Remove "Start back up" option in file explorer

I was able to get rid of the button like this:

1. Open RegEdit
2. Go to HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StorageProvider\OneDrive
3. Remove or rename the key StorageProviderKnownFolderSyncInfoSourceFactory
4. Restart Windows Explorer

👏👏👏 - THANK YOU!!!

Two things I would suggest however:

1. Export/Backup the Key before making any changes.
2. I suggest not deleting the key, for a couple of reasons. The first is removing the key completely may have unexpected results at some point. The Second is that there is really nothing that would prevent that key from being restored by a future MS update. Instead, after backing up the key, I replaced the value date with {NULL}, which also fixed the issue, as well as provides for a way to "lock" the key from being modified in the future if needed by restricting the permissions to "read only" and unlocking write permissions to the key only as needed.

Oh, same here, Office and OneDrive user. I keep a fair amount of documents in my OneDrive folders that I want access to remotely / via mobile.

But it's all done manually and all within the normal free amount allotted all Windows users, I don't want to use it as backup because I have my own backup solutions. And I don't want to pay for cloud storage (I would stop using it were it suddenly no longer free even for the small amount).

The problem: we're not (yet) being forced to use the Start Backup button that's being foisted on us, but we're also not being allowed to turn it off.

It's annoying that we can't get rid of it, and the possible reasons for them doing this (sell cloud storage) are more than annoying (if true).

Chris

I agree with you, but like many people seeing this prompt I already use and pay for Office 365 and OneDrive. The problem is that I choose to manage OneDrive in my own way - I put things I want in the cloud in the Onedrive folder, and those I don't want in the cloud in the local folders that MS now wants me to "back up". I'm sure lots of users do the same thing. MS can't or won't aim their marketing only at those people who aren't already paying them, so we all have to be prompted. That says something about MS's competence, or their attitude to their paying customers, or perhaps both.

In this specific case its not OneDrive, this is 100% Windows itself doing this :(