Change Your Windows Folder Locations Back to Their Defaults from Microsoft OneDrive - **Updated**
Вставка
- Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
- If you are using the Microsoft OneDrive desktop client app to synchronize your files and folders between OneDrive and your computer, you might have noticed that it replaces the default locations for your Documents, Desktop and Photos etc. with C:\Users\username\OneDrive\Documents for example.
If you want to restore your Windows default folder locations back to their original folder path and have your files back where they used to be stored, you can do so by changing the OneDrive backup options because if you do it without changing these options, you will get a message that says Can't move the folder because there is a folder in the same location that can't be redirected. Access is denied. You can also unlink your account from the OneDrive client if you do not want to use OneDrive on your computer at all. If you need to access your OneDrive files, you can still do so using the OneDrive website.
Here is a link to the original video.
• Change Your Windows Fo...
Here is a writeup of the process on our website.
onlinecomputer...
Learn More:
Check out our comprehensive, step-by-step Easily Master Windows 11 course on Udemy:
www.udemy.com/...
Check out our book titled Microsoft OneDrive Made Easy to take your file sharing skills to the next level!
amzn.to/3ZvZI9s
*This description contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases
#onedrive
Thanks so much, Onedrive has been more harm than help. What kind of scummy company stops all save files and documents if it doesnt go directly to them? Well... Microsoft does.
Exactly the same here. I risked losing 5 years of important work. Now I just copied my computer identically onto a 6TB isolated with no Wifi nor OneDrive to make sure Microsoft does not "Sniff" my files without permission or delete them.
Onedrive has been the bane of online gaming, stealing system resources my games need and making files inaccessible.
It's horrible. Just horrible.
True af. I just bought Skyrim on steam and it cannot go to fullscreen. I try to find the solutions and spen hours, It turns out because that mf Onedrive
Thank you so much, you're a literal life saver! This is the most clearly explained video I've seen on this and I've been battling with one drive for ages!
Agree that this is a good way to move files back to their original locations. However, Microsoft has screwed all its users by only allowing the "AutoSave" function to save to OneDrive.
This is absolutely lovely I was having a heart attack after unsyncing didnt work and I thought all mt files were lost. I had no clue they were this skeevy and changed the defaults! thank you!
I was wondering why my OneDrive was always almost full since I didnt realize WIndows was installing some of my software there. It's been a headache trying to change everything back to C: drive and this video definitely help. 👍
Thank you so much for this. Microsoft is genuinely one of the worst companies ever and im thinking of switching to Mac.
If you try to use your computer without internet access, you can’t access your files. If you don’t have the money to upgrade your one drive memory, they say you have to pay. It’s the shittiest business practices I’ve ever seen in my life. Pay more to access my files? Nah
Thank you so much, i did not have onedrive but had to reinstall because i could not transfer document files to elsewhere. Very much needed this
I love you so much, One drive is one of the worst things that happened to society.
You are my hero! This was making me insane and preventing the files I wanted to back up to a different cloud service to be uploaded there. Thank you!
I'm having similar issues, except I deleted the OneDrive App already from my computer. I get the same error message that shows up in your video. I tried redownloading OneDrive and now it won't sign me in. As in its just spinning its wheels.
Hi! I am at the same place! Did you figure somwthing out? How to do it?
@@ehsaskadyan1904 Hi there, I had to give up I think because I wasn't able to get it to work.
Fighting the same battle
I hacked the registry to get around this issue. It was a pain to do. I'll follow this video the next time I reinstall my OS.
Thank you so much! Your video helped me understand my options and gave a quick solution to regaining control over my files again. I wish Microsoft was more transparent and helpful. Your video did the trick. I am 'eternally grateful', like the toy aliens in Toy Story.
Thanks because of your help I was able get rid of this pest.
i can't express my gratitude in words towards you. thanks a lot mate.
Finally. It worked. Thank you for this video. :-) Been trying to figure this out since last week.
I don't see a Locations tab when I right-click on my OneDrive Documents folder. I only see the General, Sharing, Security, Previous Versions & Customize tabs.
Thank you!!! This video was so easy to follow and get things back to the way they were.
Thank you so much I am not the best with computers and I was having issues with onedrive randomly trying to delete save data from games I was so confused when I got the error trying to make the folders location default this work around was amazing I was worried I was going to lose all my saves you are amazing
I am very surprised that nobody challenged Microsoft on the issue of them literally "hijacking your files" and unless you are a computer hack, have no way around them.
