How to exclude a folder from OneDrive and tell OneDrive to never add again even if a new file/folder is added to that folder later

Question

How to exclude from OneDrive synchronization a subfolder of the documents folder (for example, the "My Games" folder) and tell OneDrive to never add it again, even if a new file/folder is added to said folder later by a game or program?

I tried removing the folder from "account / choose folders" setting but OneDrive adds it again when a program or game adds something inside said folder.

Also, I wan to tell you that I lost all my files because I deleted them from the web side believing OneDrive wouldn't delete local files of folders that were excluded, but unfortunately, it deleted them anyway without any warning. I hope the designer of this behavior be punished. This is a tool supposed to protect your files and it did the opposite.

Answer 1

Thank your for your time.
If it is not possible to exclude folders that are used by most programs from synching then OneDrive is useless.
Also, I found the configuration very counterintuitive. Thank you anyway.

Answer 2

I know we were able to select individual folders in (for example) Documents for them to be excluded from OneDrive (at least not syncing). This is some (relatively) new "improvement" from good old Microsoft. It was just few days ago I opened the PC to find all of my Documents folders with that syncing symbol on them and things got screwy when we lost power (winter, avalanches and such). Then I went into OneDrive on the taskbar to check on settings ended up closing and opening OneDrive, only for it to decided to also start syncing my desktop and pictures folders, which I never had selected to be included under OneDrive's ****-umbrella.

I ended up just making separate folders for each folder that I made sure would be offline always and I'm just doing my regular backup of files onto a drive as usual. I've never understood the appeal of Cloud storage except some very niche and controllable exceptions, and with OneDrive it constantly feels like Microsoft is trying to tell me what to do.

Answer 3

How to exclude a folder from OneDrive and tell OneDrive to never add again even if a new file/folder is added to that folder later

Unfortunately this is not possible. You cannot exclude a local file or folder from syncing to the cloud if it is located within a syncing system folder such as Documents. However it is possible to keep online folders from downloading to your computer but a program or game could put a new file or folder back on your computer where you don't want it.

Also, I want to tell you that I lost all my files because I deleted them from the web side believing OneDrive wouldn't delete local files of folders that were excluded, but unfortunately, it deleted them anyway without any warning.

You need to turn off the OneDrive PC Folder Backup on your Documents, Desktop, and/or Pictures folders if you don't want them syncing to OneDrive. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/back-up-your-documents-pictures-and-desktop-folders-with-onedrive