stop everything being saved to one drive

Question

How do i stop everything being saved to one drive? I only want to save the items that i want to save! Not everything. And when I download something, it is being saved as some sort of OneDrive file. This needs to stop

Answer 1

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. Restart the computer after that.

Moving forward, if you want to save files to OneDrive, you need to manually direct the save to any folder inside the ONeDrive folder, but by default, your Documents, Pictures, etc folders shouldn't be in OneDrive anymore.

Answer 2

To stop everything being saved to OneDrive and keep only what is explicitly chosen, adjust both backup and sync settings, and if needed, unlink or remove OneDrive.

1. Turn off folder backup (Desktop/Documents/Pictures)
   OneDrive may be backing up standard Windows folders automatically.
   • Open OneDrive settings and go to the backup/folder backup area.
   • For each folder (Desktop, Documents, Pictures) that is being backed up, turn its toggle off.
   • Note: When a folder’s backup is stopped, existing files can remain in OneDrive; files can be moved back manually by opening the OneDrive folder in File Explorer, selecting the files, and dragging them to a local folder. New files added to those local folders will no longer back up to OneDrive.
2. Stop syncing folders you do not want in OneDrive
   • Open the OneDrive cloud icon on the taskbar, select the gear icon, then Settings/Preferences.
   • Use the option to choose which OneDrive folders sync to the PC and deselect any you do not want locally. This controls which OneDrive folders appear on the computer, not which local folders are uploaded, so keep personal files outside the OneDrive folder if they should never sync.
3. Move files out of OneDrive so they are not synced
   If files are currently inside the OneDrive folder structure, they will sync.
   • Open File Explorer.
   • Select files or folders inside OneDrive that should not be stored in the cloud.
   • Drag them to a folder outside OneDrive (for example, a custom folder on C:\ that is not under OneDrive).
   • Files outside the OneDrive folder will not sync.
4. Stop or quit OneDrive if syncing should be disabled entirely
   • Right-click the OneDrive icon on the taskbar.
   • Select Pause syncing, then select Quit OneDrive to stop all sync activity.
     This prevents anything from being uploaded while OneDrive is closed.
5. Unlink OneDrive from the PC (keep account, stop sync)
   If OneDrive should not sync at all on this computer but the account should remain:
   • Select the OneDrive cloud icon on the taskbar or menubar, select the gear icon, then Settings/Preferences.
   • Go to the Account tab.
   • Select Unlink this PC.
     This stops OneDrive from syncing files on this device. Files already in the cloud remain available at OneDrive.com.
6. Uninstall OneDrive from Windows (optional)
   If OneDrive should not run at all:
   • Open Settings to view installed apps.
   • Find Microsoft OneDrive, select it, and choose Uninstall.
     Uninstalling removes the sync app from the computer but does not delete cloud files; they remain accessible online.
7. About downloads “being saved as OneDrive files”
   If downloads are landing in a folder that is under OneDrive (for example, if the Downloads folder was moved into OneDrive or is being backed up), change the browser’s download location to a folder outside OneDrive, and ensure that folder is not included in OneDrive backup or inside the OneDrive directory.

Following these steps ensures only files intentionally placed in OneDrive folders are saved to the cloud, and everything else stays local.

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References:

• How to cancel or stop sync in OneDrive
• Back up your folders with OneDrive
• What is Microsoft cloud storage?