This is one more reason - I delete and block anything I can that sounds, smells, or looks like Microsoft is behind whatever apps it is that might pull back into One Drive again.
One Drive tricks according to me fall under the category of "hacking".
I tried following this but it wouldn't work for me and I regret ever allowing OneDrive to take control over my pc when it first came out because now it's trying to force me to buy more storage space. I just wish I could stop the back up and sync feature and move all my important stuff to where I choose and NOT stupid OneDrive!!
maybe try to contact OneDrive support
Stop Sync Folder works for me, nice! Thanks you so much!
I still need help because when I tried to move them initially just on my pc it said the files were there already and I couldn’t. So I tried using onedrive live and after a long loading screen it extracted every individual file from its home location folder by bulk into my documents folder. I can no longer see what folder they originally came from now either as they all say onedrive documents.
Even after everything right I keep getting the "The folder can't be moved" error :/
It wont work for me: Do I need to install onedrive and then uncheck backup options? It worked for desktop folder, but it won't change the location of documents and pictures folder. And I am not really sure should I just make documents folder manually and cut the content from documents folder in onedrive....
Its hard to say without seeing it but you might need to reinstall OneDrive and follow the steps in order again.
Sorry but you made a mistake when you got to: 4:42 that documents folder that you said "is in the correct space" isn't the correct Windows Library Document folder meaning Windows Library Folders all have a Location Tab, normal folders dont eg: Contacts, Desktop, Downloads, Favorites, Documents, Links, Music, Save Games, Searches, Pictures, Videos all have a location tab. The Windows Library Document folder with that location tab is still inside of Onedrive and you should have just gone to it's location tab and selected "Restore Default" as shown @ 0:56
There is an easier way to change the default folder, IF you want to keep OneDrive, but you do not want everything going to OneDrive. In OneDrive, go to the gear icon, click on the link where you can select which folders to sync with OneDrive, then unclick the "Documents" folder. A week ago, I upgraded from Win10 to Win11. After I did this, I noticed that after the upgrade, it started wanting to put files in the OneDrive Documents folder. I had certain folders that I wanted to have on OneDrive, but with the Win11 upgrade, it added "Documents" to this list.
Great video.
Thank you for putting the time and effort in to it.
This is what I want to do.
But I get confused when you mention the word back up
I want nothing to do with Onedrive at all.
I have unlinked it and uninstalled it.
But when I create a new document in say Word or Excel it still offers to save it in my one drive
Will your video help me stop this from happening?
You will still have the OneDrive option in Office but here is how you can remove it.
ua-cam.com/video/JZExGUNQeK4/v-deo.html
I want to use onenote to sync from onenote app on phone to onenote app on PC, therefore I probably need onedrive.
But I do not want all the documents in the onedrive documents folder to sync to onedrive as I use the free version and files in documents onedrive is to big. It is programs I use data that added it there when installed. . If I move or delete this the programs won't work properly anymore.
Onenote has its data in the documents folder. So I somehow still need this documents folder for syncing between mobile and PC, but again I do not want the other files to be synced.
How would I do this?
Thank you so much this video legit saved me!
For some reason, all my icons on my desktop are gone... I don't know how to get them back :(
onedrive is holding my files hostage man, wtf xD
edit: also thanks :)
Great video. Ty 4 the help
Hi, I messaged you on you facebook account to elaborate my problem. When i click on properties there's no location tab showing and when i click on my original document folder theres a shortcut to documents (one drive - personal) there
I just settled things by create my own OneDrive folder and using to archive things. I do music production and having onedrive constantly synced sucks
I messed mine up so bad. I can find the files, that were in OneDrive desktop, they are all on my desktop but I can not access them, it says something like location deleted or something like that. because the desktop folder is gone in user- My folder-desktop, or OneDrive. I am so confused right now. I even tried to reinstall windows 11 without deleting my files. it is still the same. I really do not want to loss these files.
What do you mean by you cannot access them?
