Forum Discussion
How to purge OneDrive from the default user folders
Hi. I got this PC a while ago and OneDrive just kinda set itself up based on my Microsoft account. It was decently useful having access to my OneDrive files as a folder on my PC but I do NOT want it backing up my files automatically, partly because I want those to be offline and because I really don't need constant popups telling me I named my file wrong or that I ran out of space. So, I disabled synchronisation for those folders - I'm talking about the default documents, images, etc. folders. Yet there was then two seperate folders called Images (or whatever that folder is called in English Windows), one with the path
C:\Users\cherr\Pictures,
and one with the path
C:\Users\cherr\OneDrive\Pictures.
Explorer sees the top one as the default, and displays the shortcut to that in the bar on the left, while other programs such as my very old Canon document scanner's user interface sees it as the bottom one. I tried everything I could think of, including cutting the OneDrive folder and putting it in a different location in order to not lose any of the files), then renaming it. Yet somehow the scanner software and others, even if I manually select the correct folder, still default to the new path which is now
C:\Users\cherr\piss off onedrive\anything but OneDrive\Pictures.
I have had to turn off the OneDrive app altogether, which is problematic as I am also logged into a school account on that (which has caused zero problems) to which I need regular access for the files on it. Yet even this does not fix it.
Please help me out with this, as I now have two seperate folders called "Pictures", which are defaulted to depending on which app I am using.
3 Replies
What you’re running into isn’t just “sync on/off”—it’s that Microsoft OneDrive has taken ownership of your known Windows folders (Documents, Pictures, Desktop). Disabling sync doesn’t fully undo that; Windows and some apps still think those folders live inside OneDrive.
You need to unlink OneDrive from those folders and restore their original locations, not just turn sync off.
Here’s the clean way to fix it:
1) Turn off OneDrive backup (this is key)
- Click the OneDrive cloud icon → Settings
- Go to Sync & backup → Manage backup
- Turn OFF Pictures, Documents, Desktop
- Choose “Keep files on this PC”
2) Restore the real folder paths
- Open File Explorer → C:\Users\cherr\
- Right-click Pictures → Properties → Location
- Click Restore Default → Apply
(should be C:\Users\cherr\Pictures)
Repeat for Documents/Desktop if needed.
3) Move your files back
Move files from:
C:\Users\cherr\OneDrive\Pictures
to:
C:\Users\cherr\Pictures
4) Done
Keep Microsoft OneDrive if you want—but don’t re-enable backup. Then it behaves like a normal folder and won’t hijack your system folders.
If it’s still broken (last resort)
You may need to fix the registry paths manually (I can guide you through that safely), but in most cases the Location tab reset fixes it completely.
My answers are voluntary and without guarantee!
Hope this will help you.
Hey. Thanks for the help, but this didn't quite work. The only folder still affected is Pictures, which now just gives an error about the folder not existing when selected through, for example, the scanner software. It tries to reach the "anything but OneDrive" folder, even though I have completely reconfigured my personal OneDrive (without synchronisation). I think here the issue would be those registry paths you mention.
Hey. Thanks for the help, but unfortunately this didn't quite seem to work.
The only folder still messed up is the pictures folder when attempting to access it from the scanner software. Everything else, such as documents, just leads to the local user path it should. Pictures, however, now just gives an an error saying the folder doesn't exist - the fix would probably be fixing whatever path that is in the registry as you say, but I have no clue where it would be.
There was no button in the OneDrive app about keeping files on this PC, but I did disable backup. Neither was there a tab about location in the properties of Pictures.
