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
    2024-03-23T12:44:44+00:00

    I now have one - repeat one - saved "recent" Excel file. Nothing in Word yet.

    Old list still gone.

    Running stand alone MS Office 2021. Had disabled One Drive. Do not use 365.

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-03-23T06:01:59+00:00

    As of 10:30pm, Pacific Time, 03/22/2024, I noticed that after I opened and saved a Word doc, it showed up on the Good Evening -- Recent files page. I tried opening, saving and closing several other Word docs, and they also showed up when I closed and reopened Word.

    Old files that were previously in the list do not appear, only files that I open now.

    My guess is that the engineers have been trying to fix the problem, and possibly succeeded. What's strange is that the Version and Build number of my copy of Word has not changed. Therefore, if the problem is indeed fixed, it must involve OneDrive and how Word interacts with that server-based data.

    Or maybe it's not really a fix, but a glitch in the bug, like a stopped clock being right twice a day.

    Has the problem gone away for others?

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-03-23T00:23:56+00:00

    Based on your heads-up just now, I checked My Excel and MS word for Office Home and student 2021.

    Both pinned lists were back and seemingly the same as before, but when I closed both applications and reopened them, only Excel's pinned list came back. The MS Word one did not and still has not. Upon second and third try at each, Only Excel's pinned list has stayed. MS Word's pinned list is again, and still, absent.

    Weird.

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  4. Anonymous
    2024-03-22T23:35:36+00:00

    The Recent list in Word and Excel are again being populated (7:33 pm EST 3/22/24) BUT the files included seem random and date as far back as 2017. One current dated Word file that I just opened is also included in the Recent list. The Pinned list is still empty. Since I didn't do anything other than open Word and Excel, I can only assume Microsoft is turning some attention to the problem.

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