The problem i have is that onedrive was linked to my school account and since ive graduated that account got shut down. I now cant go into the settings anymore
'
Assuming you have a local copy of all your files, maybe you can try to log into OneDrive with a different account just to go through the process. I dont know if it will work but it may be worth trying. I would also do a file backup first in case it tries to sync or copy your files to this other account.
i have an issue where my laptop is deleting the files by itself. i ran virus scans its safe but why is it doing this? my desktop apps get deleted and so do some recently downloaded files why? please do help me sir🙏
Thank you sir. I was finished after step 4 because I didn't get the error
I have a question: what happens to the programs that all take the path via the Onedrive folder.
If I change the path, the software finds the document folder itself or do I have to redefine the path internally for each software ?
When you save something to the documents or pictures folders for example, it will go to wherever the location that "shortcut" is pointed to. So if you change it, the shortcut will be updated as well.
Onedrive is the absolute worst. Microsoft needs to stop clinging to the office suite services and just let Google take the reigns. MS started it, Google finished it. It's over. Edge is awful, Onedrive is awful, Word is awful. Onedrive had the audacity to completely wipe my desktop clean and put all of my nicely organized desktop shortcuts into one, massive fustercluck of a folder. Now I don't know what's a local file and what's a cloud shortcut on my own computer. Have to open "File Explorer>C Drive>Users>Me>Desktop" as opposed to just WHEN EVERYTHING WAS ON MY DESKTOP. Yeah, great fix thanks onedrive.
OK, but what if I have already unlinked OneDrive and stopped it running? How do I ensure I move my Desktop folder so the new location/files appear on my actual screen desktop?
If you cannot get your folder locations back, you may have to get OneDrive running again and then go through the process.
Oh tank you very very much sir🙏🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿
the location tab doesnt show up for me
How can i restore my one drive data early 4 years ...
Nothing happens when I click the onedrive icon...
I am still confused. I want to keep both. One is the Onedrive documents and it does backup and one is the harddrive and it does not. I have this on my laptop but don't remember how I did it.
Actually I think I figured it out! Sort of. I was somehow able to add both document folders to libraries. Goodluck everyone!
i have a problem, when i tried to move it back in it says that i have no enough storage.. how when the filed were already part of my pc before it has moved to onedrive ?
Do you have enough free space to copy the files over? Even if you move them, they get copied first and then deleted at the source.
@@OnlineComputerTips no, the file that is moved (document =26gb) and i have only 20GB free in my pc. How? Does that mean one-drive only copied the file (they didn’t move it) ?
@@8Rikku The files in your OneDrive folder are still taking up space on your PC so you will need at least 26GB free to move them from the OneDrive folder to the original\proper folder since the move process copies the files to the destination before deleting them from the source. If you have a flash drive you can move 6GB or so to that, delete it from the OneDrive folder, then move the rest to the proper folder. Then you can copy the files from the flash drive to the proper folder.
@@OnlineComputerTips wow thank you so much for your responses 🙏🙏🙏That was very helpful!
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you !
Nicely done. Do you know how to cancel OneDrive the monetary contribution? Thank You.
If you mean that you are paying for a OneDrive subscription then it might be tied to your Office account if you have a pay for version of that. I don't think you can cancel just the OneDrive part since it comes with your Office subscription.
www.office.com/
Mine won't let me move them from One Drive. "there is not enough space on documents. You need additional 31.7 GB to copy these files."
My computer was set up perfectly. I think CC cleaner screwed things up and brought back One Drive that is now holding my files hostage.
I'm not sure what step you are on, but it sounds like you are trying to copy the files instead of move them. When you copy the files, you will need twice the space on your drive to do so until you delete the originals after copying them. Moving them doesn't take any extra space on your drive.
I think you should use ctrl + x instead of ctrl + c :)
IM HAVING THIS ISSUE AS WELL AND IM MOVING IT I PUT CRTL X BUT IT DOESNT WORK HELP PLS IM CRYING@@OnlineComputerTips
Thank you so much, you save my life omgg!
Thank you from KSA.
thanks king
my hard drive crashed and died. I installed a new hard drive and all the OneDrive files are gone when I log in. What happened to them. Aren't they automatically uploaded to the cloud?
When you say new drive do you mean you reinstalled Windows? If so then you can try to enable and sign into the OneDrive client app to have them sync assuming that is what you want to do. Otherwise you can just go to the OneDrive website and see if your files are there.
@@OnlineComputerTips I checked the website but my files are not there. Download the app and nothing is there either
They would not get deleted from the OneDrive website if you reinstalled Windows. Are you sure you are logging in with the right account? Check the trash on the OneDrive site as well.
Why am I missing my original documents folder?
It's no located under C:\Users\yourname\Documents?
I uninstalled OneDrive, first thing I did before anything on all my Windows 11 machines. However, I get the "access denied." My quest to you, and this is coming from my whole office: Can you access OneDrive settings if you do not have OneDrive installed? Because I would like to avoid ever having OneDrive on my machine. Is there a way to get around this or will I have to install OneDrive?
I think you are going to need to install OneDrive again to go through the process.
@@OnlineComputerTips Thank you sir, for getting back to me so quickly. I generally work with Linux and I assumed I could rewrite the console commands. But Windows 11 is constantly becoming a more tricky beast.
@@OnlineComputerTips I have onedriveinstalled but still get access denied "Cant move the folder because there is a folder in the same location that cant be redirected Access is denied Even when the folder is empty
Casually ruining my expensive audio recording daw computer literally dedicated for this purpose🎉 thanks microsoft
Thats why I use Reaper, its cheap!
thank you so much bro GBU
One drive is very bad for me
Does this work with the Desktop as well?
yes, windows is the same on all laptops and Desktop (gaming, professional, studying...)
Please I need your help back and I am not computer savvy 5days ago one drive backed up with an update I think and all of my beats or missing and my plugins and my pc screen is missing my folders etc can you please help me please
If you go to the OneDrive website do you see your files? onedrive.live.com/login/
@@OnlineComputerTips yes
If you want to sync your OneDrive files to your PC, you can install the OneDrive client again or if you still have it on your computer, simply log in and let it sync.
@@OnlineComputerTips I am logged in nothing is syncing I just want what’s on one drive to be how it was on my pc 5days ago I need my documents and stuffs path put back to its original folders
@@dorianhunt Its hard to say what the problem is without seeing it but make sure the OneDrive app is running down in the system tray by the clock. Then open it and check the backup settings.
Чувак, ты легенда
Thank you, awesome!
Thanks so much
Such a big company keeps doing this in 2024
I need an instruction guide that is for people who are not as fast thinking as you.
There is a link to a writeup of the process in the description.
Thank you, so much!
What would be the fix if I just deleted the entire onedrive folder from my boot drive and then tried to change the location? I still get the same no access error message. But don’t have the onedrive installed on my computer at all.
You might want to try reinstalling OneDrive and let it sync your files to the OneDrive folders, then try the steps in the video.
Thank you!
I uninstalled OneDrive and my documents disappeared
They might have been set to only download to your PC on demand so go to the OneDrive website and they should be there.
What a pain in the ass, just so Microsoft can sell storage
good heavens thank you, this has been a mess.
The best solution is to upgrade to win7 pro.
The absolute nerve of microsoft. OneDrive backup was enabled by default on my computer.
Thats how they roll!
What an absolute HEADACHE! Why did they ever even do this. Been trying to get this trash off my pc so I can download mods for fallout4. hope windows 12 they ask...would you like this piece of trash on your pc? About to try your method. Everybody please cross your fingers.
Hate Microsoft try to edit videos and shit this always moves my code files and video data saw go to load up my project and it’s not their because of this shirt company
thanks
So confusing. I hate Microsoft
THANK YOU! MICROSOFT YOU FLOGS. Cheers for keeping your older outdated video around too btw, love wasting my day🤣
OneDrive is unwanted MALWARE.
What is malware? Software that is specifically designed to disrupt, damage, or gain unauthorized access to a computer system.
OneDrive has been more problematic and I don't want it but it keeps coming back and forcing its way into my systems. Because of OneDrive garbage, I now use Linux to store my important data and only use windows for video games that are not easily compatible with Linux, nothing else.
Installing Arch Linux is easier.
Onedrive is already un-installed. How do I fix it then? Microsoft is a pathetic company.
You can try to reinstall it and then go through the process.
i hate microsoft
So I unfortunately installed Onedrive, and now Discord will not open because somehow it got moved to an external hardrive? I have to unlock that hardrive to access discord. So I deleted onedrive but that did not fix it- was that the wrong move?
Did you go through all the steps in the video? Does Discord have files that were stored in OneDrive and now are stored in the new user folder location without OneDrive?