Force sync in OneDrive

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Hello Oliver,

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community.

Yes, there is a way to force OneDrive to sync manually. Here are the steps:

1. Right-click on the OneDrive icon in the system tray (bottom right corner of the screen).
2. Click on "Help & Settings" and then select "Settings".
3. In the "Account" tab, click on "Unlink this PC" and confirm the action.
4. Sign in again with your Microsoft account and select the folders you want to sync.
5. OneDrive will start syncing the selected folders immediately.

Alternatively, you can also force a manual sync by following these steps:

1. Press the Windows key + R to open the Run dialog box.
2. Type "cmd" and press Enter to open the Command Prompt.
3. Type "cd %userprofile%\OneDrive" and press Enter to navigate to the OneDrive folder.
4. Type "onedrive.exe /sync" and press Enter to force a manual sync.

If it still take some time for the files to sync, you can upload the files directly to OneDrive, so other user who needs the file can access it right away. You just need to go to this page Sign in - Microsoft OneDrive and you will have an option to upload the file.

I hope this helps! Please let us know so we can check more options for you.

Regards,

Nhiel T.

Microsoft Moderator

[removed - COC violation] suggesting to unlink to resync because thats not whats being asked for. unlinking will undo all of onedrive then you have to resetup onedrive...so it is not the force sync that was asked for.

Its like someone says "how do i fix word" and you suggest to format the entire PC

[removed - COC violation]

Here is the way to figure out OneDrive.exe location on Windows 11 PC.

1. Type "onedrive" into Search control on your taskbar - you'll see OneDrive App in the "Best match".
2. Right-click on OneDrive App, in the context menu select second option - "Open file location" command
3. Explorer opens ...\Windws\Start Menu\Programs folder - and you'll see there "OneDrive" - but this is not yet what you need, this only the shortcut - the LNK file, not the EXE.
4. Now right-click on the LNK file and in the context menu open "Properties" (alternatively, select OneDirve.LNK and press Alt+Enter) - this will open properties dialog box (Shortcut tab)
5. You have now in the top section third line "Target:" field - and that is exactly what you need.

On my PC I see there "C:\Users\andre\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneDrive\OneDrive.exe", first part (C:\Users\andre) is my user profile folder, represented by %userprofile% variable in my batch file.

Hope this helps - you should see the correct location of the OneDrive.exe file on your PC following the steps above.

I cannot find a onedrive.exe (presumably in Windows System folders. I can only find OneDriveSetup.exe.

C:\Windows\WinSxS\wow64_microsoft-windows-onedrive-setup_31bf3856ad364e35_10.0.19041.1_none_e585f901f9ce93e6

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.19045.5247]

I would prefer a CLI command, if a GUI option was FFS not made available, however that suggestion has to be valid. If there are caveats to its presence, then the one offering the info should know if and offer up such advise in their position as "expert".

Looking for other methods, as I have already share files and feel disconnecting from the drive may break those links.

Yep, indeed, "/sync" is not working, but you don't have to manually pause and wait for 2 minutes to restart or kill the process via Task Manager.

There is simple and convenient way to trigger synchronization with the following batch file:

cd %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneDrive

OneDrive.exe /shutdown

OneDrive.exe /background

• this works just fine. Enjoy!