Windows 10: OneDrive Uploaded and Deleted All Personal Files and Photos With No Account Open

On Thursday 12-10-20, a small window appeared on the computer, asking, ‘Would you like to clear space on the computer in order to speed it up?’ I clicked on the ‘Yes’ button, thinking that the computer would run a defrag.



At this time, no one had linked an account to OneDrive. I didn’t understand that when I clicked ‘Yes’, I was uploading to OneDrive. It is something I would never do.



OneDrive uploaded our computer’s personal files and photos, and the next morning, 12-11-20, I found that every file had a small cloud icon next to it. Since I’m used to accessing my files and photos by opening them on the computer, this made me angry. I clicked on the small cloud icon in the task bar and disconnected the sync. At this point, all the file and photo names disappeared, leaving nothing but empty folders on the C Drive. Many of these files were stored on the Desktop, and that was also completely cleared.



Again, at that point we had no account linked to OneDrive. I have entered every email address we have in the OneDrive log-in bar with each account’s password and OneDrive does not recognize any of our addresses.



I opened a Microsoft Help ‘ticket’ immediately, but that person has wasted my time and effort and has not helped at all.

I need Microsoft to help me recover all of our files and photos.

:)

 

Uploading of files

Hi Amanda,

To better assist you, we appreciate if you can answer the following questions:

• Are you uploading your files to OneDrive using a computer or mobile phone?
• Are you using a browser or OneDrive app to upload the files?

For the meantime, you can check the article:
Fix problems uploading files on the OneDrive website and
Upload photos and files to OneDrive. The two articles contain steps that you can perform to help you upload your files.

Looking forward to your response.

 

Disable auto-upload of photos to OneDrive

Hi Mark,



Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community forum.



Auto-upload of photos to OneDrive occurs because there is no Group Policy
setting to disable the Camera roll upload photos and videos option.



I suggest you to try the resolution suggested in How to prevent
pictures from being auto-uploaded to OneDrive and check if it works.



Note: The article holds good for Windows 10.



Thumbnails for files won’t be displayed if the File Explorer is configured to show icons instead of thumbnails.

You may turn on Thumbnails and check if it works:

• Open File Explorer and click on the
  File menu.
  
• Choose Change folder and search options to open
  Folder Options.
  
• Click on the ‘View’ tab, and under
  Advanced Settings, uncheck Always show icons, never thumbnails.
  
• Apply the changes.
  
• Restart File Explorer and check if the issue persists.
  

If the issue persists, you may clear the thumbnail cache.

Clear thumbnail cache:

• Press Win + R keys together on the keyboard to open the Run dialog and type the following into the Run box:
  cleanmgr
  
• Select the drive, and check the box for Thumbnails.
  
• Click OK and wait for the cache to be cleared.
  

I suggest you to post a feedback in the Feedback Hub
to bring back Filmstrip viewer, so that our developer team can have a look into it and include it in the upcoming updates.



Regards,

 

Remove account

I suggest you backup your personalized files first before removing the account.
To delete an account, follow these steps:

1. Press WIN + X keys and click Command Prompt (Admin) from the menu.
2. Type the following command and press Enter. Replace test with the name of your sister's account. Code: