How to remove items from recent files in PBI Desktop?

[MBZA]

Hi,

I have files pbix files saved on OneDrive that I've overwritten. These is mostly where I'm saving recovered versions of the file after PBI has crashed. The weird thing is that now if I open the file from the Recent list it opens the old version of the file instead of the new version that I've overwritten it with. If I instead navigate to the same file via Open->OneDrive it opens the correct version. The "recent" link continues to open the wrong version even after I've opened the correct version multiple times by manually navigating.

How can I remove the item from Recents so that it stops doing this? Forum posts from as recent as last year say I can right-click and choose to clear the Recent list, but as of the July 2024 version (2.131.9801.0) nothing happens when right-clicking in Recent.

[SamWiseOwl]

Hi @MBZA ,

In the top right corner of Recent there should be a Filter button and you can clear from there:

There is also an option for filtering by location.

Hope this helps!

[MBZA]

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately this only clears the filter. It does not remove items from the list permanently.

[SamWiseOwl]

@MBZA ahh apologises I didn't want to clear mine so didn't click it.

On our training computers we completely reset the Power BI Profiles after each course.

We do this by deleting:
C:\Users\Trainee\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Power BI Desktop\Trainee.zip

This is the nuclear option and deletes ALL users settings.

Found a detailed answer here that looks like it might help:
https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Desktop/PowerBI-Home-Desktop-How-to-clear-list-of-recent-f...

[MBZA]

I apologise for the very late reply, but I followed the instructions in that post to delete the contents of the OdspFileHistory entry in Settings.xml (the original post refers to FileHistory but OdspFileHistory was clearly the OneDrive-specific recent file data).

I have to say it feels very hard to mark anything as a solution for this - the solution would be for Microsoft to:

1. Bring back a clear history button
2. Properly handle items deleted/renamed on OneDrive.