Microsoft 365/Onedrive personal. Is there any way to reset password on an individual onedrive file or files? Only some files affected ie don't have the default from folder

Hi Kevink702,

Thanks for visiting Microsoft Community.

Do you mean changing the access password for files shared by the owner in OneDrive? If certain files cannot be accessed with the default password and a custom password has already been set, it cannot be reset. In this case, you would need to ask the file owner to reshare the file with you and set a new password.

If my understanding is incorrect or if you have any further questions, please feel free to reply.

Best Regards,

Jonathan Z - MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

Hi Kevink702,

Thank you for your response.

Based on your description, it seems that certain Excel files stored in OneDrive have required a password for access after you changed your Microsoft account password, unlike before when they were directly accessible. Please correct me if my understanding is incorrect.

Typically, modifying your Microsoft account password should not impact the accessibility of files stored in OneDrive. To better diagnose the issue, I kindly request your cooperation in performing a few tests. Thank you in advance for your patience and understanding.

1. On a web browser, visit onedrive.live.com and sign in with your credentials. Locate the problematic Excel files and hover over them to reveal the three-dot menu (...). Click on it and select 'Details'. Here, you can review the file's version history. Please check for any suspicious activity coinciding with the time these files started requiring a password.
2. Clarify whether the prompt for a password is coming from Excel itself or OneDrive. As an additional step, try downloading these problematic files from the OneDrive web interface to your local computer and attempt to open them. Does the issue persist? If possible, please include screenshots in your response.
3. If you are certain these files were never shared with anyone, log into account.microsoft.com and navigate to the 'Security' tab. Click on 'View my sign-in activity' to inspect your account's login history around the time the files began behaving abnormally, specifically before and after you changed your password. This step helps in assessing any potential unauthorized access that might have led to the files being altered maliciously.

Your assistance in this troubleshooting process is greatly appreciated. I look forward to your feedback on the matter.

Best Regards,

Jonathan Z - MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

Jonathon,

Thanks for the reply.

• Are you using OneDrive Personal or the Business version? If it's the personal edition, are you utilizing the Personal Vault feature? Personal. Vault no
• I've noticed that you mentioned changing your password recently. Specifically, which password did you modify? Was it your Microsoft account password, the Personal Vault PIN, or the password for the OneDrive app on Android? Microsoft account password.
• When accessing folders or files via OneDrive, OneDrive itself does not typically allow setting a separate protection password for individual files (except for shared files with specific permissions). Given this, your reference to wanting to reset the password for a particular folder or file is intriguing. Could you clarify what you mean by this? Where exactly did you set the password for these files initially? If you could provide a screenshot to help illustrate the situation, it would be immensely helpful. I did not set passwords for them explicitly. After the account password was set some files could be accessed and some required entering a password.

Sorry about the quality of the attached photo

Essentially they are all excel files. Names of them indicate my personal categories suffixed by the date. There are only 4 categories but multiple date files for each category. After changing the password at the account level all versions of 2 of the categories were visible as before. All versions of the other 2 required a password to access. That is what i meant by i did not set them explicitly. I suspect maybe it happened during the account password change i had an internet outage around then. Maybe that?

Regards

Kevin

Hi Kevink702,

Thank you for your response. I understand your concerns and will do my best to assist you in resolving the issue.

To gain a more comprehensive understanding of the problem you're encountering, I would greatly appreciate it if you could share the following information:

• Are you using OneDrive Personal or the Business version? If it's the personal edition, are you utilizing the Personal Vault feature?

• I've noticed that you mentioned changing your password recently. Specifically, which password did you modify? Was it your Microsoft account password, the Personal Vault PIN, or the password for the OneDrive app on Android?

• When accessing folders or files via OneDrive, OneDrive itself does not typically allow setting a separate protection password for individual files (except for shared files with specific permissions). Given this, your reference to wanting to reset the password for a particular folder or file is intriguing. Could you clarify what you mean by this? Where exactly did you set the password for these files initially? If you could provide a screenshot to help illustrate the situation, it would be immensely helpful.

I am fully committed to assisting you, and look forward to your reply.

Best Regards,

Jonathan Z - MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

Jonathan,

Thanks for the reply. In a sense that's right but maybe I should clarify. There has only been one owner of all files in onedrive of the form *****@gmail.com.

At some recent time I changed the password for this.

I suspect something went wrong in this process as I can access most named files and versions. So for example

If I have filename1_january

And in succeeding months I saved as febuary, march etc

I will either be able to access all versions or not access all versions of a particular file.

I don't know but maybe file access password is stored at the time it is created?

Anyway the owner is me , so I guess even if it was possible to share with myself i cant as I don't know, or can't guess the password. I have never set a custom password for a file at least consciously, which is why I suspect something in the changing password for account process malfunctioned in some way?

I hope I have clarified rather than confused. I guess I had hoped there might be some option to unload and reload or similar to strip passwords although I realise that's optimistic.