how to disable onedrive

Question

I recently purchased the microsoft office 2019 professional and realised that all editing and saving is done to onedrive.I find it difficult to access the onedrive folder.

I wish to disable one drive and get back to the old method of saving my work on an easily accessible folder on my dekstop or accessible location.

please guide me,

regards,

Dr Vivek Pillai

Answer 1

Hi, I'm John!

When you click Save, does it default to OneDrive automatically? Are they saved in OneDrive already?

Or are you unable to find your Desktop/Documents folder?

If you haven't tried anything yet, please try to save to your PC by default:

• Open Word (or any Office app)
• Go to File > Options > Save
• Check "Save to Computer by default"
• Click OK

Choose local folder when saving

• When saving: Click This PC
• Pick Desktop, Documents, or any folder you want.

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Click "Add comment" to let me know.

Regards,

John J.D.

Answer 2

To stop using OneDrive and go back to saving files directly on the PC, there are three main options: unlink OneDrive, hide it, or uninstall it. None of these delete files already stored in OneDrive; those remain available at OneDrive.com.

1. Unlink OneDrive from the computer (recommended first step) This stops syncing and breaks the connection between the PC and OneDrive.

Windows 10/11:

1. Select the OneDrive cloud icon in the notification area (system tray).
2. Select the OneDrive Help and Settings icon, then select Settings.
3. Go to the Account tab.
4. Select Unlink this PC, then select Unlink account.

After unlinking, when saving from Office apps (Word, Excel, etc.), choose Browse and select a folder on the C: drive (for example, a folder on the Desktop or in Documents) instead of OneDrive.

2. Hide OneDrive in File Explorer (if it cannot be uninstalled) On some Windows 10/11 editions, OneDrive is built in and cannot be removed, but it can be hidden and stopped.

First, unlink as above, then:

1. Open File Explorer.
2. Right-click OneDrive in the left pane and select Properties.
3. On the General tab, under Attributes, check Hidden and apply. This hides OneDrive from File Explorer.
4. In the notification area, select the OneDrive icon again and choose Quit OneDrive to remove the icon from the system tray.
5. Uninstall OneDrive (if allowed on the edition of Windows) If complete removal from the PC is preferred:

Windows 10/11:

1. Select the Start button, type Programs, then select Add or remove programs from the results.
2. Under Apps & features, find Microsoft OneDrive.
3. Select it, then select Uninstall and confirm (administrator approval may be required).

After this, OneDrive will no longer run on the PC. Files already in OneDrive remain accessible by signing in to OneDrive.com.

4. Saving files locally in Office After disabling/unlinking OneDrive, when saving in Word/Excel/PowerPoint:
5. Use File > Save As.
6. Choose This PC or Browse.
7. Navigate to a folder on the Desktop or another local folder and save there.

This restores the “old” behavior of working directly with files stored on the local drive.

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References:

• Turn off, disable, or uninstall OneDrive
• Turn off, disable, or uninstall OneDrive – Unlink OneDrive from your computer
• Turn off, disable, or uninstall OneDrive – Uninstall OneDrive
• How to cancel or stop sync in OneDrive