Change Your Windows Folder Locations Back to Their Defaults from Microsoft OneDrive

Here is an updated version of the process,
• Change Your Windows Fo...
If you use OneDrive to back up your data to the cloud or to sync with your other computers, you might have noticed that rather than using the default Windows folder locations under C:\users\username, OneDrive will create its own folder under your user folder. You might also notice that things like your Desktop folder is missing under your user profile.
If you then try and move the default folder location back to its original location, you will get an error that says Can't move the folder because there is a folder in the same location that can't be redirected. Access is denied. In order to keep your documents, pictures and desktop items in the default Windows folder, you will need to stop the backup process from the OneDrive settings.
Check out our book titled Microsoft OneDrive Made Easy to take your file sharing skills to the next level!
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#onedrive

[@jabatheshort660]

this onedrive folders thing upset me so much, you also cant easily see its even your one drive folder from the path, when you copy the path it just says "/Documents" like wtf microsfot

[@zegofr34ks17]

You are a savior! OneDrive was actually breaking my Computer I it is so User unfriendly and tries so hard to keep your files in their cloud that I couldn't find a solution to my own. So thank you very much!

[@MrWoodenSheep]

Thank you for the super easy to follow guide. Everything I found on forums was way more convoluted. This worked perfectly for me. (A bonus step, after unlinking the PC at the end, I also uninstalled one drive)

[@katz4248]

Note: don't uninstall one drive first, cuz then you'll step an hour figuring out how to move the folders when you need to have OneDrive installed to do so

[@Tony_Sab]

@@katz4248i just deleted one drive and when everything goes completely nuts I'll go buy a Mac or move to Linux cause this is the most anti consumer tactic I've ever seen

[@hollowstarfire]

OMG this was sooo helpful thank you so much for making this!!! True Lifesaver! One thing I'll have to note to others doing this is that if you have a specifically organized desktop, that you should take a screenshot of it BEFORE you do this to your desktop files because moving the files *will* shuffle up where things are visually on the desktop. It's not too big of a deal, can always reorganize but it is something to note if you are very particular on how your desktop looks

[@karinabibich6067]

You have just saved my compulsive personality, thank you c:

[@alexthegardener2322]

because of you my friend finally can live a happy life because he can make folders on his desktop THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE!

[@gonebutyea]

You are a saint. The fact that I can uninstall OneDrive but it doesn't automatically do these steps is terrible! I never use OneDrive!

[@DiscoReggae]

Works perfect for me, I have been trying for weeks to stop onedrive from messing up my documents and other locations, these instructions were easy to follow and I'm now HAPPY :)

[@Zachary-]

Windows 11 is officially worse than Windows 8. Onedrive steals my main document folder, so everything I do is through Onedrive first.

[@CabeBooth]

Yeah it's a s*** show and has been. I think they're turning it into a series and it's already got like 3 years in the can... and weill definitely be renewed for more b******* semantics to trick you into turning things on. And if you ignore that or don't fall for it they'll just turn it on.

[@deerblue9070]

Thank you so so so much! For MONTHS I've been trying to change the location on the OneDrive files and now it finally worked!

[@WoW-ef9vn]

hey old comment but thank u. i had a problem with my game savefile not saving been trying for 6 month. i watched ur vid and FINALLY i found the problem. i deleted onedrive but forgot to unlick backup first. so i redownloaded and did all what you did. THANK U SO MUCH i can finally replay dmc 4 again after months!!! def a sub!!!

[@RD-gd7wc]

Exactly what I was needing. Onedrive was driving me MAD! Thanks so much for this video!

[@Lustrum0005]

Thank you! I didn't realize I have 2 Document folders... Your video was helpful to show that there are 2 Documents folders, 1 is in the Onedrive folder and the 2nd in the User folder, I stopped Syncing my Documents folder in the Onedrive settings, then copied pasted my Document items inside the Onedrive folder, into the Users folder, and I freed up 20 gigabytes in my Onedrive cloud

[@beckyjones3388]

Thank you! I was able to get my Desktop folder out of OneDrive just by changing the location (restore default), and somehow I got my Pictures folder out just by dragging it to my desktop and then dragging it to This PC (not sure why that worked), but the Documents folder wouldn't come out with either of these methods. Your method worked!

