Problem with different versions of a file on sharepoint

Question

I'm working in a file with two colleagues, using sharepoint. One of us apparently sees an older version of the file based on changes we know we've made, even though we can all 'see' each other in the file in real time. There is no error message to alert the colleague she's in an older or unsynced version. Also, if she accesses the file via a direct link, she gets the up to date version, but if she navigate through SharePoint folders to it, she gets an older version. What could be happening? Their cache has been cleared, browser refreshed, version history looks the same for us all. Permissions are the same (we all have Edit).

Everything points to an issue with her versioning, but how come I can see her in the file, yet we see different versions?

Answer 1

Hi @CarolH1, 

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum.  

Based on your sharing, this is highly a SharePoint/OneDrive synchronization issue since you can see each other's cursors in real time but view different content versions. There are several cause that may have caused this behavior: 

• OneDrive Sync Conflict: your colleagues' OneDrive client may be stuck syncing an older version of the file and is presenting that cached version instead of the current SharePoint version 
• Browser/SharePoint cache: even though the browser cache was cleared, SharePoint itself may cache file metadata or page states differently depending on how the file is accessed (via direct link or via folder navigation). 

There are some steps you can try to narrow down the situation:  

1- Check OneDrive sync status 

• Ask your colleague to open OneDrive in File Explorer and check for sync status icons 
• Look for any error indicators (red X, yellow warning) on the file/folder 
• Check the OneDrive sync settings by right-clicking OneDrive icon in system tray 

2- Resync the library 

• Ask your colleague to close the file completely then go to SharePoint in browser > find the file > Download a copy to desktop 
• Open the downloaded copy to check whether it shows current content which will help confirm it's a sync issue 
• Insync the document library from OneDrive and resync it after a while (wait about 5-10 minutes) 
• Check again whether the behavior still persists. 

3- Clear Office cache 

• Press Windows + R to open Run dialog and type %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\16.0\OfficeFileCache then press OK 
• Delete the content in this folder and restart your computer 
• Try again to see if the issue still persists 

4- Try using a different browser or access via incognito mode 

Ask your colleague to attempt the folder navigation in a different browser or using incognito mode to help rule out if it's a cache issue. 
Note: Please understand that our initial response does not always resolve the issue immediately. However, you can try workaround and share us more detailed information, we can work together to find a solution.  

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation. I'm looking forward to your reply.

---

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".   

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Answer 2

Good morning, thank you very much for the quick reply. We will try your suggestions in the next few days and get back to you. Yours gratefully!