Stop OneDrive and keep my files on PC

rock22

I am having a problem with OneDrive and would like to disable it . I have done this before but it seems to get re-activated everytime Windows does a major update.

When I attempt to delete files from OneDrive it simultaneously deletes them from my PC. Looking online, I cannot find any safe way to stop OneDrive, or delete it but, at the same time, keep my files on my PC safe.

Is there a simple way to do this without loosing hundred of documents and thousands of pictures?

Or should I copy everything to an external hard drive and then let Microsoft trash my PC?

thanks for any help

rock22

Wonder if anyone has any ideas?

It has now deleted all my photographs ( 10+ years) from the picture folder on my computer but showing them on OneDrive. At the same time it is showing that I am within the limit for usage ( 2.7 GB out of 5GB) but Outlook is still bouncing any emails with an 'The recipient's mailbox is full and can't accept messages now. Please try resending your message later, or contact the recipient directly.' message

Is there a help desk for Microsoft that anyone can direct me to?

thanks

windowcills

Common problem, its a pain to fix

Your documents,desktop and photos folder live in your profile folder i.e c:\users\rock27\

Stupid onedrive backup moves them into the onedrive folder

c:\users\rock27\onedrive

Attempting to fix this can restore the photos folder to the right spot, but without your photos, so you think you deleted then, and one drive is still full

Strangly trying to restore the documents and desktop folder gives an error about the folder already in use

I regularily have to restore the folders using regedit, then reboot and cut and paste from the onedrives photos folder to the correct photos folder, same for documents and desktop

https://thegeekpage.com/restore-default-location-of-documents-folder/

When you get it all sorted unlink the account and never sign into onedrive again, google drive works much better, and can backup folders without relocating them

smuggler.ie

First set OD to keep files on PC (providing enough storage on your local drive), allow it to settle, depend on MB/GB and settings you had it might take some time to download all data.

Per file/folder you do as img below, or you have to disable "on demand" within OD settings

Once that completed, "Unlink this PC" from within OD settings, this will sign your account from OD.

Now disable OD from running on startup in Task Manager or within Settings>>Startup or uninstall it altogether

For more see MS official page

I suspect your OD gets signed in "auto" as you sign to your PC with MS account(vs local account) and/or you have chosen "convenient" "OK" instead "this app only" while signing to MS office apps . see if this apply to you

rock22

Thanks windowcills and smuggler

I will attempt to do that tomorrow. It has disabled my Outlook account because I am over memory linit. There are 155GB of photos which it is insisting on putting into the picture folder - causing the problem in the first place.

I had it disabled before but somehow it has activated again - possible from an update or posssibly from using Visual Studio which might have turned OneDrive on by default

I will have a go at it in the morning - with a clear head

thanks for the help. Will report back , hopefully with success.

smuggler.ie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120605228#Comment_120605228

to your second question...

see here

once you have your OD files secured on your PC, clear up (purge) your trash on MS account

MS are penny pinching fcuks..., but whats new?

rock22

I managed to half resolve this this morning , but not before contact Microsoft help.

All my files disappeared from the Picture on my PC but then appeared on the OneDrive. Then OneDrive refused to do anything because I had insufficient memory.

Microsoft asked me to check on OneDrive on the web and it showed all for folders. Tey suggest I download then and restore them to ny PC after 'Unlinking' my PC

When I followed this, i discovered that most of the folders were empty, I am assuming this happened because there was insufficient memory on OneDrive. So effectively 200Gb of file was lost. By this time of the connection to Microsoft was lost.

When I eventually reduced the memory used below the 5GB total, I tested the outlook account but ist is still refusing messages with the insufficient memory message.

I am hoping that this might correct itself, i.e. the outlook account, with time. I have given this email address as the contact for my hospital and I am awaiting a call for surgery.

Altogether a lesson in not trusting big tech, and Microsoft in particular.

Just wanted to say Thanks again, windowcills and smuggler, for the help.

smuggler.ie

As far i can read , deleted files in personal OD are kept for 30d. This how long your cloud storage usage wont change , unless you purge deleted content. Recycle bin is not additional storage.

Wonder how you lost 200GB if limit is/was 5GB, were you paying customer and stopped recently?

I did not had experience, but you might try:

download ALL files that are currently in your OD and store them securely on local/external storage. Verify you got all.

Empty OD and purge those secured files, then try to restore other files if they in recycle bin(30days!!!), download those, then delete/purge, rinse-repeat. You might get some files back.

Once your OD (including recycle bin) back within limits your mail should start flow.

rock22

Thanks smuggler

"download ALL files that are currently in your OD and store them securely on local/external storage. Verify you got all.

Empty OD and purge those secured files, then try to restore other files if they in recycle bin(30days!!!), download those, then delete/purge, rinse-repeat. You might get some files back."

Yes this is the advice I got from Microsoft.

But when i tried to download, i found a lot of empty folders. I seems that OneDrive uploaded my files and then when I unlinked my PC those files were no longer on my PC. But then when i tried to download from OneDrive(On the web) to my PC , I discovered that many of the folders were empty. I did get back about 5GB of files from some folders that were okay. I have backups of most of these deleted files so all is not lost - just a huge amount of work thanks to Microsoft. And a fear about using the memory on my own PC in case Microsoft does this again. (Remember I did not turn on OneDrive deliberately so I can only assume it happened at the last update, when i probably accepted MIcrosofts terms, or when I opened Visual studio.)

Before i started I was getting error messages from OneDrive saying insufficient memory. S, I think OneDrive only copied up to 5GB of files on the web. i asked Microsoft help where the other files where and they couldn't answer.

I assume the problem occurs because, when OneDrive became active I had 155GB of files in the Picture folder on my PC. OneDrive tried to upload that but stopped at the limit of 5GB but eliminated the folders on my PC when I unlinked from OneDrive. At least that seems to be what happened.

I also have Win 11 and it seems I cannot delete OneDrive completely. I have stopped it at 'Startup' though as you suggested.

I now need to make contact with contacts on my outlook account and direct them or re-register, with a new gmail account.

All in all, not a very good experience from Microsoft. My email usage was only 0.6GB so I was well within that limit but , as their terms and conditions say, if the OneDrive limit is exceeded then they stopped emails.

Thanks for all the help