Disabled the link to my OneDrive and OneDrive made a shortcut to the files in My Documents

Question

I was trying to transfer my default folders from Drive C: to Drive D: in hopes to free up some space. In the process of doing so, my Pictures folder always displayed the error, "Can't move the folder because there is a folder in the same location that can't be redirected. Access denied."

Only the Pictures folder displayed this error - the rest (Music, Videos, and Downloads) were successfully transferred to Drive D: with no problems. Because of this, I disabled my OneDrive link to my Pictures thinking that it would help. But it did nothing - the same error kept appearing even after unlinking OneDrive when I tried to transfer it to Drive D:

Instead what happened after unlinking to OneDrive, was that my Desktop was duplicated (Kindly check screenshot #1) and created a OneDrive shortcut. Meanwhile, my Documents folder was not duplicated but it also had a OneDrive shortcut to the files in my folder (Kindly check screenshot #2 and #3).

So my questions are:

1. How can I now properly un-duplicate my Desktop and not have my Documents inside a OneDrive shortcut? :(
2. How can I successfully move my Pictures folder from Drive C: to Drive D: without the display error popping up?

Thank you so much!

1st screenshot

2nd and 3rd screenshot - OneDrive shortcut of My Documents

Answer 1

Hi @artifae Q1 Please locate to the folders pointed to by shortcuts and copy the desired files to the Desktop folder and Document folder. Then try to delete these OneDrive shortcuts directly. Q2 I suggest you search "Registry" in Windows Search box, then open Registry Editor.

• Locate to Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders.
• Find My Pictures (Pictures folder), then check its data value. By default, it is "%userpfofile%\Pictures".
• Please ensure the data value for My Pciture is the default path before transfering to the D drive.

(Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Before you modify it, please remember to back up the registry for restoration in case problems occur.)

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Answer 2

Hello there, This error message might be solved by modifying the registry according to the Microsoft article. Please follow the article for other workaround for the issue https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/operation-to-change-a-personal-folder-location-fails-in-windows-ffb95139-6dbb-821d-27ec-62c9aaccd720 You can also try the below steps and see if that helps To change the location of a personal folder, follow these steps: Right-click the personal folder, and then click Properties. Switch to the Location tab in the dialog box. Click Move. Select the destination folder path and then click OK. Hope this resolves your Query !! --If the reply is helpful, please Upvote and Accept it as an answer--