Why doesn't Word and Excel find recently opened or modified files. They used to do that in Windows 10

Question

Why doesn't Word and Excel find recently opened or modified files. They used to do that in Windows 10

Robert 0

John Jefferson Doyon 65,830 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-03-23T04:53:15.1033333+00:00
Hi, I'm John! I will help you with this.

To help narrow down the issue:

Are you using Windows 11 now?

Is this happening in both Word and Excel, or just one?

Are the files saved locally, or in OneDrive/SharePoint?

When you open Word/Excel > Home > Recent, is the list empty or just missing some files?
Robert 0 Reputation points

2026-03-23T05:11:30.49+00:00
Yes, I am using Windows 11

It happens in both Word and Excel.

The files are save locally.

When I first started using Windows 11, no recent files were showing up. Now I notice that there are a few, but I definitely had more files open today than are showing up in either Windows or Excel. There are 3 files in Word and 4 files in Excel.

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Your answer

John Jefferson Doyon 65,830 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-03-23T04:53:15.1033333+00:00

Hi, I'm John! I will help you with this.

To help narrow down the issue:

Are you using Windows 11 now?

Is this happening in both Word and Excel, or just one?

Are the files saved locally, or in OneDrive/SharePoint?

When you open Word/Excel > Home > Recent, is the list empty or just missing some files?
Robert 0 Reputation points

2026-03-23T05:11:30.49+00:00

Yes, I am using Windows 11

It happens in both Word and Excel.

The files are save locally.

When I first started using Windows 11, no recent files were showing up. Now I notice that there are a few, but I definitely had more files open today than are showing up in either Windows or Excel. There are 3 files in Word and 4 files in Excel.

Answer 1

Robert 0

There was an AI answer that said to go to Personalization->Start and turn on "Show recommended files in Start, recent files in file explorer and items in jump lists.

I checked and that option was already turned on, so that hasn't been working.

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Why doesn't Word and Excel find recently opened or modified files. They used to do that in Windows 10

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