journal missing

Question

i can no longer find my journal on my files page how do i get it back?

Answer 1

Hello Rodney Penton,

I'm happy to help, but the post is a little open-ended so I want to make sure I'm looking at the right thing before suggesting steps. A few quick questions:

• Which Journal are we talking about — the Microsoft Journal app (the pen/ink notebook from Microsoft Garage), the Outlook Journal folder (Ctrl+8 in classic Outlook), or a personal file/folder you named "journal" yourself?
• When you say "files page," do you mean the home screen inside the Journal app, the OneDrive files view (online or in File Explorer), or somewhere else?
• Anything change recently — a Windows update, a new device, signed out and back into OneDrive, etc.?

If it is the Microsoft Journal app specifically, it's worth knowing that its home page only lists journals stored in the default Documents\Journals folder, so if a file was moved or saved somewhere else (including to a different OneDrive location), it stops showing up on the home page even though the file itself is still there. Worth opening Documents\Journals directly in File Explorer to see what's actually on disk and also checking the Recycle Bin in case it was deleted by accident.

Once you can confirm which app and where you used to see the journal, I can point you to the right step.

Answer 2

If the missing journal is a Microsoft Journal file:

1. Check the Journal home page
   • Open Microsoft Journal.
   • Only files stored in the default Journals folder (inside the Documents library) appear on the home page after release 1.22258.191.0.
   • If the file was saved somewhere else, it will not show on the home page, but it can still be opened from File Explorer.
2. Open the journal from File Explorer
   • Open File Explorer and go to the Documents library.
   • Open the "Journals" folder (this is Journal’s default save location).
   • Look for the missing journal file and double‑click it to open.
   • If it is in another folder, you can still open, edit, and save it, but it will not appear on the Journal home page unless it is moved into the Journals folder.
3. Check the Recycle Bin
   • If the journal was deleted, it goes to the Windows Recycle Bin.
   • Open the Recycle Bin on the desktop.
   • Find the journal file, right‑click it, and select Restore.
   • After restore, it should appear again in the Journals folder and on the Journal home page.
4. If prompted to move journal files
   • If Journal prompts to move files and the move was cancelled or interrupted, some journals may not have been moved and so won’t appear on the home page.
   • Close and restart Journal to retry the move operation.

If the missing journal is the Outlook Journal folder:

1. Open Outlook.
2. On the Navigation Bar, select Folders > Journal (or press Ctrl+8).
3. Existing Journal entries can be viewed and managed from there.

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References:

• Prompts for Moving Journal Files
• Restoring Deleted Journal
• Microsoft Journal Help and Learning
• Where is Journal?
• Track actions in Journal
• Known Issues with Microsoft Journal