[@rinkirai2446]

you are the only one who made a video about this prob this vid was so helpfull

[@prod-NC-17]

Thanks for this video. It's funny too, the "Backup" tab wasn't showing up either. Googled it, and its ANOTHER Onedrive bug, which was a little easier to solve What a terrible piece of software Microsoft forced onto me. Never once wanted to install it, and it causes so many issues

[@Thedude897]

Man windows 11 is such a pain in the ass. I after uninstalling one drive its like i have to manually rebuild the file system. My desktop icon kept populating in my downloads folder with a pictures folder. Thanks for the vid helping me get this all figured out.

[@Syrios001]

What a pain OneDrive is. This video solved my problems with changing the default folders to my local drive instead of Onedrive

[@TheCosmosIsEvil]

So basically what I did was re-install OneDrive (Uninstalled initially because it both spyware and bloatware) turned of file sync for my affected folders, uninstalled again and dragged everything back. So much BS for no reason, OneDrive should be an opt-in this not a necessity.

[@TragedyTales]

I'm sorry but who in the right mind created this? all I did was create a backup and now ALL of my filepaths are screwed up. F onedrive! THANKS A LOT FOR YOUR VIDEO IT SAVED THE DAY!

[@terryzak1742]

Agreed. First time in over 30-years I've thought of going to a Mac!! I have this same issue that Microsoft created through a Windows 10 update! On their own, without my permission. Bastages....

[@JoKeR808]

Man just thank you I swear i was gonna destroy my laptop

[@thundarwabbit5140]

Dude, I'm extremely grateful for this video. I was so ready to do some notorious crap to this laptop, so glad I kept youtube searching for this remarkable answer. Now if you can help me with certifications! LOL. Thanks again, much appreciated.

[@brian8431]

Your comment stood out to me because I also have programs that have certifications I haven't done his process yet but I'm curious if you were able to figure out a way to work out the certifications? For example I have an architectural AutoCAD program that requires a certification license is that similar to what you're talkin about? And how did you get that fixed? Anything you can provide would be very helpful

[@BrianWhitmerMusic]

Thank you, thank you, thank you! Never would have figured this out on my own.

[@aleasdev2]

Omg thanks, the ui changed a little bit but is still working

[@jnagarya519]

Microsoft really doesn't want users escaping onedrive hostage-taking. I work with confidential information, typically on my desktop. It is not to be stored elsewhere.

[@Ayezix]

Thank you so much! I've been trying to save files on my local drive and I got all sorts of glitches and errors, then I figured it was something with onedrive, and after trying to uninstall it somewhat helped but didn't fix everything. now after I tried your guide it helped and hopefully it fixed everything :)

[@HessaalHammadi]

Thank you! Was hunting for solutions and this certainly finally helped :) Appreciate it. Have a good day.

[@gavster37]

Thanks Todd! - This has helped alot.. even for just navigating around on onedrive.. - & yes, have to agree with others - One Drive really is NOT very user friendly, especially for non-pc experts.. Most people dont know this stuff, can assure you. - Very helpful.. 👍

[@stevenmcdonald5088]

Thanks for this. I am setting up a new computer with Windows 11 and an old Documents hard drive and I was really struggling with this issue.

[@tusarmondal7068]

Thanks man you are literally a lifesaver

[@ekzent2478]

thanks a lot for the video, I can't tell you how frustrated I was due to the locations of my stuff having the one drive location on it (which made the location unnecessarily long) and wondering why it was that way for months on end, adding this to the list of reasons why I hate onedrive, now all my stuff is the way it needs to be

[@Umbra920]

Thanks for the guide. This is why I'm never using OneDrive ever again because it likes to move your files around and then when you get fed up with it and uninstall it the problems just don't stop. It stole my files and several of the library folders so for a while now I've had like 3 different pictures folder some how. Its so cancerous.

[@sfisher923]

Thank you so much having recently installed W11 I was finding it annoying having my Sims 4 Files be constantly backed up and eventually filling my OneDrive (Which I had off on W10 before getting TS4 on there) since they can get quite big (Especially if you aren't using a Symbolic Link for Mods) Only Issue was the fact I accidentally deleted my Saves but I still have my backup before Upgrading so I didn't lose much work and the fact the Microsoft Store version had a bug where the icon you use at 2:13 would not show up at all

[@xxsouradrianxx6208]

How did you fix this issue

[@stevefennell6381]

Like you said this can be pretty confusing to understand but after going through the motions myself prior to watching your video it thankfully confirmed everything i'd figured out that was going on when I transfered to windows 11 on a new set-up. Especially access to the local desktop folder which is not possibe whilst synced to Onedrive.

[@than217]

I am so horribly horribly lost. My One Drive looks very different and when I try to put them back on my computer it says there's not enough space even though I just had them ALL on there a few hours ago...

[@chaprick0106]

Excellent.....yours was the only good solution I found. Thank You!!!!!

[@milk2312]

Thank you for this. I was really confused why my documents folder was in my onedrive and every other fix i found was just complicated bs.

[@emmanuelarthur8088]

Thank a lot , you saved me from the stress

[@stevenboyton2034]

Thank you. I wish MS would stop doing this in the first place. loads of people have lost documents.

[@mrwhammer]

Ok but the downside is when restoring back to defaults. The file path is now permanent so i cant change it back to its original name or if i change the file name, it wouldnt change the file path either

[@GuyManley]

Thanks! I just reinstalled windows and ended up on a full online MS account. Slowing removed on the MS BS but I was really confused when I went to put more personal files back and found they were defaulted to one drive. Had to reinstall the app from MS's site just to get access to the settings. lol

[@Elvar]

Thank you for this video was ready to pull my hair out, extremely helpful and straight to the point!

[@onynklo2042]

Brother, You got a subscriber. I was ready to throw my laptop through the window... Damn.

[@jeremyrangel8138]

I really hate Microsoft for trying to force their crappy cloud services on us.

[@Minchee12]

You aree a saviorrrrr 😭😭😭😭😭😭

[@LolLol-fr4vk]

even this was 2 years ago it's still work in 2024 TYSM IF IT WERE NPOT YOPU WHO POST THIS ONLINE.... MY SIMS WILL HAVE NO CLOTHES ON AND ITS WILL BE A WASTE OF 1TB since the onedrive thingy limit my downloading im so happehh hope good things come ur way

[@andrewethanhirsch7968]

Solved My Problem - Many Thanks for a Great Instructional Video!!!

[@mellsan4606]

It doesn't work for me. Can't find the option to move the folder from onedrive. My Onedrive does not look like yours. I have Windows 11...

[@Powelus]

Why is this even a thing in the first place? I had broken apps not working because of this issue, as those apps cannot write to the cloud, breaking the installation. Spent 3 hours trying everything and ended it with a big facepalm when I realised the data folder was generated on OneDrive, completely empty.

[@citadelo5ricks]

I have Windows 11. I'm not logged into OneDrive thus I'm not syncing any files. However, everything I installed went into \Users\\OneDrive\Documents. When I go to move anything under OneDrive I get the Access Denied message. What do you recommend?

[@OnlineComputerTips]

Are you trying to move files out of the OneDrive folder? If you right click on it and choose Properties, then go to the Security tab, does your account have full control?

[@citadelo5ricks]

@@OnlineComputerTips I am the owner with full control. If I move them what about the programs I've installed that look for their support files in "OneDrive\Documents"?

[@OnlineComputerTips]

@@citadelo5ricks Are you referring to the message as seen at 1:34 in the video? If so did you try to stop the backup as seen at 2:08? You will have to log in to the client to do this step.

[@citadelo5ricks]

@@OnlineComputerTips I'm not logged into OneDrive so I don't see the 'Stop Backup". I will login to OneDrive and do the "Stop Backup". Then I'll do some test migrations. Thanks a bunch!

[@jeannywijaya4030]

Thank you! I have difficulties since this work-related OneDrive connected to my local folder! After I resigned from my previous company, it turned out I haven't unlink the account; however, the account was locked if I wanted to unlink it to my laptop! Especially, the notification from the bin really annoyed me a lot since the folder that became the file location had been deleted!

[@SandCannon]

Thanks you. I had to reinstall it and figure things out, but I got it cleared up.

[@zarasjourney6627]

Says I don't have any devices that are being backing up in settings to Onedrive. I did remove it's path from my regular Google account settings advanced settings and changed to ask where to download before downloading from my chrome.

[@OnlineComputerTips]

I'm not sure what OneDrive has to do with Google or Chrome so I don't really understand your comment\question.

[@user-is9nm4vw8j]

big thanks to you, i finally fix the problem i'm having

[@someonerandom704]

Thanks, I couldn't find anything in the setup for my laptop to disable onedrive entirely, so a bunch of stuff got put in the onedrive folder.

