Office Document Cache settings - Microsoft Support (2024)

The Office Document Cache is used by the Microsoft Office Upload Center to give you a way to see the state of files you're uploading to a server—keeping track of how uploads are progressing and whether any files need your attention. You can manage the Office Document Cache settings by customizing the settings in the Microsoft Office Upload Center.

• You can manage the Microsoft Office Upload Center notification icon by disabling notifications and turning off the display of the icon.

• You can set the maximum number of days to keep files in the Office Document cache by adjusting the Days to keep files in the Office Document Cache as necessary. Files older than the maximum number of days will be removed from the cache only when there are no changes pending upload.

  Note:If you set the maximum time limit to fewer days, you will store fewer files and generally use less space on your hard drive. Keeping files longer allows more files to be stored in the cache and improves your file-opening performance, but also uses more space on your hard drive.

• For users who prefer to work directly with the server, or who are concerned about their privacy, selecting Delete files from the Office Document Cache when they are closed will automatically delete documents from the cache when they are closed.

  Important:If you have Delete files from the Office Document Cache when they are closed setting selected and you close a file before the upload has finished, you will have the option to wait for the upload to finish, save the file in another location, or close without saving any changes. You may also get an error message informing you that the upload could not be completed.

• You can clear the Office Document Cache at any time by clicking Delete cached files.

  Note:Clearing the Office Document Cache by clicking Delete cached files or enabling Delete files from the Office Document cache when they are closed will delete the document content from the cache, but a listing of files that have been opened is kept in the cache and stored on your computer.

If you use Office RT

The offline portion as mentioned above will not work for Office RT, but there is a workaround.

In Office RT, the Office Document Cache is not proactive in downloading your Office files from a OneDrive or a SharePoint site. It will only cache the files that you opened with an Office application (such as Word, Excel, or PowerPoint). To get to the cached Office files, open the Office Upload Center and select All Cached Files from the drop-down list next to the Refresh button. It will show a list of files in your cache which you can double click to open, even while offline.

You can also open the Office application that you last edited the file in and select it from the recently used list. Again, this can be done online or offline.

Note:A file will stay in your cache for 15 days by default. If you haven’t opened that file for 15 days, it gets aged out. You won’t lose anything because the file will still reside on the OneDrive or SharePoint site. If you need to keep a file in cache longer that 15 days, the length of time a file is stored can be increased to up to 30 days by going to the Upload Center settings page.

To learn how to adjust these settings, and for more information about the Microsoft Office Upload Center, see Microsoft Office Upload Center.

See also

Delete your Office Document Cache

Delete a file