Need help removing inexistant documents shown in OneDrive Home

Xavier Le Héricy 20 Reputation points
2026-04-06T16:33:27.9933333+00:00

OneDrive Home shows old documents that do not exists (they're no where to be seen in My Files). See screenshot of inexistant file (the OneNote notebooks) without any option to remove them.Screenshot 2026-04-06 093013

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneDrive | For home | Windows
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AI answer

2026-04-06T16:33:51.95+00:00

The behavior in the screenshot is consistent with OneDrive showing references to items that no longer exist in the underlying document library (for example, after a library or folder was renamed or removed). When the backing item is gone, OneDrive can still list an entry but offers only limited actions such as Open or Share, and opening it typically results in an error like:

This item might not exist or is no longer available.

Because the items themselves are already deleted or orphaned, there is no additional delete action available from OneDrive Home.

To clean this up, the only supported approach is to make sure the underlying library and items are in a healthy state:

  1. Open each notebook link from OneDrive Home.
  2. If the browser shows the "This item might not exist or is no longer available" error, it confirms the backing item is gone (for example, the default Documents library or a folder was renamed or deleted).
  3. Restore or recreate the original library/folder structure if it was renamed (for example, change the default document library name back to Documents). Once the library name matches what OneDrive expects, navigation and listing will align with the actual contents and the ghost entries will disappear.

If the default library name was changed and cannot be reverted, or if the items were permanently deleted and the entries remain, there is no additional end‑user control in OneDrive Home to manually remove those ghost rows; they will clear only when the underlying library metadata is consistent again.

References:

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  1. GsN5034 - IA 76,990 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2026-04-06T17:23:27.08+00:00

    Hello, thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A.

    Open the My files section in OneDrive (left pane) and select the Documents folder.

    Next, delete the OneNote notebooks that you want to remove from the list.

    Then, empty the Recycle bin in OneDrive.

    Note: This action is permanent. Be careful before deleting any documents, as they cannot be recovered afterward.

    If you have already deleted the files from the My files section and from the Recycle bin folder, sign out of your OneDrive account and then sign back in. Check whether signing out and back in clears the My recents section on the OneDrive home page.

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  2. Michael L 0 Reputation points
    2026-08-02T20:41:21.0233333+00:00

    I have to say, WHAT? The solution to orphaned paths is to recreate the path and hopefully some magic will happen so you can re-delete the file?

    If I delete a file or no longer have access to it, there is NO situation in which that should still be visible. The path should be entirely gone.

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