Signed-out/Closed OneDrive Personal drive via File Explorer OneDrive drop-down context menu, now local Personal drive has disappeared. Business drive still available. Both use the exact same account.

Question

OS: Windows 11

My issue is quite similar to a thread on reddit, here: https://www.reddit.com/r/onedrive/comments/zmzinl/user_has_been_using_onedriver_personal_then_later/

Just to preface it by saying I haven't manually deleted anything, it's just that the OneDrive - Personal drive has vanished from my computer, and when I use OneDrive Web App via a browser, it only shows my OneDrive Business drive - not my OneDrive Personal drive.

What happened with me was:

My Business drive was having issues whereby it would constantly try and sync a few files. So I was looking for ways to try and fix it. One thread said to close OneDrive and re-open it. Now from memory, what I did was I opened my Personal drive (in hindsight it was a little stupid as I should have figured that the Personal and Business drives were different) and, due to being on Windows 11, in the path you could actually click the OneDrive button:

https://imgur.com/a/zlpyxmy

https://imgur.com/a/3rjQxWg

And, different to the Business drive (above), the drop-down context menu had a 'Quit OneDrive' (maybe due to it being the local, Personal OneDrive), or maybe it was 'Sign-out of OneDrive'. It did then bring up a confirmation dialog to make sure I wanted to sign out/quit One Drive. Once I did that, my 'Personal' drive was now missing, both the drive in the left-navigation pane and even the local folder here (which I guess are the same thing?):

C:\Users<MyUsername>\OneDrive - Personal (or maybe it was just 'OneDrive' in the path, but then in the navigation bar and the file explorer view it was 'OneDrive - Personal')

My business drive is still there, though:

C:\Users&lt;MyUsername>&lt;MyFirstUsername> - <CompanyName> Ltd

Now the issue that I linked from the Reddit thread above is similar but somewhat different, it seems the user they were working with had signed into OneDrive and thus their Personal drive had disappeared and their Business drive seemingly took its place. Whereas for me, I seemingly signed out of OneDrive Personal (with the same account as my Business drive), and now that Personal drive has completely vanished - both drives were originally there, available, and accessible, but because I've signed out of my Personal drive, it has now gone. And I have no idea how to sign back into OneDrive Personal and not OneDrive Business with the exact same account.

So it seems like that Personal drive is created when signing in to Windows for the first time on the desktop, and that drive is seemingly local? Where-as the Business drive I have is available locally and online.

It's possible my Personal drive was only local, but if I signed out/closed that OneDrive Personal drive, I wonder why it completely removed the folder and drive from my computer just because I signed out/closed that drive?

I have also checked my Business drive online etc., checked Restore page, checked my current files in that drive, absolutely no trace of that Personal drive nor any of its files, so that Personal drive definitely isn't associated with the Business drive - but they're on the same account, just different drives, of which I can't find that Personal drive.

Also I have this pinned folder that was in the Personal OneDrive:

https://imgur.com/a/7KcvWXt

As you can see, the folder path is C:\Users&lt;MyUsername>\OneDrive, which is now gone, but as it was pinned it does show exactly where my 'Notes' folder was located before the 'OneDrive - Personal' folder disappeared.

Any ideas on how I can sign back into OneDrive Personal using the exact same email as my OneDrive Business? It can't seem to differentiate between the two, and always tries to log me into my OneDrive Business drive.

I know there are steps to reset OneDrive, reinstall it, etc. I just thought I would lay out what I did first, as maybe if I start resetting it and re-installing it, it could cause the Personal drive to be gone forever, I don't know.

Also a bit more context of what the OneDrive drive/folders used to look like (this is a different account, but as you can see that starts with both a Personal drive and a Business drive - which is what I used to have on my original account, but no longer):

https://imgur.com/a/RR9912r

Some additional info about Personal drives:

"If you have a Windows computer, you might see another OneDrive appear on your computer, called OneDrive Personal. This is your personal OneDrive that IS NOT associated with the company’s Microsoft 365. It is a OneDrive Personal that comes with Windows and is meant to store personal files, photos, etc., in both the cloud version and the desktop (synchronized version). If I am not mistaken, it is automatically synchronized for you by Windows.  You might not necessarily use it, but it will appear there in Windows Explorer."

Source: https://sharepointmaven.com/onedrive-personal-vs-onedrive-for-business-vs-onedrive-sync-client/ 

Thank you for any help.

Answer 1

So doing that just takes me to my M365 Business Drive, which doesn't contain anything that my Personal drive contained. So there's not a 'separate' OneDrive for Personal drives online? There's definitely the separate Personal drive locally that is created when first installing OneDrive (as seen above), but that doesn't appear to be available online. One account can have both a Personal drive and Business drive.

Answer 2

Hi Craig, so I tried re-linking like I said before, no success. I also tried resetting but it said 'Error: Failed to reset'. With that, I then just did a full re-install. Interestingly, it did bring back the OneDrive - Personal drive like you said it would, but like you mentioned, it's a new one and my old Personal drive files weren't in there. Any other ideas? Thanks.

Sign into your Personal account and check the recycle bin at onedrive.com. Even if the files are recently missing on your computer they will still be at onedrive.com.

Answer 3

Hi Craig, so I tried re-linking like I said before, no success. I also tried resetting but it said 'Error: Failed to reset'. With that, I then just did a full re-install. Interestingly, it did bring back the OneDrive - Personal drive like you said it would, but like you mentioned, it's a new one and my old Personal drive files weren't in there. Any other ideas? Thanks.

Answer 4

Hi Craig, thanks for the info.

Just to keep you in the loop on what I've tried: I've tried data recovery software but it seems like it only recovers about 10 of the files, and they were quite old files as well. I've tried it twice, a couple of different solutions a couple of days apart, and they seem to be recovering the same 10 files.

I have also tried unlinking the account with no success, it just logs me straight back into my business account again after re-linking, unfortunately.

I will now try resetting OneDrive, and then if that fails, I'll try a full reinstall. I'm wondering if my files haven't yet been deleted, but they might be deleted if I reinstall OD, in which case potentially due to the files then being deleted, they may all come back via the data recovery software. It's worth a try.

Also, RE: you swapping this over to the Business forum, please do not, as this is mainly OneDrive Personal related. Thanks.

Thanks so far, I'll keep you posted.

Answer 5

Hi. Welcome to the Microsoft community.

When you set up OneDrive, the existing OneDrive folder on the C drive is automatically located. Please confirm that it is the correct folder for the account you are setting up. If the folder is missing, a new folder will be created. Of course, you can identify the folder yourself and link it to OneDrive.

I suggest you unlink and then relink your OneDrive account. If you wish, you can reinstall OneDrive. Microsoft pretty much forces you to use OneDrive—Personal, so set up Personal first and then add your business account.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/onedrive/download

Please see this video. It will show you where to add your business account in the OneDrive app:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/sync-onedrive-files-and-folders-3b8246e0-cc3c-4ae7-b4e1-4b4b37d27f68

The settings shown in this video are different, but the principle of Files On-Demand and Always keep on this device are the same:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzIA9uykIhE

I don't help with OneDrive for business, so let me know if you would like me to move this thread to the business category.

Best regards,

Craig