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
    2024-03-22T05:40:30+00:00

    I had the same problem where recent and pinned files disappeared.

    I have determined that all functionality is just fine with Microsoft 365 MSO (Version 2308 Build 16.0.16731.20542) 32-bit.

    As soon as Office is updated to Microsoft 365 (Version 2402 Build 16.0.17328.20124) 32-bit ALL of the Recent Files and Pinned Files disappear.

    Let me know what other info you need about this serious problem. I live in a number of Office documents on a regular basis and this bug is a major inconvenience.

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-03-22T09:22:10+00:00

    Seems that the conversation has been about Microsoft 365.

    However, I don't have 365. I have Microsoft Office Home and Student 2021 and I just started seeing this problem, too. All my pinned documents in Excel and MS Word have disappeared and opening them to resave them does not make them appear on the Recents list.

    (Also, when I go to Programs and Features and right-click on the above program, there is no Repair option. Only Uninstall and Change.)

    Thank you.

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-03-22T12:40:04+00:00

    Something I didn't report earlier.

    Before I uninstalled Microsoft 365 from the computer, the Microsoft 365 when opened and then selected Excel DID show recent files.

    When I clicked on one of the recent files it gave me a warning and I had to enable editing.

    MAYBE, this disabling of recent files in Excel and Word is intentional to force you to Microsoft 365.

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  4. Anonymous
    2024-03-22T12:45:51+00:00

    I am on the current Office 365 channel, but manually check for updates. On one system, after installing the latest 2403 build, no recent docs show up in the file tab on all Office 365 apps, nor would newly opened files populate. These are all local files (home computer). On another computer with the same Office build, the issue does not manifest. Performing a repair uninstalled office. When I reinstalled from my account portal, 2402 was downloaded and recent files populated correctly again in all apps except Word > For all other apps, the recent files that had disappeared returned (so the file that contains the recents was clearly intact and readable). For Word, recent files functionality worked again with 2402, but it was starting from scratch (all previous recents were gone, but new files populated.) Something in the 2403 build of Word is mucking with recent files for all Office apps (at least that's my hypothesis). My concern is that when 2403 is pushed/forced, I will have to live with the issue.

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