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Recent Files list stuck in the past

Anonymous
2017-05-21T21:40:48+00:00

I see similar issues but not this one and its driving me crazy. In Office 2016, in the App (Excel, Word or PPt) the REcent files lists are stuck on old files and actual recent files will not show. Sometimes I can delete or clear files from this list, sometimes not (they seem to delete then come right back). 

If I right-click on the icon in my taskbar, the recent files pop up correctly.

I have tried:

  1. Zeroing out the number of recent files listed in File>Options>Advanced, rebooting, resetting the number, etc. The list changes length based on these settings, but when I dial the number up the same old bad filenames keep popping up.
  2. "Fixed" my MS Office 365 installation, both the fast way and the long/thorough way. Absolutely no change in behavior. I am afraid to delete/reinstall my current versions because I'm unsure how that will affect my files, most of which are in OneDrive.
  3. Based on an online suggestion somewhere (and after trying the above) I deleted a system file in a directory somewhere that was supposed to zero out the recent files cache but I can't find that now. In any event, this did not change the behavior and I repaired my installation per #2 above again after that.

Would really appreciate some help- I use MS Office on a large number of files and it is really annoying to not have an accurate list of files readily available.

***Post moved by the moderator to the appropriate forum category.***

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-06-01T16:35:43+00:00

    to be clear- you did not resolve this so the assertion that you conducted all the necessary troubleshooting tasks is a little weird. I think what you mean to say is that you are giving up on me.

    30+ people found this answer helpful.
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  2. Anonymous
    2017-05-30T16:22:43+00:00

    So I still have the problem. I was able to clear out the files list as of 2 days ago, but now I just have another "old" file list from 2 days ago that does not update. From a careful reading of my posts above, this seems to be something wrong on the server side and there is no fix on my local devices.

    What do you recommend I do now?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
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  3. Anonymous
    2017-05-28T22:17:11+00:00

    As I described in my original post, I have tried that several times. When I set the recent file#=0, I see no recent files as expected. After rebooting and setting the value to a nonzero value, the old "bad" file list reappears.

    The problem appears to be in a bad file list being held in the cloud. I noticed some of the files I could not delete from the list on my original PC could be deleted when I log in on another PC. Sometimes the top file on the list could not originally be deleted, but it could be once I deleted many of the files below it. On another occasion, moving back and forth between 2 PC's seem to do the trick.

    I have finally eliminated all the old/bad files I think. I had to do it separately for each MS Office app. don't close this thread just yet- I want to see if it still works after a day or two.

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  4. Anonymous
    2017-05-26T19:13:53+00:00

    (Desiree- this is in response to a message that arrive in my email, but when I replied I got an error that the server was not configured properly...)

    I have done all these things in the link you sent me. The one thing that does not work

    is the Clear All Recent Files. The old ones are stuck and will not clear. I

    can also not unclear them individually.

    I notice in Word when the recent file list comes up, there seems to be

    ANOTHER list of files that pops up first but then gets overwritten by the

    old, "stuck" list. It happens too fast for me to be able to read the other

    list but it could be the real recent file list I am trying to get.

    1 person found this answer helpful.
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  5. Anonymous
    2017-05-21T23:12:17+00:00

    Hi Noah,

    Based on the description that you provided, we need to determine the cause of this issue. Having said that, we would like to know more about this concern. Kindly answer the following:

    • Any changes made on the computer prior to this concern?
    • Is this the first time that you encountered this problem?
    • When did you notice about this issue?

    In the meantime, we suggest that you perform an online repair via Control Panel. Here's how:

    1. Right-click on Start menu.
    2. Go to Control Panel.
    3. Click on Programs.
    4. Under Programs and Features, click on Uninstall a program.
    5. Right-click on Microsoft Office 365.
    6. Click on Change.
    7. Select Online Repair.
    8. Once completed, make sure to restart the computer.

    Please post back with the result for further assistance.

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