Published: 29-03-2023 13:07 | Updated: 29-03-2023 13:07

Temporary files after move to OneDrive

Picture of computer folder.

Some employees see temporary files in OneDrive after moving from the home directory (H:).

While moving files from the home directory (H:) to OneDrive, some staff members have come across temporary files in their folders. These usually have the characters ~$- at the beginning of their file names and end up at the top of the listing.

These are so-called temp files that Office creates while a file is open. Usually, these are deleted when the Office application is closed, but if, for example, Word closes incorrectly or crashes, the temp file will remain.

Temp files cannot be opened

On H: these files were hidden, but after the move to OneDrive, you can see them in your folders. The temp files cannot be opened. The original file is usually located in the same folder, and that's the one you need to open instead.

If the original file is not in the same folder, it may be because you got a problem with an application that crashed, created the temp file, and later moved the original file to another folder or deleted it. Then the temp file remains.

It is completely safe to delete these temp files, and they do not affect the original file.