[@aldoard]

Its especially a huge problem since onedrive decides to use your account region language in naming the files. Most games put customizations in the documents file. Once you launch onedrive and sync thats when shit literally hits the fan. All game directories change direction to the onedrive username but with one minor change. The pathing changes Documents to ?????? Because games are only able to read english from system files... its ultra frustrating

[@hang0]

Thank you, finally i find this video

[@indoor50]

THANK YOU SO SO SO SO MUCH

[@Taylor-zy2de]

Thank you so much! You're amazing!

[@spisie130]

Thanks 🙏🏼 I was about to rip my hair out trying to get my documents folder back

[@DR-je7pr]

The screen is blank when I try to view how to move all files from onedrive back to computer. Help!

[@DarkSideT_]

You are a fucking legend man, thank you!

[@sainifeekes4868]

For me i personally couldnt get past the turning off back up part because there would still be a cloud next to my documents folder. I have no idea what to do now

[@ritaskylar]

Have you tried this on the latest versions of Windows 11? One of my friends stopped backups and uninstalled this insidious OneDrive app from their computer. Now when we follow these steps to return the folder structure back to normal (i.e. out of OneDrive). we can't change the path. So we went to remove the files from the OneDrive Documents folder and to paste them into the real document folder. We got the error message 0x8007016A cloud file provider is not running. Any thoughts on this? Nothing in the help forums is helpful. This is one messy program. Should be an opt-in not a something that hijacks our folder structure and puts things in the cloud. If I want files in the cloud, I will put them there myself. Microsoft did a real poor implementation of a very unpopular service. I remember in the old days OneDrive was horrible and now it is pure evil. Any ideas, short of a clean reinstall, of fixing this problem with this error code?

[@SumNumber]

That is a trick I missed . I could not even get onedrive to stop working in Win 10 after watching many vids on how to do it . What I ended up doing is unlinking the account which did not help so I went to a cmd prompt from the Windows boot disk and deleted any reference to onedrive on the hard drive by issuing the command from the root of C: drive del *onedrive* /s . After that , back in Windows , I opened regedit and deleted everything that referenced onedrive out of the registry . There are a few you cannot delete but there are three in the registry that dictate the path to onedrive and they are Document Pictures and Desktop . What I did was edit the path to C:\users\YOU\folder, where you is your name and folder is one of the three depending on which folder is indicated in the link . You will have to move your files in the folders onedrive like is shown in this video . Now my games work and the folders are correct and my links work . What a pain it was and took many hours of research to get it done . The only thing I can compare this to is tabtip.exe and the handwriting panel in win 7 which constantly interfered with your wacom drawing tablet . Thanks for the share . Most of the instructions do not work on how to remove onedrive in the KZbin vids. So good luck. Thanks for the share. :O)

[@iceyblue007]

Windows 11 here. There is not a location tab anymore. I feel like this is a virus. One Drive has taken over my computer. My documents and desktop folder now go straight to a shortcut to the One Drive file version of them. No way of getting around this. I have tried everything I can find online. Cannot fix this problem. I am going to lose my mind. I have been working on this for 9 hours + !!!!!!!!!

[@OnlineComputerTips]

Did you check out the updated video link in the description?

[@missterious9607]

Why did I see this just now?! I've been figuring things out and it took me a week before actually making things default after uninstalling my OneDrive. OneDrive stressed me so much!

[@jeeju8369]

i install new software, it creates onedrive folder again and installs files in it.

[@kingwotzit9648]

Hi, I moved everything from onedrive documents to c drive documents and stopped the onedrive backups, but i still cant change the default documents folder location? Edit: actually i somehow just fixed to documents folder by following your instructions, and i tried doing the same with the pictures folder but it wont work?

[@Commply]

You saved me, thanks!

[@jeevkumar4856]

Couldn't do... Got confused from which folder fils moved

[@ut561]

onedrive is great for cloud storage thru the webpage, but it should NEVER have been linked to the PC by microsoft and bounce our files around. I suspect that's just an attempt to get us to use onedrive more and eventually pay them money for storage space.

[@iridescent_skye]

This was very helpful. Thank you :)

[@prathamgupta2036]

Thank You Bro It Really Helped

[@callmeween]

is there a way to do this on the windows 10 version?

[@OnlineComputerTips]

This should work the same for Windows 10.

