Windows 10: OneDrive duplicate files

JebbyBB · May 5, 2025 at 2:42 AM

I’ve noticed that OneDrive is storing duplicate copies of my files, which is increasing my storage usage. Could you help me understand why this is happening and how to remove the duplicates?

:)

Michel Chiangmai · May 5, 2025 at 2:59 AM

onedrive duplicating my folders...

Hi.

Again, onedrive is going crazy and is duplicating my main folder, full of subfolders. It's locking me out of all my files. I have windows 10, Office 365 home. I paused synch at the moment before I have 1000 copy of my folder, which I can't open anyway!
Please don't ask me any question that will further delay the repair. Simply give me a step by step solution and then improve onedrive so this won't happen again to so many of us. I suggest you also add "onedrive" in the list of "Windows Topics" below since
thousands of users have issues with it.

Thanks

Michel

*** Email address is removed for privacy ***

Jason Guer · May 5, 2025 at 2:59 AM

Is there a way to merge the files or not resync with the duplicated files('-copy')?

Hello Help123FW

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community.

I understand that you have an issue merging duplicate files in OneDrive. Let’s work together in finding the best resolution to this issue.

To merge duplicate files or avoid resyncing with the duplicated files in OneDrive, you can follow these steps:

Click the OneDrive icon in the notification corner on your desktop.

Click the Settings icon (the gear), and then select Settings from the drop-down.

Click on the Office tab.

Go to Sync conflicts.

Tick the radio button for “Let me choose to merge changes or keep both copies”.

Click OK to save the changes.

If a file is duplicated in your OneDrive with your computer name added to the filename, it could be time to refresh your credentials. Here’s how you can do that:

For Windows:

Select Start, type “credentials,” and then select Credentials Manager.

Select the Windows Credentials tab.

Under Generic Credentials, look for any entries containing “OneDrive Cached Credentials” and remove them.

Restart OneDrive.

If these workarounds don’t resolve the issue, please uninstall and reinstall OneDrive. Note: You won’t lose files or data by disabling or uninstalling OneDrive on your computer.

We look forward to your next response.

Regards,

Microsoft Community Moderator

KeithM · May 5, 2025 at 2:59 AM

Duplicate OneDrive entry unexpectedly appears in File Explorer

Thank you for the reply Keith.
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You're welcome

I've just tried what you suggested. The response was a pop-up stating, "This file does not have an app associated with it for performing this action. Please install an app or, if one is already installed, create an association in the Default Apps Settings page.". ... Finally, I tried the same command on my wife's normal user account and the result was different - on this occasion, a window opened inviting me to "Set up OneDrive"! If you recall, my wife's account is the only one that has the mystery CLSID in the path HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID. Furthermore, after searching for the mystery CLSID in the registry on all three accounts on my PC, the mystery CLSID is only visible when searching on my wife's account. This is a revelation to me. I was under the impression that an administrator had access to all information in the registry, but that appears not to be true.
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You do have access, but the data that populates HKCU is only loaded for the logged in user by default. If you want to edit the HKCU data for another user when logged on as Administrator, you have to load their user hive into Regedit, edit as desired, and then unload the hive to save the changes.

Open RegEdit

Select the HKEY_USERS key

From the nemu: File -> Load Hive...

In the Load Hive dialog, navigate to the desired user's profile folder and select the ntuser.dat file

You'lll be prompted for a name, which can be anything -- it's not persistent with the file

And you then have access to the other user's registry hive

The situation was further complicated because OneDrive was again refreshed in the background on my PC today and, as I had feared, this resulted again in duplicate entries of OneDrive in the navigation pane of File Explorer on my wife's account only. (Why is my wife's account being picked on?) So, again, I had to change the value System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree of the mystery CLSID from 1 to 0 in order to remove the duplication. I now feel more than ever that I need to get rid of this mystery CLSID from the registry.
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I'd like to see an export before you delete it! *Biggrin I would start by deleting the corresponding key under:

<User>\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace

In the hope that it might help the situation, and because my wife and I don't use OneDrive, I have now used the Group Policy Editor to enable "Prevent the usage of OneDrive for file storage" in the path Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\OneDrive. Among other things, this has the effect of removing the OneDrive entry from File Explorer and the standard CLSID for OneDrive, {081D…1FE6}, is no longer visible as a key in the registry. For information ... It appears that I have only one version of OneDrive on my system. This is the desktop version that came with Windows 10 and is apparently officially called Microsoft OneDrive. The version of OneDrive that is available from the Microsoft Store is not installed.
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