Microsoft Office defaults to OneDrive when saving documents, even though I've removed OneDrive (Word, Excel etc. for Mac)

Question

After renewing my Office 365 subscription, the behavior of Office products changed on my Mac. Whenever I went to save a new file or use Save As to move an existing file, the default was to OneDrive. I really dislike OneDrive -- it works so poorly on my Mac and hogs up large amounts of CPU time, so I almost always quit it after a restart. But with this new behavior since renewing Office 365, something more was needed. I tried removing the OneDrive app and still had the same problem happen. Seeing that other people with this problem had success by removing all OneDrive-related files in the Mac library, I tried that, too and restarted. But still, any new file defaults to OneDrive. Save As for Excell using existing files still defaults to OneDrive and if I want to save in the same folder where the file currently is, I have to manually navigate to it again. Huge waste of time.

How do I exorcise OneDrive when I am saving files and make my Mac act reasonably again?

Answer 1

Hello,

I am having the same problem on my MacBook Air. I followed all the steps Leo provided on 4/12, and in a convoluted way finally got to Saving-as-Default in my MacBook documents folder; but, when either creating a new MS Word or Excel document (or updating existing documents), the OneDrive option still shows up. I have deleted the OneDrive app, but this option still won't go away.

Note, this started happening after the annual renewal of MS Office 365. It is happening on MacBook Air running Sonoma, but does NOT happen on a different MacBook Air running Monterey.

Thank you to anyone who has some ideas on how to wipe out One Drive option!

Answer 2

Hi FreedomMatters,

Thank you for reaching out. My name is Leo, a user just like you. I'd be happy to help you with your concern.

You should be able to set your Office to save files locally and not on OneDrive. May I know if you have the "Set as default save location" option when you try to save a file? To check, open any Office apps, then try to save a file. You can change your default save location for Office documents by selecting "Other" in the Place dropdown, choosing the folder you want to save to, and checking the box for "Set As Default Save Location". This will let your Office app save to your local drive and not on OneDrive. I hope this helps. In case the issue still persists, please don't hesitate to let us know. We, the community users, are always here to help. Thank you!

Your understanding and patience will be highly appreciated. I hope I provided a helpful information regarding your concern! Let me know if you have any further questions. Be safe always!

Best Regards,

Leo