Windows 10: Recent shortcuts for apps show files on OneDrive instead of local hard drive

I am using Windows 10 Enterprise on my work PC which has OneDrive set up to back up my files. The Office 365 apps Word, Excel, PowerPoint are pinned to my taskbar. When I right-click on one of those pinned icons, a menu of recently opened files appears so I can quickly select a file that I previously worked on. However, most of the recent files in the menu are on OneDrive in the cloud, not on my local hard drive, even though I opened the file on my local hard drive. Many times I have picked a recent file from the menu and edited it only to have OneDrive complain later that my local and OneDr

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Documents and Pictures folder shortcuts in User folder go to OneDrive instead of the local folders.

Hello. I am having troubles with my User folder in Windows 10.

I had OneDrive activated because I use OneDrive to store files I want available across multiple devices, but there are other files that I keep local in my home machine. I've had a OneDrive Documents and Pictures folders showing together with my local Documents
and Pictures folders under my User folder. I didn't like it, but it was working alright. Today, however, my local folders disappeared from my User folder in File Explorer and I cannot access them through the User folder shortcuts. The actual local folders
are still in my hard drive because if I enter their path, they can be navigated to. The shortcuts now only point to OneDrive folders.

I deactivated OneDrive in my machine and all I got was a local copy of the OneDrive folders that the User folder keeps pointing to.

I tried the Properties > Location tab to point to the location of my local folders instead, but 1. Documents shortcut didn't have a Locations tab, and 2. Pictures folder says I don't have access to change the location.

How do I get my User folder to display all shortcuts to my local folders and my OneDrive folder to have the shortcuts to the OneDrive folders instead of this huge mix?

Help please!

Specs:

Windows 10 Build 10586.420

 

External hard drive is showing up as local disk drive

Hi,



Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.



As you have mentioned that the external hard drive is showing as local disk drive instead of a USB drive, it is because the file format for the external hard drive is same as the internal hard drive and that’s why it is showing
up as a local disk drive and not a USB drive.



Also, since you are facing issues while changing the drive letter of the drive, for further clarity on the issue and to guide you accordingly, respond to the questions listed below:

1. What is the make and model of the hard drive?
   
2. Were you able to save or create a file on the hard drive previously?
   
3. What happens when you try to copy and paste the data from the hard drive?
   
4. What was the result of check disk performed on the drive?
   

Since you are receiving the access denied error, I would suggest you to check if the user has appropriate permissions to read/write data on the external hard drive. Refer the article

"Access Denied" or other errors when you access or work with files and folders in Windows, refer the section
I cannot access, change, save, or delete files and folders.



Note:
The above article applies to Windows 10 also.



Please get back to us with the above information to assist you further with the issue.



We await your response.



Regards,

Prakhar Khare

Microsoft Community – Moderator

 

Cortana opens locally stored OneDrive files in OneDrive website instead of app

When I search for a file in Cortana that I have stored in OneDrive and stored locally on my computer it REFUSES to open the locally stored file in the default app and instead opens it in the garbage OneDrive website in my browser!

For instance, I have a collection of PDFs that I reference often and I have my default app for PDFs set to Edge. Instead of it opening the PDF file from my D:\ drive, it opens the OneDrive file. Cortana and the search bar are now functionally useless.

Absolutely infuriating, I did nothing to provoke this change, and what's worse is that I can see posts about this issue from as far back as 2015 with NO SOLUTION. Get it together!!