How to remove files from local computer but not one drive

Question

My files are still showing up on both my local computer and one drive, filling up all the space on my local disk. I have already enabled the "free up space" option. I have tried clicking "free up space" on the app settings and in my file explorer. I have also tried restarting my computer and unlinking and re-linking one drive.

Example on local computer:

Here it is on the one drive browser application:

Here is the size on my local disk:

Answer 1

Hi, NC

Please note that our forum is a public platform, and we will modify your question to hide your personal information in the description. Kindly ensure that you hide any personal or organizational information the next time you post an error or other details to protect personal data. 

What you’re seeing is often a sync/cache issue, not always a real second copy of every file. If a folder shows the blue cloud icon and its Size on disk is 0 bytes, it is already online-only, but Windows or OneDrive can still misreport the total size of the main OneDrive folder.

Here are some suggestions you can try:

First, go to OneDrive > Settings > Account > Choose folders, then untick the large folders you do not want on this PC. That removes those folders from the computer, but they stay available in OneDrive on the web.

If the space still looks wrong after that, it is recommended that you reset the OneDrive sync client, because that can fix bad sync status or stuck local cache data. Press Win + R, run %localappdata%\Microsoft\OneDrive\OneDrive.exe /reset, then open OneDrive again from the Start menu.

Also, check the biggest folders with Size on disk, not just Size. It is recommended that you trust Size on disk for the real local usage, since placeholder files can make the total look larger than what is actually stored on C:.

Thank you for your patience in reading, I hope this information has been helpful to you. 

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Answer 2

Hi, and welcome to Microsoft Q&A.

From your Properties window, I believe that your OneDrive is not linked to the OneDrive - UC San Diego folder.

Do you have a school account? Perhaps you are signed in with your Personal account, and you must sign in with your school account.

On the Properties window, the OneDrive system folder icon is not shown.

To add your school account, go to the white cloud icon on the taskbar > ⚙️> ⚙️Settings > Account > +Add an account and add your school account there.