All Recent & Pinned File Links Lost

Anonymous
2024-03-20T14:16:19+00:00

I rebooted my PC today after a Windows update and afterwards in Word, Excel and PowerPoint my Recent Files list and Pinned Files List are all empty. And when I open an existing document, it does not show up in the Recent file list like it used to.

How do I fix both of these issues?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2024-03-22T15:04:46+00:00

For those who want to rollback to a previous version of Office 365 here are the directions.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-to-revert-to-an-earlier-version-of-office-2bd5c457-a917-d57e-35a1-f709e3dda841

The previous version information is: 3/4/2024 Version 2402 Build 17328.20162

To go further back click the following link and scroll down to "Version History".

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/update-history-microsoft365-apps-by-date?redirectSourcePath=%252fen-us%252farticle%252fae942449-1fca-4484-898b-a933ea23def7

You need to make sure you disable updates or the latest version will reinstall at some point.

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-03-23T17:37:43+00:00

    Now I can open Office apps without being logged in but it says it's unlicensed and all functionality for editing anything is lost. When I log in, they walk me through a series of screens regarding sending them optional data. Account > Account Privacy > Manage Settings displays more options for sharing additional data, a number of which are checked by default. If I log out, any recent files that were opened while being logged in disappear so MS is in fact keeping track of the files that we open.

    Anytime you log out and log back in, you are forced to restart the Office application and go through the four screens requesting to send diagnostic data.

    Cut it out Microsoft!

    From your experience using this product while not being logged in, do you think that when they say "all functionality for editing anything is lost" that they only mean the Recent files list is not provided/maintained such that it will always be empty?

    Or, are there more consequences that you have seen for not being logged in? Such as not receiving maintenance updates, assuming those things happen.

    Because if that's all I lose is the Recent list, then I am quite ok to not be logged in.

    Too bad the software on my hard drive is insufficient to maintain a Recents list on its own.

    I guess my question is open to anybody.

    Thank you.

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-03-23T15:50:10+00:00

    Now I can open Office apps without being logged in but it says it's unlicensed and all functionality for editing anything is lost. When I log in, they walk me through a series of screens regarding sending them optional data. Account > Account Privacy > Manage Settings displays more options for sharing additional data, a number of which are checked by default. If I log out, any recent files that were opened while being logged in disappear so MS is in fact keeping track of the files that we open.

    Anytime you log out and log back in, you are forced to restart the Office application and go through the four screens requesting to send diagnostic data.

    Cut it out Microsoft!

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-03-23T14:43:52+00:00

    Just wanting you to know, my problem disappeared without doing anything. But I am not using Microsoft 365, so your answer is correct also.

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  4. Anonymous
    2024-03-23T14:43:01+00:00

    This morning the problem disappeared. In Excel, Word, and Publisher the recent documents started to show up again.

    You don't have to roll back or do anything.

    I am going to make sure Microsoft 365 isn't on my machine and I am going to do everything possible to Keep One drive disconnected in every way.

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