.

 

 

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© 2026 Steven M Cohn. All rights reserved.

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