How to Stop OneDrive syncing your local folders on Windows 11 | A very annoying feature

Microsoft has recently changed how OneDrive Syncs with Windows 11, where OneDrive now syncs your local Desktop, Pictures and Documents folders to the cloud by default. If you find this annoying, here's how to stop it.
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[@_w_w_]

This should be illegal for MS to access and take your files without consent. MS is getting more ridiculous day by day.

[@Nick41622]

You already consented when you agreed to use Windows. But I understand how you feel.

[@_w_w_]

@@Nick41622 No. I actually read the agreement. Upload to cloud requires separate consent.

[@roa4031]

@@_w_w_ You did? You are the first person I have ever seen who actually reads terms and conditions.

[@jetw9522]

Exactly, they're more and more disgusting and invasive! This need to be stopped! Let's start a petition, shall we?

[@_w_w_]

@@roa4031 Please don't assume your laziness or lack of knowledge on Ts&Cs manifest with others. I do read them and a lot of people do as well. I actually write them for a living as well, so I naturally look at how other companies structure their agreement.

[@louiewgroenewald]

Please keep us up to date regards the documents folder. This was really helpful. Thanks.

[@clowny2396]

I turned off sync first. Later I looked around on Windows 11 Settings and clicked on Apps. There I found Microsoft Onedrive and I was able to uninstall. I checked the File Explorer and those extra folders were gone. All fixed. Hope this helps...

[@katnian5463]

Thank you so much. I honestly hate not being able to clearly and easily pick what folder or documents I want on OneDrive. I don’t want everything there. I did what you said just for the desktop once and all 3 folders stopped syncing. Thank you.

[@Daegggoat]

first disconnect your one drive, it will delete everything that's backed up but go to your one drive the just copy and paste everything from there and everything will now be locally stored

[@charliekeevill481]

For you guys that want to stop your One Drive syncing ALL files (Win 11)- in your task bar you will ave a Cloud icon - this is One Drive - click there and go to settings - you will see option for Syncing - and Pause - you can click Quit One Drive and it will remove the Cloud icon from your taskbar and stop syncing altogether.

[@theonlyjamiebourgeois9703]

One drive was somehow bogging down my computer! Even just opening folders and moving quickly through them, and it seemed to be making everything "online only" files and folders. absolutely crazy-making. The last few weeks have been miserable until I finally figured out it was one drive. I went into settings / Account / and removed it! easy. done. good riddance! Everything running smoothly now!

[@innerg1367]

This was making a program of mine crash by forcing the program to read the one drive docs instead of the root.

[@curator643164]

Understand that the "Documents" folder that your seeing is really just a symlink to the one in the cloud drive. SO rename the Documents folder to Cloud Documents, and create a new folder on your user profile called Documents. Then copy everything out of Could Documents and into Documents The key is understanding that its really a hard symlink, and not an actual folder. They just added a custom icon and custom file type to cover that.

[@SifatUllah19]

Where's the location of my Actual documents folder then? C:\Users\username\Documents?

[@ibrahimyasin8431]

Yeah this is what I've just found out. If you go to that folder destination you'll notice there isnt a sync icon on the folders. Its very sly what they've done

[@Mike-01234]

I had to replace hard drive on an old laptop I own I was going to give it to a friend. I replaced the drive I had to log in with my Microsoft account to get it activated. Then it just synced everything personal to the laptop. I started deleting all these files off the laptop and it synced to my one drive and my personal computer deleted all my files everywhere. Frustrating as hell I like OneDrive to back up my things but auto syncing between devices should not be default too on. Lucky, I had backups of the data on a portable drive.

[@johannajf7914]

I hate this autosyncing feature I much prefered the windows 10 system of chosing which folder/individual files I wanted to back up in the cloud.

[@roa4031]

Don't log in to microsoft account when you install windows 11. It is tricky but possible.

[@elite_lurker7589]

I use my account on my home and office computers. Some desktop shortcuts aren't on my home PC that are on my home PC and vice versa. I don't want my two PC's intermingling the shortcuts, so I turn off the desktop backup and stop the sync, but it always seems to be turning back on? It gets really screwy and messes with each other. I use windows 11. Does anyone else have this issue where even when you turn off desktop backup it seems to want to turn back on?

