Remove "Sign in to turn on offline access to your lists" OneDrive notification after removing work account that is no longer used

Anonymous
2022-10-23T14:14:08+00:00

I have recently removed a work account from my Windows 11 installation in my desktop and laptop. While the process has been smooth, there is however a leftover notification that appears during Windows start-up on both devices:

From OneDrive: "Sign in to turn on offline access to your lists"

When clicking on it, it attempts to log into the work account that I have already removed! Unfortunately I am unable to disable this notification from appearing every time I start the PC or laptop. I even attempted to unlink all accounts from OneDrive, and cleared all credentials in the hope that this notification no longer appears; however, after linking back my personal account, it still appears on Windows start-up.

How can I make sure that this notification no longer appears? Are there any places where the work account email is still cached? Can those entries be removed so that this is solved?

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneDrive | Other | Windows

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Anonymous
2023-06-12T11:03:10+00:00

Remove on HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run the key Microsoft.Lists that points towards C:\Program Files\Microsoft OneDrive\23.071.0402.0001\Microsoft.SharePoint.exe

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It's only been a couple of start ups, but this gets my vote as the simple solution, nothing else needed. I knew someone would come up with it, brilliant, thank you for fixing this annoying problem.

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  1. Anonymous
    2022-12-18T10:15:36+00:00

    @SokeJWDK, this may mean that my previous step is required. Before deleting the folder, I'd already removed any trace of my work account from the Registry.

    I'm no longer getting the notification, even though the Business1 folder was recreated. Also, while the Business1 folder was recreated, the corresponding Business1 key in the Registry (HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\OneDrive\Accounts\Business1) is all but empty, and the folder seems to contain only default configuration files.

    My guess would be that the Business1 folder does correspond to the work account, and both the folder and the traces of the account in the Registry need to be deleted to suppress the messages. Continuing my guesses, OneDrive may require a work account to be present, and creates an empty/default/dummy work account if absent.

    So that would mean that the steps to get rid of the notification are:

    1. Quit OneDrive and all SharePoint processes.
    2. Search the Registry for references to the email address/domain associated with the account, and delete everything that's not there for a valid reason.
    3. Delete the BusinessX file system folder associated with the account

    After this, if you don't have a work/school account, OneDrive will probably recreate a dummy Business1, which does not produce the notifications.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-01-21T15:13:54+00:00

    Too bad: it took nearly a month, but the message came back.

    Glanced at the Business1 folder and the Business1 account in the Registry, both were present again and non-empty. Deleted both again.

    This may be a result of recently signing into Teams with my new employer's Work/School account...

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-02-26T07:08:07+00:00

    Same issue here. Workaround is only temporary and doesn't handle other business accounts on the device.

    Would love to see a response from Microsoft where they read the question :)

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-03-13T06:19:53+00:00

    I too, have this issue, and tried all the described "workarounds", even reset OneDrive. That "Sign in to turn on offline access ..." notification, pointing to my previous employer, keeps reappearing after every reboot.

    We already have forty-two people reporting to have that problem. A thousand views on the thread. There are 10x more people suffering from this, being forever haunted by their past. 😵

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    5 people found this answer helpful.
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