Windows 10: need help with ghost icloud photos folders on my windows explorer

I had OneDrive and iCloud Photos running. Very soon i notice icloud photo ghost folders in my windows explorer and I can't delete them. I also uninstalled OneDrive and iCloud and these folders still exist. when I click on the folder, I get the "location is not available" message.



when I click on them.




:)

 

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!

 

MANY iCloud Photos icons appearing in Explorer file directory. More generated every day. Folders are empty. No way to delete the icons.

I want to THANK @JackDaniels1171 for posting a solution on a related thread that helped me figure this out. I've edited his comments a bit to help others who may be suffering from this same, very frustrating problem.

As noted in my original post above, every time I logged in, a new iCloud Photos icon appeared in the left pane of my File Explorer directory. When it got to 28 entries, I screamed "Enough!" Here's what I ended up doing to fix it.

• I uninstalled iCloud for Windows.
• I opened Regedit as Administrator.
• I searched the registry for "iCloud Photos", matching the whole string.
• The first result was located in this location.

[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\CLSID\

• This section of the registry contained many keys. There was one "iCloud Photos" key for each iCloud Photos folder appearing on the left side of my File Explorer directory listing, but there were also entries for
  other things that should be left as is.
  Be careful!
• I resized the Regedit window in order to see the entire key so that I didn't inadvertently delete something I meant to keep.
  
• In my case, there were 28 "iCloud Photos" key entries.
• I carefully deleted each "iCloud Photos" key (and sub-keys) and moved on to the next "iCloud Photos" key. Sometimes the next key in the registry was an "iCloud Photos" key, but if not, I pressed F3 to locate the next one.
  
• I kept careful track and deleted all 28 "iCloud Photos" keys in this section.
• I pressed F3 again to search for the next entry. It was found in this section of the registry.

[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Wow6432Node\CLSID\

• Like the previous section, this part of the registry included keys for iCloud Photos as well as
  other things.
• There was one "iCloud Photos" key in the registry for each iCloud Photos folder appearing in my File Explorer directory listing.
• I repeated the steps above to carefully delete each one.
• I did NOT press F3 after deleting the last entry in this section. Instead, I closed all the branches in Regedit and went to the third section of the registry directly.

-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace\

• Like the other sections, this part of the registry included keys for iCloud Photos as well as
  other things.
• After carefully deleting all of the "iCloud Photos" key entries,
  I went to the fourth section of the registry directly.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\HideDesktopIcons\NewStartPanel

• Like the other sections, this part of the registry included keys for iCloud Photos as well as
  other things.
• I looked at the lengthy registry ID keys that I did NOT delete in the section above. I found a corresponding entry for each one in the keys listed in this section.
• That left the "iCloud Photos" keys to be deleted. I counted them to make certain it was the same number that I had deleted in each of the previous three sections of the registry.
• I deleted ONLY the "iCloud Photos" keys. I was
  very careful NOT to delete the keys corresponding to the things I kept in the prior section of the registry.

• I exited Regedit and restarted my computer.
• I checked my File Explorer directory and noted with delight that all of the unwanted iCloud Photos folders were gone. Yay!
  

What I learned is this: For users who run
both OneDrive and iCloud for Windows, every time the computer starts, iCloud logs in and OneDrive creates a new iCloud Photos folder in the File Explorer directory. By uninstalling iCloud for Windows, I eliminated the source of the problem. (I have
better ways to back up and share my photos!) But, I still had to edit the registry to get rid of the accumulated pesky File Explorer directory entries.

All looks good now. Wherever you are, JackDaniels1171, THANK YOU!

 

Delete iCloud photos from file explorer

Hi,

I have got similar issues and have tried to solved this.

Here you go:

1. Open Registry (Regedt32.exe) and Pin to Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT

2. Click Find and type iCloud Photo. It will navigate you to certain folder. Write down the Registry Branches information. It will show you like this:

Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{57620229-1115-412B-8DAC-BBBF60352EEA}

My problem I have got 8 iCloud Photo Inaccessible drive like this:

Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{57620229-1115-412B-8DAC-BBBF60352EEA}

Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{91167AD1-9CC1-46A0-9CA2-282B6D5DF751}

Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{942785AD-406C-45A8-B6BC-1BE4D2FBB7FF}

Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{A4576220-FAC5-45EF-BDA2-3F8D89B30F96}

Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{D15E78C6-5416-4FDD-B727-8C079998DB71}

Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{D2F3AF73-446E-47E6-BEA4-DF98B37B6EFA}

Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{F0E7F654-C7C5-45B4-95F3-0B4C4C1BE41C}

Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{F6C13E5D-D265-4ABA-9C26-8F4B68DEAEC6}

Press F3 to continue look for the same name folder in the different path called Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\WOW6432Node\CLSID\ just like this:

Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\WOW6432Node\CLSID\{57620229-1115-412B-8DAC-BBBF60352EEA}

In my cases, they are:

Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\WOW6432Node\CLSID\{57620229-1115-412B-8DAC-BBBF60352EEA}

Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\WOW6432Node\CLSID\{91167AD1-9CC1-46A0-9CA2-282B6D5DF751}

Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\WOW6432Node\CLSID\{942785AD-406C-45A8-B6BC-1BE4D2FBB7FF}

Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\WOW6432Node\CLSID\{A4576220-FAC5-45EF-BDA2-3F8D89B30F96}

Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\WOW6432Node\CLSID\{D15E78C6-5416-4FDD-B727-8C079998DB71}

Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\WOW6432Node\CLSID\{D2F3AF73-446E-47E6-BEA4-DF98B37B6EFA}

Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\WOW6432Node\CLSID\{F0E7F654-C7C5-45B4-95F3-0B4C4C1BE41C}

Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\WOW6432Node\CLSID\{F6C13E5D-D265-4ABA-9C26-8F4B68DEAEC6}

3. If you have for example 8 ghosts drive it will give you also 8 similar registry branches above. After you write down the registry path information, you may do the backup first. Just simple click export. Then do these steps:

A. Go to Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT. Delete all of those folders one by one. Your ghost icloud photo drives will change to
iCloud Photo (32bit) in your Windows Explorer

B. Go to Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\WOW6432Node\CLSID\. Delete all of those folders one by one. Now your ghost icloud photo drives will be move to bottom of Windows Explorer list, and showed just like an
empty open drive

C. Go to \HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace\. You will find similar folder as yours, and you can see by clicking each of them, it will contain icloud missing link.
Deletes all of the those correspondences ghost drives.

My cases are:

Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace\

{57620229-1115-412B-8DAC-BBBF60352EEA}

{91167AD1-9CC1-46A0-9CA2-282B6D5DF751}

{942785AD-406C-45A8-B6BC-1BE4D2FBB7FF}

{A4576220-FAC5-45EF-BDA2-3F8D89B30F96}

{D15E78C6-5416-4FDD-B727-8C079998DB71}

{D2F3AF73-446E-47E6-BEA4-DF98B37B6EFA}

{F0E7F654-C7C5-45B4-95F3-0B4C4C1BE41C}

{F6C13E5D-D265-4ABA-9C26-8F4B68DEAEC6}

Be careful, not to delete others inside \NameSpace\... except those ghost icloud drive.

Close your Windows Explorer, Reopen it, and Voila!!! It solved your problem.

Hope it helps you mate!