How Do I Delete Files From OneDrive, but Not My Computer?

[@nostur4984]

Would it have been too much to simply add a button that says "Unsync"? How the hell did they mess something like this up? How couldn't they think that people would want to remove things from OneDrive only? It's such a simple yet fundamentally major design flaw that I can't wrap my head around it.

[@gloriapinskerportraits4801]

I think they just want you to fill up One Drive quickly so you will buy extra space. I think this is a really invasive and over-controlling app! I'm glad to have found this video!

[@joeh858]

Malicious intent.

[@ayushigupta2465]

Exactly!!

[@emerislinmer]

@@gloriapinskerportraits4801 Exactly, I just upgraded to Windows 11 and I can no longer move my files to an external drive, so I am forced to either cave in and buy more space or spend hours looking at videos and information as to how to now move my files. It's actually making me think about learning how to use Linux and getting rid of Windows completely. Not only was the upgrade a downgrade to many applications, it somehow exposed my credit card information to Bangledeshi scammers and I'm not exactly sure how, but immediately after I upgraded, I had a pending charge to my account that said it was from Microsoft, and concurrently an email from a Bangleshi scam company that said thank your for updating your Norton antivirus, we will be charging your credit card $360. I'm overseas and it is the only credit card that I have and I had to cancel it. Thanks Microsoft. Plus, I think Bill Gates is a criminal who should be on death row.

[@donut_jam]

yeah it synced my entire hard drive and when i uninstalled one drive all my stuff was gone

[@Cmtb125]

Hey man… THANK YOU. The fix was a little simpler than I thought. I have tried in the past to do this, and had trouble. I did it again today, and no trouble. I hate OneDrive !! I like to organize my files in my PC exactly how I want them. On the hard drive. I only want CERTAIN things to be shared. And OneDrive just wants to gobble up everything then tell me “running out of space , buy more “. Nah… I’m not BUYING MORE ANYTHING. Anyway, thank you!

[@tammygreenggum3895]

I just want to say that you are AWESOME! I have asked so many people how to do this and no one could offer successful advise or instruction. Thank you for being so easy to understand and easy to follow. YOU ROCK!!!

[@businessman1180]

i agree

[@ethelwai]

0:35 Opening One Drive 1:02 Saving on PC only 2:00 Remove files from One Drive Recycle Bin 4:01 No longer want to use One Drive

[@iamianpm]

can i just move/cut my files from onedrive to pc? and just skip copy and paste?

[@gibberish1551]

Data should NEVER have left my PC and been placed on some public storage somewhere on the net, A). less my knowing and B). less my permission in the first place. This modern trend of intrusion and liberty taking is infuriating.

[@Emma-kn8zn]

INFURIATING!!!!!

[@flipflopski2951]

and they call that place the "Cloud" because calling it Microsoft's Computer just wouldn't be Orwellian enough... heh...

[@stevenvanhulle7242]

If you (know how to) use OneDrive you _do_ know, and placing your files in the OneDrive folder implies your permission. If you don't know how OneDrive works you won't place your files in the OneDrive folder. Solved.

[@flipflopski2951]

@@stevenvanhulle7242 Microsoft owns you and your files anyway.

[@stevenvanhulle7242]

@@flipflopski2951 Paranoid much?

[@edugator1937]

Leo - Thanks so very much for explaining this in a clear and concise manner. I didn't realize items were going to a OneDrive storage - - UNTIL I began to get the message that my OneDrive was FULL! Then I noticed that I was getting ERROR messages on my files. I also noticed there were two Docs folder, but still didn't make a connection. WOW! How confusing! Again, many thanks!

[@anthonydinovo3305]

You have a gift for explaining things clearly. You saved my computer from this one drive cancer.

[@DaMainCookie]

Dude you saved my pc, thank you!

[@juannito246]

Abit over the top lol

[@Espion-]

this has been giving me a ton of trouble, thank you so much for the solution!! it feels really shady that there isn't a more intuitive option, everything in onedrive feels clunky and convoluted. i wasn't even aware until recently that the things i was saving weren't saved directly to my pc, and the only thing that made it clear were the storage errors and the constant insistence that the only way to get more space was to buy more onedrive storage (which i by no means have a real need for, i have more than enough space on my pc). again, thank you!

