When did OneDrive Backup become Primary Storage?

Question

OneDrive, which I never signed up for nor did I ever select that it was allowed to backup anything on my personal computer, did. And once I realized it and quit OneDrive, it deleted every single App on my computer, even though they should have been only on my computer from the start. I'm not asking for anything to be fixed just wondering something ... why in the absolute madness would deleting a backup on OneDrive delete the original from my computer. Seems ... I don't know ... a bit backwards and ... unintelligent.

Answer 1

Hello,

Do you mean your uninstall OneDrive app ? OneDrive technically is not a strict backup concept, but a sync concept. It turns your files by default into cloud copies. It serves like a middle man to show you what you have synced in the cloud, so if the middle man is uninstalled, the sync connection is no longer established, so you cannot see what's in the cloud.

I know you do not ask for the solution, but i am going to share it anyway in case you do want to restore it to what it was like before OneDrive got involved.

In order for us to sort all of these out, it is necessary (just for now) to get OneDrive desktop app back up and running.

To do so, go to your Start menu and see if you already have the OneDrive app installed. If so, go ahead and run it, sign in. If you don't have it installed, you will need to download it, install it back and then set it up. You can download it from here: https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-365/onedrive/download

Once you have the OneDrive app up and running again, please follow these steps closely:

1. Right click on the OneDrive cloud icon on the lower right on your taskbar to go to Settings.
2. On the "Sync and Backup" tab, click on "Advanced Settings" to expand that section. Then under File On-Demand, click on "Download all files".
3. Give it plenty of time to allow the files to be downloaded from the online cloud. On your computer's file explorer, you can observe the OneDrive folder and its folders/files inside. You want all of the green checkmark icon to turn solid green with a white checkmark. Depends on how many files you have, this process can take a while, so please be patient.
4. Once all of the folders and files turn into the solid green icon with white checkmark, you can go back to OneDrive Settings. Very important - click on "Manage Backup" button, then turn off all folders listed there.
5. After you turn off the folders sync in Step 4, now go to Account tab, click on "Unlink this PC"
6. Go to your Windows Settings > Apps, find OneDrive and uninstall it.