my files show friend has access. NEED TO REMOVE HER ACCESS TO MY FILES

Good day Susana Rodriguez!

Thank you for joining the Q&A forum.

Based on what you described, the documents were created or edited during a time when your friend was signed in to Word, which led to her name and email being saved as the author. You may want to try the following steps to see if this helps.

1. If your files are stored in OneDrive, please check sharing permissions there first

If her email or name appears as the user across all documents in a folder, it’s a good idea to check the sharing or permission settings of the folder that contains those files.

• Go to OneDrive > right‑click the file or folder > Share
• Confirm that her email address is not listed. If it is listed, select Remove access

2. Update the author information inside Word for existing documents

For each document you want to correct:

• Open the file in Microsoft Word
• Select File > Info
• Under Author, right‑click her name and choose Remove person
• Select Add an author and enter your own email.

Please let me know how it goes. I'm happy to support further!

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There are two separate issues to address: who can open the files, and whose name appears on them.

1. Stop or change your friend’s access to the files If the documents are stored in OneDrive or SharePoint and were shared with your friend, remove or change that sharing:
2. Go to OneDrive.com and sign in with the account that owns the files.
3. Select the file or folder you want to stop sharing.
4. Select Information (the “i” icon) in the upper-right to open the Details pane.
5. Under Has Access, select Manage access.
6. Under Links or People, remove any links or entries that give your friend access:
   • To remove a sharing link, click the X next to the link, then confirm Remove link.
   • Repeat for any other links or people you don’t want to have access.

This stops your friend from opening the files going forward.

2. Remove “Anyone with the link” access (if used) If the files were shared using “Anyone” links (anyone with the link can view/edit), delete those links so only specific people you choose can access them:
3. Open the document in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint.
4. Select Share in the top-right corner.
5. Choose Manage Access.
6. Go to the Links tab.
7. For any link that shows access for Anyone, select the trash can icon to delete it.

After deleting these links, only people you explicitly share with will have access.

3. Why the files may still show your friend’s name If your friend created or edited the documents while signed in as themselves, their name and email will appear in:

• The file’s author/last modified by information.
• Comments or tracked changes.

Changing or removing that historical information is separate from removing access and may require:

• Creating new copies of the documents under the current account, or
• Manually editing/remove comments and tracked changes.

4. Track and revoke access for sensitivity-labeled files (if used) If the files were protected with a sensitivity label that includes encryption and the account is the current owner, access can also be tracked and revoked via the Microsoft Purview compliance portal from the Sensitivity menu in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint. This applies only to supported Office file types stored locally (not SharePoint Online) and requires that tracking/revocation is enabled by the organization.

References:

• Manage sharing and permissions in OneDrive and SharePoint
• Seeing guests in your Office files that you don't recognize?
• Track and revoke access to your files