remove old folder (icloud photos) from file explorer side bar

Anonymous
2020-05-11T02:50:55+00:00

so I'm completely frustrated that I cant delete this stupid icloud photo's folder that has duplicated itself on the file explorer side bar.  Ive deleted the folder source so now it errors when you click the folder and I cant delete the shortcut which I never wanted in the first place and I have icloud photos disabled in icloud so now I'm totally lost.  other than that my system is completely clean and fairly recent install so I'm gonna be real disappointed if i have to do another reinstall for something this stupid.  wish i could show a screen shot but this is not the big icoud photos in the main section its a smaller folder on the side just under the quick access that's now duplicated itself 9 times.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Settings

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Anonymous
2020-06-15T23:59:00+00:00

https://github.com/svenkle/google-drive-add-to-explorer/blob/develop/Remove%20Google%20Drive.reg

This specific link gave me the steps necessary to solve the problem for me.  What I wound up doing I first uninstalled the iCloud app from settings apps.  Then I went into my one drive settings right click on the one drive cloud icon on the taskbar select settings then from there the backup tab.  On that specific tab I selected manage backup, pressed stop backup on the pictures option and closed that selection window by pressing the X on the top right and ok on the bottom of the backup tab.

Then while keeping my web browser on the above link open I opened Regedit and ran as administrator that specific link gives instructions regarding the keys for removing google drive but they work also for iCloud Photos.  First I searched the registry for iCloud Photos matching the whole string, the first results were on this location.

[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\CLSID\

There will be one key per iCloud Photos folder on the file explorer left side I resized Regedit in my case in order to see the entire key I had to delete I deleted the key and then.  I pressed F3 to get the next one, I had to do four deletions in that part of Regedit as I had four iCloud photos folders on my file explorer.  After deleting the fourth key I pressed F3 again and my next result was on this section.

[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Wow6432Node\CLSID\

These part of the keys {81539FE6-33C7-4CE7-90C7-1C7B8F2F2D41} were identical to the ones I had just deleted in the previous section.  So I deleted four keys in this section as I said before I had four iCloud Photos folders.  For the next part I closed all the branches in Regedit and went to the third section directly.

-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace\

Once there I checked each key and I had one key that had one drive which I left untouched and the rest had iCloud Photos I deleted four keys there, this  {81539FE6-33C7-4CE7-90C7-1C7B8F2F2D41} portion of the keys repeated themselves in the fourth and last location which is this location

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\HideDesktopIcons\NewStartPanel

I accessed it directly and deleted the same four keys, there will also be one key for one drive which I didn't delete just like on the previous step.

Finally I exited Regedit, in my personal case I restared my computer checked my file explorer and the iCloud Photos folders were all gone.  I then reinstalled the iCloud app again restarted the computer twice and there is now only one iCloud Photos folder on file explorer.

The root cause of this problem is that if One Drive syncs the pictures folder, and for people who like me have both One Drive and iCloud every time the computer starts iCloud logs in again and One Drive creates an new iCloud pictures folder on file explorer and therefore those of us who use both applications need to make sure that One Drive does not sync the pictures folder prior to installing the iCloud app. That's why I started stopping the backup with one drive settings first.  Uninstalled iCloud as my second step, deleted the keys on regedit and then reinstalled iCloud.

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-08-06T16:07:49+00:00

    I've tried all of these methods but over time the "iCloud Photos" folder zombies keep coming back...  It's been several months now it seems and no successful help of a registry fix is available from MS or Apple.  :(

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-08-05T21:02:56+00:00

    so I'm completely frustrated that I cant delete this stupid icloud photo's folder that has duplicated itself on the file explorer side bar.  Ive deleted the folder source so now it errors when you click the folder and I cant delete the shortcut which I never wanted in the first place and I have icloud photos disabled in icloud so now I'm totally lost.  other than that my system is completely clean and fairly recent install so I'm gonna be real disappointed if i have to do another reinstall for something this stupid.  wish i could show a screen shot but this is not the big icoud photos in the main section its a smaller folder on the side just under the quick access that's now duplicated itself 9 times.

    so i also had this problem. did the registry delete thing and deleted everything i could possibly find while searching for ( iCloud Photos ) . Yay! all those annoying sub folders are gone. of course, i think i should have never had to do this to begin with. but it is what it is.

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-07-26T19:03:06+00:00

    I followed these steps exactly but did not find any of the keys in my registry

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-07-22T15:58:30+00:00

    I have exactly the same problem. I still have 13 empty folder showing up in Explorer.

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