Personal Vault not showing up in my Onedrive folder.

Question

Personal Vault not showing up in my Onedrive folder.

RJ 20

I have a "Personal Vault.Ink" file but no Personal Vault folder.

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Answer accepted by question author

SD - IA 178.9K Independent Advisor

Hi,

Click the Cloud icon > Settings > Unlock Personal Vault.

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I hope this information helps. If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to reach out.

Otherwise, if your problem is resolved, please take a moment to close the question to help others. Wishing you good luck!

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4 additional answers

Your answer

Answer 1

SD - IA 178.9K Independent Advisor

Hi,

I was asking a few questions to better understand the issue before recommending a solution. Please provide the requested details so I can continue troubleshooting.

RJ 20 Reputation points

2026-08-20T20:24:23.3366667+00:00

I backed up my Personal Vault to a hard drive and then deleted the Personal Vault.ink. What happened next is what I wanted to know. How do I get into the Personal Vault if I don't have the link. What did happen after rebooting was that the Personal Vault link was reestablished in File Explorer. It did work.

Answer 2

Craig Long 18,545

The Personal Vault is hidden. Use the shortcut to unlock it. Then find the Personal Vault's location and size in its Properties. The shortcut won't tell you the size of the Personal Vault.

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Answer 3

SD - IA 178.9K Independent Advisor

Hi,
It is the shortcut for everyone, so what you are seeing is normal.

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If you double click it, and authentication link will appear.

I look forward to hearing from you to get the results of the troubleshooting.

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Answer 4

Personal Vault.lnk is a shortcut, not the actual vault folder. That is expected behavior on Windows.

Personal Vault appears in the file list rather than the folder list because it is a secure folder. On a PC, seeing a shortcut instead of a normal folder is by design.

If the vault is not opening correctly:

Open OneDrive.
Select Personal Vault.
Complete identity verification using the offered method.
If prompted that Personal Vault is not up to date:
- Unlock Personal Vault.
- Close any files stored in Personal Vault.
- Wait for OneDrive sync to finish.
- Then lock the vault again.

If the issue is that files seem missing, note these behaviors:

Personal Vault files do not appear in OneDrive search results.
Deleted Personal Vault files only appear in the recycle bin when Personal Vault is unlocked.
In OneDrive.com, Show Personal Vault items in the recycle bin can reveal those items.