Enough of forcing me to use ONEDRIVE

Question

Enough of forcing me to use ONEDRIVE

David Pearson 0

I unlink and then MS forces it back on me. I DO NOT MIND HAVING IS A DRIVE BUT I DO NOT WANT IT TO DECIDE WHAT TO DO FOR ME!!!!!

I turn if off, MS turns it back on immediately. I do not want my desktop to look like One Drive, I do not want to uninstall because it does have some good features but I do not want it to control my system. MS STOP FORCING THIS ON US!!!!

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3 answers

Your answer

Answer 1

Craig Long 18,545

I suggest you avoid placing your files in the Desktop, Pictures, Documents, Music, and Videos folders whenever possible.

Keeping files on a separate partition or external drive will help you do that.

Another way is shown in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yXgyrsqraE

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Answer 2

In order for us to sort all of these out, it is necessary (just for now) to get OneDrive desktop app back up and running.

To do so, go to your Start menu and see if you already have the OneDrive app installed. If so, go ahead and run it, sign in. If you don't have it installed, you will need to download it, install it back and then set it up. You can download it from here: https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-365/onedrive/download

Once you have the OneDrive app up and running again, please follow these steps closely:

Right click on the OneDrive cloud icon on the lower right on your taskbar to go to Settings.
On the "Sync and Backup" tab, click on "Advanced Settings" to expand that section. Then under File On-Demand, click on "Download all files".
Give it plenty of time to allow the files to be downloaded from the online cloud. On your computer's file explorer, you can observe the OneDrive folder and its folders/files inside. You want all of the green checkmark icon to turn solid green with a white checkmark. Depends on how many files you have, this process can take a while, so please be patient.
Once all of the folders and files turn into the solid green icon with white checkmark, you can go back to OneDrive Settings. Very important - click on "Manage Backup" button, then turn off all folders listed there.
After you turn off the folders sync in Step 4, now go to Account tab, click on "Unlink this PC"
Go to your Windows Settings > Apps, find OneDrive and uninstall it.

Answer 3

To stop OneDrive from taking over Desktop/Documents/Pictures without uninstalling it, turn off folder backup first, then unlink the PC.

Select the OneDrive cloud icon in the notification area.
Open Help & Settings > Settings.
Turn off backup for the folders OneDrive is managing under Sync and Backup > Manage Backup.
Go to the Account tab.
Select Unlink this PC > Unlink account.

If the goal is also to remove the OneDrive look from File Explorer without uninstalling:

Open File Explorer.
Right-click OneDrive > Properties.
On the General tab, check Hidden.
Select the OneDrive cloud icon again and choose Quit OneDrive.

Important points:

Unlinking OneDrive does not delete files or data.
Files remain available by signing in to OneDrive on the web.
On some versions of Windows, OneDrive is built in and cannot be uninstalled, but it can be hidden and syncing can be stopped.
If files seem to have moved, they may be in the OneDrive folder and can be moved back to the local folders after backup is turned off.

If OneDrive keeps reappearing after these steps, use the support path for technical help:

Personal account: Contact Microsoft Support.
Work or school account: contact the organization IT helpdesk or admin.

References: