Windows 10: OneDrive deleting files and can't stop sync

Hi,

I recently bought a laptop with Windows 10, and cloned it clean to a new drive. I disabled OneDrive because I have a personal and a work account and wanted to choose later how to set things up. The user for the computer is set up under my personal account, and has some files in it from another computer. Nonetheless, it decided to sync the Desktop, Documents and Pictures possibly after a Windows Update to my personal account. Not knowing this, I moved a large folder to the desktop, which overfilled OneDrive. It is throwing an error that 4800 files can't sync, asking me to rename files one by one. I went to Help & Settings --> Settings --> Backup --> Manage Backup to try to turn it off because I don't want it to sync any of this, and it's giving me all kinds of grief there...


I tried turning off the Desktop checkmark and it deleted all 35GB of my files from the Desktop!. Didn't even move them to the Recycle Bin, and hadn't sync'd them to the cloud because there wasn't enough space. It just left a little cloud icon called "Where are my files" that opens OneDrive in a browser, where I can see it synced only some of the files until it was full. I can't even believe that someone thought there was a valid use case where someone's local files that are being sync'd should be automatically deleted when the sync is turned off, let alone without a single warning or confirmation dialog. I'm now hoping my backup is mostly intact, but can't deal with it until I'm sure it won't delete them again.


It also says it's syncing Documents, and it keeps saying there's sensitive files .pst and .one files it seems that it won't sync and wants me to move or rename them one-by-one. It also says there's 996 files with duplicate filenames that it's going to automatically add -Copy to ! what a solution, so I'm worried I'm going to have to spend days going through decades of subfolders deleting all of these copies hoping I don't delete things that legit have 'copy' in the filename. Not that it makes any sense, because the OneDrive-->Documents online has nothing in it, and the local OneDrive-->Documents folder has just 1 GB of unrelated files from my old computer. But somehow the app has incorrectly decided to pick up my regular Documents folder to sync instead and correctly saying it has 32 GB in it which is too much anyways, but it keeps trying even though I turn it off.


It's also trying to sync 78GB of pictures that I don't want to. The online OneDrive-->Pictures folder has 160 MB in it from my other computer, but it's trying to add my local user's Pictures folder with 78 GB.


No matter which of the three checkmarks I turn off Desktop/Documents/Pictures the Start Backup button is greyed out. The Documents button shows the -Copy error even if I turn its checkmark off. Closing the window after turning checkmarks off and opening it again just leaves all three turned on.


Not sure where to go with this. I don't want to delete the folders out of the OneDrive folder both because it's ignoring them and because other forum posts indicate that this creates even more problems. Unfortunately I can't use this computer until I'm sure it won't secretly turn OneDrive on again and delete all of my files, so while I can quit the app and disable it on startup, it really isn't sufficient - I need to figure out where it's going wrong so it doesn't replicate the issue the next time there's an update.


Any suggestions much appreciated.


Apologies if this is the wrong forum, spent ten minutes trying to find one for "OneDrive" and there doesn't seem to be a category.

:)

 

Stop OneDrive sync

Hi,



Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.



I understand that you want to stop syncing of OneDrive. I’ll help you with the details.



If you wish to stop syncing on your Windows PC, I would suggest you to refer the steps mentioned in the article

Turn off, disable, or uninstall OneDrive.



However, we do have dedicated support team for OneDrive and you can get in touch with them for further assistance. Follow the below steps to contact the OneDrive support team.



Sign in to OneDrive.com from any browser or Open OneDrive App, click the ‘?’ help icon on the top banner of the page and select
Email OneDrive support. Submit your question and follow the prompts to request support.



Regards,

Nikhar Khare

Microsoft Community - Moderator

 

Files not syncing to OneDrive

Hi,

Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.

I understand that you are facing issues not syncing properly with OneDrive.

I suggest you to refer the troubleshooting steps in the article
Fix OneDrive sync problems and check if it works for you.

For more information, you can check the article to
Sync files with the OneDrive sync client in Windows.

If you are still facing the issue, I suggest you to get in touch with the OneDrive support team.

Sign in to OneDrive.com from any browser, click the ‘?’ help icon on the top banner of the page and select
Email OneDrive support. Submit your question and follow the prompts to request support.

Hope it helps.

Nikhar Khare

Microsoft Community - Moderator

 

How does Windows 10 conversion setup offline OneDrive files by default


When I migrate to Windows 10,

• Placeholders will be deleted from my local OneDrive folder.
• Per folder selective sync will be available.

But that leaves a question…

• Will per folder selective sync be turned OFF by default at conversion?
  • This means offline files on the local OneDrive folder will be orphaned.
  • Therefore, to avoid confusion, I’d need to either (a) delete them since they’re available online and since sync is off, or (b) turn on selective sync for the folder they’re in and sync all files in the folder, or (c) do nothing if OneDrive automatically deleted them in the conversion.

• Or, will per folder selective sync be turned ON by default for folders that have offline files in them, syncing all files in such a folder?

• Or, will OneDrive try to sync all folders to my local OneDrive, overwhelming the smaller drive on my laptop?

It seems to me this would be important to know, but I've not been able to find anything on it.