Change Windows 11 default file scan location

Question

I have Windows 11. My scanner automatically saves scans to OneDrive, but I want to save them locally on my PC.

This article claims to show how to do it: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/i-need-to-move-the-location-where-windows-fax-and/887a1b9c-213b-47f8-bc11-e34efb3c4817

But there are problems:

1. The 1st suggestion by Lynn -MSFT does not apply to me. There is no Location tab for the Scanned Documents folder, nor is there a Move button.

2. I'm not willing to try this 2nd suggestion by Lynn -MSFT because of the experience of ChrisBridge2

So, does anyone have any better ideas?

My experience so far is that Windows 11 makes a lot of things much more difficult than they were in Windows 10. I cannot yet judge whether the presumably better security is worth it.

***Moved from Windows \Windows 11\***

Answer 1

Dear Harold E1，

Welcome to Microsoft Community.

We understand that you want to change the path to the file location where the scanner is saved.

According to your description and the screenshots you shared with us, you can see that your files are displayed under OneDrive and your files are also displayed in Documents for viewing.

Your scanner documents are saved in OneDrive probably because the Documents folder on your computer is synchronized with OneDrive, causing them to be saved in OneDrive by default after you scan them.

Seeing that you indicated that you refer to other information, it is not possible to move the folder directly.

To further help you confirm if the issue is due to OneDrive synchronization, you can try the following options to see if they work:

1. Confirm the information of the folders you OneDrive synchronized:

1）You can open the OneDrive program in your Windows system and click "Settings" - "Synchronize and Backup".

2）Then click "Manage Backups" to see what folders you have synchronized on your computer. If your Documents folder is synchronized, you can try to turn off the synchronization.

3）After closing, your Documents folder will generate a "OneDrive Document Shortcut", you can open the shortcut, and then you do not want to synchronize the file, choose to "Copy" or "Cut You can open the shortcut, and then choose to "copy" or "cut" the files you don't want to synchronize to other places in your computer, such as C drive or other paths to other folders.

4）After you paste it, reconfirming the file information in the new path will not show up in OneDrive.

5）If you have other folders in your Documents folder that you want to save in OneDrive, you can just resynchronize the folders.

2. Confirm the path to the document you are printing and scanning:

In general, your system settings will show the corresponding printer and scanner information, you can try to confirm the background print folder through the "printer properties" - Advanced "you can confirm whether the corresponding path to change.

We hope you can help alleviate the problem by confirming the sync information, and you can always get back to us if you have any updates or questions as we further confirm your file information.

We look forward to your response.

Thanks for your patience and understanding.

Best Regards,

Zenobia-MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

Answer 2

Try this. I actually opted not to install OneDrive, on a fresh reinstall of Win 11, and had a time, getting rid of the folders. I don't know whether you still want to use One Drive, but these steps will add a location tab to your Documents Folder, allwing you to reset your default Documents folder, to Windows>users>*username*>Documents. Hope that helps!

Answer 3

Thanks for getting back to me.

I do use OneDrive for backup, so I didn't want to uninstall it.

I somehow managed to solve the problem, but it's embarrassing that I no longer remember how!

I set up a Scans folder on my computer and that's where the scans now go

Answer 4

Did someone actually get paid to change this process from W10? Asinine process. give me back W10.

Answer 5

I agree with you on that!