Excel/Word losing pinned files - registry fix but why happening

Question

I regularly lose my pinned files list in Excel, and have not identified a common cause.

On reading into this, I find that pinned files are stored in Registry under ....\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Excel\User MRU

I have found that I have 3 entries under this on my PC, but only one entry on my laptop (pinned files don't disappear on my laptop)

The 3 entries start with LiveId_38E etc OrgId_41B etc OrgId_84E etc

I understand that the items containing[F00000001] are my pinned items and all zeros are previously pinned now pinned.

I have worked out that my pinned items that were appearing in Excel yesterday and now not today are under LiveId.

I have also worked out that today's pinned items are being loaded from the OrgId_41B list. I can edit [F0000000] to make a file pin and un pin.

I also pinned a file in Excel and it appeared in this part of registry.

I have exported the list under LiveId, edited in notebook and imported into OrgId_41B list and magic, my pinned files are now appearing in Excel as yesterday.

I notice that I have also lost Word pinned files and on checking, the same IDs in registry and the same situation with pinned files under LiveId and not under OrgId_41B.

My questions are: Should I have/why would I have more than one user ID (I believe this is what LiveId and OrgId are)? Why would excel/office stop looking at one and now look at another?

I don't like editing registry, but I use quite a few files regularly and pin/unpin often as needed.

Any help please Thanks DLC

Answer 1

I believe I have answered my own question.

The 2nd ID in the registry is a different user. LiveId is my PC/Microsoft login and OrgId_41 is my work user/login

Discovered that in Excel I account was showing work which was strange. I realised I could switch account, and when I did the recent file list changed, and the Pinned list changed as well.

I unpinned a couple and checked in Registry and yep - this is the case. I edited one of the keys in registry (change FG000 to F0001) and that pinned file only appeared in excel when I switched to the relevant account.

As to why it changed all by itself - I didn't do it (and no one else uses PC) because I didn't know you could switch account like that.

Only thing I can think of is that I did load an excel file from work sharepoint, so I assume this forced a change in Account in Excel.

Just tested that and that is what happened, and explains why was happening only occasionally, and not connected to any other PC type event, and not happening on laptop which I don't use for work sharepoint.

I did notice that user name in top right corner of Excel flash very briefly to logging in. Trap was that the username is the same so didn't look any different.

Cheers DLC