I Woke Up in Microsoft OneDrive Hell

[CaptTom]

...After I performed an "upgrade" of my Windows 10 Pro PC to Windows 11 Pro last October, I executed several tasks before continuing with the PC. One was the disabling and uninstalling of OneDrive.

I've heard that Windows 11 "Pro" does allow you to install and use it without a Microsoft account, which would presumably also allow you to skip integrating OneDrive (and their stupid AI) with everything. Apparently that's what you've done. Good job! OTOH, I'm not likely to spring for "Pro" just so I can manage my own hardware.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

Okay then, You scared me, I will do a special back up right now.

 

[Graybeard]

To the best of my knowledge I have never used One Drive for anything. I have a backup of all important folders and documents, pictures, spreadsheets, password safe on a flash drive and I have 4 carbon copies of that flash drive. Add or remove anything and I do it manually to all 5 flash drives. What the OP experienced is terrifying and IMO criminal.

It was mentioned a few times that people removed One Drive, I thought that was built into the OS (Windows 11 desktop pc in my case) and you could not remove it. Just how did you remove One Drive?

I have no idea if I have a MS account, is it something that is setup automatically by Windows or the computer shop I bought the pc from? I do have Admin ability on this pc.

 

[ArmchairMillionaire]

It was mentioned a few times that people removed One Drive, I thought that was built into the OS (Windows 11 desktop pc in my case) and you could not remove it. Just how did you remove One Drive?

Using File Explorer, you can look under users, then your user info and there'll be a folder marked OneDrive. I don't know if it's being sadistic or not, but Windows actually lets you right click on it and delete it.

But Microsoft is just setting you up for major disappointment, as it usually comes back within a few hours.

I deleted mine again this afternoon and when I checked just now, it's back again, with an empty sub-folder labelled 'pictures'.

 

[Graybeard]

Using File Explorer, you can look under users, then your user info and there'll be a folder marked OneDrive. I don't know if it's being sadistic or not, but Windows actually lets you right click on it and delete it.

But Microsoft is just setting you up for major disappointment, as it usually comes back within a few hours.

I deleted mine again this afternoon and when I checked just now, it's back again, with an empty sub-folder labelled 'pictures'.

Thanks. It would not surprise me if after removing it each MS update put it back.

 

[NW-Bound]

I disabled OneDrive because the constant pushing/pulling from the cloud slowed my PCs too much. Plus I don't want personal data on the cloud, and have way too many files, and do not need them to be on all my PCs and laptops.

For mass backup storage, I used to run Windows Home Server (WHS) in conjunction with two NAS. The WHS was set up to be RAID, while the NAS are not. Administering and maintaining the 3 devices took too much time. So, I finally broke down, retired them all, and bought a Synology NAS, with 2 8TB drives set up as RAID. It's been working flawlessly since 2023, stuck in a closet, and drawing little power when idle.

 

[statsman]

Thanks. It would not surprise me if after removing it each MS update put it back.

I removed OneDrive in October 2025. It hasn't come back in five months of Windows 11 updates. In my case, I have never created an account on OneDrive, nor have I used a Microsoft account for my logins.

That may partly explain why I have been spared the frustration. That said, I have been checking from time to time for an install of OneDrive because, like many here, I don't trust Microsoft.

 

[Qs Laptop]

Did I miss something? From your post that I quoted, it sounded like you lost (for the time being before data recovery) important files like business files. But here you are mentioning that you business file backups. Good to know that at you have you business files backups.

As I said previously, I back up my daily business files a couple of times per day. This would be my customer database, my weekly cash flow spreadsheet and my business accounting software. The daily operation of my business was barely touched by this incident. It's the historical records that were lost or will be hard to obtain.

I have business documents like monthly bank statements, IRS tax deposit receipts, copies of customer purchase orders, vendor quotes, vendor invoices, etc. Thankfully, most of this stuff is in my accounting software anyway (which wasn't harmed by OneDrive) but it's still super convenient to easily find whatever customer or vendor document I want by looking in each particular folder on my data drive vs. running a report from my accounting software.

Some of these documents, like bank statements, tax deposit receipts, etc. can be found by going to the source and downloading again.

