Microsoft 365 won't let me delete my Word document

Hi Virgile Page,

Thanks for posting in the community. We are happy to help you.

I understand the inconvenience you are experiencing. Sometimes this happens when a program or another user is still accessing the file. Since you posted the thread in the OneDrive category, I think the file is stored in your OneDrive. In this case, I suggest you try the following method to delete the document.

a. Go to OneDrive for Web

Open the Private browser window, go to www.office.com, sign into your account, search OneDrive in the top search bar, and click on the OneDrive icon. In OneDrive for Web, click "My Files".

b. Delete the document

Select the document and click on the "Delete" button. In this case, a dialog box will appear reminding you that "1 item wasn't deleted - It looks like someone has the file open". Please click on the Delete button in the dialog box to force the document to be deleted.

![](https://learn-attachment.microsoft.com/api/attachments/b56be3e2-2f7b-4135-8a8d-24ebf8d3d159?platform=QnA"https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/how-to-pause-and-resume-sync-in-onedrive-2152bfa4-a2a5-4d3a-ace8-92912fb4421e" title="support.microsoft.com" rel="ugc nofollow">pause syncing and then resume syncing your OneDrive. If this doesn't work, I suggest you reset OneDrive and then check again.

If the above method doesn't work for you, please point it out and let us know. We will continue to help you. In addition, please provide a full screenshot including the error message. You can upload it via "Insert Image".

![](https://learn-attachment.microsoft.com/api/attachments/a614bbea-7dcf-4b34-b065-1659b88bde72?platform=QnA