The Office Desktop Client Apps use the Office Document Cache when accessing documents stored on cloud endpoints such as SharePoint Online / OneDrive.
Caution: Deleting the Office document cache programmatically or by manually navigating to user app data is not recommended. Doing this may lead to Office Client crashes and/or unrecoverable data loss.
Note: If you came to this page by clicking on a link from a in-app message in Word, Excel or PowerPoint App, your disk is running out of space. You can click on the "Free Up Space" button to resolve the issue. Insufficient space to write to disk may lead to Office Client crashes. Follow this link to learn more about in-app messages.
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The default location of this cache is “%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Office\16.0\OfficeFileCache” but can be modified using Group Policy as required.
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The size of the Office Document Cache will vary based on the sizes of files recently opened via the Office Client.
Probable symptoms if the cache (or artifacts within the cache) are deleted
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Office documents crash unexpectedly when opened from SharePoint Online or OneDrive. This could be immediately after document launch or later while working on the document.
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File not Found errors.
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Path not Found errors.
Managing Office Document Cache on Virtual Desktop Infrastructure
Note: Regular cleaning or rebuilding Office Document Cache by following the recommended steps below may cause the file to be redownloaded during the next file open. For large files, this may add time for the file to be fully accessible in the Office Client.
Note: Starting Version 2512, Office will retain items that have pending changes to upload or items with upload errors for a maximum of 365 days. Administrators can configure the AgeOutPolicyIncludingFilesPendingUpload policy to retain these files for longer or shorter periods of time.
For Admins:
Disable Long Term Caching
Caution: Using this setting is not recommended. Disabling long-term caching can affect file reopen and upload behavior, especially for files that were recently co-authored. When this setting is enabled, Office immediately deletes files from the Office Document Cache when a document is closed. The cache retains important metadata that Office uses to reconcile the locally synced version of a file (for example, from OneDrive) with the version downloaded from the server. Removing cached files too aggressively can result in “Upload failed” errors when reopening a file.
You can configure Group policies to delete files from the Office Document Cache on document close. This means you may see artifacts in the OfficeFileCache folder created for an open document, which will then be deleted once the document is closed.
Office ADMX references:
HKCU\software\policies\microsoft\office\16.0\common\fileio!disablelongtermcaching
Aging out of documents
Office (when open) will routinely clean out documents deemed old enough to clean, termed “age out.” This age out policy can be configured to clean documents sooner than the default 14 days. Setting the value to 0 will delete documents after they have been closed for an hour.
Office ADMX references:
HKCU\software\policies\microsoft\office\16.0\common\fileio!ageoutpolicy
Note: Both the disableLongTermCaching and AgeOutPolicy regkeys are independent of each other, and do not need to be set simultaneously.
Note: Files are only removed by this policy when there are no pending uploads for that file. To age out files even if they still have pending uploads, see “Age out documents including files with pending uploads” below.
Age out documents including files with pending uploads
In some environments, cached files may not be removed because they contain pending uploads or upload errors. The AgeOutPolicyIncludingFilesPendingUpload policy allows administrators to control how long these files are retained in the Office Document Cache.
Starting with Version 2512, Office retains cached files that have pending changes or upload errors for up to 365 days by default. Administrators can configure this policy to retain these files for a shorter or longer period, depending on organizational requirements.
Office ADMX references:
HKCU\software\policies\microsoft\office\16.0\common\fileio!ageoutpolicyincludingfilespendingupload
Note: If this policy is configured with a value of 0, Office does not age out files that have pending uploads or upload errors, and continues to age out only files without pending changes based on the AgeOutPolicy setting.
Note: When this policy is configured to a non‑zero value, Office uses the larger value between AgeOutPolicy and AgeOutPolicyIncludingFilesPendingUpload to determine the maximum allowed age for cached files.
For end users:
Within the Office Application, navigate to File > Options > Save > Cache Settings > Delete cached files.
Starting with Version 2512, Office will prompt you with an additional dialog to delete cached files that also contain pending uploads. Select Delete to remove these as well.
See also
Delete your Office Document Cache Office Document Cache settings
