OneDrive asks to "Delete these 13888 items?"

Question

We have MS (Office) 365 Family with 5 users.  

The last few days, in updating one of the PCs with MS 365 (Office) Family, I get this pop-up warning:

Microsoft OneDrive Delete these items? Review the 13888 items before they are deleted. You are going to delete (filename), (filename) and 13886 more items (Checkbox) Don't ask again for large number of deletes (Button) Keep 13888 items (Button) Delete all items

So I opened this OneDrive and looked in its Recycle Bin, and none of the 13888 items is there.  That Recycle Bin is currently empty.

I don;t know what happens (or what folders are affected) if

(a) I “Keep 13888 items”,

(b) I “Delete all items” or

(c) I check “Don’t ask again for large numbers of deletes”.

Does anyone know what happens (and where) for each of these choices?

Many thanks!!

Answer 1

Kai-H - I tried to add this as a "Comment", but this page won't let me.

Thanks for your detailed reply. There's a lot here for me to digest.

But to start: So far, in the tiny OneDrive app at the bottom right of the PC's screen, I can only see truncated file names but no info as to what folders they come from. Is there a way to go into OneDrive and see a list of the 13888 items showing their complete file names and folders? Like an explorer list. That would be hugely helpful.

Answer 2

Hi, glnzglnz

Thanks for getting back.

Currently there is no friendly, built‑in “Explorer style” screen in the OneDrive tray app that will list all 13,888 pending deletes with full paths. The tray flyout is intentionally a compact activity view, so it often shows truncated names and not full folder context.

Here are a few practical ways to get what you want:

Option 1 (fastest): use the prompt itself to surface the parent folder

That mass‑delete dialog is triggered by an action in File Explorer, most commonly deleting or de‑syncing a parent folder (or changing “Choose folders”, unlinking, Known Folder Move, etc.). Microsoft’s own description of this feature is about confirming a large delete operation initiated in File Explorer.

What to do:

• When the dialog appears, do not click Delete all items.
• Click the OneDrive cloud icon > Help & Settings > Pause syncing.
• Now retrace what changed right before the prompt (unlinked PC, moved OneDrive folder, changed “Choose folders”, changed Desktop/Documents/Pictures backup). Often you can identify the top‑level folder causing the cascade.

This does not produce a full list, but it often reveals which folder tree is involved.

Option 2 (best “list view” without deep forensics): capture a directory listing from the local OneDrive folder

If the items exist locally (even as placeholders), you can generate a full path listing from File Explorer, which gives you exactly the “Explorer list” concept.

• Open File Explorer > go to the local OneDrive folder (usually OneDrive under your user profile).
• If you suspect a specific top folder, open it.
• In the address bar, type cmd and press Enter (opens Command Prompt at that folder).
• Run:

dir /s /b > "%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\OneDrive_file_list.txt"

This writes a text file on the Desktop with full paths.

Important limitation: if many files are “online‑only” (Files On‑Demand placeholders), they can still appear in listings, but some situations and special sync roots can behave differently. Also, this lists what exists in that folder now, not necessarily what OneDrive is about to delete.

Option 3 (most accurate, but more technical): use OneDrive sync logs to identify exactly what it plans to delete

Microsoft support guidance (and multiple troubleshooting writeups) point to OneDrive client logs as the place where delete operations and sync actions can be traced. On Windows, the log folders are typically here:

• C:\Users<you>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneDrive\logs\Personal (personal accounts)
• C:\Users<you>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneDrive\logs\Business1 (work/school accounts)

You can often find entries that indicate the folder path or item identifiers involved in deletes, especially around the time the prompt appears. [learn.microsoft.com], [coretechnologies.com]

Practical approach:

• Reproduce the prompt, but keep syncing paused.
• Immediately go to the logs path above.
• Look for the most recently modified files (you may see .odl, .odlgz, SyncDiagnostics.log, etc.).
• Search within any readable logs for terms like delete, Remove, MassDelete, or the name of one of the truncated files shown in the prompt.

Note: many OneDrive logs are in a proprietary/binary format, so they are not always human‑readable without a parser, but they are still the best “ground truth” for what the sync client is doing.

Option 4: if you let it delete, you can get a full “what was deleted” list from OneDrive on the web (after the fact)

This is not what you want (you want before deleting), but it is worth knowing:

• Deleted items go into the OneDrive/SharePoint recycle bin system, where they can be restored for up to 93 days across first and second stage recycle bins.
• Also, online‑only files deleted in File Explorer may not show in the Windows Recycle Bin and must be recovered from the OneDrive web recycle bin.

So if you did proceed (not recommended unless you have backups and understand the scope), you would have a concrete record of deletions to review.

Answer 3

Hi, glnzglnz

Thanks for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A forum.

I appreciate your question. What you're seeing is OneDrive’s mass‑delete confirmation. It appears when OneDrive detects that a very large number of files or folders are about to be deleted or de‑synced (the default threshold is 200 items; yours is higher because the operation touches 13,888 objects).

Here are the explanations of each option you see, and some workarounds you can try in this situation:

Keep 13,888 items

• Action > Cancels the deletion operation. OneDrive keeps the items as they are and does not proceed with deleting them.
• Where > Both your local OneDrive folder and your cloud OneDrive remain unchanged. If the mass delete was triggered by a change you just made (examples below), OneDrive will typically revert/sync back to the prior state and re‑download anything that was about to be removed locally.

Delete all items

• Action > Proceeds with the deletion across the sync scope. Practically, this means the items will be removed from the OneDrive cloud and all synced devices for that account or shared folder.
• Where the deletes land > Deleted content goes to the OneDrive Recycle Bin (first stage) and can be restored. If that bin is emptied, items move to the second‑stage Recycle Bin (site collection recycle bin). The combined retention is up to 93 days before permanent removal, unless a retention or legal hold requires longer preservation.
• Important nuance with online‑only (“dehydrated”) files > If files are “online‑only” via Files On‑Demand and you delete them from File Explorer, they won’t be restorable from the Windows Recycle Bin because they don’t fully exist locally; you must restore them from the OneDrive web Recycle Bin. This often surprises users during bulk deletes.

Don’t ask again for large number of deletes (checkbox)

• Action > Suppresses this safety prompt for future mass deletions on this device/profile, letting bulk deletes proceed without confirmation.
• Risk > If you tick this and then trigger a large delete accidentally (for example, by moving or unsyncing a folder), OneDrive will proceed immediately, your only safety net will be the Recycle Bin retention described above. Most admins discourage turning this off.

Some recommended safe paths you can take at the moment:

• Pause OneDrive for a moment > click the cloud icon > Pause syncing. This prevents any change from propagating while you inspect the trigger.
• Open OneDrive Activity Center > click the cloud icon > View sync issues to see what operation queued the deletes (e.g., “Removed folder from sync”, “Renamed root folder”, “Unlinked this PC”). Then decide if that action was intentional.
• If the change was accidental, choose Keep 13,888 items and undo the trigger (re‑link OneDrive, restore the original folder path/name, or re‑enable the folder in Choose folders).
• If the change was intentional, but you still need the cloud copies, do not click Delete all items. Instead:
  • Re‑enable sync and let OneDrive re‑download them locally, or
  • Move/backup the local content outside OneDrive first, then proceed.
• If you do delete and later need to recover:
  • Go to OneDrive on the web > Recycle Bin > restore items (use date filters and bulk‑select). If first‑stage is empty, check second‑stage (site collection) Recycle Bin. Retention is up to 93 days from initial deletion.

Hope this helps. Feel free to get back if you need further assistance.

---

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment."    

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.