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OneDrive error: This file name contains characters that aren't allowed

Anonymous
2019-06-06T16:04:53+00:00

I saved a file to a OneDrive synced folder which had characters that are not allowed. I don't think it ever actually wrote any data to my hard drive but OneDrive did look to sync it and gave me the error that the name contains characters that are not allowed. If the file was actually written to my hard drive, I would easily just be able to rename it. However, when I go to rename it, Windows says it 'Could not find this item' and prevents me from renaming it. I tried unsyncing the folder with OneDrive but it says there was an error preventing me from doing that.

Any idea how to delete or rename this file?

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  1. Anonymous
    2019-09-10T14:01:14+00:00

    Good Day

    I have the same question and none of the solutions work to re-name or delete the unknown file. 

    Can you assist? Is Teamviewer an option? 

    Thanks,

    Sanne

    [PII is removed by forum moderator]

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  2. Anonymous
    2019-10-13T23:22:07+00:00

    Unfortunately I have exactly the same issue. Really don't know what to do next.

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-06-11T09:07:58+00:00

    Hi Jschubart,

    Thank you for sharing the screenshot.

    How do you locate the problematic file? You may also try following:

    Manually go to the location of the problematic file or look for it in File Explorer, can you find it?

    Open your local OneDrive sync folder in File Explorer, put file name in the search box in upper-right corner to search it, or you may sort the Date modified column to look for it.

    When you can find it, move it out of the sync folder, then check if your OneDrive will sync successfully.

    It seems there is space in the end of the file name, please remove it, then put the file in sync folder again, see if it can be sync to OneDrive online.

    Best Regards,

    Tina

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  4. Anonymous
    2019-06-19T17:29:31+00:00

    That did not seem to help. After unlinking the account, I was seemingly able to remove the file but when I resynced, it popped back up again. I tried unlinking again and I was not able to remove the file.

    I did download DelinvFile though which seems to have permanently removed the file which is what I was looking to do.

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  5. Anonymous
    2019-06-06T23:32:59+00:00

    Hi Jschubart,

    Sorry for the inconvenience caused by this issue.

    You may refer to CarlosBiscuit's suggestion in this similar thread and see if the issue can be fixed.

    Also, we suggest you try resetting OneDrive sync client with steps below and see it helps:

    1.Press Windows key + R to open the Run window.

    2.Type  %localappdata%\Microsoft\OneDrive\onedrive.exe /reset    and press OK.

    3.Launch OneDrive application again and sign in your account. See if the issue still happens.

    If issue persists, for troubleshooting, we would appreciate if you share following information:

    1.What is the file's name? Please ensure it isn't invalid file name and doesn't contain any invalid characters as mentioned in this article.

    2.Screenshots for the error messages.

    3.The version of your OneDrive sync client.

    Best Regards,

    Tina

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