[@user-nr4mr2wu1i]

This method seemed to side-step OneDrive from messing with my Documents folder in Windows 11. Step 1. In the Quick Access region of File Explorer right-click on "Documents" then click on "Unpin from Quick Access". Step 2. Under "This PC" click on the "C:" drive and navigate to the folder C:\Users\MyUserName\Documents (where MyUserName is your user name). Step 3. Right click on C:\Users\MyUserName\Documents then click on "Show more options" then hover over "Send to" and finally click on "Desktop (create shortcut)". Step 4. Right-click on the desktop shortcut just created and click on "Pin to Quick access". This works for other folders too like Pictures, Downloads, Music Videos and others.

[@b9bot148]

It has corrupted my Steam games with the documents being taken hostage. I need to get documents turned off.

[@louiewgroenewald]

I need to use onenote. I have it on my phone and computer as apps. For syncing purposes It looks like I need to use onedrive. I do not to like to use onedrive as it seems to sync everything in the onedrive documents folder to the cloud. This folder is very large in size and fills up onedrive immediately. ( Programs I installed use this folder for its data. If I delete or move this the programs do not work properly) If I turn off the documents folder not to sync it will also probably not sync onenote files as onenote stores it's files also in documents. Is there a way so I can still.ise one note and uts sync capabilities from phone to PC without having the whole documents folder to sync aswell?

[@louiewgroenewald]

Regards to.my above question. If there is a way to setup or change settings so...when I install programs/software, to rather go to the default documents folder than the onedrive docunents folder. The programs however should still work. Then I can keep the onedrive folder only for use with onenote. If not I need to have onenote still sync from the onedrive documents folder but without all the other program data being synced in the documents folder on PC after installing many programs. Which is my question above. 😊

[@spheryc1648]

I also found out that changing and deleting shortcuts on my desktop will change the desktop layout on another laptop, is there any way to fix this? I think it has something to do with OneDrive.

[@KaylaJohnson1995]

With desktop it’s a problem

[@jbodden6977]

GREAT ADVICE, UNTIL ONEDRIVE REFUSES TO LET YOU COPY FILES OR DOWNLOAD THEM TO YOUR ACTUAL DRIVE. HOW DO YOU TERMINATE A WINDOWS VAMPIRE? DRIVE A CADDILAC THROUGH IT'S HEART...

[@Divergence]

I just logged out of the account linked to the one drive now its not connected all together. :) Ya can still add manually via your email. But yeah I was tired of all the issues I started having with word.

[@ThomasChaote]

Due to this, I lost some files I produced in whole mixing of the files. Thanks Microsoft -.-

[@kamso851]

Its happening in windows 10 too its so annoying😡😡😡

[@CodyBarnette-GNARK]

So if I press “stop back up” it will still be on my computer right? And I won’t see that stupid one drive everytime I hop on

[@Ajwct]

its so annoying that for some reason I dont see the backups. I hate OneDrive so much

[@BeefWithTacos]

If I have 2 pcs logged in on the same windows account and I unlink one pc from onedrive, Will the other pc be affected?

[@brentech]

No

[@BeefWithTacos]

@@brentech Thank you!

[@CihanSan]

THANK YOU!

[@tomekm8549]

THAAAAANK YOUUU

[@TheRealCATM]

THANK YOU

[@koollifebillionaire]

thanks for info

[@Nick41622]

I deleted all the data & OneDrive itself from all my PCs. Because Microsoft wants you to buy more storage.

[@delcien9697]

if u do that , doesnt it just resync everything back to the onedrive?

[@Nick41622]

@@delcien9697 No, it will never install again unless you install it.

[@delcien9697]

@@Nick41622 ah thanks

[@AngieWy]

@@Nick41622 Really? I just got an email from MS saying that my microsoft storage is full. I deleted onedrive last year.

[@swarupdas6650]

Just unlik your pc