OneNote Sync between tablet and desktop isn't automatic

[Core]

I've been testing Office 365 and particularly OneNote to see if it can replace Evernote. I can live with the slightly awkward interface, but what I cannot live with is the painfully slow synchronization. Notes that I add on either the Windows desktop client or an iOS client does not sync across unless I manually click the Sync button. I can write a new note on my desktop, close the application, and my tablet never sees it until I go into the desktop app and deliberately click Sync. Even when it does its "automatic sync" and says "sync'd last 1 minute ago", notes written ten minutes ago still aren't synced.

I wonder if this is just by design or if there is some issue with Office 365. Does this work any better using Microsoft Accounts?

 

[Ian]

I've recently moved over a lot of my stuff to Office 365 - after years of using Google apps for everything. I switched to MS as I'm sick of Google having access to absolutely everything (not that it makes much difference, but there we go ).

I have the Android and Windows OneNote clients, but they sync without needing to click the button manually - I just did a test by adding something to my To-Do list in the Windows app and it appeared on my phone without clicking/syncing anything within a few seconds.

I'm using my paid Office 365 Microsoft account, so perhaps it does make a difference after all. From what I understand, the free version of OneNote will sync to OneDrive instead.

 

[muckshifter]

It is my experience that MS 'apps' do not like to 'talk' to other MS apps, never mind anything on a 3rd party OS.

 

[Core]

I've recently moved over a lot of my stuff to Office 365 - after years of using Google apps for everything. I switched to MS as I'm sick of Google having access to absolutely everything (not that it makes much difference, but there we go ).

. . .

I'm using my paid Office 365 Microsoft account, so perhaps it does make a difference after all. From what I understand, the free version of OneNote will sync to OneDrive instead.

I am using a trial of Business Premium, but I do think it syncs through OneDrive...

How do you find the experience switching to Office 365? I've used Google Apps for years, but I don't really like the Google ecosystem and I don't trust them not to whimsically kill apps like Keep.

 

[Ian]

It took a little longer to get Office 365 running how I'd like, but I do prefer it over Google Apps. Having access to the desktop apps is great and as I use Outlook 2016 as my email client anyway, it syncs beautifully and works really well with an Android e-mail app called "Nine". I'm surprised at how useful I find Exchange server vs other e-mail services.

I found that Google apps work great on Android and via a web interface, but some of them don't play well with desktop PC apps.

As they're similarly priced, I didn't mind making the jump as a temporary measure and then switch back if needs be. So far, I won't be moving back!

 

[Core]

It took a little longer to get Office 365 running how I'd like, but I do prefer it over Google Apps. Having access to the desktop apps is great and as I use Outlook 2016 as my email client anyway, it syncs beautifully and works really well with an Android e-mail app called "Nine". I'm surprised at how useful I find Exchange server vs other e-mail services.

My family is on a grandfathered free Google Apps account. Unfortunately the free option doesn't have EAS support anymore, and there is no option to only upgrade select users, so I would have to pay for 6 users - and I wouldn't even get desktop applications like you get with Office 365.

I think O365 is a great value for the money but it's still far from being the fluid experience I'd like. Especially if you happen to also have a Microsoft Account with the same email address, oh boy...

But Exchange, man... It's just so good.