[@Goldstar46]

Hello Leo... ... Just a short note to say "Thanks" for your information and series of videos on OneDrive. I have been 'toying' with the application for over a year now, and struggled extensively trying to understand the 'logic' behind this system... and have always failed a qualified or good understanding... NOW, I NOT dumb, I am computer savvy, 78 years old, used to build over 150 MS machines a year... and have been using PC for over 25 years... Finally, I found you and your information, after about 3 hours and watching some 1/2 dozen of your tutorials, I am starting to 'see the light.. Thanks for you time, your information and your willingness to share.... I will continue to lear, and you will be a great part of that TIA.... George

[@ThaRealFloridaMan]

This has bothered me for years and my files were always all over the place thanks to one drive. I finally consolidated everything and can find the files I need. Thank you

[@Debbeh]

Thank you for this! Having an absolute nightmare with OneDrive right now. Was clearing space in it and my files were disappearing from my desktop too!

[@colbyhowell9265]

Same I straight up panicked today

[@vedantverma917]

Same here 🥵🥵

[@safeworld-168yjk]

Same here. All gone😭

[@flipflopski2951]

@@colbyhowell9265 Learning how to use Linux is easier that trying to make Windows usable.

[@malgoskako423]

Thank you ! You saved my Documents ! One drive blocked my email and my computer because I exceeded the size, but I never wanted to store my docs on one drive! I sent myself a test email, I received it in return that the file is full and impossible to receive it! Mind-blowing! Thank you Greetings from France !

[@kapts4055]

I love the way you are explaining. Amazingly calm and comprehensible. Thank you very much.

[@hridswarmhands2688]

Thank you so much! I was trying to get a folder with a bunch of videos out of onedrive. I couldn't figure it out until now!

[@LB_RS6]

Thank you this OneDrive storage was stressing me out 👍🏽

[@BagsByBarbie]

You are the best! I can't believe how simple OneDrive really is! I've been struggling with trying to understand how it works for years and in one simple video, you've made all the pieces of information I've been able to decipher on my own make sense! I will definitely be referring back to this video whenever I need a refresher. Thank you so much for clearing up the jumble that was in my head! 😃

[@maddogrk1]

Well done. You have no idea what a pleasure it is to listen to someone who speaks English without a horrible accent in your case no accent at all, and without a lot of background noise and without repeating a lot of useless information I didn’t need to hear. I realize I just got through with a tremendous horrible run-on sentence, but I just wanted to say thank you for your help in such a clear concise way. Thank you

[@ShanaCali]

I've spent two weeks trying to word the problem correctly to have this question answered. Found your video and was delighted to have my problem fixed. Thank you for the warning us about unlinking your PC from OneDrive and backing up your files. I decided not to do that. However, I have moved my files to my computer and emptied the recycle bin on OneDrive. Just over-joyed. Thanks again. 💕 ~*Shana

[@lou-nc4rc]

Could you please come to my house and do the same thing here? I am afraid I will make the situation even worse than it is now.

[@tylerscott7302]

This was perfect. Accidentally installed 22gb of songs onto one drive and it filled the storage and screwed everything up. This helped so much Thanks

[@askleonotenboom]

:👍

[@thepatrickkellypodcast5758]

One Drive Duplicates everything in your Documents of the "C" Drive and then takes up Harddrive space decreasing your Storage on your Computer.

[@sydneym.778]

Do you know if I save my documents to my D:/ drive instead of to my C:/ drive if they will then not be accessible to OneDrive? I think OneDrive is an invasion of privacy and it should ask before saving to the cloud.

[@epharonin1524]

@@sydneym.778 Typically, if you're saving anything to the D:/ Drive, you're getting ready to save it to a CD or DVD, as that's the default drive letter for a CD / DVD player.

[@xplodingkatz]

The point is there is a limited amount of storage you can use on OneDrive before having to PAY for more. Watse of money. I have 200 GB left on my storage. I do not need One Drive. And if I see one more 'Storage is Full' notification I'm getting a new computer out of spite

[@Sasa-eq2lk]

Thanks for the clear, methodical and simple explanation. Worked flawlessly.

