How do I reinstall my OneDrive for Family files?

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How do I reinstall my OneDrive for Family files?

Stefan Schrichte 20

I accidentally deleted my OneDrive for Family files. How do I reinstall my OneDrive for Family files?

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Answer 1

John Jefferson Doyon 60,955 Independent Advisor

Thank you for letting me know.

Are you able to see your Microsoft 365 Family subscription under the Services & subscriptions page here: https://account.microsoft.com/services

Please make sure you’re signed in with the same Microsoft account that the Family subscription was shared to.

If you can see the subscription there and it shows as active, please follow the steps below.

If your OneDrive storage quota hasn't updated, it can take up to 24 hours for the new quota to show after joining Microsoft 365 Family subscription.

If the update is still pending after 24 hours, you can try unlinking and relinking your OneDrive account, or resetting it. "Unlink and re-link OneDrive" https://support.microsoft.com/office/unlink-and-re-link-onedrive-3c4680bf-cc36-4204-9ca5-e7b24cdd23ea

Stefan Schrichte 20 Reputation points

2026-02-17T21:50:18.4066667+00:00

Thank you for following up...

I felt it was best (timewise) to purchase a Personal Microsoft 365 subscription.

I was able to restore my files. Yeah!

However, everything has gone belly-up since. I use an Earthlink account for email, ...and it isn't playing well with Outlook. I have no idea what's going on, and I'm at wit's end.

I wish you could help, but it looks like something I need to work through.

Cheers.
John Jefferson Doyon 60,955 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-02-17T22:01:48.4466667+00:00

I’m glad you were able to restore your files. That’s a big win.

If you decide you’d like help with the Earthlink and Outlook issue later, feel free to reply here.

Answer 2

John Jefferson Doyon 60,955 Independent Advisor

Hi, I'm John! I will help you with this.

To help narrow down the issue:

When did you delete the files?
Did you delete them from the website, PC, or phone?
Are you using OneDrive app on Windows?

First, your files are not “reinstalled.” They are usually restored.

Please try this first: "Restore your OneDrive" https://support.microsoft.com/office/restore-your-onedrive-fa231298-759d-41cf-bcd0-25ac53eb8a15

If you’re using a personal OneDrive account, check the Recycle Bin on the OneDrive website. https://onedrive.live.com

Items in the recycle bin are automatically deleted 30 days after being placed there.

Files deleted from your Personal Vault will only appear in your Recycle Bin if your Personal Vault is unlocked before you check it. You can use the “Show Personal Vault items” command in the Recycle Bin to unlock the vault and view those files.

If the issue persists, please provide more details by answering my questions.

Click "Add comment" below to let me know.

Regards,

John J.D.

Stefan Schrichte 20 Reputation points

2026-02-17T17:57:44.42+00:00

Good Afternoon! My name is Stefan Schrichte.

I am requesting help to restore my OneDrive files and access to the Microsoft 365 Family.

I mistakenly removed my OneDrive folder and files on January 13, 2026.

My OneDrive was created under a Microsoft 365 Family subscription managed by my wife.

I tried to recover my One Drive files by uninstalling OneDrive, reinstalling OneDrive, and recovering my OneDrive files. However, this did not completely correct my problem.

My problem is that after recovering my OneDrive folder and files, I encountered a new problem indicating my restored files were "over the limit" of the storage, i.e, 65 GB used of 5 GB storage (1,350%).

It appears to me that when the OneDrive data was restored, they were restored with the basic OneDrive 5GB limit, not with the Microsoft 365 Family 1TB limit!

I then ran the Microsoft 365 Family invite my wife sent, hoping that it would increase the size of the storage.

It did not work.

I repeated all this again and it still did not work.

I think my only (and simplest) option MIGHT BE to purchase a separate Microsoft 365 subscription for my own computer. My worry is that a second purchase might not work either.

Thank you for your help.

Answer 3

To reinstall OneDrive for your Family files, you can follow these steps:

Uninstall OneDrive: Go to your computer's settings, find OneDrive in the list of installed applications, and uninstall it.
Download OneDrive: Visit the official Microsoft website to download the latest version of OneDrive.
Install OneDrive: Run the downloaded installer and follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation.
Sign in to OneDrive: After installation, open OneDrive and sign in with your Microsoft account to access your Family files.
Sync your files: Ensure that the folders you want to sync are selected in the OneDrive settings.

If you encounter any issues during the process, consider using the Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant for troubleshooting.

References:

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How do I reinstall my OneDrive for Family files?

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