Windows 10: Temporarily activated OneDrive. Need my files put back to original locations.

I downloaded OneDrive to try it out. However, I do not like how all the files have been pulled into a master OneDrive folder on my computer, and want everything returned to how I had it prior. Is there a "return all files to previous location" button, or do I have to do all this manually. If I have to do this manually, then please direct me to where I can submit a feature request for OneDrive to enable this functionality in the future.

:)

 

How To Delete All OneDrive Files Without deleting Original Files on PC

To revert the shell folder locations to default, open OneDrive and do the following:

Important: Before proceeding, copy the files in those special folders to another folder or external drive. Please don’t copy them anywhere under Desktop/Documents/Pictures. This is because disabling OneDrive backup for a folder might erase the local copies of the files. Copying them to a different location beforehand will ensure that you don’t need to download them again from the OneDrive cloud.

1. Right-click the OneDrive icon in the Notification area and click Settings.
   
2. Select the Backup tab, and click Manage Backup
   
3. In the Manage folder backup dialog, click on the Stop backup link under the special folder (Desktop, Documents, or Pictures)
   
4. Click Stop backup in the confirmation dialog that appears.
   
5. Repeat the step for each shell folder you want to revert to the original location.
   

See also: Error “The folder can’t be moved here” Moving Documents/Pictures, Caused by OneDrive

 

How to restore original Documents folder (not Onedrive's) if I had not enough space in onedrive?

It sounds like your Documents folder may have been synced to OneDrive at some point, and now your computer is configured to use the OneDrive version of the folder instead of the local version.

To restore the original Documents folder on your computer, you will need to unsync or unlink the Documents folder from OneDrive. Here are the steps to do this:

1. Open the OneDrive settings by right-clicking on the OneDrive icon in the system tray and selecting "Settings".
   
2. Go to the "Account" tab and click on "Unlink this PC".
   
3. Confirm that you want to unlink the PC from OneDrive.
   
4. After unlinking, OneDrive will ask you if you want to keep a copy of the files on your PC or remove them. Choose to keep a copy of the files on your PC.
   
5. OneDrive will then start to remove the sync relationship with your Documents folder. This may take some time depending on how many files you have in the folder and your internet connection speed.
   

Once the sync relationship has been removed, you should be able to access the local version of the Documents folder on your computer. You can then configure your computer to use the local version of the folder instead of the OneDrive version by following these steps:

1. Open File Explorer and navigate to the OneDrive folder on your computer.
   
2. Right-click on the Documents folder and select "Properties".
   
3. In the "Location" tab, click on the "Move" button.
   
4. Choose a location for the local version of your Documents folder (e.g. C:\Users\YourUsername\Documents).
   
5. Click on "Apply" and confirm that you want to move the files from the old location to the new location.
   
6. After the files have been moved, your computer should start using the local version of the Documents folder instead of the OneDrive version.
   

I hope this helps you restore your Documents folder to its original state!

Do let me know if you need further assistance.

 

Problem with location of Pictures library after making pictures available on OneDrive

Thanks Rhina

I did what you suggested but it ended up making OneDrive the Pictures library. This may have something to do with the way i originally moved the Pictures folders to OneDrive. I probably should explain:

Because there already was a (fairly empty) Pictures folder under OneDrive (automatically set up I think when transferring a few Ipad photos to PC via OneDrive) I had moved the top level Pictures folders into D/users/myname/OneDrive rather than moving
the Pictures folder itself. This was probably a bit stupid but I subsequently moved the top level Pictures folders into that pre-existing Pictures folder on OneDrive and that's how we got to where we are today.

To continue after that diversion. Following the restore you suggested, the pictures folder under Libraries was still wrong but it looked a lot better ie it was no longer offering me a choice of locations for Pictures folders and, instead was just showing
me all the top level folders for what it (wrongly) thought was the Pictures folder. But it was still not appearing directly under This PC.

My next step was to go into Properties option for Libraries/Pictures. Here I simply added the correct location D/users/myname/OneDrive/pictures and deleted the location D/users/myname/OneDrive which at that time was the current location.

So, on the Positive side:

• Libraries/Pictures now shows what I would expect ie my top level Pictures folders

But, on the negative side:

• Pictures still does not appear under This PC, unlike Documents, Videos, Music etc
• in the Photos app, if I go to Folders option, it shows the folder as OneDrive, not OneDrive/Pictures even though, if i go into "choose where to look" it is correctly showing OneDrive/Pictures as the location. Obviously i can still get to the photos I need
  but it's an extra unnecessary step
  

That's where i am currently.