[@hekarluzir7955]

Hi Leo, I have another problem with OneDrive. Today, I just mistakenly clicked YES to back up my Documents folder in my PC to my OneDrive, which I thought the system would allow me to choose which file, but it happened to be all the files in my Documents folder. The problem is, once I did that, there is no turning back, which I tried many times to unsync OneDrive, unlink it as well as to stop back up the folder. What happened was, all my files in the Document folder on my PC disappeared too. It seems that OneDrive has removed all my files from the PC to the OneDrive folder and never allows me to bring them back to my PC. I hope you could do a video or may be explain here on how to solve this problem.

[@priyanshinayak5514]

I literally have THE SAME ISSUE !!!

[@timpearlman4733]

Pretty sure its gone. I set up OneDrive as an alternative to some back ups I was making before a drive format, and now there's a file structure with random files missing. Like it never fully synced the files to begin with and just lied and told me it did, or synced to another computer where the files didn't exist. It's a horrible product.

[@lovehelping456]

7 months ago and he didnt get a reply! What am I going to do?

[@m_lies]

same problem right now...

[@RoanLauncher]

You can press right on click files and click 'Always keep on this device'. Therefore it's actually stored. Now I still don't know how I can keep OneDrive and have it not touch certain files, because some games store stuff in the Documents folder and I don't want to move it as the game is actually refering to these files. And there's no need to have this on my OneDrive folder online. PLEASE ONEDRIVE JUST WORK LIKE DROPBOX. 1) Get the hell out of documents. 2) Don't delete stuff unless I ask bro. 3). Don't sync stuff I don't want you to sync. We can only dream.

[@narikobeilschmidt]

thank you so much! i wanted to keep my old art on my computer for memories sake but not keep them forever in the cloud. i got really frustrated with it but you made everything really clear. thank you!!

[@gloriapinskerportraits4801]

Thank you so much -- so helpful! I find One Drive very invasive. I was appalled to find out that if you delete something from it, it disappears from your computer and all other devices! I prefer to pick and choose what gets saved to OneDrive.

[@safeworld-168yjk]

It happened to me. Deleted some files n pictures, videos from onedrive, and horrified to find all of them been auto deleted frm my pc & hp. 😭😭😭

[@jimalcott760]

This is criminal by MS.

[@flipflopski2951]

and microsoft doesn't tell you that you're deleting from more than one location...

[@paulmoffat9306]

Don't you just wish for the 'good old days', when the Operating System for your PC, came with a Users Manual, that listed all the various commands ?

[@Holly-days]

I am so glad I found this video, and you, Leo! I am going to bookmark your site and refer to it often.

[@mrj3217]

I decided foolishly to use this onedrive crap and it automatically synced my whole computer and fucked up everything. WHY? I will not be using this shit after I fix my shit.

[@stefanmirica6485]

Why would anyone think that deleting from online BACKUPS would mean I want to delete the main files. Backups are for backups, not for the main files.

[@ussenterprise7]

You explain everything perfectly. Keep up the good work :)

[@MohammedAli-fr5wy]

wonderful explanation Sir .. love your videos .. its better to spend 10-15 on your video to understand the problem than to go and watch 3-5 mins video and having half information .. great work

[@blank-9873]

This helps alot. This garbage program had enabled itself without my permision and was copying my pc's files to it for so damn long so glad to have it gone thanks!

[@lou-nc4rc]

Here's the trouble I have. The only way I can compose a word document is to go to the one drive now, then save a copy to the desktop. Leaving all those files in one drive that I don't want there. Leo, please come visit me!

[@JoanneZira]

Thank you! I used Onedrive to move items from old pc to new, but it filled up straight away with everything and took over my desktop, lol. Perfect solution!

[@wlewisiii]

This is why you NEVER use OneDrive or any other "service" scam like it.

[@lou-nc4rc]

It came with the 365 feature which is the only way you can use word program now. And I didn't realize what that meant. When I read how to do things about this, the explanations never match what I see on the screen. Do this, then do that....and those features are not where they are described. Just now I looked to see how to stop the synch with onedrive, and after I mistakenly somehow moved the desktop files to the cloud, it tells me if I unsynch, the files won't go back to their desktop home but will disappear entirely. Getting a monster headache and wishing I could turn back the clock and just use a typewriter and a telephone and the U.S. mail as it was back then.

[@merryannm]

Thank you. This is very helpful information, even two years after it was posted.

[@sharon1175]

This video answered my original question and also provided how to unlink the onedrive! Thank you!

