Windows 10: OneDrive is My only Desktop, Documents, and Photos file location and i ran out of my 5gb....

Hello, I bought a nice PC with Windows 11 about 5 months ago. I didn't realize that i was getting into OneDrive or i would've done something about it sooner. Well about a month ago, I got a notification saying that a sync could not be performed and to clean out some space in my OneDrive so i did and when my wife got onto the only game she likes and brings her happiness, ALL OF HER families were gone on Sims. I told her I didn't know what happened but after thinking i realize i must have unintentionally did it. Today I decided to spend my time after work to try and get my documents-desktop-pict

:)

 

Document files moved to OneDrive

My first post here: Windows 10 build 19042 Ver 20H2

I don't know happened. Yesterday, I used Calibre that requires access to files in a folder in my Documents folder. But it wasn't there. All files and folders were gone and apparently moved to onedrive. I was able to move that folder back to the document folder within my user account and all of that worked okay. But why, had the files and folders been moved like that without my action. Also, how should I put my system back in order, if it is out of order?

Not only have the files been moved but the point to locations have been changed. The location of Documents is listed as "C:\Users\jvpri\OneDrive\Pictures" . Hmm...why should the documents folder have been placed within Pictures? There still exists a Documents folder within my User directory account but it was empty.

Also, some of my content on Desktop have been moved to a OneDrive/Desktop directory. There is a Where are my Files link left on the Desktop.

Because of all this, I tried to learn a bit more about how OneDrive is supposed to work, but only go more confused. So, besides solving my immediate problem, is there somewhere a good read that will simplify what I am supposed to expect from Onedrive and how to keep it all straight.

 

Where are my document, photo and desktop?

Hello Robert,

I am Jaspreet Singh.

OneDrive has a section for backing up desktop/ documents/ photos and videos libraries.

You can turn this off via these steps:

** please note this is for the most recent updates.

Click on the up arrow on your taskbar.

Then click on onedrive icon

Click on the gear icon in top right

Click on settings from the drop-down.

In the windows that pops up

Select sync and backup on left hand side

Then click on “manage backup” button on right hand side beside the title backup important folders.

Untick all three options

The close the window.

This will bring the data from the folders back to their locations or in a folder that says “where is my data” click it and cut and paste the data back.

This will turn off desktop/documents/ photos and videos backing up to OneDrive. Now only the files you manually put in OneDrive folder will be uploaded.

 

Correct location for Desktop, Documents, Downloads etc

There is no need to confuse things. Your user folder by default should at least contain the folders: Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, & Videos. Since windows 10 they added the OneDrive folder. The OneDrive folder contains the folders: Desktop, Documents, Music, & Pictures. However, you can add other folders to it. Microsoft decided they know best so they created the OneDrive folder. They moved the contents of certain folders to corresponding folders in OneDrive. The folders and their contents in the OneDrive folder are backed up to your Microsoft account's OneDrive cloud storage. If you never set up OneDrive on your computer the OneDrive folder might have folders in it but they will be empty. You can simply ignore it. However, if you ever set up OneDrive it will move files into the corresponding folders in it. If you decide to stop using it you have to carefully go through certain steps to keep from losing files in the OneDrive folder. One time I setup OneDrive on a computer but almost lost a bunch of files when I disabled it. I never use it anymore.