7 Best Ways to Not Show OneDrive Personal Vault on Windows 10 Error

Personal Vault provides a secure folder and a protected area within OneDrive where you can save important files. 2FA protects OneDrive in addition to all the security measures Microsoft has put in place to protect it. However, all that security is useless if you can’t even view the Personal Vault folder, which has happened to some Windows users.

Your data and files you store in Personal Vault are safe. However, the folder shortcut in OneDrive that opens or unlocks Personal Vault is missing. On Windows, you know it’s a shortcut to a folder if the icon has a curved arrow on it.

This is because it is a link to an encrypted space on your drive. Now let’s understand why this happens and how we can restore the shortcut to the Personal Vault folder and access the files stored in it.

1. Access from Another Device

OneDrive works on desktop, mobile and web. So is the Personal Vault. If you can’t access it on one device, there might be a quick fix to access it on another device. Open OneDrive on your phone to quickly access Personal Vault.

2. Accessible From OneDrive Folder Only

The only way to access the Personal Vault folder is from within the OneDrive folder. For security reasons, the Personal Vault folder is inaccessible and does not even appear in the left sidebar of File Explorer. You can access OneDrive and the other folders in it, but not Personal Vault.

Personal Vault and its contents also do not appear in searches you do in File Explorer, Windows Search, or any other application for that matter.

3. Reinstall Personal Vault

Did you accidentally disable Personal Vault or someone else with access to your Microsoft account or Windows computer? In this case, you will need to reinstall the Personal Vault.

But if that’s not the case, it’s still a good idea to set up the Personal Vault folder from scratch or disable/enable the missing Personal Vault folder shortcut fix. Move all files/folders inside Personal Vault to OneDrive or a local drive. Again, as mentioned in the point above, you can access files stored in Personal Vault by using a different device such as your smartphone to move the data elsewhere.

4. Personal Vault Folder Moved

You cannot delete the Personal Vault folder or the shortcut to the Personal Vault folder. However, you can move it within OneDrive. Did you accidentally move the Personal Vault folder to another folder?

We mentioned earlier that you cannot search for Personal Vault because it is not indexed, so you will have to manually check each folder. Once you find it, cut (Ctrl+X) and paste (Ctrl+V) into the main OneDrive folder.

5. Run SFC and DISM

SFC or System File Checker scan looks for corrupt or missing system files and repairs them. A core system file required for Personal Vault functionality can cause this issue.

The DISM or Deployment Image Servicing and Management command is used to service the Windows image and can also be used when the above SFC command does not work or cannot fix a corrupted file.

Stage 1: Press Windows key+S to open Windows Search and search for Command Prompt. Click ‘Run as administrator’ to open CMD (Command Prompt) with administrator rights.

Step 2: Issue the following commands one at a time and wait for the first command to finish before issuing the next.

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

sfc /scannow

Check again if you can view the Personal Vault folder in OneDrive.

6. Repair OneDrive App

Resetting the OneDrive app will not cause any data loss. If you’ve made it this far and you still can’t view the Personal Vault folder inside OneDrive, resetting the app might help. Note that OneDrive will resync all files; this may take time depending on the amount of data you store and your internet connection speed.

Stage 1: Press Windows key+R to open the Run prompt and type the following command.

%localappdata%\Microsoft\OneDrive\onedrive.exe /reset 

7. Reinstall OneDrive App

We recommend a clean reinstall to ensure that any corrupt and residual files are removed from the system. Otherwise, you may continue to encounter the same error after reinstallation.

For that, use Revo Uninstaller, which helps uninstall difficult-to-remove applications and finds and deletes any remaining files including registry entries.

Download and install the latest version of OneDrive.

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Keep it personal

Using OneDrive is very helpful for Microsoft 365 users. These are the occasional glitches you might encounter while using any cloud storage app. However, these can be easily fixed. You need to be patient and try several different troubleshooting steps until the issue is resolved. Let us know if you find another way to fix the problem in the comments section below.