"The folder you tried to unselect contains the windows documents folder, which is an important folder in windows and is currently pointed to Onedrive"

Anonymous
2023-09-06T05:02:28+00:00

When I try to unsync any folder, this error message appears:

"The folder you tried to unselect contains the windows documents folder, which is an important folder in windows and is currently pointed to Onedrive"

This is a new thing that started happening over the weekend, as I use OneDrive on a daily basis.

Rebuilding all the folders and subdirectories are not an option since they are time-consuming and there is not enough space on my local drive (which is why I am using OneDrive and turning folders on and off).

Microsoft, please sort this out.

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneDrive | For home | Windows

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.

0 comments No comments

61 answers

Sort by: Newest
  1. Anonymous
    2023-11-18T01:51:14+00:00

    Windows did an update on my pc, and what do you expect the whole onedrive settings are messed up again. They automaticly added all folders in documents again to onedrive. Onedrive filled up its 5 gb, and then once the 5gb is filled up, you cant deselect anything or make any changes. Really messed up

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  2. Craig Long 18,630 Reputation points
    2023-11-08T03:59:41+00:00

    "The folder you tried to unselect contains the windows desktop/documents/pictures folder, which is an important folder in windows and is currently pointed to Onedrive"

    Weird thing is the message is the wrong way around,

    Yes, I agree.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments
  3. Anonymous
    2023-11-07T22:31:41+00:00

    Same issue - this is extremely concerning. Thankfully I have some spare space on my drive to move things around, but if I did not, I would be severly compromised, especially with the fact that my machine has restricted removable media.

    I frequently move folders to online only since I no longer need them locally and rely upon this selective mechanism to free up space.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments
  4. Anonymous
    2023-11-02T09:31:24+00:00

    "The folder you tried to unselect contains the windows desktop/documents/pictures folder, which is an important folder in windows and is currently pointed to Onedrive"

    Weird thing is the message is the wrong way around,

    "The folder you tried to unselect is contained by the windows desktop/documents/pictures folder, which is an important folder in windows and is currently pointed to Onedrive"

    Which doesn't mean much in any case, the actual situation is the files and folders in question are being synchronised, so no touchies. Easy way around it without stopping the backup is to make a copy of the folder somewhere outside of desktop/documents/pictures and login to OneDrive in the browser to delete it from desktop/documents/pictures linked there. Then copy the folder back in to its original location to find OneDrive not syncing it any more.

    HTH

    Was this answer helpful?

    2 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments
  5. Anonymous
    2023-10-20T18:45:13+00:00

    Posting here because I am also encountering this issue and it is extremely frustrating

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments