One Drive and PC Saving

Question

I am not tech savvy but have never had an issue until now as each year, things seem to get more updated and new technology is introduced.

I am struggling with One Drive simply saving everything. I want to be able to just have things save like normal to my PC, not to One Drive. I know it sounds silly but if someone can explain in simple terms what is happening all the time. I feel like it now takes me longer to save as I have to go in and do save as all the time to ensure things save direct to my PC, but if I have left my computer for a while, when I come back sometimes excel has closed and when I reopen it, it seems my file is in OneDrive as well, but the versions may be different. I just need things saved to one place, back to simple stuff.

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

OneDrive is trying to help by saving files to the cloud by default, but this can feel confusing if the goal is to “just save to the PC.” Here is what is happening and how to get closer to the “simple” setup wanted.

What is happening

1. When saving from Office apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), the default location is often OneDrive instead of “This PC.”
2. When a file is saved in OneDrive, it exists both:
   • Online in the OneDrive cloud, and
   • In the OneDrive folder on the computer (if sync is on).
3. Saving to OneDrive enables features like AutoSave and Version History, which can make it look like there are multiple versions of the same file.
4. If Excel closes and reopens, it may show the cloud copy (from OneDrive) because that is where it was saved.

How to save to the PC instead of OneDrive (each time)

When saving a file in Office:

1. Click File > Save As.
2. Choose This PC instead of OneDrive.
3. Pick or create a folder on the local drive (for example, Documents under This PC) and save there.

The note in the OneDrive documentation is important:

“No matter which default setting you choose, you still can select the save location you want each time you save a file. When you click Save for new files or Save As for existing files, click OneDrive or This PC and then pick a folder to save your file to.”

That means even if OneDrive is the default, it is always possible to manually choose This PC when saving.

Why files sometimes appear in OneDrive with different versions

1. If a file is saved to OneDrive, features like AutoSave and Version History can create multiple versions in the cloud.
2. If a similar file is also saved manually to This PC, there may be:
   • One copy in a local folder (e.g., Documents), and
   • Another copy in the OneDrive folder.
3. Opening from different places (Recent list, OneDrive, or local folder) can make it look like there are different versions.

How to keep things simpler

1. Decide on one main place to save:
   • If the preference is local only: always choose This PC when saving.
2. When opening files, always open them from the same place:
   • Use File > Open > This PC and browse to the local folder where files are stored.
3. If OneDrive backup is turned on for Desktop/Documents/Pictures, it may keep redirecting those folders to OneDrive. To avoid that behavior, see the OneDrive backup settings described in How to change the default save location in OneDrive for Windows.

That article explains that regardless of the default, it is always possible to choose This PC when clicking Save or Save As, which is the key to keeping everything in one local place.

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References:

• How to change the default save location in OneDrive for Windows
• Save your files
• Save documents online
• What is AutoSave?
• What Administrators need to know about the new Save experience in Office