[@yrdyork1261]

HOW DO I MOVE DESKTOP FOLDER IF IT SYNCED IT TO ONE DRIVE PLEASE HELP

[@flipflopski2951]

Try Linux.

[@Gumbalina]

30 seconds into the video he gives the answer to this question.

[@TheNastyJ]

A follow up video on what to do after removing OneDrive would be great. Like; How to change the file paths for your programs when saving Pictures, Documents etc. For example in Office programs such as word, It will continue to save to the one drive folder still on your PC. Whereas most users would like to have everything saved and routed to the default locations on the PC. One Drive is a nightmare and is a disgusting irritating bug rooted deep into windows and I hate it. I hate that windows is like this. I never asked or gave explicate permission to OneDrive to re route my destination paths for everything. At this point after removing one drive and uninstalling it on my PC, app don't work cause it can't find the paths it used to find. Learning how to create a new path is a real pain. Thanks for you video.

[@floki5605]

Agreed, I hate onedrive with a passion and wish Microsoft never created it!

[@TheBattleRabbit860]

THANK YOU! I have been using Windows since Windows '93. I have been out of the look since around the launch of Windows 10, and I didn't pay much attention to OneDrive at the time. About five months ago I got my current machine and files have been syncing to OneDrive on their own. I have been trying to free up space on my OneDrive but kept deleting them from being accessed on my laptop afterward. I didn't realize Microsoft made a distinction between the 'pictures' and 'documents' folders under 'This PC' and the user's folders listed under C:/

[@alexandervalladares2501]

Another One Drive amazing video Leo. Thank you !!!!

[@downtimewithdemille3116]

Hey Leo! Just had to say your videos are super easy and very helpful! Thanks for making these! Do you by chance have a video explaining how someone’s local hard drive is getting filled up because of a setting in One Drive? Any info you can provide is appreciated.

[@askleonotenboom]

Don't know what you mean by "a setting in OneDrive'. Which setting are you talking about?

[@downtimewithdemille3116]

@@askleonotenboomI may not be articulating the question in the best way, but I have a user at work whose hard drive capacity is at 239 GB, and a few days ago he only had 16 MB left because he said that one drive was filling up his local HD space. I am just trying to research what may be happening. I did free up 13GB of space for him, but then the next day he said he only had 8 GB free. To your knowledge can Onedrive cause issues like this? He has an external hard drive that he has been moving data to to help save important files for what it’s worth.

[@downtimewithdemille3116]

@@askleonotenboomhey, I figured out the cause of the issue. It didn’t really have anything to do with One Drive. Instead the user was syncing his Sharepoint library which was causing his hard drive space to fill up. This was definitely a learning experience.

[@cookiemnstrr]

Very informative. Just the information I was looking for. Thank you very much.

[@DK-kg1fe]

4:27 NOTHING is showing in my one drive folder but when I go to open documents it shows they are saving to one drive. How the hell? AND if I try to open one drive it says I have to "set it up.". So how does it save there if it's not set up AND i do not have a one drive icon and so what the hell?

[@vkgupta]

OMG, Its really helpful. my 7 GB file were uploading by mistake and I wanted to stop it in between. I searched many videos on youtube but it was not helpful then I got your video and this time also I was hopeless but surprisingly your video helped me. Thank you 1 Million times.

[@Tommy_007]

I don't understand: You have two 'Document' folders - one is INSIDE the OneDrive folder, and the other one is the *normal* "Document" folder - that you claim has nothing to do with OneDrive. But when you (in Windows Explorer) click on the path to this *normal* folder, it is also in a subfolder of OneDrive! (In this path, it says OneDrive just below the username.) Please explain.

[@AryettaLynn]

I have two windows set up side by side so I can clearly see the two destination paths. One says "this PC>Documents" and the other says "OneDrive>Documents" but when i go to move the specific folder (Electronic Arts) from the one drive to the PC, it says "the destination folder is the same as the source folder" so I am confused and don't know what to do.

[@KevinS265]

To fix this, I finally created a new documents-like folder **outside of the existing Documents structure** and moved my files there. OneDrive had taken over my Documents folder, backed up everything it could and then told me my cloud space was full (yes, I'm a packrat) and I could only continue if I purchased more space.

[@Emilynnial]

Unless you see a slash and not the > symbol, then you're looking at an abbreviated filepath. What you should do to double check the full filepath is to click on "Local Disk (C:)" or whatever drive you're in, select the "Users" folder, select the User logged into the computer and then check both the Documents folder and OneDrive folder which both inhabit that particular user's folder. Within the OneDrive folder is also a "Documents" folder but it is NOT the same location as the Documents folder that was located up one generation in the specific user's folder. Copy the "Documents" folder located in the OneDrive folder, navigate up one tier into the user's folder and paste into THAT folder. On that tier, since there is a Documents folder, once you paste the copied folder into the user's folder, it will overwrite that stand-alone Documents folder and your stuff will now exist in a location outside of the OneDrive folder.

[@duhmez]

I need to free space. I CUT and PASTE a couple big folders from my explorer, to a diffeent fodler entirely. but onedirve is redownloading them aghain and reeing no space! WHat is going wrong? NOw I have 850 GB in my windows onedrive flder but it is reporting online drive as having almost 1 TB. I want to clean up and delete eveything from online onedrive cloud that is not sitting inside myt local onedrive folder. Any way? My onedirve windows folder has all the file I want, and onine cloud onedribe for some reason has alot more.

[@EIRE55]

Still being new to W10, I'm not happy with OneDrive and need to look into it in depth to find out how to stop it from storing all my private files. I even stopped OD from uploading on Start. Shortly after I started on W10 about four months ago, I created a OneDrive-Personal, rather than just OD by itself or being public. Can you tell me what the difference is, please, Leo? I know you've done other videos about OD, which I've saved on my Watch Later list (this being one of them), so I really must make time to watch them all. Many thanks, as always.

[@UU-ry6gt]

great explanation! One drive drives me crazy ;)

[@SJQuirke]

me as well - I hate work on this platform it is so unintuitive the first thing that happened is that it backed up my folder on my C drive and clogged my machine

[@milly0419]

my brother was on my laptop and put my sims on one drive as u could imagine- that was a lot of storage ty!!

[@GabrielaMajic]

I almost lost all my savefiles in the sims bc of onedrive :) my life flashed in front of my eyes

[@nervosa68]

Thank you very much. I did not understand the relationship between onedrive and my computer, so I deleted files off onedrive. THANK GOD for BACKUPS !

[@askleonotenboom]

"THANK GOD for BACKUPS !" SO TRUE! 👍

[@thereaper2762]

Thank You so much for this! I just got Windows 11 and onedrive immediately filled up and put red X's on my PC on every video photo and document I have, and constantly popping up "Buy the upgrade! Buy the upgrade!" so annoying. The only thing I want it for is sometimes it's easier to share a pic with someone through there

[@pspk70]

Wow ! That was the best how-to video I've seen on the Internet. So well presented. Thank you sir. I used to lookup solutions on the ask Leo website from the time it started. Glad you are on you tube now !!

[@MalevolenceX3]

Thank you for your service, everything I saw just kept switching to to pictures under "This PC", where in my case, the pictures originated from. With this I just tried the actual Local Disk user and it worked.

[@kellytriplett]

What a great explanation!! Thanks, Leo!!

[@antonios4926]

Thanks for the video. Like an idiot, I did not realize the files were being uploaded.

[@willmiller7794]

Thanks for the information Leo. Have a wonderful holiday season.

[@suemarie6032]

I bought a new computer and was moving files and folders over from an external hard drive. I kept getting annoying pop-ups telling me I'm filling up One Drive, until the final one that said it's 101% full and I can no longer sync or save data. That freaked me out but now I see it's nothing to do with my latop, just the OneDrive. I never asked to use One Drive, heck I didn't even know what it was. I found I could stop using it but when I clicked on it, it gave me a warning that made me wonder if what's stored there will be deleted. It would be nice if they actually asked us first if we wanted it and what we actually want to put in the cloud, Thank you for your video. I've been searching for days trying to find out what's what and your video explains the whole process very well. I still have a qburning uestion though. Mine says I have 239 sync issues. After watching your video, I clicked to see what was in it and there are so many folders affected with maybe one file each with a X on them. From my point of view, it would be a monumental task to get those files back one by one. Unless you have a better option, although I dread doing it, I can stop the association like you direced, (I do not want anything to do with OneDrive) and then move all 700 gigs of data over to the new laptop again. This, along with many admin issues and my computer forcing me to sign up with MS before I could even download the Chrome browser had me ready to pack it up and return it. I've never had such a hard time settng up a new computer and I've been using them since 1998. I have been Googling for everything which is non-existant in the computer manual and that really has me upset that I've already wasted a week of my time. I'd appreciate any adivce you have to offer.

