view.officeapps.live.com to view

Question

I would like to ask if using this online service to view Office documents will upload them to the server? If so, how long will they be retained, and will they be accessible to others? Thank you.

Answer 1

Hi Allen Liu

Thank you for posting your question on the Microsoft Q&A Forum.

Based on my research, there is currently no official Microsoft documentation that clearly describes how data is cached or retained when using the view.officeapps.live.com service.

However, based on feedback and observations from other users, there are indications that the service may temporarily cache documents for rendering purposes. For example, in some cases, documents remained accessible for a short period even after the original source file was removed.

You may refer to a similar thread for more information: What is the status of view.officeapps.live.com? - Microsoft Q&A

I hope this helps.

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Answer 2

view.officeapps.live.com is part of the Online Viewers functionality that lets Office Web Apps Server (or the Microsoft-hosted equivalent) retrieve a file from its original location (for example, a web server or shared folder) and render it in the browser.

From the available information:

• Online Viewers get the file from its location and render it so it can be viewed in the browser with Office features intact.
• Online Viewers allow viewing only; they do not allow editing.
• Online Viewers cannot open files that require authentication.

The provided documentation does not specify how long files are retained on Microsoft servers, nor whether or how they might be accessible to others. It only states that Online Viewers fetch the file from its original location and render it for viewing.

For details on retention and access policies, the documentation in the context does not provide further information.

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References:

• Office Web Apps Server overview