I want to delete Pictures from my cloud backup

Question

I backup my Pictures to a external hard drive. I do not want it to automatically back up to my cloud account. How do I delete it from my automatic cloud backup?

Answer 1

Hello,

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 the Pictures folder listed there. (You can also turn off the other folders if you don't want your files stored to OneDrive automatically).

If you still want to use OneDrive, you can stop here. Otherwise, continue with steps 5 and 6.

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

To stop Pictures from backing up to the cloud and remove what is already there, adjust OneDrive and Windows Backup settings.

1. Turn off automatic backup of Pictures to OneDrive (Windows 11)
   1. Open OneDrive on the PC.
   2. Go to Settings > Sync and backup > Manage backup.
   3. Turn off or uncheck Pictures so it is no longer backed up automatically.
2. Adjust Windows Backup so it does not sync folders to OneDrive
   1. Open Settings > Accounts > Windows backup (or use the shortcut: ms-settings:sync).
   2. Under OneDrive folder synching, select Manage sync settings.
   3. Turn off the toggle for the Pictures folder so it is not backed up to OneDrive.
3. Remove existing Pictures from OneDrive but keep them on the PC
   1. Open File Explorer.
   2. In the OneDrive folder, locate the Pictures files or folders that should not be in the cloud.
   3. Move those files/folders out of the OneDrive folder to a different folder on the PC (for example, C:\Users\<name>\Pictures that is not under OneDrive).
      • Moving them out of the OneDrive folder removes them from OneDrive but keeps them on the computer.

If the goal is to keep files only in OneDrive and not on the PC (for space saving), place them in the OneDrive folder and use Files On-Demand, but for this scenario the key is to disable automatic backup and move existing items out of the OneDrive folder.

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References:

• Your Microsoft account, your data, your choices
• Back up and restore with Windows Backup
• Delete files or folders in OneDrive