Windows 10: Personal Vault has disappeared from OneDrive October 2020

This morning, Oct 23, 2020, started Windows 10 Pro, logged in via Hello, accessed OneDrive, double clicked on 'Personal Vault', used Micorsoft Authenticator, to confirm access, and Personal Vault window opened. Don't usually need that specific Window open, so closed 'X' it.


Some 15- 30 min later needed access to a different folder on OneDrive, opened OneDrive and noticed the Personal Vault folder was missing or not showing in the top list of folders where it usually is. Then to check if Personal Vault had closed, I right clicked on Excel to access a 'pinned' file that is stored in the Personal Vault. That file opened with no issues. So Personal Vault was still open.


Completed some work, rechecked for the Personal Vault folder on OneDrive using Windows Explorer and it was still not showing at the top level directory on OneDrive. Decided to save and close all work and reboot. Upon reboot Personal Vault is NOT showing on OneDrive!! And cannot access files stored there - error 'Item selected is unavailable'


Please help immediately - this NOT good.

:)

 

OneDrive Personal Vault cannot be unlocked on Windows10.

I was able to get rid of the Red X on my OneDrive icon and the error message saying that the Personal Vault could not be synchronized by doing the following:

1. Access the personal vault OnLine via the the View OnLine option from the desktop icon in the task bar.
   
2. Open the vault via the Web Browser and select all the files and folders in the vault.
3. Count all the files and folders presently in the Personal Vault.
4. Move all the files and folders out of the Personal Vault to another folder in your OneDrive.
5. Refresh and verify the Personal Vault is empty.
6. Verify all your important files have been successfully moved by verifying the folder and file count.
7. Disable the Personal Vault online via the Web browser.
8. Select the Personal Vault and attempt to delete it. A message "Cant delete Personal Vault' appears.
9. Click on 'Go to settings'.
10. Select the options to Disable the Personal Vault <Select Disable>. and "Disable" when asked are you sure. [NOTE: when you do this, any contents in the vault are irretrievably lost. So make sure it is empty first.]
11. Wait 30-60 seconds for your OneDrive desktop to synch.
12. Go back to the browser and select Enable on the Persona Vault window if it is still opened.
13. If you closed the window, select Settings in the upper right of online OneDrive (to the left of the question mark), select options, select Personal Vault from the left side menu, then select Enable.
14. A pop-up stating, "Your Personal Vault is back". Select 'got it'.
15. Click on OneDrive in the upper left corner of the browser screen.
16. Find your Personal Vault in your file/folder list.
17. Open it (you will have to authenticate to open).
18. Inspect the vault. It should be empty. In some cases there will be old "uncached" files that appears. It was the failed synching that caused the Red X. Reestablishing the Personal Vault allows the synch to proceed. Be careful as these files might not
    contain the most contemporaneous data.
19. You should now be able to use the Personal Vault as before without the Red X. You can move the files you moved out of the Personal Vault back into the Personal Vault - - begin careful to decide which version to keep of any duplicate files.

 

OneDrive Personal Vault cannot be unlocked on Windows10.

Hi,



Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.



I understand the difficulties you are facing while accessing the OneDrive Vault from Windows 10.



I have been researching on this issue and found that OneDrive vault will be rolled out completely for the user on October 2019 for all capable platform, as per this article:

OneDrive Personal Vault



However, we do have a dedicated support team for OneDrive related queries, you can get in touch with them for further assistance. Follow the below steps to contact the OneDrive support team.



Sign in to OneDrive.com from any browser, click the ‘?’ help icon on the top banner of the page and select
Email OneDrive support. Submit your question and follow the prompts to request support.



We await your response.



Aditya Roy

Microsoft Community – Moderator

 

Personal Vault

If you go online to your OneDrive account and click to delete this Personal Vault Folder it will say you can't, however it will give instructions on how you can hide it.

It then takes you through a couple "Are you sure? 'Y/N' " dialogs before it will disappear in the browser, later starting the desktop app it then disappeared for me.

I could not agree more.

This is the official text from the Microsoft announcement found here:

Announcing OneDrive Personal Vault and additional storage options

"If you are using OneDrive’s free or standalone 100 GB plan, you can try Personal Vault with a limited number of files. Office 365 subscribers can store as many files as they want in Personal Vault, up to their storage limit."