[@colleenh7989]

Thank you so much for these videos! I am a One Drive newbie and this is super helpful!

[@markkeklikian1765]

Really appreciate this. As I am trying to get file structure organized.

[@artsyladie7]

Really great and helpful, easy to understand tutorial! Thank you.

[@productsourcemanager6491]

Great way of explaining . not only helpful, super helpful. thanks

[@jakhan3067]

Thank You. Nice instruction on the "OneDrive" storage & assicated techniques involved. QUESTION:I would like to move the" OneDrive" scenario to a local NAS drive and mimic iCloud locally -EASILY.

[@jasonwilson556]

It's outrageous that private files are automatically updated to Microsoft's cloud without your permission.

[@Arthur-xp5nr]

Oh my god. I had a intense problem with onedrive for 6 months! You fixed it

[@Agnethatheredhairkid]

Leo always talks sense.

[@theboss1220]

This is the best of the best one drive video ever.

[@anthonyfiamengo4664]

I agree with many of the comments, you truly do know how to explain this simply. I have one question, Will something happen to a file that hasn't fully uploaded, because they loaded too much, and takes too long. Example, if I highlight a large amount of files and transfer them to the Laptop in another folder as shown, but the file hasn't shown a thumbnail yet because of it being full and taking long, will I lose that file if deleted on OneDrive????

[@askleonotenboom]

Unfortunately the scenario you describe could go many different ways. Yes, the file needs to be fully downloaded in order to successfully copy elsewhere, but OneDrive being full shouldn't affect that. Your hard disk being full, of course could,

[@garyt2185]

OneDrive is over complicated. It's a backup service. It should just ask for folders one wants backed up and do it's job. Deleting files from the folder shouldn't remove them from OneDrive and vice versa. Microsoft has made this product act like an external hard drive.

[@aidamtabirao2811]

@Ask Leo. Leo, my computer says my locally saved files/ documents are actually saved on one drive instead of my PC. Would copying those files into an external SSD hard drive prevent those files from being deleted on my computer if I deleted them from one drive online? Currently if I were to un sync one drive I am not able to access my locally saved computer files since they were saved on my one drive. However I was able to copy the same files from my external hard drive an access them that way. Is there a way to save my local files in to my pc and not have on one drive without copying a new file in to my external SSD This came about because my university had our one drive accounts reduced from 1tb to 20gb which means I am over now, so I am trying to reduce my storage by actually removing my supposedly local files from being saved synced into one drive which is about 20.4gb The problem seems to be that the default location of my saved files/ documents is one drive so I ended up having my document file linked to one drive so I had two, one in my computer and one in my one drive. 😢

[@aidamtabirao2811]

NVM - I fixed it by backing up my folder/ documents into my external ssd and my other one drive account and then reverted the main documents folder location from one drive to my c drive which was the main problem. And then movies my stuff back into the documents folder.

[@valeriehofmann2615]

I have folders that dont have the one drive path yet they show backed and i cant find the local folder to move anything to

[@louisabanks3982]

Double thumbs up!!! VERY helpful video 😀

[@jamessinclar6118]

You have helped me out several times, thank you. This may seem like a simple question that anyone with the basic computer knowledge would know.... I have Windows 10. One this video you have OneDrive folder open then open a new one. Now, here is my simple question: How did you open the new window from the folder? I tried right click, didn't work. The option for new window is not there. I tried just clicking on it, nope. How about those little icons in the top left...., nope. Well, I'll go back through your video a few times to see, nope. Leo, dummy it down for me. This OneDrive it driving me nuts!

[@askleonotenboom]

CTRL+N for new window perhaps?

[@jamessinclar6118]

@@askleonotenboom, thank you so much, it worked!! I knew it had to be simple. I appreciate the quick the response.

