Problem : navigating my OneDrive folders in Windows Explorer is so slow as to be almost unusable. The problem appears to worsen as the working day progresses. This may be relevant to my working theory (see below). Problem Behavior : Double-clicking on any OneDrive file/folder in the left-hand folder tree window works fine, but if you right-click on anything, or single-click on its drop-down chevron, it brings up the "processing" blue circle icon, and the green loading-progress tape moves very slowly across the address bar at the top of the screen. Selecting any operation in the right-click dropdown menu creates the same problem. Right-clicking on a file or folder in the right-hand (main) window creates the same problem. Each delay lasts 10-30 seconds. That is a lot longer than perhaps it sounds. The only way to move between OneDrive folders in Explorer without triggering one of these delays is to left double-click. Moving files or folders must be done with drag-and-drop, not right-clicking; deleting files or folders must be done by navigating to the target item using keyboard arrow keys, then by using the DEL key, not a right-click action. Clearly this is unworkable nonsense. The issue is confined to OneDrive folders in Explorer. Local drives, local detachable storage (like USB keys or externals) and other cloud storage destinations are all stable and responsive in the normal way. My Downloads folder is periodically affected by latency issues also - particularly around loading of image files in MS Photo. This may or may not be relevant, so I am not detailing those here. Rendering of previews for any file in any folder in Explorer is unreliable, and prone to slowness. Again, unsure if relevant. Troubleshooting : I do not have the same problem when navigating OneDrive: in a web browser on my Windows Desktop machine (Firefox, Chrome, Edge - all work fine) on my MacBook Pro from a mobile device OneDrive is lightning fast and very stable in all these contexts. I have a venerable iPhone 7 (2016 model) and an even older iPad Air 2 (2014 vintage). Both handle OneDrive folder navigation just fine, both through local apps and online through a browser. Clearly the issue is local, not server-side, and clearly it is peculiar to my Windows 10 Desktop installation. Other details : I am also running DropBox and iCloud on all my devices. Both of these locations are lightning-fast in Windows Explorer, so this is evidently not a connectivity issue (and anyway, as noted above, the problem is also affecting my local Downloads folder - again, not a problem I am seeing on my MacBook). I have ample processing, storage and memory resources: Processor: i9-9900K CPU @ 3.60GH GPU : NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Memory: 32Gb Local Storage: 1TB SSD (OS) (25% used) / 4TB 7200RPM HD (Local OneDrive File Storage) (20% used) Yes, I am still running Windows 10, but - looking at relevant threads reporting the same issue - it appears the problem is also affecting Win11 users. I shut down my desktop machine at the end of each working day. Working Theory : is this issue being caused by Windows Search Indexing in some way? I did observe Search Indexing consuming huge amounts of resource in Task Manager during a particularly bad episode. I investigated by pausing indexing and restarting Explorer and on one occasion this appeared to fix the problem, but there have been many other occasions when indexing was not going on in the background and yet the problem remained. Microsoft: please step in and help us - it is clear from other threads here and on other boards that this is a widespread and longstanding issue.

Thanks for sharing. But I don't have iCloud on my office laptop and I still face this slowness in onedrive folder navigation. I am wondering if there is any other app (like iCloud) that is causing the issue. It started only after Win 11 upgrade.

yo I had the same problem. it was driving me crazy for months. i just lived with it because i didn't navigate using file explorer into my one drive folder often enough to bother trying to fix it. but as of right now it loads fast. guess what? like many of you i too have icloud installed. and i literally said to myself "there is no way it has anything to do with icloud. that has nothing to do with it." guess what else? i always had the little notification in the action center popping up a toast saying "failed to create container(s) for icloud drive". and that was another problem that was bugging me for months but i didn't use it frequently enough to bother trying to fix it. yo my solution might not fix your issue with one drive being very slow, but heres what worked for me. coincidentally, it killed two birds with one stone. when you click the icloud app and open settings in the taskbar tray, it doesn't let you change the directory of where you want your icloud folder to be stored on your pc. well i turned off the icloud feature, UNchecked the icloud check box, then hit APPLY. then i rebooted my pc. then i went in and was able to change the directory of where icloud wants its icloud drive path to be. whatever the default path is that icloud picks for your icloud drive to be stored in windows, focus all your effort on changing that path. click apply anytime you make a change. uncheck that icloud drive check box. click apply. click options. change the path. pick somewhere on a separate disk drive or somewhere for it to live. click OK. immediately click apply. reboot pc. i checked the box to turn on icloud drive again after successfully changing the path where it wants to live and magically i stopped getting the "failed to create container(s) for icloud drive" toast notifications. i hurried to check if OneDrive was still being slow, and lo and behold ITS FAST! A final note is i would caution against blaming one side or the other (apple or Microsoft) for being at fault for causing this (these) problems for users. in fact in my observation it would seem that both parties are infact doing their due diligence because icloud drive app for windows conflicting with windows native cloud folder handling api's means its trying to adapt itself to work in the windows environment even though it would prefer not to. this is a good thing because it means we have communication back and forth and this facilitates progress and reduces the distance between forces that would rather be separate. in other words, onedrive is hanging when opening folders because it knows icloud drive is using the windows native api calls that work in parallel with one drive, and its putting one drive on hold because its failing to create containers for icloud drive. this is what worked for me and i am happy about it!

