How to make OneDrive as only backup and not primary location

I know what you're asking I think because I have the same question, and I don't think the answers you're getting address your questions either. I know how it works now, which is what the responder is showing us, but that's not what I need to know. I want my laptop local drive to be my primary drive, where I save everything by default, and I want it backed up automatically to cloud storage. When I save something on my computer, I want it saved TO MY COMPUTER. With one-drive as a backup, the system always defaults to saving everything to one drive. Then, when I'm on an airplane later with no Wi-Fi, I can't access the document I saved because it went to one drive. This is backwards from what I want. I want to save it to my computer local drive first, and have one drive make a copy. Then, I can work on it when offline, and when I get back online, the system should back it up to one drive. Then if I lose my computer, or spill my water on it in the airplane and turn it into a brick, I can access my work as saved before I went offline from my one drive. I hate that saving it automatically writes it to one drive first. I also don't like that when I search for a document to attach, it goes to the one drive folder as the default, and I have to force it from my own local drive. This isn't convenient nor desirable in my opinion.

I know what you're asking I think because I have the same question, and I don't think the answers you're getting address your questions either. I know how it works now, which is what the responder is showing us, but that's not what I need to know. I want my laptop local drive to be my primary drive, where I save everything by default, and I want it backed up automatically to cloud storage. When I save something on my computer, I want it saved TO MY COMPUTER. With one-drive as a backup, the system always defaults to saving everything to one drive. Then, when I'm on an airplane later with no Wi-Fi, I can't access the document I saved because it went to one drive. This is backwards from what I want. I want to save it to my computer local drive first, and have one drive make a copy. Then, I can work on it when offline, and when I get back online, the system should back it up to one drive. Then if I lose my computer, or spill my water on it in the airplane and turn it into a brick, I can access my work as saved before I went offline from my one drive. I hate that saving it automatically writes it to one drive first. I also don't like that when I search for a document to attach, it goes to the one drive folder as the default, and I have to force it from my own local drive. This isn't convenient nor desirable in my opinion.

Finally - someone who understands what I want! I'm still not sure how to make what we want to happen, happen. I hope a moderator here sees this and can help us. Thank you!

Send that definition to Microsoft because it's not what they call a Backup. Backup on Windows means OneDrive hijacks your C drive folders and files, makes OneDrive the primary drive, and then backups/makes available the OneDrive data to your C drive. It reverses the process and changes your explorer links to suit. It totally messes up your directory and ability to use the C drive in a conventional way.

The problem is there are two distinct ways people want to use OneDrive. One is to automatically backup your primary C drive ONLY (what the OP wants), the other is to use OneDrive as your primary drive so you can collaborate and sync with all devices. But it seems Windows 11 doesn't recognise there is a difference between these and defaults to the latter (even when the settings say 'backup your C drive folders') which is what causes a lot of confusion and problems. Hence the OP question that no one seems to have an answer for.

Microsoft support people don't understand because of the fantasy world they live in, which looks something this. The internet is omnipresent - available at all times in all places, even when traveling at warp drive from one solar system to another. The users belong to a large organization like Star Fleet and need to instantly share all files at all times. We all have little tiny hard drives with no space for even a few documents and spreadsheets.

Back here in the real world, I want the same thing the OP and several other posters have mentioned. I need to be able to work on MY files on MY computer all the time, not just when the internet is working, just like I did before I had OneDrive. Because of the fantasy, OneDrive defaults to "Free up disk space", meaning everything saves to the cloud first, then downloads to those thousands of devices they think you need on demand. I have changed the setting to "Always keep on this device", which saves to my device first, then uploads to the OneDrive cloud.

I think these are the right instructions. Click on the OneDrive cloud icon in the Notification Area of the tray. Click on "Sync and backup" on the left side. Click on "Advanced settings" at the bottom (you may have to scroll down). Under "Files On-Demand", there should be a button with something like "Always keep on this device". Since I've already chosen that, I have a different option there (to go back to the stupid default).

The trouble with OneDrive is that it's sometimes slow, causing it to get out-of-sync easily if I reopen a file or my wife does soon after I save it - a real downgrade from when we could just edit the same file on my hard drive with that quaint thing called networking in my house. You may have to wait about 15 minutes after closing before reopening. One other really stupid thing OneDrive does is interim saves to the cloud while you're working. Then Office 365 crashes and tries to restore that interim thing you don't want, saying someone else saved it.

I would actually like to figure out how to go back to not using the OneDrive folders at all and just use OneDrive as a backup. MS suggests OneDrive junk for practically everything.

I'm looking for the exact same answer, but not finding it...Shocked that Microsoft acts like this is not a usage case for OneDrive...I want to save all files locally and just backup to OneDrive because internet is spotty where I live...I'm not ALWAYS connected, but I always want to be able to access my files. Why does Microsoft not understand this?

Every single time I go to save a file, OneDrive is the default location...why so hard to make the computer hard drive the default? Result is more steps and reduced productivity.

Keep me posted if someone has a solution!