How can I turn off the sync function my Microsoft account from my windows 11 laptop?

There are a couple of things to do as there are two syncing methods:
The 1st method is the account itself via windows -
whereas previously advised by others on here, go to account , privacy etc and slide all the sliders to the left.

2nd. If you STILL have the GREEN SYNC icon under the account/profile name then it is likely the CLOUD/ONE DRIVE that is causing this -(even if you are not logged in/using One drive)

The super simple method is to go to the Application Tray in the Lower right part of your taskbar and then RIGHT CLICK the ONE DRIVE icon - Click on the settings wheel and then select UNLINK THIS DEVICE -

1. Open the system tray icon. Open/Right click "ONE DRIVE" icon, Click on the gear icon then choose "Settings" option.
2. Then under the Accounts tab select the "Unlink this PC" option.
3. Follow the on-screen prompts to unlink your account and close the Window.

Boom! you will now be fully unsynced and the GREEN "syncing" icon will have disappeared.

Hope this helps as it worked fully for me on WIN 11
if it works for you then please give a helpful thumbs up

No, you are WRONG. Under settings, there is no "accounts" tab. There is a "Profiles" tab, and when I click on that, it shows me my profile; under my avatar, it says "Sync is ON." Even though I have all the siders moved to the left to supposedly turn them off, Sync REMAINS ON. The worst part about this is Sync does not really Sync, it just makes duplicates of everything, over and over. So my Bookmarks have 7, 8, 9 duplicates of each other from everytime this thing syncs. This has been this way since at least Windows 10 and nothing has ever been done about it.

I spent 24 years in the Navy so I look at things as a sailor.

I live in a rural area where internet is intermittent. I also travel with my husband and can spend the entire day without the internet.

It is bad enough fighting updates because of internet access and having spend months at sea you can't bring the internet up on your computer. Using a government computer to access the cloud and work on something personal can get you into serious trouble. If you are a junior rank you are looking at email only when at sea.

As a writer and having recently synced to ease the back up of my laptop that I need to send in for warranty repair. Now I am finding accessing my files difficult if not impossible off line.

Syncing should never mean that I can't have access to my work.

The inability to easily turn syncing off shouldn't result in loss of all work when you delete files from your laptop prior to sending it in for repair.

Syncing shouldn't require you to know computers to be able to tell the location of a file and ensuring the file is stored on your physical computer.

Syncing should be designed to allow you to keep certain personal files from EVER being synced because the only true way to protect data is to have it on a external hard drive that you only access when you are working off line.

I really wish Microsoft would remember that not everyone works in an office building, has internet access all the time. Maybe their programmers and developers need to take a little time off and go camping and while camping see what works and doesn't work. No cheating with mobile hotspots on some expensive phone.

Hi I have the same issue, I just wanted a clean reinstall of Windows 11 as I have computers in every room

media centre, gaming pc, etc I need them to be separate .. And other than creating a new microsoft account for every pc.. "10 computers" there appears to be no way to clean reinstall windows..

And have edge clean with no favourites from pre factory reset..

A factory reset should be Just that.. a brand new machine.. clean reinstall regardless of the Email Address

used.. I can maybe understand how someone with only one computer might find such a setting useful

were their machine to fail at some point and just wanted to resume using their pc with the same settings.

Or someone transitioning from work to a home pc on a regular basis..

But for home users or enthusiasts this is a nightmare.. You can remove OneDrive but by the time you have done that all your bookmarks and files have synced . You can immediately proceed to sync settings

after reinstall but as soon as you log in to microsoft all your files sync before you can disable all the settings.. And once you remove One Drive in control panel you lose that ability to manage sync settings in One Drive..

What a total Mess...

I have read a article that you can drill down into the OS and are able to delete the Edge folder which will then allow a clean browser experience.. but what a nuisance

I am frankly quite annoyed at this experience.. I dont want to sync anything , i never have.. And i dont want to upload or store anything in the cloud.. I just want a clean fresh install of windows..

Why is that so hard to do..

Developers are out of touch with reality..

So I will create a new email address for every pc.. and reformat this pc for the third time today..

to get the result i require.. what a waste of valuable time...

regards Andrew

IM NOT SURE IT HAS WINDOWS 11 NOW?. IS IT THE SAME FOER WINDOWS 10?