Windows 11 - documents folder is linked to onedrive instead of the pc storage. can't unlink it.

One should not have to go into the registry to fix this problem!

Unbelievable

I am not sure of the reason, but the, "Always keep on this device" option is not included in the right-click drop down menu of any of my files, programs or documents. This showed up after the last big Windows 11 Cumulative update during the first week of April.

Not sure where it went, as it was there before. Also when I try to email a single .pdf or Word document it sends a link to my windows explorer page instead. This link is fully functional and allows the receiver to search all of my files. I have never encountered this problem. It seems no one else has either. Short of a new computer, I am at a loss.

That is bizarre, no question! If I encountered this, I'd do the following:

1. Run sfc /scannow from an administrator command prompt.
2. Run DISM /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth from an administrator command prompt.
3. Restart the system twice.

If that didn't work, I'd do a Windows upgrade in place, which (unlike a refresh) doesn't mess with your files or apps but does require a download and bit of technical knowledge. (I'm not putting the link here because if you don't know how to do this already then you shouldn't try it on your own.)

And if that didn't work, I'd bite the bullet and do a clean install. Given how deeply OneDrive is embedded in Windows today (there are many features that rely on it, and they grow more numerous with each major update), you might well end up here if you've gotten into a mess earlier.

During the new install, when/if OneDrive or Automatic Backup shows up, uncheck all the options. That might prevent the "OneDrive Kidnap" from happening. If not, then before you do anything else, once the install is complete, take the steps I listed earlier to move the system Documents, Pictures, Music, and Desktop folders out of OneDrive. Only then move them to different drives.

You can then go ahead and reconnect OneDrive so that all the features that rely on it will work. Be sure to keep all the automatic backup options unchecked. It won't grab any of your system files. You also won't be able to sync settings among your different Windows machines, if you have them. That's the trade-off.

On my desktop system I have Desktop and Downloads on my system drive; Documents, OneDrive and Dropbox on a second internal drive; Pictures and Music on a third, and Videos on a fourth. It all works fine, but I used the steps I outlined in the earlier post to get there. There might be an easier way. I didn't find one.

NOTE: If you don't understand all of the above, take your machine to a local computer tech instead. As you've already found out, you can get in a real mess trying to boldly go where no folder has gone before.

I just startup up OneDrive on a new installation of Win 11 and was outraged that it moved my entire Desktop, Documents and Pictures folder to OneDrive! AND redirecting the standard folders links to OneDrive so that all future items place there would be to OneDrive. This occurs when you tell OneDrive that you want to start backing up your files. And an unsuspecting user will wonder why they are running out of disk space and being prompted to subscribe to more storage on OneDrive.

So I came here and found this thread and I used the procedure provided by Craigmore and got my system back to what I want but there are many users that will be totally confused by this. This is unacceptable that M$ is doing this. I could go on, but Anvil Above and other have raged on and stated it all.

OneDrive installs with Windows, or you can install it if it's somehow been previously uninstalled. There aren't "about a dozen ways" it gets there.

When you install Windows with a MS account, OneDrive grabs the Desktop, Documents and Pictures folders and you can't simply move them where you want them.

1. Open OneDrive using the system tray icon.
2. Click the gear icon and choose Settings.
3. Under "Sync and Backup" turn off everything you can find that can be turned off.
4. Under Account, choose "Unlink this PC."
5. Accept the warning.
6. Click on the system tray icon and choose Quit OneDrive.

After unlinking the PC, you will find that Desktop, Documents, and Pictures are no longer shown as being inside the OneDrive folder. This is the key that unlocks the dungeon door...

The "Location" tab in the Desktop, Documents and Pictures folder properties will now function as expected, and you can move them to wherever you prefer. (I put the Documents and Pictures folders on separate drives from the system drive. How you arrange things is up to you.)

Once you have things the way you want them, restart the system.

Open OneDrive and relink the PC. OneDrive will now be its own folder, although you will find it has a "Docs_OneDrive" folder and a Pictures folder that will try very hard to be your friend, but

maybe it's my fault as I did not feel like going through the whole story , BUT keep in mind that prior to installing win 11 as it in the END, it would NOT upgrade from 10 even though it was running as win11 for a while. since it had been over 5 years as 10 , I was not aware of how MS had changed things around. first let's face the white elephant. win11 is win 10 with a few new things and a new skin , same goes for win 10 over win 7 . same goes for ALL of Microsoft's software and their new greedy 365 idea , when Office 7 still works BETTER than these new skins over these software and their ICON driven mentality. enough of that rant .

All I will say BECAUSe of the link confusion, when I had deleted one drive and what I though were one drive links , I ended up deleting my downloads , documents , pictures links and the ACTUAL files in a separate 10TB drive that they were pointing to . this is very embarrassing to me , cause i did it , because of the one drive fiasco. LESSON learned I had backups in others drives and my Synology NAs. but lost 6 months of stuff that I have no recall of what they were . My pictures and Documents HURT.

so now it works without links and yes i have watched videos how to go about re-creating them and even bought a app that is " suppossed " to make it easy . Well my brain is starting to get hard and nothing is easy as it once was.

but like i said earlier WHEN and IF I re-install windows .

I will copy over all my files to my Synology .

deploy one of those CLEAN iso's that do NOT force you to install ONE drive or force you to sing in with a MS email address .

I finally reached my oldest son's mindset " if it ain't broke " keep running windows nt LMAO. and he still does for his development.

my sons came out like mom , I clean my email folder DAILY , my wife has over 75 thousand emails in her inbox !@#$%^&*() AHHHHHHHHHHHHH. one of my middle sons has so many tabs open in Firefox , they are 1/8" tab after tab on his 35" monitor , pure madness I say . but my near idetic memory and OCD and being in the spectrum has kept me ahead of the pack for a long time. now it's time to let others lead . I would invest my money in any other field but software companies as they are going to dicover gen Z does not give a damn , I know my youngest son is one and that kid scares me , god help these software companies thinking they will dominate in 20 years