I'm also in the process of trying to sell my company and I've got a lot of documents and spreadsheets related to this that were completely lost. These are worth trawling through the nameless recovered files to locate as the effort to recreate them would be steep. Some of these I can find as attachments to emails sent but not all.

 

[Qs Laptop]

BTW, the process of getting rid of OneDrive completely is:

1. Unlink your computer from OneDrive. This is done by clicking the OneDrive cloud icon in your PC system tray, then clicking on Settings, then click on "Unlink this PC."

2. Look at any files you have in C:\Users\[your name]\OneDrive and move them if you want to save them.

3. Once you've moved the files, delete this OneDrive folder at C:\Users\[your name]\OneDrive

4. Remove the app entirely (you can always reinstall if you want to by getting the app at the Microsoft Store.)

If you've got Microsoft 365 (I do) and you want to explicitly put files in OneDrive you can log into your MS 365 account and copy and paste them directly into OneDrive. You can do this action regardless if OneDrive is installed on your computer. Just don't forget you have files there.

 

[Healthy Lifestyle]

I now see an error on my One Drive icon using my laptop.
This stopped updates to the cloud which I am okay with.

Further checking shows an error for my Turbo Tax download probably due to recent Microsoft’s update.

I will wait for now before trying to fix it.

 

[Sunset]

Using File Explorer, you can look under users, then your user info and there'll be a folder marked OneDrive. I don't know if it's being sadistic or not, but Windows actually lets you right click on it and delete it.

But Microsoft is just setting you up for major disappointment, as it usually comes back within a few hours.

I deleted mine again this afternoon and when I checked just now, it's back again, with an empty sub-folder labelled 'pictures'.

That is not how to delete it.

I have windows pro 11.

First I unlinked it, even though I have never used it, just to be sure I wouldn't get it back again.
Then I used the list of apps to find the app and uninstalled the app.

Instructions for unlinking are here:

Turn off, disable, or uninstall OneDrive - Microsoft Support

Learn how to turn off or uninstall OneDrive.

support.microsoft.com

 

[GenXguy]

This is why I always recommend backups.

I only setup OneDrive because of the requirement for ESU for Windows 10.

But I did NOT put it in the default USERS folders but on a different drive. I also only set it up to sync a folder that I don't use (videos), and I confirmed it still has my original setting.

I use free Hasleo backup for scheduled backups that keeps dailies, weeklies, and monthlies backing up locally, plus additionally to my server. I also have a script I run that backs up the same data files to a server, so I'm not dependent on one backup method. I have had backup software suddenly stop working without alerting me both at home and at work in the past, so I do routine manual checks as well.

I saw RAID was mentioned here. RAID is NOT a substitute for a backup.

Air gapped and offsite backups are recommended as well.

 

[MC Rider]

Break the Windows. Linux Mint is free, does not have any of this MS BS, and the GUI is rather Windows like, so easy to get used to. You do not have to very techy to install it either.

 

[Sunset]

Break the Windows. Linux Mint is free, does not have any of this MS BS, and the GUI is rather Windows like, so easy to get used to. You do not have to very techy to install it either.

I like Ubuntu, also free and similar to Windows so easy to transition.

I do feel the need for Windows to run my desktop tax software, that is the only reason.

 

[MC Rider]

Linux mint is related to and uses some of the same code as Ubuntu. Pick your flavor, there are many.

 

[easysurfer]

Break the Windows. Linux Mint is free, does not have any of this MS BS, and the GUI is rather Windows like, so easy to get used to. You do not have to very techy to install it either.

I have some computers with Linux. I back up that too.

 

[NW-Bound]

I saw RAID was mentioned here. RAID is NOT a substitute for a backup.

Correct. My backup is not a single drive, but a RAID-1 NAS with automatic mirroring.

 

[MC Rider]

I have some computers with Linux. I back up that too.

Back it up, OS does not matter there. Now I'm thinking I should get another external drive to supplement and backup the one I already use. I try not to keep anything important on the internal computer drive.

 

[CarbonaNotGlue]

Wow. Thanks for posting your experience. Based on reading this thread, I checked and sure enough, one drive was enabled and had uploaded my highly sensitive personal finance files to the cloud. I never enabled one drive nor agreed to synching. All of my files are regularly backed up to 2 separate portable hard drives. This is quite outrageous that Microsoft would allow this to occur. I paused synching, quit one drive, then deleted the app. I also made sure to move all files in one drive folders to non one drive folders in the c drive that I created. All key files were uncorrupted and accessible . Sorry to hear about the original posters experience but really appreciate helping the rest of us avoid a similar fate and stop this unwanted synching.