Ok. Im using Win11 Home latest beta build 22635.2915 and Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.22682.1000.0 and the problem is gone for me since some beta versions back. Regards.

I'm using Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.22631.2792] AVD Multisession

OneDrive very slow in Windows Explorer

Anonymous

Problem: navigating my OneDrive folders in Windows Explorer is so slow as to be almost unusable. The problem appears to worsen as the working day progresses. This may be relevant to my working theory (see below).

Problem Behavior:

Double-clicking on any OneDrive file/folder in the left-hand folder tree window works fine, but if you right-click on anything, or single-click on its drop-down chevron, it brings up the "processing" blue circle icon, and the green loading-progress tape moves very slowly across the address bar at the top of the screen.
Selecting any operation in the right-click dropdown menu creates the same problem.
Right-clicking on a file or folder in the right-hand (main) window creates the same problem.

Each delay lasts 10-30 seconds. That is a lot longer than perhaps it sounds.

The only way to move between OneDrive folders in Explorer without triggering one of these delays is to left double-click. Moving files or folders must be done with drag-and-drop, not right-clicking; deleting files or folders must be done by navigating to the target item using keyboard arrow keys, then by using the DEL key, not a right-click action. Clearly this is unworkable nonsense.

The issue is confined to OneDrive folders in Explorer. Local drives, local detachable storage (like USB keys or externals) and other cloud storage destinations are all stable and responsive in the normal way.

My Downloads folder is periodically affected by latency issues also - particularly around loading of image files in MS Photo. This may or may not be relevant, so I am not detailing those here.

Rendering of previews for any file in any folder in Explorer is unreliable, and prone to slowness. Again, unsure if relevant.

Troubleshooting: I do not have the same problem when navigating OneDrive:

in a web browser on my Windows Desktop machine (Firefox, Chrome, Edge - all work fine)
on my MacBook Pro
from a mobile device

OneDrive is lightning fast and very stable in all these contexts. I have a venerable iPhone 7 (2016 model) and an even older iPad Air 2 (2014 vintage). Both handle OneDrive folder navigation just fine, both through local apps and online through a browser.

Clearly the issue is local, not server-side, and clearly it is peculiar to my Windows 10 Desktop installation.

Other details:

I am also running DropBox and iCloud on all my devices. Both of these locations are lightning-fast in Windows Explorer, so this is evidently not a connectivity issue (and anyway, as noted above, the problem is also affecting my local Downloads folder - again, not a problem I am seeing on my MacBook).
I have ample processing, storage and memory resources:

Processor: i9-9900K CPU @ 3.60GH

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080

Memory: 32Gb

Local Storage: 1TB SSD (OS) (25% used) / 4TB 7200RPM HD (Local OneDrive File Storage) (20% used)

Yes, I am still running Windows 10, but - looking at relevant threads reporting the same issue - it appears the problem is also affecting Win11 users.
I shut down my desktop machine at the end of each working day.

Working Theory: is this issue being caused by Windows Search Indexing in some way? I did observe Search Indexing consuming huge amounts of resource in Task Manager during a particularly bad episode. I investigated by pausing indexing and restarting Explorer and on one occasion this appeared to fix the problem, but there have been many other occasions when indexing was not going on in the background and yet the problem remained.

Microsoft: please step in and help us - it is clear from other threads here and on other boards that this is a widespread and longstanding issue.

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Answer accepted by question author

Anonymous

Hi,

I'm Pedro A, Independent Advisor

I've had some problems with OneDrive very similar.

The following procedure helped me to solve them.

In step 3, deleting the 3 files indicated is essential to help solve the problem.

You can only run step 3 and do a test, but I suggest you run the full procedure

Procedure:

1 - In the start menu, type CMD and choose the option "Run as Administrator"

When opening the Command Prompt, type:

taskkill /f /im OneDrive.exe

and hit enter

The command above terminates all program processes that may be running in the background.

2 - Access the link below and install the "App Installer"

https://www.microsoft.com/store/productID/9nblg...

3 - Open up File Explorer, click View and then check Hidden items box to view all hidden folders. This is required as some folders like AppData are hidden by default

Navigate to the following location

C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Microsoft

(Replace “UserName” with your user name.)

Now, look for "OneDrive" > "Setup" > Logs folder

Locate the files named below and delete them:

userTelemetryCache.otc

userTelemetryCache.otc.session

parentTelemetryCache.otc

4 - Click Start menu and search for Windows PowerShell, open with Admin privileges.

Copy and paste the following command by hitting enter after each one

(When a conformation message appears, type Y)

winget uninstall Microsoft.OneDrive

(This command will uninstall OneDrive)

5 - Now let's install Onedrive.

With PowerShell open with administrative privileges run the following command

winget install Microsoft.OneDrive

(This command will install OneDrive)

After the installation process is finished, restart Windows and test

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102 additional answers

Anonymous

2023-12-30T04:45:23+00:00

Thanks for sharing. But I don't have iCloud on my office laptop and I still face this slowness in onedrive folder navigation. I am wondering if there is any other app (like iCloud) that is causing the issue. It started only after Win 11 upgrade.
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Anonymous

2023-12-29T20:40:22+00:00

yo I had the same problem. it was driving me crazy for months. i just lived with it because i didn't navigate using file explorer into my one drive folder often enough to bother trying to fix it. but as of right now it loads fast.

guess what? like many of you i too have icloud installed. and i literally said to myself "there is no way it has anything to do with icloud. that has nothing to do with it."

guess what else? i always had the little notification in the action center popping up a toast saying "failed to create container(s) for icloud drive". and that was another problem that was bugging me for months but i didn't use it frequently enough to bother trying to fix it.

yo my solution might not fix your issue with one drive being very slow, but heres what worked for me. coincidentally, it killed two birds with one stone.

when you click the icloud app and open settings in the taskbar tray, it doesn't let you change the directory of where you want your icloud folder to be stored on your pc. well i turned off the icloud feature, UNchecked the icloud check box, then hit APPLY. then i rebooted my pc. then i went in and was able to change the directory of where icloud wants its icloud drive path to be.

whatever the default path is that icloud picks for your icloud drive to be stored in windows, focus all your effort on changing that path. click apply anytime you make a change. uncheck that icloud drive check box. click apply. click options. change the path. pick somewhere on a separate disk drive or somewhere for it to live. click OK. immediately click apply. reboot pc.

i checked the box to turn on icloud drive again after successfully changing the path where it wants to live and magically i stopped getting the "failed to create container(s) for icloud drive" toast notifications. i hurried to check if OneDrive was still being slow, and lo and behold ITS FAST!

A final note is i would caution against blaming one side or the other (apple or Microsoft) for being at fault for causing this (these) problems for users. in fact in my observation it would seem that both parties are infact doing their due diligence because icloud drive app for windows conflicting with windows native cloud folder handling api's means its trying to adapt itself to work in the windows environment even though it would prefer not to. this is a good thing because it means we have communication back and forth and this facilitates progress and reduces the distance between forces that would rather be separate.

in other words, onedrive is hanging when opening folders because it knows icloud drive is using the windows native api calls that work in parallel with one drive, and its putting one drive on hold because its failing to create containers for icloud drive.

this is what worked for me and i am happy about it!
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Anonymous

2023-12-18T16:44:02+00:00

Ok. Im using Win11 Home latest beta build 22635.2915 and Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.22682.1000.0 and the problem is gone for me since some beta versions back.

Regards.
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Anonymous

2023-12-18T02:44:59+00:00

I'm using Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.22631.2792] AVD Multisession
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