Stop Office BACKUP THIS DOCUMENT prompt

Anonymous
2023-11-04T15:55:46+00:00

Excel and Word keep displaying a banner when I open a file "BACKUP THIS DOCUMENT - Access this file anywhere with OneDrive included in your subscription"

I have a backup system I use that I like and I don't need OneDrive to backup my files. How do I get OneDrive/Office 365/Windows to stop giving me this prompt?

I click the "X" or Schedule Backup Later to make the banner go away, but it just comes back a little while later. I've opened up the OneDrive app from the system tray and unselected everything from the OneDrive backup, but none of this helps and the prompt keeps coming back.

How do I get this to stop?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | 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

150 answers

Sort by: Most helpful
  1. Anonymous
    2025-05-22T12:17:51+00:00

    Unlink your computer from onedrive following the instructions below. This solved it for me.

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/turn-off-disable-or-uninstall-onedrive-f32a17ce-3336-40fe-9c38-6efb09f944b0

    Was this answer helpful?

    4 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments
  2. Anonymous
    2024-02-01T19:41:57+00:00

    I would say you're still getting the "nag" either because "Desktop" is not enabled

    Yes, that did the trick for me!

    I enabled it for the "Desktop" as well, so that they were all enabled. Then I cleared the KFM registry entry, to carry out the test, and there was no longer any nag message.

    To make sure, I disabled the "Desktop" backup and opened an Excel file once again, and the nag returned.

    I enabled it again, and the nag disappeared. And for a "sanity check", I repeated this cycle once more to confirm.

    So, at least for me, the problem as been solved. With ALL the backups enabled, there is no longer the "nag".

    Thank you!

    Was this answer helpful?

    3 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments
  3. Anonymous
    2023-12-28T21:17:18+00:00

    Sorry to hear that didn't work.

    It is truly maddening that Microsoft would push this at us, over and over again. I'd be fine with a single banner suggesting OneDrive, but it should have a "Don't ask me again" option! Or at least an easy checkbox setting somewhere to turn it off.

    Was this answer helpful?

    3 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments
  4. Anonymous
    2023-12-02T17:16:36+00:00

    Having had no success so far with any of the suggested remedies (registry changes) for this defect, I looked into the Group Policy Editor.

    I found a policy "Save documents to OneDrive by default" that looked promising and Disabled it as shown in the screen grab. I'm running Windows 10 Pro, and the policy description says it applies to Windows 8.1, but (hoping that just the description hadn't been updated) it seemed like a worthwhile test.

    Sad to report, the nag came back in Word and Excel 5 days later.

    Was this answer helpful?

    3 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments
  5. Anonymous
    2023-11-15T08:39:26+00:00

    I think if you just click on the button "schedule back later" make it disappear for a while at least for now I don't see it coming back when I close and open files again.

    Was this answer helpful?

    3 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments