Windows 10: How Do I Remove iCloud Photos Folders from Sidebar?

Hello all,

After the latest update to the now Windows Store-exclusive iCloud app (first Nvidia with their Control Panel and now this...ugh), I have multiple iCloud Photos folders in my Explorer sidebar and my OCD is going wild. Does anyone know how I'd go about removing them? The only solutions I've found online have been for removing the folder as shown in pic 1 (edits to reg under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MyComputer\NameSpace\xxxx), whereas my issue is removing the folders shown in pic 2.

Pic 1: Not my Issue




Pic 2: My Issue




Running 1909.

Any help would be greatly, greatly appreciated.

- - - Updated - - -

Never mind! Figured it out. Had to experiment and edit with a few different entries associated with the phrase "iCloud Photos".

:)

 

How Do I Remove iCloud Photos Folders from Sidebar?

Hello all,

After the latest update to the now Windows Store-exclusive iCloud app (first Nvidia with their Control Panel and now this...ugh), I have multiple iCloud Photos folders in my Explorer sidebar and my OCD is going wild. Does anyone know how I'd go about removing them? The only solutions I've found online have been for removing the folder as shown in pic 1 (edits to reg under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MyComputer\NameSpace\xxxx), whereas my issue is removing the folders shown in pic 2.

Pic 1: Not my Issue




Pic 2: My Issue




Running 1909.

Any help would be greatly, greatly appreciated.

- - - Updated - - -

Never mind! Figured it out. Had to experiment and edit with a few different entries associated with the phrase "iCloud Photos".

 

How Do I Remove iCloud Photos Folders from Sidebar?

Hey PP356,

I should've posted the solution, huh? Sorry about that!

You're going to want to open regedit, search "iCloud Photos", and press F3 until you start finding entries that look like the one pictured below and changing the values for "System.IsPinnedToNamespaceTree" from 1 to 0 (make sure to make a backup first).





Make note of the keys you change because you're going to need to do the same thing for the same keys found under the WOW6432Node folder in the same directory.

In my case:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2FDDC96F-EACE-4D1B-A2C9-0B2BC4FCC331}
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\WOW6432Node\CLSID\{2FDDC96F-EACE-4D1B-A2C9-0B2BC4FCC331}

Rinse and repeat until you've modified all but one entry and that's pretty much it!

(After making the edits, you may either have to restart Windows Explorer or reboot entirely for the changes to take effect.)

 

Remove iCloud Photos from Devices and Drives View in File Explorer

thank you for this soln gogreen, much appreciated! Here is a quick summary for others if interested -

Reference:

• rANa'S Blog - How to remove iCloud Photo from My Computer (9/21/14)

Steps:

1. Open regedit (Win+R, "regedit")
2. Enter key in address bar
3. Deprecate key
   • Opt A. - delete
   • Opt B. - rename something different (e.g. prefix with "_")
4. Close and re-open to observe result

Key:

• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MyComputer\NameSpace\{F0D63F85-37EC-4097-B30D-61B4A8917118}

thanks!