 

[threeonesix]

I would also recommend understanding the difference between "backup" and "sync" because they are not the same thing. OneDrive, and others like Google Drive, are sync software, meaning when a file is removed from your local computer it gets removed from OD/GD/etc., and vice versa. Veeam offers a free edition of their excellent backup software. Free Backup Software For Windows, VMware, & More - Veeam I use this to backup my two laptops and one desktop. My backup target is a NAS but you can use an external hard drive letter as well. This has saved me from losing files several times. It can even perform a full recovery of your computer if you follow the instructions to use a USB thumb drive for that (I think you can also use a USB full-size drive).

OP I hope you are able to recover your files. Keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[Qs Laptop]

Major Update.

I found my files. All of them. And they have the proper filenames and file information on them.

When I first set up this new computer I resassigned the default location of "Music", Video", "Pictures", "Document" folders in the Quick Access area of Windows Explorer from C:\ drive to E:\ drive as I didn't want this stuff being written to my C:\ drive.

When OneDrive was doing its (unauthorized) backup of my E:\ drive it must have run into an issue with my E:\ drive and sent the User Folders (Pictures, Documents, etc.) from the E: drive back to their original default home on C:\Users\YourName.

Well, today I didn't want to store anything on my E:\ drive, including Music, Pictures, Documents, Videos, so I reset the Quick Access setting to default. That's when I noticed I had 15GB in my C:\Pictures folder. That was way too much. So I took a look inside the Pictures folder and there was EVERYTHING.

Here's how Gemini described it:

What happened: During the update, Windows likely encountered an issue with your E: drive (probably due to that "Waiting for Activation" BitLocker state). To prevent data loss, it "redirected" your User Folders (Pictures, Documents, etc.) from the E: drive back to their original default home on C:\Users\YourName.The "missing" 5,000 files were actually sitting in this local folder the whole time, but your Quick Access was still pointing to the "broken" links on the E: drive. By clearing the Quick Access cache, you forced Windows to point back to the active, working folders on C:.

Now I will not need to preview each file of the 5,400 files that Recuva found and decide if I wanted to keep it or not. I've got them all back.

There is some cleaning up to do with my E:\ drive. I might end up reformatting it, not sure.

 

[ArmchairMillionaire]

Major Update.

I found my files. All of them. And they have the proper filenames and file information on them.

Good to hear.

 

[Graybeard]

Major Update.

I found my files. All of them. And they have the proper filenames and file information on them.

When I first set up this new computer I resassigned the default location of "Music", Video", "Pictures", "Document" folders in the Quick Access area of Windows Explorer from C:\ drive to E:\ drive as I didn't want this stuff being written to my C:\ drive.

When OneDrive was doing its (unauthorized) backup of my E:\ drive it must have run into an issue with my E:\ drive and sent the User Folders (Pictures, Documents, etc.) from the E: drive back to their original default home on C:\Users\YourName.

Well, today I didn't want to store anything on my E:\ drive, including Music, Pictures, Documents, Videos, so I reset the Quick Access setting to default. That's when I noticed I had 15GB in my C:\Pictures folder. That was way too much. So I took a look inside the Pictures folder and there was EVERYTHING.

Here's how Gemini described it:

What happened: During the update, Windows likely encountered an issue with your E: drive (probably due to that "Waiting for Activation" BitLocker state). To prevent data loss, it "redirected" your User Folders (Pictures, Documents, etc.) from the E: drive back to their original default home on C:\Users\YourName.The "missing" 5,000 files were actually sitting in this local folder the whole time, but your Quick Access was still pointing to the "broken" links on the E: drive. By clearing the Quick Access cache, you forced Windows to point back to the active, working folders on C:.

Now I will not need to preview each file of the 5,400 files that Recuva found and decide if I wanted to keep it or not. I've got them all back.

There is some cleaning up to do with my E:\ drive. I might end up reformatting it, not sure.

That is wonderful. What a relief that had to be.