[@spl1949]

I have an SSD that is full and a 1T HDD that is 90% empty. When I try to move the files e.g. "pictures" I get a message that I cannot do that because "there is a folder in the same location that can't be redirected." I'm sure this has something to do with OneDrive. If you know anything about this your help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[@SJQuirke]

Onedrive is a disaster - don't use it

[@yes350yes]

OK, for a long time one drive would open on my desktop for importing images from my camera or phone, but now it doesnt do that. I want it to as it would show me a black screen as I can resize the image then let them import to photo gallery. There are a lot of images there though and I may need to remove the images to another folder. I dont know why it changed on me but would like it back that way.

[@iainbremner8909]

I'm at my wits end with Onedrive! I run Adobe Lightroom, and Windows 11. I imported my camera files to my Laptop 'Pictures' folder, and did not understand that Onedrive was syncing this folder to the cloud. I have struck a problem with Onedrive - it is stuck on syncing 2 files. The toolbar icon, when hovered over, says 'Onedrive - Personal Processing 2 changes'. In the meantime I am not able to make changes e.g to file names in Lightroom. The syncing process has made the files currently inaccessible. After striking problems with Onedrive earlier, I tried unlinking my laptop. Then all my photos in the Explorer directory on my laptop displayed a brown box on their corner. What does that mean? Meanwhile Onedrive still has not finished processing the 2 files. What now?

[@orenjigameplay7331]

Thanks grandpa, This is helpful. This is the thing I'm looking for, because I'm having trouble with file saving.

[@askleonotenboom]

You're welcome, little child.

[@mlocascio656]

@@askleonotenboom ✔

[@cybythesea]

Thanks for the well thought out video and description! I'm still having trouble knowing whether or not deleting photos from OneDrive is also going to delete it from various locations on my phone and or computer. If I delete OneDrive from my phone does that secure the photos that are inside of my Samsung Galaxy gallery ? I currently have sync turned off in the gallery but I don't know if that protects the images that are within. I tried following the directions and right clicking on the OneDrive icon but it said that it could not connect to the server and that there was a problem.

[@silvermanj7368]

Thanks Leo! Did MS really think that OneDrive was what everyone wanted as their default settings?

[@nelsonflores67]

Im trying to stop syncing desktop, documents, email attachments, music and pictures so i go to this process, right click on onedrive icon - settings- backup tab- manage folder backup- click stop backup in desktop and then all Folder, Icons get delete on my desktop , account tab/ choose folder - unselect all folder and again files on desktop gets deleted. So i go to each file on my desktop including software icons and i right click/ always keep on this device and i do the same process again and still gets deleted. Do you know what else i can tried. I want to know how to stop syncing but not deleting the files on my desktop. I also notice that when i create a new folder and green dot keeps next to the folders and even on the microsoft edge icon that gets delete when i do the process explain above. Only way to keep files and icon this by unlinking onedrive account i can create a new folder but when i link onedrive again gets a green dot next to it and i do the whole process again and it gets delete. I just want to link one folder to onedrive and not my desktop. Can you help? Thank You in advance.

[@seonadmacleod139]

Thank you Leo for your clear and concise instructions! Very helpful indeed!

[@sulejman950]

Thank you very much. You explained it in the best way possible.

[@MaureenYounger]

Thanks so much for this and keeping it short and to the point. It was driving me round the bend till I came across your video.

[@sgpilare]

Hi Leo, let’s say I have empty my one drive recycle bin, that means the files are permanently deleted, but I encountered on one thing is that, I saw there is option called restore one drive, I see file there to restore, but what if wanted delete file there as well??

[@danielcontreras9523]

I unlinked my pc from onedrive, I moved the files like in your video but when i go to save a document for example. it still continues to save to onedrive instead of local pc which is what I want.

[@askleonotenboom]

This depends on the program you're using. You'll need to check it's settings and change the default save location.

[@NvTwist]

One drive kept reactivating itself on startup after I had unchecked that option in settings so I uninstalled the application

[@flipflopski2951]

You have to conclude that Microsoft named two folders Documents to be intentionally confusing. Scummy business practices. The reason I switched to Linux years ago.

[@52leveler]

Prety simple and usefull, i let my desktop on one day and one drive update and auto copy everything, i want one drive to work as an only safe copy but im the one who wants to pick what to add, so its easyer to disasosiate and then manually use the online version myself, i didnt knew that deleting from one drive while linked deleted the once in my desktop, that gave me a scare the first time.

[@skythomas7008]

Thank you so much for making this video. It was easy to follow and easy for me to remove stuff from onedrive and place it only on my laptop.

[@agynhez4.11.14n.]

hello! Thank you Leo ..Now I have free my one drive. Thank you so much!

[@grizzkid795]

I attempted to move a folder from Onedrive into my documents, but it would not disappear from Onedrive and does not show up in recycle bin. Onedrive tells me my storage limit has been reached and I must pay for more space. I want nothing to do with Onedrive malware but can't make it go away.

[@askleonotenboom]

Move it do a completely different folder outside of the OneDrive folder. If you have OneDrive's backup feature turned on (OneDrive may turn it on for you), that Documents folder was MOVED into OneDrive so moving to documents doesn't make sense. Use a completely different folder not within OneDrive. More here: askleo.com/the-problem-with-onedrive-backup/

[@grizzkid795]

Now, if you could shorten that multi page explanation to about four sentences, you'd have my attention.

[@SuperMeIS23]

Thanks for this video so simple and clear. I have now removed a bulk of the data from the one drive freeing up space. If I decide to now unlink one drive with files still existing in it - will it remove those files permanently?

[@askleonotenboom]

It depends on what you mean by "unlink".

[@awoodworker]

Hello. For some reason my computer started opening up Onedrive whenever I would plug in my phone to download photos to the PC. It seems to have taken over. I am not computer savvy. I thought I deleted Onedrive when I found it in the Uninstall list but it keeps coming on when I plug my phone to my PC. I don't want to use Onedrive at all yet I can not find the Icon anywhere in my taskbar or in the list of Apps. It automatically starts downloading my photos. Does clicking cancel completely stop it? Thanks.

[@skagittoetapperson-lineclo1568]

I accidently made almost every file one drive. how do i put files back to pc. is it the same process. can i move an entire file back to c: drive?

[@arsnovaarsnova]

Hi Leo, thanks for this video, a question, on my PC the Macros in Word that I record (automated shortcuts for different things that require many steps) disappear suddenly and often, I followed instructions on line how to save and back up but still that continues to happen, do you have an advice on how to save, back up and reinstall macros in Word. Thanks in advance, Paul

[@Soulcommander]

Great video! Still can not figure out if I have a folder on my C: drive and choose ALWAYS keep on THIS DEVICE and I then get a green circle with the white check mark in it indicating that. Why when I then delete a file associated to this folder on OneDrive, to try to free up space that it also removes that same file from my pc when the folder is located on my C drive that I just set to always keep on this device.....

[@askleonotenboom]

Deleting from OneDrive deletes the file from OneDrive EVERYWERE. "Keep on this device" only applies to files that are IN OneDrive, and determines whether or not they take up space on your disk, or need to downloaded on demand when you use 'em.

[@Soulcommander]

@@askleonotenboom I'm trying to wrap my brain around this. This PC in File Explorer does not seem to be associated with One drive and contains the Documents Folder. I would not think anything would get deleted in that folder if you delete it from OneDrive. I see the folder structure if looking at OneDrive and it does contain a Documents folder as well and in that case I would think it would get deleted there. So when you ay Everywhere you mean everywhere! Just seems weird to me as the file string in My PC has no OneDrive in the string so I would assume those files should be left alone, but they do not get left alone!

[@askleonotenboom]

@@Soulcommander Make sure the option to back up your documents (and other) folders is turned off in the OneDrive app. That causes a LOT of confusion in situations like this.

[@Soulcommander]

@@askleonotenboom Thanks..back to normal!!!You have a new subscriber.

[@georgerader7721]

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU, YOU ARE A LEGEND

[@Bryce7650]

THANK THE LORD! OMG THANK YOU! HERE IS A COOKIE SIR! 🍪 YOU DESERVE IT!

[@HopeWins777]

so is there an actual Library System in the cloud that we can access that will not insist on syncing up to a local device?

[@wendomania]

Great video! Hoping you can answer this scenario which is a combination of the two scenarios in your video. I have lots of folders in my OneDrive that are also on my computer. They sync. Let’s say I have 50 folders. Now I just want to remove 10 of those folders from OneDrive, but leave them on my PC. I read about selecting ‘Always keep on this device’, but that’s not doing what I want. I need to be able to delete a folder on OneDrive and NOT have it also delete that same folder on my PC. Thanks so much!

[@askleonotenboom]

As the video outlines, you need to MOVE the files on your computer our from within the OneDrive folder.