[@callmeween]

@@OnlineComputerTips then how come whenever i click properties on the onedrive documents it doesn’t say “location”, but when i do it from the local documents it shows it?

[@OnlineComputerTips]

​@@callmeween Thats normal and there is no Location tab for OneDrive\Documents in Windows 11 either. You should be looking at the Documents folder under PC.

[@callmeween]

@@OnlineComputerTips ohhhhh

[@trbatuhankara]

I moved after uninstall onedrive, some got errors but fixed. Onedrive is really trash and system maybe broken

[@Alias-YuGen]

so i dont know what i did and now i dont see my documents folder and i have a copy of hhd with the same stuff. how do i make everything normal

[@day_saram]

Thank you so much for this video!!

[@CharlesNonsens00]

Thank you!

[@davidvictory9764]

it only let me do it for my docummnets folder but not my desktop folder. pls help

[@jvzn]

Fantastic, I was having this exact problem and this fixed it - thanks.

[@InfernoStarAbhi]

Please help me, after a done process till stop backup ....then in the documents it's not showing location option ...please solve

[@TopgunB]

Seems like in the latest Win 11 its almost impossible to stop backups to one drive. New unintuitive confusing app with no stop backup button!

[@stickjoint8770]

there is no location tab in properties for me

[@cwhrlng]

What good is the Onedrive - Personal folder?

[@allinonehelp09933]

Nice Videos 👍 I love From India All problem Solving me good more Practise Experience Make All Videos 🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳

[@brian8431]

You know I really honestly cannot believe that Microsoft would automatically take all of my files off of my computer without even popping up a little notification that says "hey when you start using our software to sync and backup your data we're going to wipe your computer clean and put everything on our system.) I don't think there's a sink or backup service out there that would do this. I can certainly see the need for it for certain people who may have very large files but just automatically do it and not ask if that's what we want that is ridiculous.

[@ViolinistJeff]

I am on Windows 10. I uninstalled onedrive before telling it to stop backing up. I do not want to use onedrive at all, but the real documents folder still won´t move. What do I do?

[@OnlineComputerTips]

You might have to reinstall it so you can go through the whole process. Or make a new user account and copy your files from the OneDrive location on the original account to the correct location on the new account.

[@hidvicaesarayangfaanahafid6134]

Hi why don't I have no location options please? 😢

[@deanlouca4603]

Most helpful video ive ever seen thankyou

[@Toober24]

Helpful. Thank you!

[@SupYuna]

my documents' folder properties has no location tab what should i do now?

[@tasmisa6778]

Hi... I don't find documents folder in any of my local disk's except C drive... what to do in this case

[@OnlineComputerTips]

It is supposed to be on your C drive under C:\Users\username\Documents

[@JUIC3Rlol]

What if i already uinstalled the onedrive app?

[@OnlineComputerTips]

Do you still have the OneDrive folder under your username that has the files in it? Do you get the error in the video when you try to change the location of your Documents folder etc.?

[@JUIC3Rlol]

@@OnlineComputerTips Its ok now, I reinstalled the app, disabled it, then uninstalled it again!

[@Framebyfrej]

aaaah I finally found a good tutorial! 😅 Big Thanks, this finally worked for me 🎉

[@brian8431]

Now I have another question I am hoping someone can help with. I did this method and it worked for all my folders and documents in them except for any PDF's which are still missing for some reason. Any ideas?

[@dawidtecza]

Thank you.

[@mingshili2775]

very helpful, thank you!

[@Guy3008]

Thanks. Why would someone need to do that rather than always keeping them on the Onedrive path? In what scenario would someone need to restore to default location?

[@bluespectralmonkey]

maybe if the internet was down and you still wanted to have all your art , photos, videos, audio production, taxes, all your files, that arent backed up on one drive they are stolen from you and you have to buy your data back from them its illegal and wrong. if you wanted to go camping and still use your laptop, you wont have any files ... consider that Guy! ;)

[@KillianDefaoite]

Somehow I was having this problem but I didn't even have onedrive installed, NOR DID I EVEN HAVE BACKUP ENABLED. So I had to go install one drive, turn on backup, and then immediately turn it off. This kind of sh!t makes me really despise Windows and Microsoft in general and makes me want to just fully switch over to linux. I probably would if gaming wasn't such a disaster.

[@gabestern605]

Thank you so much!