How to point OneDrive to files on D:/ Drive

Question

Until last summer, I had OneDrive functioning on my PC. The standard OneDrive app backed up my Documents, Pictures, and Music (eg. D:\Documents) to the cloud and I was all set.

I noticed recently that nothing had been backed up in several months. When I checked out the Choose Folders menu, I saw that this was now pointing to the C:/ drive location of where OneDrive had been installed:

And I was unable to configure it to target the D drive. I followed some steps I found online and using AI to Unlink my account and start over, but the install steps only allow you to choose where/what drive you would like your OneDrive folder to be installed.

It was posed to me elsewhere that I could make my OneDrive folder the parent folder within my D drive (so folders would live inside it like D:\OneDrive\Documents), but I would like to avoid this if possible. Being that I had it configured properly previously, I would like to set it up that way again, but I am not sure what changes I need to make.

Answer 1

Hi, I'm Rodrigo and I will help you.

All the information you got is right, to change the location of the OneDrive folder, you must Unlink the account, set it up again and during the setup process, select the OneDrive folder location.

The Backup feature on OneDrive will always change the folder location to inside the OneDrive folder, so if you have the OneDrive path set as "D:\OneDrive", it will change the Documents folder to "D:\OneDrive\Documents."\

Unfortunately, it is not possible to change this.

If you don't want your Documents folder to be inside the OneDrive folder, you can disable the backup, you can set it on OneDrive Settings > Sync and Backup > Manage backup, turn off the folder option, it will restore the folder location but does not move the files, you need to manually move the files from the OneDrive folder.

Answer 2

OneDrive cannot sync arbitrary folders such as D:\Documents directly unless they are under the OneDrive folder, or they are one of the standard Windows folders (Desktop, Documents, Pictures, Music, Videos) that are backed up via OneDrive’s “PC folder backup” feature.

To achieve something close to the previous behavior, there are only two supported options:

1. Move the OneDrive folder to D: and keep data under it
   This is the supported way to have OneDrive data on D:.
   1. Unlink OneDrive:
      • Select the OneDrive cloud icon in the notification area.
      • Select Help & Settings > Settings.
      • Go to the Account tab and select Unlink this PC > Unlink account.
   2. When OneDrive setup restarts, on the This is your OneDrive folder screen choose Change location and select a folder on D: (for example D:\OneDrive).
   3. Finish setup.
   4. Move or create Documents, Pictures, Music, etc. as subfolders under D:\OneDrive so they sync (for example D:\OneDrive\Documents).
   This aligns with the documented method to change the location of your OneDrive folder.
2. Use OneDrive “PC folder backup” for the standard folders
   If the standard folders on D: are configured as the system Desktop/Documents/Pictures folders, OneDrive can back them up using the backup feature:
   1. Select the OneDrive cloud icon > Help & Settings > Settings.
   2. Go to the Sync and backup tab.
   3. Select Manage backup.
   4. Turn on backup for Desktop, Documents, Pictures, etc. and select Save changes.
   OneDrive will then back up those standard folders; however, it still does not allow choosing arbitrary custom paths outside the OneDrive folder.

If the requirement is to sync D:\Documents exactly as-is and it is not the system Documents folder, OneDrive does not provide a native way other than placing it under the OneDrive folder (for example D:\OneDrive\Documents) or using unsupported workarounds such as filesystem links.

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References:

• Change the location of your OneDrive folder
• Back up your folders with OneDrive
• Sync files with OneDrive in Windows
• How to change the default save location in OneDrive for Windows
• Can you only sync the folders one drive gives you? - Microsoft Q&A