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Onedrive Moved Documents and replaced with where are my files icon

Anonymous
2021-06-09T21:20:31+00:00

OneDrive moved my files from computer to onedrive when i tried to disconnect it. All is have is icon "where are my files". how do I undo this and not lose my files.

I had already set up the computer disconnecting one drive and creating separate files on my computers harddrive "Documents". one drive started trying to sync them again after about 8 months of use. when I tried to back up to a hard drive, i could not transfer the files because they were "syncing". I tried to stop the sync process and when I went to look for my files, there is only a "where are my files" and everything is moved to the Onedrive file. there is no way everything has uploaded online so quickly. I want to move my files out of one drive and leave on my computer and do not know how to do that. I am a pretty savvy computer user and very annoyed OneDrive is not transparent about this, or what I even clicked. I think something was "autoselected" when i opened it as as a result made the change.

1)so how do I get my files back on my computer and out of one drive?

thank you

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneDrive | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-06-11T15:34:55+00:00

    Hi

    actually that is incorrect. That is what caused the problem. I had all my files on my C drive in documents. When I clicked "stop backup" , that is exactly the moment when my files in my documents were replaced with a "where my files" icon and everything moved to OneDrive and is trying to back up. I had already disconnected Onedrive and specifically set my files to my document and One Drive hijacked them. I tried did it again with my pictures file and desktop and same thing happened, so now i know. why would it do the exact opposite of what I told it to do and what the button says (stop back up_) . I have kept the computer off line and it has not had time to back up, but I am afraid 1)it iwll move things off my computer into ondrvie, 2)my stuff will be on line in cloud which I do not want and 3) if I completely unlink OneDrive will i lose my files. numbere 3 is my major concern, and I intuitively i know that should not happen, but given what happened to get me here, using intuition is clearly risky as the buttons are not labelled correctly.

    so how do unlink one drive, keep the files on my C drive, not in the One drive folder and not lose my files? Again, i am fairly intelligent, computer savvy but not a programmer. but this is a OneDrive issue, not daily computer user issue and it should be made failry self explanatory -which it is not.

    thank you,

    Ivan

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  2. Anonymous
    2021-06-11T15:52:27+00:00

    Hello Ivan,
    What the "OneDrive Backup" feature does is literally move the known folders into the main OneDrive folder, and yes, in my opinion this feature is really invasive, since after certain Windows 10 updates it activates itself.

    On the other hand, if you stop the feature,
    the "Documents, Desktop and Pictures" folders should revert to their default location.

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  3. Anonymous
    2021-06-12T18:03:43+00:00

    Thank you. so its ok to completely unlink one drive? the issue was the pending sync prevented me from transfering back up files to external harddrive, which is why i hit "stop back up". so I think I just need to unlink one drive altogether?

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  5. Anonymous
    2021-06-09T21:56:38+00:00

    Dear Isayed,

    I am Renzo, as an Independent Advisor and Office user, I'll help you with your question.

    You could try with following process:

    Basically, you have to stop to use the OneDrive backup feature.

    1. So, right-click over the white cloud close to Windows time in sys-tray bar, then click on Settings > Backup tab > Manage backup > then click on "Stop backup" in the known folders (Desktop/Documents/Pictures) folders.

    Take a look at below link for further information:

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/back...

    Any doubt, let me know and have a nice day.

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